God of many names and mystery beyond all our naming, Persist in guiding us to a quiet measure of this moment, That we might link heart to heart in the stillness and calm, Leaving behind all scurrying and fury, rush and contempt For the shore of this quiet moment....

My name is Mary Magdalene. You may have heard of me. I lived a long, long time ago, 2,000 years ago. And I’m here today to tell you the story of Easter as I saw it. But first I should tell you that some people think I'm a little crazy. Legend has it that I spent most of my life alone in a cave,...

A Christmas Play for Grownups Minister: Tonight I invite you to imagine yourselves there that holy night, when a mother and father had their first child. We try to imagine what went through the minds and hearts of the parents of Jesus, in the months leading up to his birth....

Our time is short here on the earth. Around us swirl immensities of time and space, A universe infinite in all directions. How small our hopes and cares seem Amid the panorama of creation....

A tale of salvation, ecology, and sharing. Characters Narrator Noelle Voice in a dream Noelle’s sisters Jane, Rain, and Elaine Friendly farmer(s) Ship builder(s) Numerous animals: dogs, cats, mice, cows, horses, frogs, etc. Act 1 (Noelle at center stage, sitting, covered in blanket and appearing...

Prayer - Wayne Arnason O God, whom we know as love, we gather here this morning as seekers and finders, creators and destroyers, givers and receivers of love....

Come, all you who seek truth, abide in love, and honor peace, enter into this house with thanksgiving; come into these gates with praise. Enter into this sacred space, all you who hunger for righteousness. Through these doors, all footsteps lead to the source of our being, where we shall be filled.

"Can faith equal faith? Do gods of one faith take care of the believers of other faiths? Who will protect my god when he falters and his faith fails? Do the gods of one faith take care of the gods of other faiths?" These questions all come from the poem "Faith," by Justin Chin. In the poem, the...

One day, a rabbit set out from the woods, carrying a question to all the other creatures that it met. The rabbit came first to a butterfly fluttering in an open field, and asked, "Friend butterfly, what can you tell me about the thing called 'god’?" The butterfly thought for a moment, and said,...

How shall we address thee who art the One of a thousand names yet ever nameless? O Vishnu, Maya, Kali, Ishtar, Athene, Isis...Great Mother of Creation, womb of the universe, The Feminine Divine….Blessed art thou who hast given life to all And receiveth us at the end, forever thine... Jupiter,...

Elie Wiesel was just a wide-eyed and innocent adolescent when he and all the other Jews of the Transylvanian village of Sighet were jammed into cattle cars one April night in 1944 by SS troops, and shipped to Auschwitz....

Many of us have stories about God. A college student once told me how he asked questions about God in his childhood church and the leaders did not know how to answer. He decided that God must not be real....

"...you are no longer strangers and sojourners but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God." Ephesians is a book in the New (Greek) Testament; it's one of Paul's epistles (or letters), written to an early Christian church in Ephesus.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in the path of righteousness for his name sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for...

Nor do I absolve my own self of blame; the human soul is certainly prone to evil, unless my Lord do bestow His mercy. Surah Yusuf (Arabic: يوسف‎) is the 12th sura (chapter) of the Quran.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Even when the gates of heaven are shut to prayer, they are open to tears.

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is sadness, joy; where there is darkness, light....

The concern which I lay bare before God today is my need to be better: I want to be better than I am in my most ordinary day-by-day contacts: With my friends— With my family— With my casual contacts— With my business relations— With my associates in work and play. I want to be better than I...