In the name of Providence, which implants in the seed the future of the tree and in the hearts of men [and women] the longing for people living in [human] love; in the name of the highest....

Infinite Spirit of Life, we ask thy blessing on these, thy messengers of fellowship and love. May they remind us, amid diversities of knowledge and of gifts, to be one in desire and affection, and devotion to thy holy will. May they also remind us of the value of comradeship, of doing and sharing...

My friends, we have arrived: we are here, in this new year. We have crossed the boundary of time, into the next year, with all its resolutions and plans and schedules ahead of us. Let us pause, for just this moment, before we move boldly onward....

Each day I am newly reminded of my unworthiness—a dozen thoughts misspoken; another day when the good I do falls short of the good that I could do; myriad small interchanges; moments of sharing that strain to the breaking point my desire to be generous, helpful, and kind; months of careful work...

I spent some time this weekend with an old friend, a dentist. She's considering buying her own practice, but wonders if she could retain the current patients and attract new ones. She wonders if the office staff would like her, or befriend her too much, or resent her, or desert her; she wonders...

On sabbatical in East Africa, I heard a story of a people who believe that we are each created with our own song. Their tradition as a community is to honor that song by singing it as welcome when a child is born, as comfort when the child is ill, in celebration when the child marries, and in...

When Jesus was baptized the spirit descended upon him like a dove and God said, “This is my son, in whom I am well pleased.” It must have been a great feeling, but it didn’t last long. The next thing Jesus knew, the nice spirit that had descended like a dove became aggressive and drove him...

We are whole, even in the broken places, even where it hurts. We are whole, even in the broken places, the places where fear impedes our full engagement with life; where self-doubt corrupts our self-love; where shame makes our faces hot and our souls cold. We are whole, even in those places where...

Please join me in a spirit of prayer or meditation as you are moved. Blessed and holy night, silent night, full of truths too awesome to bend into words, we sit in the glow of ages, wound round stories that teach us some of what it means to be human, and some of what it means to see God. The...

While most of us have heard the term, Winter Solstice, we don't necessarily know what it means. Many years ago, when I first started celebrating the solstice, a scientist explained it to me in a way that made sense. Learning from him, I wrote a reflection on the solstice that gives his scientific...

Spirit of Life, hold us in our pain and comfort us in our grief. Our grief feels boundless; our rage eats at us. We feel pain for all the wild creatures of the Gulf and the wetlands....

Earth’s blood, product of ancient deaths, source and flowing stream for civilizations, protector of many human lives, still spurts but barely abated into Gulf waters, host to countless lives of every kind, geo-bio-hazard threatening all lives of every kind for many miles and for months or years t...

Dear Goddess, Mother, and Source Your womb is all of creation Your love is mother's milk Please grant us support during this transition Please help us move through this next stage Please carry us in arms of support, grace, and love So that we may bring new life to this ministry So that we may gro...

A Haitian prayer book, entitled God Is No Stranger, includes the following words: “Father, I have learned that one strong in calculation is called a ‘mathematician.’ You are the greatest mathematician because You can count all the people yet still see each one of us.” Those words find new...

‘Tis the Season . . . of advertisers run amok and ambitions amplified beyond belief . . . of Martha Stewart moments mixed with desert island dreams . . . when even the most dedicated holiday-hopper admits perfection isn’t possible and “good enough” is how the season ought to be. ‘Tis the...

Would you please join me in the spirit of prayer and meditation? Dear Gods and Goddesses, Spirit of Life & Love, Bless us on this beautiful southern California winter day as we celebrate and honor the darkness of the season as a time for us to reflect, look inward, and nourish and replenish our...

Please join me in the spirit of prayer followed by a full minute of meditative silence Gods and Goddesses of darkness and light, Spirit of life and love: We come together on this sacred night to awaken ourselves to the joy of Christmas To the miracles of life The birth of a baby The rise of the s...

Here in this space, we are gathered, called by our sense of urgency, or duty, or the longing for community, called to be together on this day...Here, in this space, we are gathered...called to hold ourselves accountable to our values...to remind ourselves of those hopes and dreams and possibiliti...

To be shared after the flowers have been distributed... Within our hands we hold the resurrection of the world. Transient and imperfect, these blossoms are still gifts of infinite value. Like ourselves. Too often we seek permanence and perfection. Resisting change, blind to our shortcomings, We...

Do you seek eternal life? Would you accept it if you knew it was already yours? None of us knows what the future may bring. None of us knows the hour of our passing. But this we may know— Eternal life is ours, here and now. Look within this moment. Its span of time may be the briefest of instants.