Let us praise those fathers who have striven to balance the demands of work, marriage, and children with an honest awareness of both joy and sacrifice. Let us praise those fathers who, lacking a good model for a father, have worked to become a good father. Let us praise those fathers who by their...

Let there always be in the seasons of our lives a time for forgiveness -- for such is being human that we do unto others, as they do unto us, that which needs to be forgiven. There is a saying that "It's easier to forgive our enemies after we've gotten even with them." But is that in truth...

The journeys of our lives are never fully charted. There come to each of us deserts to cross—barren stretches—where the green edge on the horizon may be our destination, or an oasis on our way, or a mirage that beckons only to leave us lost. When fear grips the heart, or despair bows the head,...

Let us enter into a spirit of meditation. Much of our human struggle is with what we do not know or understand. It is often difficult not to want answers—or even more difficult, not to think we have them already. May we experience what we do not know not as an individual failure but as an...

The moment of prayer is an invitation to be calm in the midst of the tumult of the world and our over-busy lives, to bring together thought and feeling, mind and spirit, and to find some center -- some still point -- of perspective and peace. Here in this sanctuary which has been the home for so...

May we look with gratitude upon this day, for the beauty of the world, for the first radiance of dawn and the last smoldering glow of sunset....

Let us join in the exercise of silence for reflection, repose, meditation, or prayer. (Silence) In reflecting upon the dispiriting time in which we live, I have come to believe that the basic religious response is to refuse to be dispirited for long....

If there is a heaven, it is right here, right now, in this particular arrangement of nature, this happening of earth, moon, and star, this constellation of instants, this laden moment, this flash of recognition, this particle of time. If there is a god, it is all around us, everywhere, in every...

I invite you now into a time of gratitude, reflection, renewal and hope. What an unearned blessing to delight in the calming peace of this space; to hear the robin's song again at daybreak; to feel the warmth in this room, and to enjoy the promise of summer almost upon us....

I invite you into a space of quiet and peace, to ground yourself by noticing your contact with chair and floor, by sitting straight, by becoming aware of your breathing. Look at your hands....

I do not like the "I hate it" feeling, but I have it....

I do not know if the seasons remember their history or if the days and nights by which we count time remember their own passing. I do not know if the oak tree remembers its planting or if the pine remembers its slow climb toward sun and stars. I do not know if the squirrel remembers last fall's...

How does one address a mystery? Cautiously—let us go cautiously, then, to the end of our certainty, to the boundary of all we know, to the rim of uncertainty, to the perimeter of the unknown which surrounds us. Reverently—let us go with a sense of awe, a feeling of approaching the powerful holy...

In this time of anticipated spring let us allow ourselves to extend the anticipation—to value the time of budding before blooming, of seeding before sprouting. This is a time of revelation: the revealing of that which is eternal, which we see every year, but still need to be reminded to see it in...

In the moments when Word is silence give yourself to it in wholeness and wait. Let the knowing of this primal sound carry you into circles where sound itself— where silence itself—becomes new and the new a song you sing from your bones.

Introduction: In our time of meditation this morning, we are going to continue to work on the issue of forgiveness. I invite you to continue to hold in your mind and heart, the situation of hurt that you were thinking about during the sermon....

God, God is water sleeping in high-piled clouds. She is gentle drink of rain, pooling lake, rounding pond, angry flooding river. She is frothy horse-maned geyser. She is glacier on mountains and polar ice cap, and breath-taking crystalline ideas of snowflakes. She is frost-dance on trees....

Enter into the communion of flowers with joyful hearts. Enter with reverent thoughts. It has taken long months beneath cold ground for these flowers to prepare their blooming. It has taken each of us long times of growth through sorrow and joy to prepare for our living now. The blooming season is...

"Dukkha," they say. The Buddhists say, "All is dukkha." It is hard to translate, they tell us. It means literally "suffering" but the feeling of dukkha is closer to impermanence. The fact of impermanence is central to the Buddhist path to nirvana, enlightenment. Dukkha. All is impermanence....

Leader: Whether you have come here with heart full or heart empty, with spirits high or low, rested or tired, hopeful or despairing, Congregation: Whether we have come here out of habit, conviction, loneliness, or curiosity, Leader: You belong here because you are here, and all that you have and ...