Children ~ This first Sunday of Lent, we give up the idea that we have no voice.

Lend your ears, lend your hands,
Lend your movement, anything you can.
Come to teach, come to be taught.
Come in the likeness in the image of God.
Cause, you can be like that.
With all that humbleness, and all that respect.

Meditation on God is Love. How many times have we heard the word “love” being used to define that which is ultimately indefinable? I suppose it is because that’s the only word that can even bring us close to grasping the ungraspable.

It was carved with hand tools on a rough slab of native red rock: “Marcelito L. Baca – murio a la edad de 17 dias (died at the age of 17 days) – 1919”. It was planted …

On a stony trail through the Sinai wastes
A little family headed south
Father, mother, little babe
A burdened donkey, head drooped down

Christmas trees and tinsel
Yule logs and holly
Turkey and Christmas pudding

May you be gifts to those you see
Better than presents under a tree

May we be enraptured
By overshadowing Love;
May our souls magnify the Lord
Through our widening eyes,

Leader: Today we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Christ.
People: We celebrate the birth of Jesus, who showed us how to express God by letting the Christ within be our guide.

A baby waits in a dark, warm womb
Lulled by the sway of a donkey’s walk

Leader: It is a night of anticipation, a night of waiting.
People: We wait, as Mary and Joseph waited for the birth of their son.

I am what comes before sand and sandstone
Chickens and eggs.
I am the unproven truth
On which all proofs depend.

Advent comes again
time for watching and waiting
fill your days with hope

My soul sings in gratitude.

I’m dancing in the mystery of God.

The light of the Holy One is within me

and I am blessed, so truly blessed.

Leader: In this Advent season, we honor a time in history when people anticipated the birth of a child.
People: The child grew to be a man who gave hope to his people.

English and Spanish verses of the song traditionally sung as Joseph and Mary search for shelter.

When one comes in a never-uttered name
God wins the glory for all that is done:
It’s in hoping for what cannot be claimed
That every inch of justice is won.

One day, several years ago, I took our dog Kai for a walk. Just outside our home in Mill Valley, California, next to our steep driveway, was a flume where water ran in the rainy season. Halfway …