In this cosmic story’s thread Humans play a tiny part

Where is all this going? What can we ultimately hope for, for both the universe as a whole and our own individual life as part of that same whole?

Don’t be distracted my friends. Take a deep breath and remember your inherent goodness.

A New Year is only magical when we shine light in the darkness, when we choose to bless the world. It isn’t time to wait for miracles to happen, for some ritual to chase away what bedevils us.

The art of blessing is often neglected. The birth of a New Year calls forth the desire in us to bestow a blessing upon those we love. Several years ago, John O"Donohue, one of my favorite Irish poet's created a New Year's blessing for his mother entitled Beannacht-for Josie. It is a blessing of superior quality. And so, on this New Year's Eve, may you all receive this beannacht with my added blessing for a peace-filled New Year in which the God in whom all of creation is held, might find full expression in your miraculous life!

Each day can be a life time. Time is the enemy only if we let it control our lives. Time is redeemed by timeless moments.

What wisdom I have Awakens me to my blindness. I cannot see light itself: What I know of light Is only an alluring shadow Of what it is and does.

Ceremonies are points of cohesion beyond the boundaries of reason, a journey into the shadowy mystical world of the human spirit ...

Where are you, my Comfort? In fears, apprehensions Disruptions, grief, delays

One: May God the World Maker bless you; Many: Let us delight in sunlight and starlight and surprises of the turning earth.

Wholeness is a process rather than a static state: it is not an end to the journey but the journey itself.

Oh, Source of All Gratitude, help us to be Thankful when we are tested to our limits, stretched beyond belief or relentlessly challenged; for troubled confrontation combined with honest exploration is a gateway to harmonious wisdom.

The incarnational faith of Jesus invites us to live more deeply into our spiritual convictions day by day. This type of faith invites us not just into knowledge, but into lived experience. In today’s digital age, we can get just about any information we want over the internet. What we desire and crave, in life, and in faith, is not simply knowledge, but inspiration, experience, and integration.

At times like this, I wish more people who identify themselves as Christians or followers of Jesus knew more about the roots of their own tradition, Judaism. The Mother religion of our tradition has a very different kind of New Year called Rosh Hashanah. Jesus, or Yeshua, was a Galilean Jew. As should be expected, his teachings are heavily influenced by his own tradition and its teachers. For Jews, Rosh Hashanah is preceded with a long period of time for introspection. It’s time for looking back at the mistakes of the past year and thinking about those whom they may have harmed. This intentional self-inspection ends with the holiest of holidays, Yom Kippur, ten days later. The time in between is referred to as the Days of Awe or Days of Repentance.

Creator of conception, designer of formation, develop my day for your realization.

As we start this New Year we acknowledge the potential for new beginnings – the field of unlimited possibilities.

Step into the dawn. Cut the cord.
 Pull the plug.
 Break the chains
 that tie and bind.

In this New Year, let us lift our vision of what we can do and what we can achieve:

Over the years, I have become much more discerning about the music and the texts that we use. There are many—MANY—hymns that I have dearly loved since childhood, that I just will not use any more, because the theology in them does not reflect an experience of the Divine that I wish to perpetuate.

Traditionally this is a time to learn from our mistakes and commit ourselves to do differently in the new year. I wonder what

For reasons I cannot explain, I have often find myself as an adult mired in a bit of darkness during the Christmas holidays.

In the rising of the sun and in its going down, We remember them.


John Becker has written a simple chant called “Litany of the Saints,” which in its original form is literally a list of saints of the Catholic Church. But it is easy to write your own lyrics!

New words to the hymn tune "For All the Saints"...