Deep in the shadow of night, down near the crossroads and cemetery gates, with bitter liquor and cigar smoke wafting, I greet you. Clad in white, upon the floor before shrines, following the names of the Ancestors being uttered, I greet you. You are the sacred and righteous rage of my people.

In my small-town congregation, our beloved dead seem to linger with us for a little while.

Once upon a time, a baby was born. Even before that baby was born, there were people waiting and wishing and hoping for that baby. The people who were waiting and wishing and hoping for that baby didn’t know exactly what that baby would be like. And so, they wondered: Would the baby have a smile...

As we create and share sacred space together, let us reflect upon what brings us here. We have all come here for different reasons, from different decisions, faced different challenges and shared different love. And yet all of our differences have led us to this space, right here, right now. Some...

Your first Christmas, your last Christmas, this Christmas, and the redemption of the whole world are all happening right now, forever.

The wheel of the year has turned again. Once more the Thanksgiving season has arrived. How shall we sing our song of gratitude now? For what shall we give thanks? For this moment; for friends near and far; for our breath; for love; for courage and clarity; for strength; for delight; for laughter;...

I know not where you are, Whether your soul is traveling the universal highway Or as I imagine, sitting at the left hand of God Being consulted about matters of consequence....

What is the history of any thing? This apple, let's say, that my grandson just picked as he sits on my shoulders, feet dangling like parentheses around my heart?...

with a bow to Ysaye Barnwell and Stephanie Kaza Spirit within all, mysterious force giving shape to life, miraculous source and river of being, help us to know who we are, to see our place in the history of the earth and in the ­family of things; help us to see that we are part of all that ever...

For five thousand years, or more, more than fifteen thousand generations, human beings have been invoking spiritual power. My predecessors, and yours, have gathered together to make sense of their lives and their place in the cosmos. And they have spoken aloud, and invited what they conceived as...

Like the cosmic dust following after a great Perseid meteor, we are the living remnants of time and all that has come to pass in its wake—briefly shining lights on the way to eternity. We are only visible to the naked eye for an instant. Take this moment to shine like the start dust you are. May...

May we never rest until every child of earth in every generation is free from all prisons of the mind and of the body and of the spirit; until the earth and the hills and the seas shall dance, and the universe itself resound with the joyful cry: "Behold! I am!"...

(May be read responsively) We are not alone. We are this flame, ancient as the stars, new as the vulnerable spark. We are not alone. We are this chalice, rimmed by the spiral dance of searching. We are not alone. We are the light soaring, the shadow deepening, the dance between them. We are not...

Many of the past generation and many of today have found three abiding values in prayer: the quiet meditation on life, the reaching out toward the universal and the infinite, and the courageous facing of one's profoundest wishes....