Joan of Arc is one of the most important figures in all of French history. She defeated the British in the Hundred Years’ War. She was admired for centuries as an inspirational heroine. She was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church in 1920. But in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Joan […]
Self-reflection and/or Meditation Religion often challenges us to question the life we have lived–to meditate on what we have done with our life, and consider whether we need to be “born again.” This can lead some in their later years to feel depressed and devalued. Zen Buddhist meditation, I think, can be used to avoid […]
How can we create a more spacious and peaceful state for ourselves, for others, and for those whom we do not even know? From a somatic perspective, we are suffering from sensory motor amnesia – that is, we have forgotten what it feels like to let one’s full somatic being function in living, fluid adaption […]
Sustainability can mean different (and sometimes competing) things to different people. The most common word-based image of sustainability is a balanced three-way relationship between the environment, society and the economy. The idea is that if you consider all three equally you will have a sustainable outcome. Several years ago, I began to try to understand […]
Or How a Nice Catholic Boy like Me Ended Up in a Place like This About this sermon Tony says: “I often (jokingly) tell people they’ll get ‘time off of purgatory’ for doing something beyond the call of duty. But truly, I was raised in a religion where this kind of belief was extremely popular. […]
PICUM (Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants) promotes respect for the basic social rights of undocumented migrants, such as the right to health care, the right to shelter, the right to education and training, the right to minimum subsistence, the right to family life, the right to moral and physical integrity, the right to […]
John and Susan McFadden, co-authors of Aging Together: Dementia, Friendship and Flourishing Communities (John Hopkins, 2011) who are known here and abroad for their friendly approach to aging, will speak about how “senility haunts the landscape of the self-made man” when fear and anxiety about aging arise from conflicting societal demands. Susan McFadden retired as […]
We all believe that Latin is a dead language; that no one speaks it anymore, and that no one even teaches it anymore. This is wrong. As I hope to show, we all speak Latin even as we talk English. I am not referring to etymologies here, I am referring to real, whole Latin words […]
We are all musical beings. Music defines our humanness. Embracing our musical, creative selves can be a magnificent spiritual awakening. Leila Pertl is a groundbreaking music educator who has designed an elementary school music program where every child has music every day. There are no musicians and non-musicians. Every child’s inner musician is nurtured and […]
I am sure everyone has heard someone say they are spiritual but not religious. This negative view of religion may be due to the limited and compartmentalized definition our culture works with. This sermon will explore how expansive and all-encompassing religion can be so that we can proudly and definitely say that we are indeed […]