Mystical Murmurs: My Interfaith Life

I am thinking a lot today about life and death, love and longing, precious memories and memories that won't ever be made. I'm trying to negotiate some understanding out of something that can never be understood. To make sense out of the senseless. I want things to be OK that can never be OK. We lost a member of our congregation early this morning, and the hole he leaves in the fabric of the parish is huge and gaping. He was 31 years old and had been  married only a year. We lost him to a virulent cancer that took him only 5 months after diagnosis. The parish (not to mention his wife and the rest of his family) is devastated. I'm also angry. As a person with a lot of my life behind me, I want to ask God what he thinks he's doing, taking a young person in the prime of life. I feel like breaking a few things, stomping my feet, and having a good cry. Actually, I had the good cry already. Did I mention that I'm angry? Well, I am. Don't worry, God can take it. R...

Our theme today, Gentle Reader, is the weather, as we apparently rush towards winter. We had rain for several days, leaving everything saturated and squishy, and the leaf-covered streets are perfect for accidents.. Not much raking has yet been done in my neighborhood, so the yards are also a carpet of no-longer-vibrant leaves. Some have curled into little dead cups, now filled with rainwater, tiny little ponds in the sun. Dark comes early now with the return to standard time. After a temporary time-change reprieve, we will soon be rising in the darkness again, as well as finishing work after the sun has set.  Doesn't one of our canticles name this the "enfolding dark"?  I don't feel enfolded. I feel benighted! And now, thanks to former-Typhoon Nuri, the weather folks are promising us a big shot of very cold air intruding behind a sagging jet stream. Thanks, it's just what I wanted! My body is already telling me, "Don't bother getting any exer...

Well, I did it. My mother always called me the "mouth on legs." I make a snarky remark in response to a good friend's facebook post (because, you see, I am the Queen of Snark), and I knew my friend would understand my point of view. And she did. But a mutual friend didn't, and took it very (very very) personally.  She took it as a personal attack on herself and her family, which it wasn't. It was a general (though pointed) comment. The original post showed a young boy with a rare albino deer he had killed. I hate guns and I hate hunting, and I wish people wouldn't teach 7-year-olds to kill innocent creatures. I believe animals have souls. I love my dogs dearly, and I don't know where you draw that line between pets and animals it's OK to kill. So I don't draw it. And of course I commented on all this in my typical blunt fashion. Well, you can try to smooth things over, but you can't unsay them. You can apologize for the tone. You can ...

But the moon was extra big and bright last night as I arrived at a friend's house to work on a project. At this, my favorite time of year, early evenings can be quiet and bright, the air clear and free of the swirling .pollen that made me sneeze all simmer. The leaves are beginning to change -- just a hint of color, but the beginning of the end for them. I'm thinking a lot of beginnings and endings right now. We are having painting done at home; now J. has started getting estimates on having the hardwood floors redone as well, since the furniture is all emptied out anyway and the house is chaotic. I love home improvement, but it can temporarily exact a toll on my love of orderliness. Yet, even anticipating how satisfying the results will be,  I realize that this.may be the last time, or close to the last time, that I will undertake a major project like this. Every beginning is an ending too, of sorts Part of the reason we can start this home renovation, of course, ...

At this very moment, at the Autumnal Equinox, we're getting our last equal dose of sunlight. for the year. night and day are in balance for the last time this year.Think of it: from now until nearly Christmas, the night hours will steadily overtake the daily round, until at the Winter Solstice it will seem that the darkness has won, leaving us a short, even miserly amount of daylight. So, how do we celebrate the Equinox? With a yawn, apparently. When I got up this morning, there was just a smidgen   of light to be seen, and my body, already thinking of hibernation, wanted to remain in bed. As to real celebration, forget it: I wanted to attend an Equinox observance, but have been unable to find one nearby. Why is this? The Autumnal Equinox comes and goes -- don't blink, or you'll miss it. Digging in for a new school year, kids are already thinking about Halloween (remember those pumpkins our kids made out of orange construction paper? I still have some of those somewhe...

Nope, don't get hysterical, it's not the one at the left. That's the General Theological Seminary, which lots of my friends and acquaintances have attended. I am way, way, way past the age limit for GTS, and even if I weren't, going there would mean relocating to Manhattan and dragging my spouse with me. Some spouses are draggable. Not mine, and that's fine with me. Can you see me in Manhattan? The very thought makes me feel ... well ... shorter. And older! Anyway, I have a different focus in mind. Next weekend I will begin studying for my MTS (Master of Theological Studies) at the New Seminary for Interfaith Studies , at right. It's also in Manhattan (in fact it's loosely affiliated with the UN), but I get to stay in the provinces and study online most of the time. Intensives and retreats take place in the bucolic NY and MD countryside. And not only do I get to study all major faith traditions, I get to focus on Creation Spirituality. Anyone who knows m...

St. Edith Stein is not included in the Episcopal calendar, but I wish she were. I got to know her on a retreat at a Redemptorist retreat center, where I had the run of the theological library (always a dangerous thing for me). Born in 1891, Edith Stein was a German Jewish philosopher. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Gottingen in 1918, and was a teaching assistant at the University of Freiburg. Drawn by the writing of St. Teresa of Avila, Stein converted to Roman Catholicism in 1922, and began teaching at a Catholic school. Forced to give up her teaching position in 1933, as the Nazis began peeling away the civil rights of people who lacked an "Aryan certificate," Stein entered the Carmelite monastery in Cologne, taking as her name in religion "St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross." While in Cologne she wrote a book on Christian metaphysics entitled  Finite and Eternal Being. As the Nazi threat loomed ever larger, Stein was sent to a Carmelite monaster...