“Up to the present we know the whole created universe groans in all its parts as if in pangs of childbirth. Not only so, but even we…are groaning inwardly.” Romans 8: 22 The groaning has not been so inward since the tsunami hit two weeks ago. The first of the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism […]

Opening Words: “We bid you welcome to this house.  It is a place we love and which we tend with care.  We do not ask what you believe, or expect you to think the way we do, but only that you try to live a kindly, helpful life, with the dignity proper to a human […]

First Reading:  Here Where One Stands, Martin Buber Rabbi Bunam used to tell young men who came to him for the first time the story of Rabbi Eizik, son of Rabbi Yekel of Cracow. After many years of great poverty, which had never shaken his faith in God, he dreamed someone bade him look for […]

Biologists tell us, “You are what you eat.” Psychologists tell us, “You are what you’ve experienced.” Theologians (that I like) tell us, “You are what you love.” Poets tell us, “You are the sum total of your losses; your pain.” One poet, Walt Whitman, for example, says; “Sometimes with one I love, I fill myself […]

I want to begin with a reading from the Gospel of Luke—the story of how Jesus at age 12 gave his parents cause to worry about him.  After the birth narrative—the babe in the manger story, there’s not much about the child growing up; nothing about his mother putting him on the bus on the […]

Opening Words: “So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.  If we can conquer outer space we can conquer inner space, too.” These sentiments from Christopher Reeve explain the title of his second book, Nothing is Impossible. But more […]

“Carry one another’s loads, bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the teaching of Jesus.”  Gal. 6:2 My dear brothers and sisters, ladies and gentlemen and children: It was a little bit difficult for me to begin my speech to you today because I am feeling so very thankful; I am thankful for this very […]

Opening Words: Autumn is my favorite season (except for spring) and during the month of September, just passed, I was reminded why it’s my favorite—Goldilocks got it right:  not too hot, not too cold–just right. Every morning in September I went to Compo beach and walked for two miles–some days I went back in the […]

When we were kids my older brother Chet raised homing pigeons, among others; there were warblers, who turned in mid-air, there were pigeons with big fluffy crowns, and so forth. They were beautiful, and the homing pigeons were quite remarkable in their ability to find their way home. One day we went to Revere beach, […]

Opening Reading: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock“ Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherised upon a table; Let us go through certain half-deserted streets, The muttering retreats Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: Streets […]