Original Statement of Purpose

My intention for the meditations on this blog is to explore faith and inspire faith community. I hope that it will bring together people like myself who seek community and contemplation though choose to do so outside the context of a single religious practice, as well as those who do express their faith and community within a particular religion. The idea is to share and ponder what unifies us while offering what divides us to the Mystery of the infinite variety of Creative Genius.

Although I do not subscribe wholly to the Catholic Church or its doctrines, my childhood upbringing in Catholicism still informs the language and imagery of my faith, as does: Buddhist meditation and teachings, Sufi poems and stories, the forgiveness of Rosh Hashanah and the exile of Passover Seder, the Hindu mind-body yoga practice, Native American nature and ancestor worship, quantum physics, and “New Age” concepts of self-awareness and healing; not to mention the insights of various people I encounter on life’s journey who share a glimpse of their own individual Faith.

A friend who was being “reborn” in the Christian faith once questioned my relationship to the Bible. “So you think you can just pick and choose which things to follow from the Bible?” she asked me incredulously. My answer to her, after ten years of thinking about it, is yes. I follow my heart and conscience, which I believe is my compass to God* as well as my direct guidance from God, as I discern Truth in human ideas, creations, and texts. The reason I can find strength and wisdom in all the places I listed above is because they illumine the same love and the same quality of Light, whatever the particular culture or vernacular the Light is diffused through.

Some will take offense at this sense of the Divine. I can only say that when we close our hearts, we miss out on another one of the infinite ways to know and witness the One.

Thus, these meditations are meant to foster vigorous faith.

Please share your judicious comments and feel free to make topic suggestions. I hope what you read here will enrich your heart and mind wherever you are, whatever your challenges in life may be.

*Note on “God”: In our ineffective and futile human attempts to name, label, and classify things, we also try to name the ultimate beautiful monstrosity of the Unknown. God, Allah, Yahweh… Throughout these writings I use many “names” for this inexplicable source familiarly known as God. Therefore, in my writing (and my heart) God = the One, Light, the Divine, the Abyss, You, Love, Creator, Life, the Universe, the Unknown, Genius, Mystery, Grace, the Truth and so on.