We humbly gather, gaining in mutuality a level of strength and compassion we did not possess as individuals. We gather to support and affirm one another even as we challenge and are challenged by one another. We gather to learn ways to actually keep the faith we proclaim. We gather to seek the target of truth and justice, knowing all the while, that target will always move just ahead of us.
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Each of us is one narrow viewpoint in a universe broad beyond comprehension. Our life is but a few cycles around a sun which has burned for billions of years. Narrow-to-broad, new-to-ancient, brief-to-eternal: peering through the lens of our religion, we see the kinship between such seeming opposites. Let us be together in a way that opens the heart to more than the mind can know.
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Let us seek together. What we find may be ancient or new, poetic or prosaic, reassuring or unnerving. What we find may be obvious and logical–or obscure and challenging. But let us seek together, for hearts come most alive at the ragged edge of the unknown.
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The universe whispers that all things are intertwined. Yet still we hear the shriek of discord. To which voice shall we listen?
Let the heart not deny what is before us: may we not forget yesterday’s grief nor be heedless to today’s pain. But yesterday is gone and today fades as quickly as it came. Moment, by moment, let us choose between good and evil, love and hate–in a way that draws the broken fragments together, not pushing them farther apart. For what we build creates what we are.
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As we gather, let us be tantalized and delighted, puzzled and reassured. Let us embrace what is new and reaffirm what is ancient. Let truth go always before us, a lodestar to pierce the worst tempest of shadows.
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