Ritual is the way you carry the presence of the sacred. Ritual is the spark that must not go out.

We live in story like a fish lives in water. We swim through words and images siphoning story through our minds the way a fish siphons water through its gills. We cannot think without language, we cannot process experience without story.

With compassion, we see benevolently our own human condition and the condition of our fellow beings. We drop prejudice. We withhold judgment.

History is what scholars and conquerors say happened; story is what it was like to live on the ground.

To work in the world lovingly means that we are defining what we will be for, rather than reacting to what we are against.

Ritual consists of the external practices of spirituality that help us become more receptive and aware of the closeness of our lives to the sacred. Ritual is the act of sanctifying action - even ordinary action - so that it has meaning. I can light a candle because I need the light or because the candle represents the light I need.

Spiritual life is contractual. The sacred cannot dialogue with the unresponsive.