Prior to the Fort Hood killings, Reverend David Rinas, a Lutheran Minister in Chelmsford, Massachusetts and Imam Hafiz Abdul Hannan from the Islamic Society of Greater Lowell (MA) had planned an Interfaith Thanksgiving Service. The timing of their service could not have been any better. It was a great time for people within Massachusetts to learn more about Islam and other faiths different than their own.

When I saw the notice in my local paper announcing the service, I immediately tore the clipping out and entered the 7PM service into my Blackberry.  That slot was locked-in on my calendar for several days until I found out on Sunday morning that the New England Patriots-New York Jets games started at 4:15 (which meant it wouldn’t end until about 7:30PM)  The interfaith service would significantly cut-into an evening of relaxing football!

As it got to be about 5:30PM, it was pitch black, cold and raw in Massachusetts.  I was comfortably settled in front of the football game with the gas fireplace in our family room cranked to the temperature of a pizza oven. I had to decide whether to finish the football game while toasty warm, or change clothes, freshen-up and head-out into the dark, dreary night.

Why does doing the right think always make us feel good?

I strolled into the Trinity Lutheran Church at about 6:55PM after listening to the Patriots game on my car radio in the church parking lot up until the last minute.  Like most church services that I’ve ever been to, most of the people there were seated in the middle of the church toward the back.  There were plenty of seats available at the front on the left-hand side, so I headed in that direction so that I’d be able to see and have a little breathing room (H1N1 is everywhere!).

At about 6:58, about 6 people and an infant chose the row directly in front of my pew and settled-in comfortably making sure to completely obstruct this 5 foot 8 inch man’s perfect view of the lectern and altar.

After a short greeting by Rev. Rinas, John Kurland from Congregation Shalom lead us in this prayer:

God of all creation, we stand in awe before You, impelled by visions of the harmony of humanity.   We are children of many traditions–inheritors of shared wisdom and tragic misunderstandings, of proud hopes and humble successes.  Now it is time for us to meet and worship–in memory and truth, in courage and trust, in love and promise.

In that which we share, let us see the common prayer of humanity; in that which we differ, let us wonder at the freedom of all; in our unity and our differences, let us know the uniqueness that is God.

May our courage match our convictions, and our integrity match our hope. May our gratitude and thankfulness which brings us together today unite our hearts in love. May our faith in You bring us closer to each other.  May our meeting with past and present bring blessing for the future.

Amen.

What football game? At about 7:02, I knew that I had made the right decision to leave the pizza oven and venture into the cold church that was full of warmth.

The 80 minute service alternated between music and prayer. A member from each faith lead us in a prayer that was deemed appropriate by each of the clergy prior to the service.  They got together to decide how to focus on all that we had in common rather than focus on our differences.  I love that!

One of the guys in front of me who was obstructing my view had the red hymnal open but, was not singing.  It appeared as if he had a piece of paper in the hymnal that he was studying while pretending to be looking at the hymnal.

When it came time for the recitation from the Quran, that man got up and proceeded to the lectern. The most touching part of the evening for me was scripture sung from the Quran in Arabic.  His voice trembled from nerves at the beginning most likely because he was out of his comfort zone–I think that everyone else was too. He quickly settled in to singing the Word of Allah.  Muslims are serious about their faith.

Knowing the little that I do about meditation, the body is divided into 7-8 chakras (energy centers) that start from the base of the spine and proceed up to the tip of the head (the crown chakra). The chakras are called energy centers because these are the places where we have large collections of nerves that can frequently become stuck.  Yoga, meditation and chiropractic are all ways of making sure that these chakras are working properly. When each of them is working properly, our body is at ease and free from dis-ease.

Each of the chakras is related to a unique color and  note from the musical C-scale.  Having the scripture sung to me seemed to touch each of my chakras as his chanting resonated with each energy center from the base of my spine up to my crown.

What I now realized is that I had been lucky enough to sit in the section where the Muslims decided to sit.  In addition to the man who chanted from the Quran, the Imam’s wife was to my right and immediately in front of me was a young couple who had a 5-month old infant in a bassinet in-between them.  Amir (the Dad) could not have payed any more attention to his beautiful little daughter if he tried.  She was gorgeous as she sat there sleeping through most of the service waking up only to have the pacifier returned to her mouth or for a sip from the bottle. When Amir’s daughter occasionally woke up, her beautiful, sparkling eyes were looking directly into mine as if she were peering into my soul.  Her Dad turned around and looked at me for the first time to try and figure out who or what she was looking at so intently.

The keynote speaker was the Imam from the Islamic Society.  If I ever had a doubt about our ability to have Unity Consciousness become our collective reality across the globe, that thought was quickly removed. The Imam and each of the clergy from every faith focused on a common God and the common spirit present in every human.

While Imam Hannan was talking about Islam and how Muslims pray 5 times per day, he also told us how they are thankful for so many things including simple things like clothing.   He reminded us that each of us has so many things to be thankful for that we could never count all of Allah’s blessings bestowed upon us.  Well said.

He went on to say that although Thanksgiving is largely a North American tradition, we should include each member of our global family into our prayers of Thanksgiving and not restrict our thanks and blessings to the United States or Canada only.

The service ended with Rev. Rinas, suggesting that we introduce ourselves to each other before going into the hall for coffee and baked goods. Because of the H1N1 virus precaution, the Lutheran church members have stopped shaking hands and instead started touching each other’s wrists. Because Muslim women are prohibited from touching other men, we were asked to either bow or give a visual hello or sign of peace to each other.

I said hello to the man who had sung the Quran scriptures and told him what a great voice he had. He smiled with appreciation. Amir (the little girl’s Dad) had left the church for a few minutes when his daughter had started crying and didn’t hear the announcement about no hand shaking.   He gave me a big, bright smile that came close to matching the brightness of his daughter’s eyes as he extended his hand as a sign of peace. I ignored the no-hand-shaking rule and eagerly extended my hand to my new friend as I told him how lovely his daughter was.

I didn’t want to leave the football game and drive 15 minutes to get to get to the service. Amir and his wife got their 5-month old daughter bundled up and drove 45 minutes to get to the service to hear his friend – Imam Hannan – speak.  What was I thinking?

Our world is small.

We are all the same at our core.  We’re humans who fall in love with other humans.  We care deeply for our children.  Many of us have come to know God through the faith we learned as a child or deliberately chose as adults.  The more that we learn about each other, the more it becomes easy for us to love each other.

Knowledge brings us together, but it is knowledge of God’s love for us that makes it easy to love each other.

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Over this last weekend, I played the organ and sang at three masses at our church.  Our regular music minister had to go and assist a daughter at the last minute and asked me if I’d fill-in for her at each of her masses.  I immediately said “yes” so that she could return her attention to her daughter.  Although I have a piano at home and have been playing the piano since I was 5, I don’t play much any more and I was not 100% comfortable with the organ, the sound system or the songs for this weekend.

The 4PM mass on Saturday went pretty well.  On Sunday at 9AM, my wife, my 15-year old daughter and several neighbors and friends were present and all sitting right up front.  As I was finishing the end of a song, I must’ve taken my eye off the music for just long enough to get out of alignment between what I was singing and what I was playing. I ended the song on the wrong chord with several wrong notes.  It was like a car crash!!!

My eyes went immediately to my wife (who is not close to being a musician) and I saw the look on her face that said, “How could you have made such a horrendous mistake!”?  If she knew that it was a mistake then no one could’ve missed that one!

I knew that I had made a huge blunder.  The choices at that point were to either let my head go negative and begin beating myself up or to laugh at myself, smile, thank God for such a small problem, and focus on the next song.  I chose the latter with the intent of playing and singing the rest of the hymns so gloriously that no one would ever remember the shriek.

It was an intentional choice to stay positive, stay present (forget about the past) and move on.

That was a very recent example of where I would have desperately appreciated a  “do over” in my life.

I knew at that moment that I was probably being tougher on myself than anyone else in the congregation.  I’m certain that our Pastor was very thankful to have me playing and singing.  I know that the music minister who I was filling in for would forgive me.  I knew that because my intentions were great – filling in for a friend and to worship God – that God would forgive me.  God always forgives me.

Have you ever experienced moments of despair or embarrassment and wondered how you’re going to be able to move forward?  Me too. Without giving it too much thought, here are a few of my moments of despair or embarrassment:

• When I was in grammar school and taking piano lessons, my mind went completely blank during a recital. I was in front of a large audience and just sitting there with nothing coming out of my brain or my fingers related to the song(s) that I had memorized (apparently I hadn’t memorized them!).  My face was red and I was sweating with embarrassment as the silence in the recital hall seemed to go on for ever.
• In college, I dropped out of the management program half-way though a semester because I was so unprepared for the upcoming tests and overwhelmed with the curriculum – statistics, accounting, economics and finance all in the same semester!  “How’s school going?”  “I dropped out.”
• When I was out of college and working, I became a political casualty (I was fired) at work when my new manager brought in his own team of friends from his old company. When this happened, my stay-at-home wife was  pregnant with our second child (our daughter Emily) and I didn’t have a lot of liquid cash.  No job, no income, very little cash and no health benefits.  Now what?
• When Carolyn and I were trying to have children we went through numerous fertility tests to try and determine why we were unable to conceive. “Wow!  We might never be able to have the family that we’ve dreamed about.”  “What’s wrong with me?”  “What’s wrong with you?”
• When I finally got a new job, my income was not where it was supposed to be because I had been mislead during the interview process as to the amount of ongoing revenue from existing customers. I had to return the brand new Ford Taurus SHO muscle car that I had purchased and replace it with a used, old man’s Buick Century. I couldn’t afford the payments on the car and the mortgage with my drastically reduced income.  I felt humiliated as I drove into work the next day with the clunker.

We are usually tougher on ourselves than anyone else around us would ever be on us. People are forgiving, Life is forgiving.  God is forgiving.

It doesn’t matter what mistakes we’ve made because, there is not one that is so serious that we could not recover. It doesn’t matter how bad the cards are that we were dealt -a bad business partner, the loss of a job, a bad marriage, bad debt, a sour economy, a failed business, the demise of an industry.  It’s all history.  Life is not about history.  It’s about living in the present moment. We can always wipe the slate clean or reformat the hard disk of our lives.

You are larger than any problem that comes your way.

I had to get a new computer in June because the laptop which I use to run my businesses and personal life failed. How do we feel about the new computer?  It’s nice and shiny and new. The operating system is current.  The drives are virus free and full of lots of empty space.  There are no old files on the drive.

How do we treat the new computer?  We only put into the new computer the information that we choose to and that will serve us in the future.  All of the old files and viruses and worms and spyware are left on the old computer.

That how I see my life every day.  Our brains are so miraculous that it’s like buying a new computer on a daily basis.  We get to fill our brains with the files and programs that serve us today and that will serve us in the future.  We get to deliberately leave the worms and viruses and spyware that we somehow picked up along the roads of life in the past. There is plenty of space in the brain for all of the new, exciting thoughts that you want to think, now that you’ve created the space by leaving the viruses and negativity behind.

Give all of your problems to God.  Ask God for guidance.  Take time to become silent enough with yourself to listen to yourself and to listen to God.

Here’s a simple process to follow:

• Take several deep breaths.  Repeat to yourself: “With God’s assistance, I’m capable of solving every problem that comes my way with confidence.”
• Take time each day to be silent.  God is present in the silence of our mind and heart.
• Say some prayers.
• Talk to God. God is always listening.
• Listen to God. Trust your highest self.
• Have faith in yourself and your ability and in God.
• Trust that this problem can be solved.  Nothing is too big for God
• Reach out to supportive family members and friends.
• There is a new day ahead tomorrow and you get to control your thoughts and  decide how you will proceed going forward.
• Thought is the act of creation. Deliberately choose to create positive, constructive thoughts.
• Focus on the positive and remain grateful for all that you have.
• Keep in mind that “This too shall pass.”

Remember that staying positive is a choice made by staying present. There are answers to every problem that exists in your life and you are smart enough – with some assistance from the divine – to resolve each and every situation that you’re dealing with today.

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I am the product of a French-Canadian father and an Irish mother.  The faith that my parents brought to me impacted me more than my French or Irish heritage.

The faith that my parents brought into their marriage and shared with our family taught us how to be good people.  Their Christian faith taught us how to be loving to each other and to all people. It taught us how to be compassionate to the poor, elderly, disabled and each other.  It taught us how to respect people – especially our elders. It taught us the gift of prayer. In short, we were taught to love your neighbor, love yourself and love your God.

Like all gifts that we receive, each of us has to choose whether to open, nurture and develop the gift of faith or to ignore it. Like any skill that we wish to perfect, it takes daily practice.

Here is a cliff notes version of how my faith was nurtured from early childhood by my parents and how I built upon it once I was an adult. My faith was not developed because of an event like the sacraments of First Communion or Confirmation. It was developed because it was the result of a way of life within my family which happened to include the sacraments. My faith came to be the defining piece of who I am as a human. It’s infiltrated my mind, my body and my soul.

A very basic practice that was repeated 3 times per day was the ritual of saying prayer prior to each family meal.  “Bless us O Lord and these Thy gifts which we are about to receive from Thy bounty, through Christ our Lord Amen”. This is still the prayer that we say prior to each meal within my family.  I think that prayer prior to eating (eating-my favorite part of the day!) helped make me grateful for food, family and so many things for which I’ve never lacked. Each and every time I say this prayer, I can still see my Dad (who passed away 13 years ago) sitting at the head of the table in the kitchen leading us in prayer.  I know that he was very thankful for his many blessings. Especially the blessings who were seated around that meal table.

At our home, it was never a question of whether or not we were going to church, it was only a question of which Mass we’d be attending each weekend.  Attending church for our family was as regular as eating, drinking or breathing. It’s what we did.  I can still see my father kneeling in church prior to Mass beginning with his head bowed in deep, reverent prayer.  I’m pretty certain that he was asking God for strength and guidance as he tried to keep our family together and on the “right track”. Now that I’m a father of two and husband (of one) and have my own company, I have a MUCH better idea of the prayers that he was saying!

Do you have to go to church to be a good person? No. Do you have to go to the gym to have a healthy body?  No.  Does daily and weekly repetition of all good habits lead to sustained health?  Yes.

My earliest recollection of going to church was with my Mother. She was always an “early riser” as I am.  She and I would go to 7:30AM Mass together and then sometimes go to “Gormley’s” -the luncheonette right across the street from the church – for creamy hot chocolate and very buttery, grilled english muffins.  I will always have the  wonderful memories of church with my Mom and our cherished diner breakfasts together – just the two of us!

My Mother spent her entire adult life in her kitchen although she occasionally left the kitchen to bathe or sleep.  She considered herself a valuable person when she was in the kitchen preparing food for the people she loved. She always had a very inexpensive, very poor quality radio on in the background keeping her company as she prepared breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner for her precious family. I can recall with great clarity the religious program that she’d listen to after dinner while doing the dishes when everyone else was watching television or reading the paper. A Catholic Mass would be on the radio. She was always working on improving her relationship with God and at becoming more Christ-like.

I understand that today. Back then, I thought that she was too religious. My parents were great role-models.

As soon as I was old enough to be an altar server, I was signed-up and on the altar proudly sporting my black and white cassock and surplice (robes).  Not only was I on the altar each weekend but, I was paid cash by brides and grooms to serve at their weddings. I especially cherished being asked to serve at funerals within our parish because I could get out of school classes for a couple of hours.  Serve God and get out of class. Life is good!

My first paying job was working at the rectory where the priests lived.  I had several responsibilities: answering the phone and door, counting the money from church collections and trying to decide what to do with the people who came to the church looking for money or food (or both!).  It was a big responsibility for a 14 year old boy. I learned that people sometimes reach out to God when their lives are going well but, are much more likely to do so when things aren’t going so well.

At that point, I committed to stay close to God at all times.

After my tour as an altar server, I began teaching religious education to 7th and 8th graders.  I had to learn the weekly lesson well-enough to understand why this material should be important to the 13 and 14-year old angels in my class. The process really caused me to question many things: why was I Catholic?, why do I have faith?, why was it so important for these young souls to develop and nurture their relationship with God?, why should faith be so important to them now and even more so in the future? Through the process of trying to get good enough to teach, I had convinced myself that I was on the right track with my relationship with God and my spiritual maturation process!

Somewhere around the time that I was teaching religious education (in my early twenties), I was asked to become a Eucharistic Minister.  Eucharistic ministers are the lay people who are allowed to distribute holy communion.  What a privilege and honor that was!  Prior to allowing Eucharistic Ministers to distribute communion, it was only the priests who were allowed to perform this special job. Now, I’m standing up in front of the congregation and distributing the “Body of Christ” to faith-filled individuals.  Wow!

Today, I am still a Eucharistic minister and have become a lector. Lectors read 2 readings (usually one from the old testament and a second from the new testament) and psalms during the mass.  In order to be able to properly own and proclaim the readings, I study them and rehearse them several times prior to each mass. I try to imagine myself knowing them well enough to be able to explain them without reading them or to proclaim a homily based upon the readings. Understanding the Word of God brings me closer to God and to each person in my life.

As I look back on the progression of my faith, I see that it was woven into everything we did. Our faith was a big part of our social community. Prayer was a part of our meals.  It was a part of the highs and the lows within our family – weddings, wakes and funerals. It was the real reason for each of the important holidays (Holy Days) within our family – Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Our faith is an important part of our marriage. My relationship with God has helped me with my marriage and continues doing so on a daily basis.

The concept of love your God, love your neighbor and love yourself became the foundation upon which I’ve been able to build my life. I know that when I accomplish each of those things on a daily basis, that day has gone very well! What a remarkably simple process to follow.

At this stage in my development, I’m at the point where this God-centered, love-focused thinking effects each of my thoughts, each of my words and each of my actions.  For me, it’s a great way to bring God into each and every aspect of my life by simply thinking “How would God respond?”, “What would God say?”, or “What would God do?” in each and every situation.

I now realize that the gift of faith is one that keeps on giving.  It is a gift that can be developed and nurtured on a daily basis.

Thanks Mom and Dad for the most important gift that I’ve ever received!