Contributed by Lois Herr: First Church of Christ, Scientist, McLean
Many people set aside time in their day for prayer, reflection, or meditation. As a Christian Science practitioner, I often find inspiration in daily audio reflections presented by members of our church, called the Daily Lift.
A recent Daily Lift by Madelon Maupin, from Scottsdale, Arizona, is entitled, “The antidote to extremism.” In this segment, Madelon explains how she has come to use Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount – specifically, the Beatitudes as a way to think and pray about countering extremism. In her remarks, Madelon reminds us, “We all live at the same address and it is called the kingdom of God,” which offers mercy, healing and love.
The Daily Lift is comprised of audio presentations contributed by Christian Science church members worldwide – with the majority coming from the U.S. This particular Lift will remain on the website for thirty days before being retired.
May this segment bring you peace and encouragement.
This blog post is the expressed opinion of its writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tysons Interfaith or its members.
Contributed by Stephen Wickman, St. Thomas Episcopal, McLean
The Jewish festival of Shavuot, occurred June 1-3. According to Rabbinic tradition, this celebration marks the revelation of the Ten Commandments to Moses and the Israelites at Mount Sinai.
Amidst the ongoing violence in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Cameroon, and anti-Jewish attacks and other religious-based assaults against peace-loving civilians in the United States and elsewhere, let’s listen to the thoughts of Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, who shared this recording on the BBC recently.
“’I’m your God, don’t abuse me or one another.’ I hear these words with sorrow and shame but also hope. I’m horrified by how we hurt each other, the wars, the cruelty and hunger, yet the world remains intricately and inspiringly beautiful. That’s why I cling to the deeply imaginative interpretation rooted in Jewish mystical thought by the rabbi of Ger, a popular Hasidic teacher who died in 1905.
When God said, I am your God, every creature experienced those words as spoken directly to them. For an instant, every living being, humans, donkeys, birds, understood that their deepest nature, their innermost spirit, comes from and belongs to God. They heard those words, I am your God, not just from the mountaintop but from inside their hearts. Afterwards, everything returned to normal, each human and animal to its separate consciousness, its own reality, in this material world which conceals from us the deepest truth of who we are. But in that moment, we understood that one life, one consciousness, fills us all and that something sacred, something deeper than all divisions, unites us.
For that brief interval, said the rabbi, we were incapable of harming one another. This was long ago, but he maintained, if we listen deeply, we can still catch the after-echo of God’s voice in all creation. If we could be attentive to that voice in our fellow humans and in all life, we would instinctively hold back and, in Isaiah’s words, not cruelly hurt or destroy any living being, but instead do our utmost to bring healing to our world. Maybe it’s that after echo we hear when, in a heartfelt conversation, we reach a pause and sit silently together, knowing that something words can’t reach has touched us.”
Our Rector, the Rev. Fran Gardner-Smith on Easter Sunday used a similar metaphor: we are the after-image of God’s photograph, taken at the time of creation, like the image on your retina after a photograph. And yesterday, on Ascencion Day in the Christian tradition, our parish administrator added in his sermon, quoting the Book of Revelation: we are a “pre-image” of heaven on earth, a shining city.
This blog post is the expressed opinion of its writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tysons Interfaith or its members.
Contributed by Stephen Wickman, St. Thomas Episcopal, McLean
In 2003, Robert Waldinger, a psychoanalyst who would later become an ordained Zen Buddhist priest and who had always been preoccupied by questions “with an existential flavor” accepted an offer from Harvard (I know) to take on one of its most prized possessions, the longest-running wellness study in American history. A dozen years later he reported his findings in a TED Talk. “The clearest message that we get from this 75-year study is this: Good relationships keep us happier and healthier. Period.” Not achievement, not fortune nor fame, but strong, long-term relationships with spouses, family and friends built on deep trust — that’s the best predictor of well-being. Waldinger had worried that this big “news” was so intuitive he would be laughed off the stage; instead, the talk is one of TED’s most watched to date, having over 27 million views.
In 2001, when the men in the long-term study were in their late 70s and early 80s, Waldinger’s predecessor had found one of the best predictors of the men’s overall well-being in their old age was how happily married they had been at age 50. When women were added to the study, the results were the same. One 80-year-old woman told an interviewer she wished she had spent less time getting upset about “silly things” and had spent more “time with my children, husband, mother, father.” For those who reported being in happy marriages, socializing with others in the spouse’s circle also contributed to their happiness. But if one spouse fell into pain or ill health, time spent together alone seemed to protect them from the psychological effects of the physical suffering. He also found that the people who scored highest on measures of attachment to their spouses were also the ones who reported the highest levels of happiness.
Well, so much for modern science, and Harvard! All the religions of the world have been preaching this forever, though few of our ancient forebears reached their 70s or 80s!
This blog post is the expressed opinion of its writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tysons Interfaith or its members.
Contributed by Stephen Wickman, St. Thomas Episcopal, McLean
I love songs, and the BBC (yes, again) has a neat show called “Inheritance Tracks” that invites celebrities to tell us about one song passed down to them from their parents and one song they want to pass on to future generations. Today Jared Harris – who does look a bit like his more famous father, Richard, and who played General Ulysses S. Grant in “Lincoln” shared that his father had handed down “Fly Me to the Moon” and that Jared wanted to pass on Monty Python’s “Galaxy Song.”
BBC Radio 4 Extra – Inheritance Tracks, Jared Harris
His father sang the Frank Sinatra version all the time, and then Jared’s drama teacher at Duke University said, “Well, you have to listen to Bennett’s version. It’s sublime.” Jared remembers being transported by the “romantic longing.”
Fly me to the moon
Let me play among the stars
Let me see what’s spring is like
on a Jupiter and Mars
In other words
hold my hand
In other words
baby, kiss me
Fill my heart with song
and let me sing forever more
You are all I long for
all I worship and I adore
In other words
Please, be true
In other words
I love you
Fill my heart with song
let me sing forever more
You are all I long for
all I worship and adore
In other words
Please, be true
In other words
In other words
I love you
Songwriters: Paul David Hewson, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen, Dave Evans, Attrell Stephen Jr. Cordes.
And now for something completely different. (That’s and inside joke for Python fans like me. I grew up watching them on Canadian TV before they aired here.)
At Catholic boarding school, Jared said: “I had that whole doctrine hammered into my head, and I was trying to shake it off me.” But listening to the song as an adult he gained a different perspective: “And you know, you understand that religion and all those things are just early attempts to try and answer the same question, which is that, who are we? Why are we here? How did we get here? Where are we going? There’s never, ever been anybody like you that’s ever been born, and at the same time, we’re just a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny planet, this incredible thing that’s exploding at the speed of light. It’s amazing. So, remember when you’re feeling very small and insecure, how amazingly unlikely is your birth!”
Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown
And things seem hard or tough
And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft
And you feel that you’ve had quite enough
Just remember that you’re standing on a planet that’s evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour
It’s orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it’s reckoned
A sun that is the source of all our power
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm at forty thousand miles an hour
Of the galaxy we call the Milky Way
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars
It’s a hundred thousand light years side to side
It bulges in the middle sixteen thousand light years thick
But out by us, it’s just three thousand light years wide
We’re thirty thousand light years from galactic central point
We go round every two hundred million years
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe
The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go – the speed of light, you know
Twelve million miles a minute and that’s the fastest speed there is
So remember when you’re feeling very small and insecure
How amazingly unlikely is your birth
And pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere up in space
‘Cause there’s bugger all down here on earth
Songwriters: John Du Prez, Eric Idle
For non-commercial use only.
This blog post is the expressed opinion of its writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tysons Interfaith or its members.
Contributed by: Rev Dr Trish Hall, Centers for Spiritual Living
Maria Popova declared some time ago, “These days I am less certain I will see the rosy outcome I would like, but I am more determined to meet the future with the best version of myself.”
What if each of us released our attachment to how we want others to be and how we think they ought to be, and consciously showed up as our very best version of ourselves? If all of us were to do that, there would be enough of us that our behavior would “go viral” – be highly contagious – and all manner of challenges would disappear.
In 365 Science of Mind, Dr Holmes is quoted as having said, “New arts, new sciences, new philosophies, better government, and a higher civilization wait on our thoughts. The infinite energy of Life, and the possibility of our future evolution, work through our imagination and will. The time is ready, the place is where we are now, and it is done unto all as they really believe and act.”
Affirming that we really believe Dr Holmes’ statement, and are willing to act on our belief, I pray …
There is only One Indescribable Infinite creating all that is from Its own Divine self. It is the One Life Common to all creation. It is simultaneously the Absolute Creator and Itself as Creation – truly the All-in-All, the All-AS-All. All Creation is sacred. All of us are expressions of the Divine.
It is from this inseparable state of being that I speak my word today. I know this is the time that every person leans-in and expresses their very best version of themselves in every moment. I see all pre-judgments (prejudices) left behind. What remains is all people seeing only God expressing as one another compassionately inviting others to express their best version of themselves. Everyone is now recognizing interconnectedness and interdependence. All relationships are consciously grounded upon loving-kindness and generosity. Peace prevails.
Boundless gratitude arises within me as I embrace the transformative power of prayer.
And so, It is!
This blog post is the expressed opinion of its writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tysons Interfaith or its members.
Contributed by Stephen Wickman, St. Thomas Episcopal, McLean
As we join our Roman Catholic sisters and brothers to mourn the passing of Pope Francis, let us remember that Francis was the first pope ever to visit the grounds of Southeast Asia’s largest mosque, where he signed a joint declaration together with Muslim leader Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar: Joint Declaration of Istiqlal 2024 — Fostering Religious Harmony for the Sake of Humanity. Named for the mosque, the document addresses the crises of “dehumanization and climate change.”
They noted: “It is particularly worrying that religion is often instrumentalized in this regard, causing suffering to many, especially women, children and the elderly. The role of religion, however, should include promoting and safeguarding the dignity of every human life.”
And they agreed: “ The human exploitation of creation, our common home, has contributed to climate change, leading to various destructive consequences such as natural disasters, global warming and unpredictable weather patterns. This ongoing environmental crisis has become an obstacle to the harmonious coexistence of peoples.”
In response they called for the following:
i. The values shared by our religious traditions should be effectively promoted in order to defeat the culture of violence and indifference afflicting our world. Indeed, religious values should be directed towards promoting a culture of respect, dignity, compassion, reconciliation and fraternal solidarity in order to overcome both dehumanization and environmental destruction.
ii. Religious leaders in particular, inspired by their respective spiritual narratives and traditions, should cooperate in responding to the above-mentioned crises, identifying their causes and taking appropriate action.
iii. Since there is a single global human family, interreligious dialogue ought to be recognised as an effective instrument for resolving local, regional and international conflicts, especially those incited by the abuse of religion. Moreover, our religious beliefs and rituals have a particular capacity to speak to the human heart and thus foster a deeper respect for human dignity.
iv. Acknowledging that a healthy, peaceful and harmonious living environment is vital for becoming true servants of God and custodians of creation, we sincerely call on all people of good will to take decisive action in order to maintain the integrity of the natural environment and its resources, for we have inherited them from past generations and hope to pass them on to our children and grandchildren.
Resquiescat in pace.
This blog post is the expressed opinion of its writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tysons Interfaith or its members.
Contributed by Stephen Wickman, St. Thomas Episcopal, McLean
Just in time for Passover and Holy Week, after Ramadan, and just as we face earth-shattering tariff and other wars, the 2025 World Happiness Report reminds us what we already know from our various faith traditions: money isn’t everything WHR Dashboard.
While there is a strong correlation between GDP and happiness, Finland, number 15 in the GDP per capita parade, is once again the world’s happiest country for seven years in a row.
The United States (number 4 in income per capita) has fallen out of the top twenty, behind Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Netherlands, Costa Rica, Norway, Israel, Luxembourg, Mexico (ole!), Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Belgium, Ireland, Lithuania (!), Austria, Canada (maybe we should become the eleventh province or even a territory), Slovenia, Czechia, United Arab Emirates, Germany, and even our ex-colonial master, the UK.
The snarky “Economist” magazine admits that gender equality, trust in national institutions and fellow citizens, and low corruption are all important factors in Finland’s happiness rating, and it is fitting that in Finland became the first country in the world to give women both the full right to vote and to run in parliamentary elections. And when Reader’s Digest “lost” 12 wallets containing cash and contact details to test the honesty of citizens in 16 cities around the world, Helsinki was tops.
Oh, and Finland has excellent free education, universal health care and family-friendly policies. Health services are not totally free, but they are affordable.
The authors find that caring and sharing, especially socializing with others, maintaining connections, sharing meals, living with others, stressing family bonds, supporting others through prosocial behavior, trusting others, and giving to others, all lead to greater happiness. Unhappiness and social distrust, however, lead to a destructive form of “populism.”
This blog post is the expressed opinion of its writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tysons Interfaith or its members.
Contributed by: Anonymous
On Sunday, February 9, 2025, about 35 people gathered for a multi-faith devotional organized by members of the Tysons Interfaith group. Held in the home of one of the members in Alexandria, the gathering honored the victims, first responders, and families affected by the recent air crash in Washington, DC.
Representatives from Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the Baha’i faiths shared prayers and reflections on life’s purpose and humanity’s spiritual journey. As prayers were offered, a deep sense of unity, compassion, and peace filled the room, highlighting our shared values and common spiritual aspirations.
The evening was a reminder that in honoring our diversity, we can also find strength, harmony, and hope in building a more united world.
This blog post is the expressed opinion of its writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tysons Interfaith or its members.
Contributed by Rev. Dr. Trish Hall, Center for Spiritual Living
There are two people at the top of my list of heroes, Mohandus Gandhi, the Mahatma, and Rev Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. I instantly became a “Gandhian” as a child, the first time I read about him and how he looked at the world differently from almost everyone and yet his way aligned with the depth of my being. What Gandhi stood for made sense to me at a soul level. When I discovered that Rev Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, embraced Gandhi’s approach – that he recognized nonviolence as the right way (the only truly sustainable way) to confront the atrocities being perpetrated against blacks, I knew – again at the soul level – that I needed to take a stand and do whatever I could to support and further Dr. King’s work.
Recently, I was researching the relationship between King and Gandhi. I discovered that Dr King, eager to learn all he could about nonviolent resistance, had sought out Gandhi and his teachings. Dr King deeply connected with Gandhi’s approach and put it to work. Dr. King was the embodiment of nonviolent action.
My research revealed an article that was new to me in form, yet familiar to me in content. Dr King wrote the article, “My Trip to the Land of Gandhi,” four weeks after his return from a tour of India. It was published in Ebony in July 1959. Although Dr King’s trip to India took place 3 years after the great day of bus integration, December 21, 1956, he spoke often of how “India’s Gandhi” had been the guiding light of our technique of nonviolent social change while the Montgomery boycott was going on.
Dr King began his article … “… Even as a child the entire Orient held a strange fascination for me—the elephants, the tigers, the temples, the snake charmers and all the other storybook characters.” Dr King was a man of insatiable curiosity and wonder.
He shared that the trip had a great impact upon him personally. It had been humbling to be in Gandhi’s land, to talk with his son, his grandsons, his cousin and other relatives; to share the reminiscences of his close comrades; to visit his ashrama, to see the countless memorials for him and finally to lay a wreath on his entombed ashes at Rajghat. Dr King left India more convinced than ever before that nonviolent resistance was the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom. It was a marvelous thing for him to see the amazing results of a nonviolent campaign.
He was astounded that the usual aftermath of hatred and bitterness following a violent campaign were nowhere to be found. Instead, he discovered mutual friendship based on complete equality between the Indian and British people within the commonwealth.
Kingian Wisdom: The way of acquiescence leads to moral and spiritual suicide. The way of violence leads to bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. But the way of nonviolence leads to redemption and the creation of the beloved community.
Some assert that nonviolent resistance can only work in a situation where the resisters have a potential ally in the conscience of the opponent. Dr King disagreed and asserted that that perspective was completely wrong and arose from confusing passive resistance with nonresistance.
Kingian Wisdom: True nonviolent resistance is not unrealistic submission to evil power. It is rather a courageous confrontation of evil by the power of love, in the faith that it is better to be the recipient of violence than the inflictor of it, since the latter only multiplies the existence of violence and bitterness in the universe, while the former may develop a sense of shame in the opponent, and thereby bring about a transformation and change of heart.
Nonviolent resistance does call for love, but it is not a sentimental love. It is a very stern love that would organize itself into collective action to right a wrong by taking on itself suffering.
Gandhi modeled how to live one’s beliefs by taking “untouchables” – those he renamed “Harijans” (“children of God”) – by the hand and leading them into the temples from which they had been excluded.
Seeing India through Dr King’s eyes expanded my sense of how deeply he embraced Gandhian teaching. I sensed his frustration that amid the poverty and overcrowding of India they had made more progress in dealing with the caste system than the US had with racial injustice. The difference he identified was that the foundation of their approach rested on moral ground – something lacking from the US approach.
Dr King walked with people in pursuit of freedom and equality. He called us out for having not made more progress and admonished us to heed the Indian example and resolve our blatant racial discrimination.
The article was written in 1959 – 65 years ago. How have we progressed? What grades would Dr. King put on our report card?
This blog post is the expressed opinion of its writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tysons Interfaith or its members.
Contributed by Andra Baylus, Regional Director of the Meher Baba Spiritual Community
The First Amendment creates the very space upon which Tysons Interfaith and other interfaith organizations function as we go about the business of interfaith bridge building to create opportunities for spiritual connection, learn about different faith traditions and serve others who are part of one human family.
It is especially meaningful to be reminded of the First Amendment as we approach the installation of our new administration whose governance agenda will be bound, by law, to uphold the tenets expressed within the First Amendment guaranteeing religious freedom for all faith traditions.
The following thoughts about Religious Freedom Day, shared with me by a friend, should be a source of comfort –that the First Amendment of our Constitution will ensure the success of future interfaith bridge building activities and protect the religious freedoms of all citizens of the United States:
Honoring All Paths
National Religious Freedom Day – January 16 – is a time to remember and praise the tenets of liberty, equality, and dignity for everyone. That freedom is guaranteed in the First Amendment of the Constitution, adopted in 1791, which says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Inherent in our celebration of religious freedom, is the right to also live with freedom of speech, of the press, and the freedom of assembly.
To restrict these freedoms is to undermine the equality, dignity, and respect of our brothers and sisters. Religious freedom makes it possible – and even legal – to publicly honor all faiths, to draw wisdom from diverse spiritual paths. In essence, the New Thought philosophy – and the teaching of it – would not have been allowed without the guarantee of this freedom.
The groundwork for this liberty was established in the 17th century when thousands of Catholics, Puritans, and other religious freethinkers were facing harassment and persecution by the Church of England, which sought to inaugurate itself as the mandatory religion of the nation. The dissenters, who vowed to not be bound by these conditions, showed great dedication and courage in boarding ships for the “New World.”
This blog post is the expressed opinion of its writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tysons Interfaith or its members.