Keeping Our Productivity in Check

September 3, 2023 By Rev. Dr. Margaret Somerville

From Rosh Hashanah to Lunar New Year, we honor the turning over to a new year with fresh perspective and new intentions. Despite my connection to different faith traditions and their threshold rituals, Labor Day weekend will perhaps always mark the beginning of the new year for me. Welcome-back activities for students are outlined. Classroom decor holds the message of belonging. Opening meditation for Alignment’s new season is ready. Retreats and programs are on the website. I feel the lurch... Read more

The Open Door: Creating Connections

July 7, 2023 By Rev. Dr. Margaret Somerville

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The open door. A symbol of invitation. Of acceptance. Of welcome. It was the theme of how I was raised. My parents arrived in Birmingham, Alabama in 1949 from their small Scottish village. Through a door that was open to them because they were coming to continue their ministry in a Presbyterian church. They found that doors open for them were not open for all in the highly segregated city where they strove to further the message of all-encompassing love.... Read more

Labyrinth Walk: Making Chrysalis Soup with the Outdoor Chaplain

May 14, 2023 By Rev. Dr. Margaret Somerville

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The labyrinth started to breathe. As those gathered for a sunset walk made their way into the center, into circles expanding and contracting, it became the very image of a pulsing heart. The crunching of measured footfalls, step after slowed step, sounded the beats. Walkers fell into rhythm, on a journey alone but as part of a living, breathing organism. A chrysalis. The Outdoor Chaplain, Rev. Cairn Neely, was our labyrinth walk guide. A frequent presenter at Alignment: Interfaith Contemplative... Read more

A Day Lived in Prayer: Results of the American Prayer Wrap Survey

May 4, 2023 By Rev. Dr. Margaret Somerville

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Knees humbled to the ground and forehead kissing the earth. Chin dropped to the chest and fingers entwined. Legs in lotus and eyes gently focused downward. What is your posture for prayer? Skylight has released the findings of the nationwide survey on prayer from a project called American Prayer Wrap. American Prayer Wrap uncovers the methods, motivations and myriad colors of our connection with the divine. The findings indicate that the most common places in which people pray are not... Read more

Expanding the Posture of Prayer

May 1, 2023 By Rev. Dr. Margaret Somerville

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In worship services from many different traditions, prayer is structured. Types of prayer are labeled. Times for prayer are scheduled. Words of prayer are composed. Places for prayer are set aside. But prayer that takes us beyond these boundaries expands our connection to the divine. And perhaps from there deepens our understanding of the limitless presence of spirit in our lives. Today I prayed for peace, strength, and clarity. Leading a Presbyterian congregation in a traditional worship service, I prompted... Read more

Clay Pots: Finding the Divine in the Ordinary

April 8, 2023 By Rev. Dr. Margaret Somerville

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A lump of clay thrown on the potter’s wheel became a vessel. Lester Morris, tech consultant by day, recognizes his time at the wheel as his spiritual practice. He invited Alignment into his basement studio virtually for a session of contemplative practice. The pots and bowls that Lester shaped during our time together became vessels for far more than anyone anticipated. One of the main intentions of Alignment: Interfaith Contemplative Practices is the recognition of the sacred in the ordinary.... Read more

Crisis Contemplation: Barbara A. Holmes Visits Alignment

March 18, 2023 By Rev. Dr. Margaret Somerville

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Contemplative practices open us to hearing, seeing, and knowing the presence of the divine within us, beyond us, and in the connections we have with one another, so that grounded and growing, we might have the strength to work for justice in the world around us. Renowned spiritual teacher and writer, Barbara A. Holmes, led the most recent session of Alignment: Interfaith Contemplative Practices. Her work is focused on African American spirituality and mysticism. Her pivotal work Crisis Contemplation: Healing... Read more

Consumed by Divine Fire: The Basic Elements of Prayer

March 4, 2023 By Rev. Dr. Margaret Somerville

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Can we find a deeper connection to our lives of prayer by aligning ourselves with the basic elements: water, earth, air, and fire? Alignment has explored drinking water as a contemplative practice, taking ourselves to ground level, and exchanging our exhale as ways in which prayer enters our lives in unexpected ways. Might fire be the element that allows us to find and claim the spiritual practices that are uniquely ours? Understanding that there are many different avenues to connecting... Read more

Exchanging Our Exhale: The Basic Elements of Prayer

February 18, 2023 By Rev. Dr. Margaret Somerville

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Breathe in the positive. Let go of what no longer serves. Whether we are on the yoga mat or being coached through a moment of anxiety, the call to expand our lungs with an inhalation of positive energy feels basic to centering practices. It makes sense. We fill ourselves with life-giving air. We pause. We let go of the oxygen-depleted breath and along with it, we release tension and negative thoughts. Attention to our breath lives hand-in-hand with spiritual practice.... Read more

Celtic Imbolc: What Is Lying Dormant within You?

January 31, 2023 By Rev. Dr. Margaret Somerville

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Today marks the time of winter when our hearts and minds turn to that deep longing for spring. Standing halfway between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox, those Celts who were so attuned to the turning of the seasons knew the importance of this midpoint. The need to hasten the call to warmth and light, to the sprouting of life from hardened ground. Life was lying in wait “within the womb”, imbolc. So to the goddess of fire and... Read more