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Today I want to share a bit about a beloved koan called 鈥淟ingzhao鈥檚 Helping鈥�. Lingzhao and her family feature in several koans in the anthology 鈥淭he Hidden Lamp; Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women鈥�( Caplow and Moon eds).

As I sit in meditation in my son鈥檚 old bedroom, I still enjoy his choice of colour for the walls: bright autumn leaf yellow-gold. In this room I feel the warm autumn sunshine and am surrounded by whispering trees.

鈥淪orry I didn鈥檛 write back: I鈥檝e been busy.鈥� 鈥淐an鈥檛 talk right now: I鈥檓 really busy.鈥� 鈥淢an, but I鈥檓 busy! When will this stop?鈥� My contribution to last Saturday鈥檚 鈥� Faith Forum 鈥� came in, as is often the case with me, very tight to the deadline.

One of the areas of life affected by the COVID-19 pandemic has been the ability to go to church. Gathering in-person to sing, pray, find hope and draw closer to God has been shut down for almost a year now.

In my last article, Practising rituals help sustain us through hard times , I shared that at my front door is a large depiction of the Ten Commandments.

Rituals sustain us. You might call them habits, routines, or traditions. They are things we often do without much thought, because they are comfortable and familiar.

One of the world鈥檚 greatest driving forces is the desire for wealth. So many wars have been fought for money, and millions of lives have been lost in the pursuit of it.

Words like 鈥淕od鈥� and 鈥淛esus鈥� can be loaded with a range of meaning and emotion, sometimes intended, sometimes not, and sometimes聽projected by people reacting to those terms.

If mercy is when you don鈥檛 get what you do deserve then Grace is when you get what you don鈥檛 deserve. Grace is undeserved kindness. We鈥檙e all familiar with the modern-day idioms: 鈥渂y the grace of God鈥�; 鈥済race period鈥� or 鈥渁 saving grace鈥�.

Every second of our life is a moment of happiness, peace or struggle. Every day, we are grateful for the things that make us happy. But what about the things that make us unhappy? This past year has been full of challenges for all of us.