Tikkun (https://www.tikkun.org/author/a_sylvesterd/)
Activist and Tikkun contributor David A. Sylvester reports on his recent trip to Honduras and his participation in an interfaith demonstration calling for national dialogue and a peaceful return to a constitutional government
During election week, of all times, I had a surprising insight about how we stayed sane during horrors of the Vietnam War: Our musicians who saved us – and specifically, our folksingers.
A journey into spiritual experience and trauma may seem disorienting, like entering an ancient labyrinth. We push ahead into the twists and turns, concentrating so much on where we are going that we don’t notice the walls we are passing or the marks left on them by the generations who traveled before us. Even if we did stop, we might not be able to read and understand the markings. They may seem like remnants of a lost language, or one that we remember only through faint impressions. Perhaps many of the references in the main story of “A Journey of Passion” are familiar to you; others might sound remote, mixed with childhood associations or relatively meaningless to our modern lives.
We were gathered in front of our church for the Palm Sunday celebration, dressed in our best clothing, full of Sunday morning cheer, waiting for the priest to arrive and begin the service. It would begin outdoors, as it does at Roman Catholic churches, and many other Christian churches, around the world. I went to one of the tables where I could pick up a palm frond to wave aloft during the procession into the church. It was the beginning of the most sacred portion of the year, the climax of the Christian story.