Saturday night, Ryan and I participated in a Byzantine Catholic baptism for my cousin’s newborn. Everything in the little chapel was chanted and incensed and kissed and repeated. It was quite a spiritual experience.

Sunday morning, only a few miles away but a world apart, I gave my first sermon at my United Methodist church. There, our service was more freeform. We sang hymns (and a show tune). 

Although the Byzantine Catholic and United Methodist services were very different, my spiritual life feels pretty well-rounded today. Rosaries and Taizé worship have figured something out. There is something to repetition. Marketing in our culture today wants you to continue to pay attention to NEW things, so you will want and buy new things. But there is something to repetition. 

Just when something starts to feel monotonous, it can switch in your brain to become meditation. Repetition can create a trance of peace. Though we didn’t repeat anything at the Methodist service on Sunday morning, we had two services, so I did the service twice. And that in itself was peaceful meditation.

Now read this post again. I am kidding. I am kidding. I am kidding.