Everything is Holy Now

It’s not a cliché if you say it in perpetuity, with Peter Mayer

There is a song by Peter Mayer called Holy Now. It is played so often in Unitarian Universalist spaces, the sentiment so indicative of the faith journey of many UUs, that it has become a bit of a cliché. Just about every minister has a “Holy Now” sermon in their repertoire. I’m sure I’ve written a few, albeit by different names.

And there is good reason for the cliché. The song is special. If you scroll down to the end of this post you can listen to it. Most likely, after you hear it, you’ll want to hear it again. It’s a bit of an earworm.

For a long time, I heard the song as a testament. A spiritual awakening has occurred for the speaker. As a child he was taught a narrow view of faith: God’s blessing is only from a priest at church; true miracles only happen in the Bible; life on earth pales in comparison to God’s world in Heaven. As an adult the speaker has come to understand an expansive view of God. It is everywhere, in everything, at all times. He witnesses in awe to a world come alive with the Holy. Miracles are everywhere. Life is inherently blessed. He walks the earth in reverence.

As my Substack has developed over time, I’ve been thinking about this song. This “newsletter” has felt like a similar testament. My stories of heartache and madness, of the steadfastness of love and how it has saved me, of my spiritual life as both a recovering person with mental illness and an ordained religious leader—all of this is a testimony to my experience of the Holy In All Things.

This week, after months of mulling, I decided to change the name of this newsletter to reflect its evolution and what I feel is its ongoing testimony.

It takes some effort to change a Substack title. Domain names and rebranding and redesigning. I’ve had to write the phrase over and over again all week.

EVERYTHING is holy now.

Everything IS holy now.

Everything is HOLY now.

Everything is holy NOW.

It was the last one that stuck with me. Less like a testament and more like a demand. Or like a sign someone would hold up during the revolution. Holy NOW! It’s a basic human right! Or what the government might flash on the TV during the apocalypse, complete with background static. It’s meant to reassure you. It doesn’t work.

My experience is more in line with a sacred sort of insistence. Everything isn’t holy because everything is inherently holy. We can look around at the world and see, not everything is blessed with the beauty that Peter Mayer is describing in his song. In fact, there are some days I am in such despair over the state of things—myself, human behavior, the planet—I can’t see a single miracle anywhere.

But perhaps it is a practice the speaker describes in the song, to not just witness to the holy in all things but to actively look for it. To always be asking: Where is the holy here? And if I don’t see it, if I can’t find it, there is only one option. I have to try and bring it myself. I have to carry with me whatever Holy Grace with which I’ve been blessed and share it knowing that it exists in abundance and we will never run out. In places seemingly absent of anything holy, the only thing I can offer is my help, my witness, and my ongoing testimony to the sacredness of life itself.

So here in this space I am going to continue testifying to the Holy I see in all things, to the ways life calls us to bring the Holy, to all that is actually Holy NOW to which we can offer witness. Even as we continue our demands: MORE HOLY NOW.

It is my belief that our fervent call for the Holy is holy itself.

THANK YOU as I practice my fervent call. Thank you for joining me on this journey. As I continue to grow and develop this newsletter I will continue to add goodies (at an organic rate, as I am able). This week I am adding a podcast, where my paid subscribers can hear me read the post aloud. (Sometimes it’s nice just to hear someone read writing to us.)

Thank you to everyone who subscribes whether you are paid or not. I am deeply grateful for all the support and the likes and comments and sharing. I am learning to engage online and trying to reply to comments and emails. Thank you for our grace as I figure out this Substack thing.

May we all witness to the Holy this week, to the beauty of our earth and its sacredness and the miracle of life that surround us. And may we bring the Holy with our words and our hands and our feet to those places that might need it. Never forget that you are a blessing. You are a piece of the Holy which is in all things.

Amen, Ashé, and May it be so.