Welcome to my website! I am grateful for the opportunity to connect with you and reflect on those things that glorify our Creator and make all of us more fully alive. In my blog I’ll be sharing insights on spirituality, creativity, human potential, faith communities, animals, music and much more. I hope you’ll find something helpful in my books, blog or lectures. On the calendar page you’ll find my speaking schedule. I would love to meet you in person, especially if you are visiting New Orleans. Meanwhile, as we say in my former home of Hawaii:
Keep surfing. Keep learning. Keep loving.
Much aloha,
Father Bill[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
Check out this wonderful review of the new book: The Last Howlelujah: Tails from the Trail!
http://www.saintjulianpress.com/howlelujah.html?fbclid=IwAR3kw6AQ3SMEFzNc73bsd-d7YASzOYaYvPIDRXF1nxHqppU34pvjMIZ0NaQ
Join us for the new book release on November 10th at 7:00 pm CST on my Williammillerauthor page on Facebook. The Last Howlelujah: Tails from the Trail is available NOW from any local on online bookseller. ENJOY!
JOIN US FOR VIRTUAL SERVICES AND PROGRAMMING ON THE CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, COVINGTON, FACEBOOK PAGE: @christ.episcopal.church.covington.la Livestream worship every Sunday at 8:25 and 11:25 a.m. but view at any time! I’ll be preaching November 15!
OUR ENEWS IS UP AND RUNNING. WE HAVE OVER 3,200 SUBSCRIBERS! You can subscribe here: http://bit.ly/JoinFatherBill
CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE CHANNEL – CLICK THE LINK ON THE TOP RIGHT OF THE HOME PAGE.
MOLOKAI PILGRIMAGE HAS BEEN POSTPONED TO APRIL 13-20, 2021. THERE MAY BE 2-3 SPOTS LEFT SO CONTACT ME FOR MORE INFORMATION!
THE SOUL OF AMERICA: A MUSIC PILGRIMAGE FROM MEMPHIS TO NEW ORLEANS. COMING FALL, 2021! JOIN ME!
THE HOLY LAND: March 17, 2022! THIS PILGRIMAGE IS POSTPONED UNTIL 2022! More info soon.
JOIN US FOR OUR VIRTUAL RELEASE OF THE NEW BOOK ON NOVEMBER 10TH! STAY TUNED TO HEAR MORE ABOUT WAYS YOU CAN SUPPORT THE HOWLELUJAH FOUNDATION AND THE RELEASE OF “THE LAST HOWLELUJAH: TAILS FROM THE TRAIL!”
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Candle Lighting and Other Acts of Faith: A Reflection on Christmas I Will Light Candles
This Christmas Candles of joy,
despite all sadness, Candles of hope
where despair keeps watch. Candles of courage
for fears ever present, Candles of peace
for tempest-tossed days, Candles of grace to
ease heavy burdens, Candles of love to
inspire all my living, Candles that will
burn all the year long. –Howard Thurman, The
Mood of Christmas Recently I received a wonderful and kind note in the mail
from a member of our church. The card featured a dachshund wearing a bow tie
and top hat, with a caption that read, “Thank You Kindly.” The handwritten
message thanked me for “standing up for what is right, and true, and good.” The
giver acknowledged that recent months have been difficult for all of us, but
that “with all the darkness in the world right now,” God must be doing
something BIG, and that light must be just about to break through. I remembered
the old saying that “in the darkest night, the stars shine their brightest.” Then
I thought about Christmas, and the light of Christ. I recalled with reverence
the beautiful (and reassuring) passage from the Gospel of John: “The light
shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Indeed, the darkness will never overcome. Every year, as I approach the Christmas season, I return
to a favorite spiritual writer, Howard Thurman. There is something about the
season that seems to call for candles to illuminate one’s house (and one’s
church). Thurman is a master at taking simple seasonal moments and, from them,
creating sacred acts; deeply connected to our faith and the salvation of the
world. He elaborates on the lighting of Christmas candles, vowing to light the
candle of fellowship, even when so
many feel disconnected and cut-off from one another. He is certain that “the experiences
of unity in human relations are more compelling than the concepts, fears and prejudices
that divide.” He prays as he lights a Christmas candle, that even in his own
heart, he will “beat down the boundaries of my exclusiveness until my sense of
separateness is completely enveloped in a sense of fellowship.” The light of
Christ enables us to see past ourselves—to see our neighbor more clearly, and
to connect despite any differences. Thurman, too, is determined to light the candle of hope this Christmas. He reminds us that
even in moments of despair and depression, when all seems lost and we are set
adrift in a sea of uncertainty, hope is the ever-present mood of Christmas. Within
the simple elements of the sacred story, the basic circumstances of familial
love, with only the raw materials of a newborn babe, family, and work, we hold
on to our faith. For “life keeps coming on, keeps seeking to fulfill itself,
keeps affirming the possibility of hope.” When we light a candle, we defiantly
pronounce that the darkness will not define us, or have the final word on our
lives and in our world. At its core, the Christmas story is not just a sentimental
escape—it is a fully-charged challenge to the status quo; a newborn king who
threatens those who pursue a worldly rule that is not of God or God’s values. When
we light our Christmas candles this year, remember that we engage in acts far
more powerful than a comforting devotional moment. We are empowered with the
courage of Christ: to shed light on a world of wrongs, to illuminate those
injustices that some desire to remain hidden. Candle-lighting becomes an act of
trust in God alone, thereby defying all other distractions of our time that
compete for our attention and allegiances. Whatever the context or circumstance
in which we find ourselves this Christmas, regardless of the tenor of the
emotional climate that pervades or buttresses us, the light still shines. The
candles of Christmas, in the hands of the faithful, become luminous torches
that shine with the fire of a thousand suns; an illuminated path that blesses
and makes sacred everything that it touches, including the darkness that
contains it. I will light candles this Christmas. In doing so, may I
bring light to the entire world.Candle Lighting and Other Actos of Faith: A Reflection on Christmas
