Jessica Gazzola

I occasionally stand at an Altar to call a community to gather.  There we are invited to lay down our gifts, our stories, our lives.  We consecrate bread and wine, asking Spirit to transform what seems dead into something living and new.  When I stand at the Altar, life is held suspended in mid-air and we are changed. 

But these moments at the Altar are fewer.  Today, my sacred moments are less demarcated and exist more in the cracks of life; between diaper changes, scraped knees, and sibling squabbles.  I preside over snack time, congregations of bug worlds, and, most importantly, my own experiences of the joys and trials of life. 

So I start this writing practice.   It is my way of carving time out of my busy life with kids to offer my gifts, my stories, my life… not to change it, but to allow it to change me.  I am a priest at the altar of my own life and I invite my fellow priests of all religions or no religion to join me.