An Altar and Sutra Service:
Gratitude for Ancestors
Tomorrow evening, Monday, November 2, we’ll pause in this season of harvest and remembrance, to call the names of loved ones who are gone.
Our altar will be open for decoration by you. You might bring flowers, or foods, or photos or other mementos of someone who has passed away either recently or in the farther past. This doesn’t have to be a family member, or even someone you know. Just someone who has touched you in some way.
And during the dedication of our sutra service, there will be a time for you, if you like, individually to call out the name of someone, with the whole group responding “Presente.”
On this evening we let our altar carry both the light and the dark of this time; our gratitude and our sorrow, our laughter and our tears.
When we do this together, we remember that our stories are individual; but when we share them, their beauty grows, and we see that the wisdom that comes down to us from our ancestors benefits us all, together.