I would imagine at the Last Supper, it was more like a teddy bear.

Here, take this comfort item. There’s a scary scene coming up in the movie.

But I wasn’t at the Last Supper or the crucifixion, so the Eucharist is more like Maglalatik for me. For those who’ve never seen the Filipino coconut dance, it’s a fun one. Dancers strap coconut shells to their bodies and hold more coconut shells in their hands. They tap them together, click, click. They tap their own bodies, each other’s bodies. They bounce in different group formations and leap frog over each other. The music is light. Maglalatik is performed at big group gatherings, so picture yourself watching it while surrounded by your extended family and community.

One of the truest things I have come to know through my craft is that we parents, in the most mundane things, in the way we dress our children, and the way we make them food full of nutrition (or not, as is the case sometimes in our home), we are putting our love for our loved ones into tangible, physical objects.

I am planting a thousand seeds in my garden/Rows and rows of plants incubating and burrowing their roots deep intoBrooklyn soil as the winter chill wanes into an April spring

These are the opening words to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a popular Chinese novel dating to the 14th century and was attributed to the playwright Luo Guangzhong. Indeed, these words prove to be a prophetic summary to the history of China, a history oscillating between deep divisions that enabled corruption to fester in society, and oppressive unities that purchased oneness at the price of warfare and policing.

My old religion professor taught me that sacred spaces are, at their most basic, defined by barriers and taboo. The ordinary things of the world cannot enter them. We speak of them rarely and reverently. Access is limited.

Although my sacred is marked profane, let my profanity be considered holy.Would the curse words of my mouth and the rage-filled meditations of my heartSome way, somehow, be pleasing to You.

I grew up hearing many sermons about siblinghood in the Church. Although I participated in youth ministries, young adult ministries, and women’s bible study groups throughout my life, I never felt like I had experienced sisterhood until I joined an Asian-interest sorority.

Indigo clouds partedThe scarlet moonHad cavernsAnd soonIts bloody seasWould flood BabylonNo one could seeThe gaze of God