Harvard Divinity School

Seasons of Light is hosted by Harvard Divinity School's Office of Religious and Spiritual Life under the direction of Christopher Hossfeld, Director of Music and Ritual, and Kerry A. Maloney, Chaplain and Director of Religious and Spiritual Life.

The full video recording of Seasons of Light 2020 can be found on the HDS YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVuYb9d7tCc&t=587s

Transcript: Good evening and welcome to this year’s Seasons of Light celebration at Harvard Divinity School. My name is Kerry Maloney, and I am the Chaplain and Director of Religious and Spiritual Life here at HDS. Seasons of Light is our campus’ annual ritual to honor the unity of holy darkness and holy light in the world’s religious traditions that are represented on our campus.

While we usually enjoy the deep intimacy of one another’s presence for this event, jammed into our largest sacred space on campus to share music, prayers, chants, and texts, this year, of course, due to the pandemic, we are scattered across the United States and around the globe. Nevertheless, we believe the power of our spiritual traditions enables us to transcend time and space to be truly together for this holy occasion—in a year when our unity and interdependence may never have mattered more.

As we begin tonight, I invite you, if you haven’t yet had the chance to do so and if you are able, to dim the lights in the room from which you are joining us, perhaps lighting a candle or two to help you see. Also, please have near you if you can one unlit candle and the means by which to light it later in our ritual. Closed captioning is available throughout our gathering tonight. Please turn it on at the bottom of your screen if you would like to use it.

I’m joining you tonight from Eastern Massachusetts, not far from the Harvard campus, where we are on the homelands of the Mashpee Wampanoag, Aquinnah Wampanoag, Nipmuc, and Massachusett tribal nations. The Massachusetts Center for Native American Awareness believes that land acknowledgment is a “meaningful step toward honoring the truth, making the invisible visible, and correcting the American stories that erase indigenous people’s tribal history and culture. Land Acknowledgements demonstrate a commitment to counter the Doctrine of Discovery and to undo the ongoing legacy of settler colonialism.” We acknowledge the painful history of genocide, stolen land, and forced removal; and we honor and stand in solidarity with the diverse indigenous communities who continue to have a connection with this land.

Friends, we have gathered tonight in the midst of a harrowing year—political treachery and chaos, a long-overdue racial reckoning, a global pandemic that has stolen the lives of hundreds of thousands and shattered the security, hopes, and well-being of countless more. It is important that we are together tonight to pray and to meditate; to make beautiful music and to hear sacred texts; to rest in the deep, holy darkness; to kindle flames of hope and resistance; and to act together in solidarity with the marginalized. As we begin now, look around this digital room at your companions, your spiritual siblings far and near, and know you are not alone. Take a deep breath, and then another, and bless your capacity to breathe in a world where that ability cannot be taken for granted, not even one breath, especially by those who are black and brown. And center yourself in stillness for our brief time together. Let us feast on the darkness. Let us rejoice in the light.

“Light of a Clear Blue Morning” by Dolly Parton

Julia Reimann, MDiv II and Margaret Hamm, MDiv II, vocals; Carolyn Beard, MDiv II, vocals and bass; Mary Perez, MDiv II, guitar; Madeline Levy, MTS II, fiddle; and Kate Hoeting, MTS II, banjo

Seasons of Light is hosted by Harvard Divinity School's Office of Religious and Spiritual Life under the direction of Christopher Hossfeld, Director of Music and Ritual, and Kerry A. Maloney, Chaplain and Director of Religious and Spiritual Life.

The full video recording of Seasons of Light 2020 can be found on the HDS YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVuYb9d7tCc&t=587s

TRANSCRIPT:

It’s been a long dark night

And I’ve been a waitin’ for the morning

It’s been a long hard fight

But I can see a brand new day a dawning

And I've been looking for the sunshine

’Cause I ain’t seen it in so long

Everything’s gonna work out just fine

Everything’s gonna be all right

That's been all wrong

'Cause I can see the light of a clear blue morning

I can see the light of a brand new day

I can see the light of a clear blue morning

Everything's gonna be all right

It's gonna be okay

It's been a long long time

Since I've known the taste of freedom

And those clinging vines

That had me bound, well I don't need 'em

I've been like a captured eagle

You know an eagle's born to fly

And now that I have won my freedom

Like an eagle I'm eager for the sky

'Cause I can see the light of a clear blue morning

I can see the light of a brand new day

I can see the light of a clear blue morning

Everything's gonna be all right

It's gonna be okay

'Cause I can see the light of a clear blue morning

I can see the light of a brand new day

I can see the light of a clear blue morning

Everything's gonna be all right

It's gonna be okay

Everything's gonna be all right

It's gonna be okay

From Those Who are Unaffiliated | Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space by Carl Sagan

Read by Kate Hoeting, MTS II

Seasons of Light is hosted by Harvard Divinity School's Office of Religious and Spiritual Life under the direction of Christopher Hossfeld, Director of Music and Ritual, and Kerry A. Maloney, Chaplain and Director of Religious and Spiritual Life.

The full video recording of Seasons of Light 2020 can be found on the HDS YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVuYb9d7tCc&t=587s

TRANSCRIPT:

Hi everyone!

I’m going to be reading a passage

from Carl Sagan’s book Pale Blue Dot,

in which he is reflecting on the famous photo

which you can see here, titled Pale Blue Dot,

taken from the Voyager I spacecraft

on its way out of our solar system of Earth.

It’s a little self portrait,

and you can see in the middle-right,

sort of in that orange sunbeam,

is a tiny pixel which is Earth.

Look again at that dot.

That's here. That's home. That's us.

On it, everyone you love, everyone you know,

everyone you ever heard of,

every human being who ever was,

lived out their lives.

The aggregate of our joy and suffering,

thousands of… religions, ideologies,

and economic doctrines,

every hunter and forager,

every hero and coward,

every creator and destroyer of civilization,

every king and peasant,

every young couple in love,

every [parent], hopeful child,

inventor and explorer,

every teacher of morals,

every corrupt politician,

every "superstar," every "supreme leader,"

every saint and sinner

in the history of our species lived there—

on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

[…]

The Earth is the only world known so far

to harbor life.

There is nowhere else,

at least in the near future,

to which our species could migrate.

Visit, yes. Settle, not yet.

Like it or not, for the moment the Earth

is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling

and character-building experience.

There is perhaps no better demonstration

of the folly of human conceits

than this distant image of our tiny world.

To me, it underscores our responsibility

to deal more kindly with one another,

and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot,

the only home we've ever known.

— Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (New York: Random House, 1994), 8-9.

Benediction

Mark D. Jordan, Richard Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Divinity

Seasons of Light is hosted by Harvard Divinity School's Office of Religious and Spiritual Life under the direction of Christopher Hossfeld, Director of Music and Ritual, and Kerry A. Maloney, Chaplain and Director of Religious and Spiritual Life.

The full video recording of Seasons of Light 2020 can be found on the HDS YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVuYb9d7tCc&t=587s

TRANSCRIPT:

God of ten thousand names and none,

Author of words and songs and the silence from which they sound,

Companion in all the changes of light, kindling or quenching:

Tonight we need rest, healing, courage, clear-seeing, perhaps a little joy, hope—hope in abundance.

Help us to believe again in the good we gather to do—even when we cannot gather.

Show us how to keep pace with the mountains, which walk towards you no matter the winter.

Bless us in each other’s faces.

Bless us by living us.

Closing Muisc | “Grateful” by Hezekiah Walker

Performed by Aric Flemming, MDiv ’19

Seasons of Light is hosted by Harvard Divinity School's Office of Religious and Spiritual Life under the direction of Christopher Hossfeld, Director of Music and Ritual, and Kerry A. Maloney, Chaplain and Director of Religious and Spiritual Life.

The full video recording of Seasons of Light 2020 can be found on the HDS YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVuYb9d7tCc&t=587s

TRANSCRIPT:

I am

Grateful for the things

That you have done

Yes, I’m grateful for the victories we’ve won

I could go on and on and on

About your works

Because I’m grateful to praise you, Lord

And flowing from my heart

Are the issues of my heart

It’s gratefulness

Meditation | “Adoro te devote,” 13th-century Benedictine plainsong

Tianyi Yuan, MTS I, bamboo flute

Seasons of Light is hosted by Harvard Divinity School's Office of Religious and Spiritual Life under the direction of Christopher Hossfeld, Director of Music and Ritual, and Kerry A. Maloney, Chaplain and Director of Religious and Spiritual Life.

The full video recording of Seasons of Light 2020 can be found on the HDS YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVuYb9d7tCc&t=587s

From the Tradition of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints | Isaiah 60: 1-4; 18-20, The Holy Bible (King James Version)

Read by Joe Sorensen, MDiv III

Seasons of Light is hosted by Harvard Divinity School's Office of Religious and Spiritual Life under the direction of Christopher Hossfeld, Director of Music and Ritual, and Kerry A. Maloney, Chaplain and Director of Religious and Spiritual Life.

The full video recording of Seasons of Light 2020 can be found on the HDS YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVuYb9d7tCc&t=587s

TRANSCRIPT:

Arise, shine; for thy light is come,

and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.

For, behold,

the darkness shall cover the earth,

and gross darkness the people:

but the Lord shall arise upon thee,

and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

And the Gentiles shall come to thy light,

and kings to the brightness of thy rising.

Lift up thine eyes round about, and see:

all they gather themselves together,

they come to thee:

thy sons shall come from far,

and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side.

Violence shall no more be heard in thy land,

wasting nor destruction within thy borders;

but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation,

and thy gates Praise.

The sun shall be no more thy light by day;

neither for brightness shall the moon

give light unto thee:

but the Lord shall be unto thee

an everlasting light,

and thy God thy glory.

Thy sun shall no more go down;

neither shall thy moon withdraw itself:

for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light,

and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.

From the Unitarian Universalist Tradition | “Dark and Light,” by Jacqui James

Read by Alex Jensen, MDiv III

Seasons of Light is hosted by Harvard Divinity School's Office of Religious and Spiritual Life under the direction of Christopher Hossfeld, Director of Music and Ritual, and Kerry A. Maloney, Chaplain and Director of Religious and Spiritual Life.

The full video recording of Seasons of Light 2020 can be found on the HDS YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVuYb9d7tCc&t=587s

TRANSCRIPT:

Blackmail, blacklist, black mark.

Black Monday, black mood, black-hearted.

Black plague, black mass, black market.

Good guys wear white, bad guys wear black.

We fear black cats, and the Dark Continent.

But it’s okay to tell a white lie

lily-white hands are coveted,

it’s great to be pure as the driven snow.

Angels and brides wear white.

Devil’s food cake is chocolate;

angel’s food cake is white!

We shape language and we are shaped by it.

In our culture, white is esteemed.

It is heavenly, sun-like, clean, pure,

immaculate, innocent, and beautiful.

At the same time, black is evil,

wicked, gloomy, depressing, angry, sullen.

Ascribing negative and positive values

to black and white

enhances the institutionalization

of this culture’s racism.

Let us acknowledge

the negative connotations of whiteness.

White things can be soft, vulnerable,

pallid, and ashen.

Light can be blinding, bleaching, enervating.

Conversely, we must acknowledge

that darkness has a redemptive character,

that in darkness there is power and beauty.

The dark nurtured and protected us

before our birth.

Welcome darkness.

Don’t be afraid of it or deny it.

Darkness brings relief from the blinding sun,

from scorching heat, from exhausting labor.

Night signals permission to rest,

to be with our loved ones,

to conceive new life,

to search our hearts,

to remember our dreams.

The dark of winter is a time of hibernation.

Seeds grow in the dark, fertile earth.

The words black and dark

don’t need to be destroyed or ignored,

only balanced and reclaimed

in their wholeness.

The words white and light

don’t need to be destroyed or ignored,

only balanced and reclaimed

in their wholeness.

Imagine a world that had only light—or dark.

We need both.

Dark and light. Light and dark.

— from Been in the Storm So Long (2015) eds. Mark Morrison-Reed and Jacqui James.

https://www.uua.org/worship/words/meditation/dark-and-light

From the Christian Tradition | 2 Corinthians 4:6-18, The Bible (NRSV)

Read by Emmanuel Correa Vazquez, MDiv III

Seasons of Light is hosted by Harvard Divinity School's Office of Religious and Spiritual Life under the direction of Christopher Hossfeld, Director of Music and Ritual, and Kerry A. Maloney, Chaplain and Director of Religious and Spiritual Life.

The full video recording of Seasons of Light 2020 can be found on the HDS YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVuYb9d7tCc&t=587s

TRANSCRIPT:

For it is the God who said,

“Let light shine out of darkness,”

who has shone in our hearts to give

the light of the knowledge of the glory of God

in the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this treasure in clay jars,

so that it may be made clear

that this extraordinary power belongs to God

and does not come from us.

We are afflicted in every way,

but not crushed;

perplexed, but not driven to despair;

persecuted, but not forsaken;

struck down, but not destroyed;

always carrying in the body

the death of Jesus,

so that the life of Jesus

may also be made visible in our bodies.

For while we live,

we are always being given up to death

for Jesus' sake,

so that the life of Jesus

may be made visible in our mortal flesh.

So death is at work in us, but life in you.

But just as we have the same spirit of faith

that is in accordance with scripture—

“I believed, and so I spoke”—

we also believe, and so we speak,

because we know

that the one who raised the Lord Jesus

will raise us also with Jesus,

and will bring us with you into his presence.

Yes, everything is for your sake,

so that grace, as it extends

to more and more people,

may increase thanksgiving,

to the glory of God.

So we do not lose heart.

Even though our outer nature is wasting away,

our inner nature is being renewed day by day.

For this slight momentary affliction

is preparing us for an eternal weight

of glory beyond all measure,

because we look not at what can be seen

but at what cannot be seen;

for what can be seen is temporary,

but what cannot be seen is eternal.

From the Hindu Tradition

Read by Malini Srikrishna, MTS II

Seasons of Light is hosted by Harvard Divinity School's Office of Religious and Spiritual Life under the direction of Christopher Hossfeld, Director of Music and Ritual, and Kerry A. Maloney, Chaplain and Director of Religious and Spiritual Life.

The full video recording of Seasons of Light 2020 can be found on the HDS YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVuYb9d7tCc&t=587s

TRANSCRIPT:

The ancient Indian or Hindu traditions

are passed down

by grandmothers, grandfathers,

their stories and just the spirit

of our ancestors.

So here is a prayer

my grandmother taught me.

The human body is the temple of God.

To kindle the light of awareness within you

is to experience true light.

The sacred flame in your inner shrine

is constantly burning—embrace it!

The experience of unity

is what will enable you to find

the purpose of this body, of this temple.

Every season can be a season of light

when we recognize that the true light

is already always within us.

To harness it,

we must intentionally take the time

to reflect on the ways in which darkness

has shown up in our bodies and our lives.

Be it through hatred, separation,

ignorance or deception.

A central aspect of discovering our inner shrine

is recognizing the unity of all Life.

If one life form suffers,

you, me and all life forms

are suffering in the process.

To recognize that

is to truly recognize ourselves, our unity.

How we can manifest and really live this unity

is by setting a clear vision

for the way our lives will work

to transform malicious histories

into a future that reinforces truth.

So, for this Season of Light,

I invite you to discover the ways

in which your body has been

a carrier of histories of hatred and love

and envision the future and qualities

you want it to become a temple for.

Let us be brave

and let our fire burn all that is dark

so we pave the way for an unimaginable

and unifying light force.

One that burns away hatred

and is eternal in its capacity to love.