Dare to Bless the Love is more than a name, it is an invitation to a way of being, and it is a gift from an important teacher in my life, Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Baba Farajajé (may his secret be sanctified, may we know his continued presence with us from the realm of the ancestors and through the teachings of his teachers, students, and family).  We use this name gratefully and with the families’ blessing.  For me, I interpret this offering from Baba to mean that it is available to us to be guided by the presence of Love. 

Love is alive with us. We must look for Love everywhere, becoming increasingly aware of the abundance of Love in the world, manifesting in infinite forms.  When we notice it, when we feel it, when that awareness arrives in our independent and collective beings – that is the moment for courage, for bravery.  When you are made aware of love: acknowledge it, honor it, bow to it.  If we are willing, we can offer ourselves even, in service to the Love we perceive.  We can grow love in this way; we can become love more.  This possibility gives me hope. 

Practice with us: when your heart is breaking and when it overflows, when you are resisting and when you surrender, when you are exhausted and when you are overjoyed, when you are afraid and when you are fearless, when you feel like no one has your back and when you know you belong, when it feels impossible and when you feel the arrival of infinite possibility – Dare to Bless the Love. 

Interpreting, remembering, living into a way of being – these are helped along by our sharing deeply of the unique understandings we each carry with us.  Our Wholeness is revealed when we invite our infinite interpretations and rememberings to rub all up on one another, to shape-shift - to shine! If you have been practicing ‘daring to bless the love in the midst of it all,’ we hope you’ll offer your wisdom, experiences, and revelations with us here, in worship and in community, that this living definition may continue to grow and to thrive as we participate with it and with one another.

Thank you for being here, thank you for being brave and willing, and thank you, Baba, for this gift among so many.

Together we celebrate 6 years of offering online, inter-spiritual, multi-religious worship. Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Baba remains an inspiration in this community because the teachings he gave still influence and inform our lives of practice. If you seek to keep the memory of Baba alive with you or even to meet this scholartivist for the first time, the Makam Shekhina community also offers many ways to participate with his teachings and to do active remembering. Please visit them online to learn more, www.makamshekhina.com

We stay grateful to be remembering this teacher together; he is one of many beloved giants on whose shoulders we place our feet as we move forward with the great, ongoing multi-religious experiment.