Mark's Blog

Fight or flight is a physiological response that occurs when we find ourelves in acute stress.  The reaction is triggered by the release of hormones that prepare the body to physically take on a threat or to run away.  Most of us know the fight or flight impulse,...

I am so grateful for the Thanksgiving holiday.  It provides a much-needed break in the relentless pace of the calendar.  Thanksgiving gives us a chance to rest and recollect.   It encourages gathering – loved ones, yes, but also to gather together moments and memories...

I received early admission into the cultural elite when I was accepted by early decision at Amherst College in November, 1968.  I had a slim awareness that I came from a community and family of some privilege, as did a majority of my Amherst classmates; but I was...

Hope is a gift.  A precious gift that was planted in each and every one of us when we were born into the world as imago Dei.  We bear God’s image, and that image features essential ingredients of the divine:   hope, love, along with the capacity for kindness and...

Like many, I am flooded with feelings of disappointment, confusion and helplessness in the wake of Donald Trump’s election.  I accept his election, but I am having a hard time accepting this swirl of sadness, and the fact that America is different than I thought it...

It was the 10th anniversary of 9/11.  I went to Penn Station in Newark early in the morning, located just a few blocks from the office where I served as bishop.  I carried a sign,  “Blessings Offered on the Anniversary of 9/11”.  I stood next to a wall in the...

"Mine is bigger than yours" is both a verbal statement and a visible sign of male virility.  The boasting begins in junior high school when locker rooms become salons for trash talk about size — of one’s ego, performance, or body.  For some, boys only enclaves were...

For three years in high school I sang with “Up with People”.  We performed in front of large and enthusiastic audiences all across the New York metropolitan area.  'Sing Out Stamford' (Connecticut) was a local cast; there were three national traveling casts that...

“We will disappoint you” was the promise made in a sermon during the life-profession ceremony of a friend of mine.  He was about to commit himself to the rhythms of life in a monastery, and dedicate his life to prayer.  The preacher, who was the senior monk and widely...