Dear Folks -

Last year I was stunned by the establishment of an endowment in my name. I can't think of a greater honor or way to be acknowledged and appreciated. One of the leaders behind the establishment of this endowment has asked that I included information about the endowment in the summaries and previews that go out to the Ordinary Life list-serve. This, he said, would be information for "distant learners. I'm including the words he suggested here. In future summaries and previews they will be at the end of the e-mail:

The Ordinary Life Class established the Kerley Endowment in appreciation of the lessons of their teacher, Dr. Bill Kerley.  For information on how you can support that endowment, visit the Ordinary Life web site at

http://www.ordinarylife.org/ol_weblog/money-matters.html.

The essence of the morality teaching I talked about this week is that we are to be very careful of the words we use and take in and that we make sure we not involve ourselves in deceptive speech or falsehoods. Of course, such misuse of language abounds in our culture. Our loyalty is not to be to the values set by our culture but to justice, compassion and love. The full text I used from which to speak follows. As usual you can find an audio version (though the audio version will not be posted for a couple of weeks).

I will remind you now and again in a preview later in the week that this coming Sunday, Ordinary Life will not meet. Easter services will be held at St. Paul's at 8, 9:30 and 11.

Much love,

Bill Kerley

Click here to Download text 20090405.pdf

Click here to Download audio 20090405.mp3

Dear Folks -

For those of you who have inquired, the audio of the March 8th Ordinary Life talk has now been located and is up on the website.

The title of this Ordinary Life Talk is "Masking Moral Failure." Whenever we are involved in practicing a lack of equality among all people, we have failed morally. To fail is one thing. To cover it up, deny it, lie about it, distort it or to do any of the other things the human community can do to avoid taking personality responsibility for the consequences of our behavior is something else. When we do fail morally the spiritual work to be done is to get up and start over again and to seek forgiveness.

Much love,

Bill Kerley

Click here to Download 20090329.pdf (text)

Click here to Download 20090329.mp3 (audio)

Dear Folks -

Every person on this planet is an expression of the Sacred. If we lived with this awareness so many of the conflicts that wreck relationships and cause wars would evaporate. Also, if people would not divorce spirituality from religion many of the problems a gone-wrong religion cause would also go away. This life talk focuses on these matters. Included for fun is George Carlin's take on the Ten Commandments and a story from the Hindu tradition that shows how the divine essence pervades all that is and all who are.

The full text I used from which to speak is below. As usual, the written word varies from what was said so if you want to hear the audible version, go to the links below.

Because of logistical difficulties the audio version will not be posted until some time next week.

Much love,

Bill Kerley

Cick here to Download 20090315.pdf

Click here to Download 20090315.mp3

Dear Folks -

I have given myself the task of talking about the morality teaching of Jesus as found in the Sermon on the Mount. This week I conclude talking about the first of these teachings about "not killing." Spiritual teachings, I contend, are difficult for us to hear because they make us "uncomfortable." We are to do the spiritual work required so that we become conduits of the Sacred. That's the talk in a nutshell. The full text I used from which to speak is below. As usual, the written word varies from what was said so if you want to hear the audible version, go to the links below.

Much love,

Bill Kerley

Click here to Download text 20090308.pdf

Click here to Download audio 20090308.mp3