" 'Reverence the highest, have patience with the lowest. Let this day's performance of the meanest duty be thy religion. Are the stars too distant, pick up the pebble that lies at thy feet, and from it learn the all.'
— Margaret Fuller
"I have heard it said that reverence is disappearing from our culture largely because so many institutions, traditions, practices, and even beliefs themselves have been proven unworthy. But reverence is perhaps not unlike beauty, cultivated as much, or more, within the beholder as in what we behold. [Paul] Woodruff claims the seeds of reverence exist in every one of us, but they may need to be cultivated in our irreverent age. You learn reverence, he says, "by finding the virtuous things you do and doing more of them, so that they become a habit.'
"What is it you do that inspires or teaches reverence? Are there ways in which rituals — of your own making or learned from tradition or from others — might help make reverence a daily habit?
"Woodruff takes us to ancient China to explore the use of rituals in fostering reverence. Acknowledging the hollow ring to many rituals that have been handed down over time, he says it's not the ritual itself but the attitude we bring to a ritual that coaxes our reticent reverence to the surface. The Analects of Confucius describe the concept of Li, which Woodruff tells us has often been translated as ritual but is more accurately understood as the attitude of reverence we bring to our rituals. '[W]ithout Li,' the Analects say, 'courtesy is tiresome; without Li, prudence is timid; without Li, bravery is quarrelsome; without Li, frankness is hurtful.'
"What regular habits do you have that beckon an attitude of reverence? Maybe it's your morning cup of coffee or tea, the way you make it as well as the way you drink it. Perhaps it's a prayer or meditation you use at the end of each day, or the way you greet the dawn. It might be the way you tuck your child into bed at night or sign off in a phone call with a loved one. Or it could be a matter of simple manners, how you shake someone's hand, when you look them in the eye and when you don't, when you stand to meet them or remove your hat or your shoes.
"If we take a moment to study our own manners, we might identify a host of things we do, small practices and habits, of times, places, and experiences in which we feel or foster an attitude of reverence. In what common rituals and ceremonies — formal or informal, civic or religious, personal or collective — do you participate with a feeling of reverence, awe, or respect? Is it Election Day, standing in line until the person at the table finds your name on the page in her book? Is it practicing a musical instrument or another art form? Or maybe it's taking a daily walk or run, doing yoga or Tai Chi, or any number of religious rituals, such as lighting a candle, saying a prayer, repeating a mantra. What are your habits of reverence?"
