Yom Kippur, The Day of Atonement, 2012 - My prayer

Tomorrow night, Tuesday night, the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement begins. A day to make final reckoning with our behavior and our relationships with the people and the world around us. One last chance to forgive and ask forgiveness from those we have hurt and those who have hurt us. One last day of fasting, prayer and introspection before God enters his final judgment in our individual Book of Life.  With great humility, we appeal to God for another year. Another opportunity. Another chance.

You know, seems like all three major monotheistic religions have these important and central holidays and/or rituals that focus on coming clean with our behavior and asking for, giving and receiving forgiveness. Those holidays or rituals when we honestly examine our behavior. Check out the bad stuff. Acknowledge the good. Committing to ourselves and to our God to do more of the good stuff. The Jewish version started with Rosh Hashanah, our New Year,  followed by ten introspective days of awe and finally culminating with Tuesday night's Yom Kippur, our Day of Atonement. For Muslims, I believe many of the same themes are present in Ramadan and in the holiday at the end of the fasting month -Eid al fitr. And for Chrisitans, there's confession I guess.

As I think about it, these holidays and rituals must either be...