Our first Living Text question asked congregants to describe what sacred means to them and what, if anything, they hold personally sacred. The following are some of the beautiful and thoughtful answers we received. Sacred is that which we revere and hold dear.  It fills our life with wonder and mystery.  We have the chance to discover ourselves more deeply with attention to what we hold sacred. 
The Universe, the Earth, my family, our church, truth, wonder, music, language, ideas, action.
 - Victor Koosh Life is sacred to me. Every single day I am alive to enjoy nature, family, friends and community.
 - Anonymous Emersonian A place, event or time in which I and the universe are merged.

A place that draws  for inexplicable reasons.  A temple; whether stacked stones or cathedral, a glade or vale, mesa or mountain.  A moment, like the ocean at sunrise; a fall sunset.  
 - Anonymous Emersonian The sacred, to me, is the creation we have been given and of which we are a part. I revere the molecule and the mountains. Because it is sacred I don’t take it for granted and I do feel obligated to care for it.
 - Barbara Crotty

Sacred is a kind of atmosphere that commands respect without asking, and emanates safety and calm that can never be taken away. When you are in a sacred place, you are able to forget your troubles and feel content, even if only temporarily.
There are few places or things that I hold sacred, but among them is the Congregation Hall at Emerson for such a cavernous and beautiful hall to be housed in such a seemingly small building is magical in and of itself.
 - Anonymous Emersonian Sacred is something outside of me but tied tightly to my heart, my soul, my identity.  Just the thought of severing one of those ties seems painful and a little bit impossible.
 -Anonymous Emersonian I think sacred for me describes that which encourages and enhances life—at least that’s a start toward a definition.  One large aspect of what I hold sacred is our interconnectedness and in particular connections between people, not only families and friends but our recognition of ourselves in one and other. 
From literature, I think of Melville’s Monkey Rope Chaplin in his gorgeous “Moby Dick.” And the novel by Robert Penn Warren, “All the King’s Men.”  From another source, I think of Martin Buber’s “I and Thou.”–Nancy Lane Fleming