The road to the sacred leads through the secular.

The library remains a sacred place for secular folk ["What Libraries Can (Still) Do," The New York Review Daily, October 26, 2015].

The line between sacred and secular is man-made.

Racism is man's gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason.

People of our time are losing the power of celebration. Instead of celebrating we seek to be amused or entertained. Celebration is an active state, an act of expressing reverence or appreciation. To be entertained is a passive state--it is to receive pleasure afforded by an amusing act or a spectacle.... Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one's actions.
Source: The Wisdom of Heschel

Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows
with the ability to say no to oneself.