Posts by Ralph Patrick
Christmas Isolation or Who-bilation
“And God said, ‘It is not good for man to be alone . . .” Christmas is SUCH a glorious time! I LOVE it! The darkness and lights, the snow and the cold; the festivities and food; the family and friends; the music and movies. Yes, maybe especially the movies. Chevy Chase in “Christmas Vacation”;…
Read MoreThanksgiving Theotokos
During my pastor years I dreaded Thanksgiving. It was SO OBVIOUSLY an American observation unique to this country which had no significance for other cultures, no historical significance in the Christian Church, and no Scriptural mandate. It really didn’t even begin with the Pilgrims! President Lincoln declared it a holiday in 1863 during the Civil…
Read MoreRejected Roses
Most of my days begin with an early morning walk. It gives me an opportunity to contemplate my morning meditation and appreciate the dawning of a new day. And also to occasionally find something that has been lost or thrown away. Some of the objects are pure trash, but others are treasures. I’ve found money,…
Read MoreFather Stephen
“Love the Lord your God and Love your Neighbor as your Self” I’ve heard that passage preached a plethora of times. But never with the power that I heard it proclaimed last Sunday. My sister Sue was visiting me from Wisconsin. She loves the southern part of Colorado, and so we took a little weekend…
Read MoreMessy Love
“This is Love . . . “ God’s love is messy. Messy love for messy lives. But that’s not what we want. We want the “Happily Ever After” fairy tale love. We want the kind of love we see in the movies or read in romance novels (no, I don’t actually read them!). That’s the…
Read MoreSacrifices…of joy!
“Sacrifices . . . of JOY” Psalm 27:6 Religions are all about sacrifice. The pagan ones were—whether those offered by the ancient Norseman to Oden or the tribal ones that still sometimes take place in the modern world—witness the recent killing of women in Papua New Guinea. The three “great” religions, Judaism, Islam and Christianity…
Read MoreUn-Expressions of God’s Love
I realized this week as I reviewed some of my previous blogs that I hadn’t written much, if anything, on the main topic: God’s Love. I’ve focused quite a bit on “messy lives”, usually in reference to my own. I hope that doing so has made you think about, and maybe even feel better about…
Read MoreLiterally
“Literally”. I know someone who uses that word. Constantly. It seems that almost every sentence is interspersed with the word. Literally! It’s as if she thinks that the person listening didn’t believe what she’s saying. For example, she might be telling about going on a walk and say “I saw the most beautiful rose bush…
Read MoreEveryday Heroes
Alex Sullivan, whom I wrote about last week, was hailed as a hero. Along with a number of others who gave their lives up by stopping bullets with their bodies. Ironically they were there to watch a movie about a fictional hero, Batman. Where was the real-life version when they needed him? No one intervened…
Read MoreCar Shopping…And Suffering
Saturday morning I went car shopping with my daughter Meghan in Aurora. I don’t know that much about cars, but this is something dad’s do. We pretend to possess some level of expertise, while what we’re actually doing is simply providing some support and reassurance. We looked at a number of vehicles and test drove…
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