greatest commandment

May 11, 2025

For the gospel to be heard

The church and its message exist today in a world flooded with noise and distractions that vie for attention. The world is inundated with competing and contradictory solutions to the problems we face. In the words of poet William Alexander Percy, “Too much is said too loudly; I am dazed. / The silken sound of Continue reading

Ruminations

calling, Christian, church’s credibiity, eternity, future of the church, God’s guidance, gospel, grace, greatest commandment, judgment, living sacrifice, love, love of God, love of neighbor, message of life, reconciliation, voices shouting, way of life, wholeness, William Alexander Percy, wisdom
September 10, 2023

Lookin’ for love

It’s a mystery to me how the thing we want most in life, the very essence of life itself – the treasure greater than all treasures, the pearl of great value (Matt. 13:44-46) – should be the most elusive. It seems at times as if our creator made us with an insatiable desire for that Continue reading

Ruminations

Andrew Weil, authentic relationship, Christian love, craving, desire for God, forgiveness, god-shaped hole, God-shaped vacuum, greatest commandment, growth in faith, hunger for God, Johnny Lee, love, love your neighbor, our hearts are restless, Pascal, pearl of great value, reconciliation, restlessness, spiritual growth, St. Augustine, what I want most
May 21, 2023

When the day begins

Last Sunday, on the anniversary of the Tops Market killings, Pastor Kwame Pitts, of Community of Good Neighbors Buffalo, spoke of the need to live out our faith through action, and she challenged us to consider our collective purpose as church, what our role is in all that led up to and now follows the Continue reading

Ruminations

African descent, Christian love, eternal life, greatest commandment, how to eat an elephant, Jeremiah, knowledge of God, love of God, love of neighbor, Mark Twain, ministry of reconciliation, namaste, peace, people of color, racism, reconciliation, salaam, shalom, to know God, Tops Market killings, white privilege
June 16, 2021

God’s dark side, and mine

I take it to be a sign of growth into wholeness, and not of laziness, self-absorption, or degeneration, that I’m more accepting of the less desirable aspects of my nature. “I must have a dark side also,” Jung believed, “if I am to be whole.” The dark aspects of my nature – parts I don’t Continue reading

Ruminations

Carl Jung, daemons, dark side, divine mystery, dragons, God is light, greatest commandment, H. Richard Niebuhr, ineffable, integrity, light and dark, maturing in faith, maturing in life, perfection, projection, Rilke, shadow, Shema, transformation, true self, wholeness, yin and yang

About Me

Rich Neal is, in no particular order, a wordsmith and graphic designer; lover of typography, books, and publishing; photographer; contemplative; saunterer; and a retired and still-active pastor. He claims neither special wisdom nor particularly deep insight into life, only occasional glimpses of what lies behind the veil along the way. He shares them here in the hope of connecting the pieces of life’s puzzle that come to him in the journey and would consider it a gift if sharing them also connected him with others who travel an unmarked path toward the same unknown end.

greatest commandment

For the gospel to be heard

Lookin’ for love

When the day begins

God’s dark side, and mine