reconciliation

March 12, 2023

The spring of life

I was mulling over what I would say to you today when I met Steven Spielberg for lunch and we started talking about his latest movie, The Fablemans. The film unlocks the meaning of most of Spielberg’s earlier movies – E.T. and Close Encounters, Jaws and Jurassic Park, the Indiana Jones films, Schindler’s List, Saving Continue reading

Ruminations

disenfranchise, East Side, Elijah, eternal life, Florida, fully alive, fully awake, fully human, going through Samaria, Governor DeSantis, Jacob's well, Joseph Campbell, meaning for life, racism, rapture of being alive, reconciliation, Samaria, Samaritan woman, segregation, spring of water, St. Irenaeus, Steven Spielberg, The Fablemans, the glory of God, The Power of Myth, Tops Market killings, transforming love, West Side, woman at the well
February 12, 2023

The choice

It has been called “the most misread poem in America” (David Orr, The Atlantic, 19 May 2018). The poem is Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” and Frost seems to have shared that opinion. He warned his readers, “You have to be careful of that one; it’s a tricky poem – very tricky.” The way Continue reading

Ruminations

a living hell, blessings, choose life, eternal life, eternity, grace, gratitude, heaven, obedience, reconciliation, relationship with God, Robert Frost, the gift of life, the Great Banquet, the present moment, The Road Not Taken, Thomas Merton
October 15, 2022

Praying with bloody knuckles

If you feel tired and worn out, discouraged, and disengaged from what’s going on around you, if your energy and your hope for the future are fading and your insecurity is rising, you may take comfort in knowing you’re not alone. Judy Levitz, founding director of the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center in New York City, Continue reading

Ruminations

faith, faithfulness, living in the meantime, Love Dogs, pray always, prayer, praying, realm of God, reconciliation, reign of God, Rule of Benedict, Rumi, seeking God, short prayer, St. Benedict, steadfast love
October 9, 2022

The key to abundant life

“Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice” (Luke 17:15). If you’re confused by the gospel of Jesus, you might have good reason to be. Jesus said he came that we might have more and better life than we ever dreamed of having (John Continue reading

Ruminations

abundant life, awake, breaking rules, come alive, dreams fulfilled, grateful living, healing, kingdom of God, making a difference, Meister Eckhart, prayer, reconciliation, seeing, surprise, thank you, the narrow gate
September 11, 2022

Finding the missing piece

There used to be a feature in the Sunday Buffalo News called The Magic Eye. At first glance, it appeared to be the kind of image you’d see on your computer screen when the mother board was failing, a mass of colorful, squiggly, incoherent lines. But if you changed your perspective and focused your eyes Continue reading

Ruminations

abundand life, authentic Christianity, community, division, dualism, God's perspective, inclusiveness, kingdom of God, parable of the lost sheep, parables, reconciliation, reign of God, the aim of ministry, the gospel, the hundred sheep
June 12, 2022

Listening to the Spirit

The best place to start if you’re serious about living a Christian life is in a relationship with a spiritual guide or companion, someone who can listen deeply to you and help you explore your relationship with God. And the first and best spiritual guide we have is the Holy Spirit. Briefly, there are two Continue reading

Ruminations

action as spiritual practice, Christian life, discipleship, divisions, drawing water, Holy Spirit, hostility, Listening, living the gospel, reconciliation, Retreat, scripture, silence, spiritual companion, spiritual guide
February 18, 2022

A gospel of cooked turnip greens

Among all the favorite foods my mother served up when I was a child, there were some that made me gag: liver and onions, for example, or cooked turnip greens. When Mother served something I thought for sure was going to poison me, there was one simple and firm rule. I didn’t have to eat Continue reading

Ruminations

Assyrian Empire, bullies, David and Goliath, Elijah, forgiveness, healing, Jezebel, Joseph and his brothers, love your enemy, loving enemies, Naaman, praying for my enemy, reconciliation, Sermon on the Mount, Sermon on the Plain, St. Paul, Syria
February 12, 2022

The gospel on a level place

A long time ago I learned you don’t mess around with someone’s favorite passages of scripture. The connection people feel with their favorite passages is deep, even holy. There’s a reason, sometimes many reasons, why those passages are dearly held. Upsetting those connections can be more than disturbing: it can be deeply harmful, so proceed Continue reading

Ruminations

AIDS, Beatitudes, Christ at Heart's Door, gospel, healing, Jesus on a level place, Jesus on a mountain, meeting people where they are, Quality of Life Retreat, rebuilding the church, reconciliation, Warner Sallman
January 22, 2022

Our work of reconciliation

Most of the parents of children in our Child Care Center are tired of the restrictions and quarantines of the pandemic, some of them desperately so. Most of us are, too. We grieve what we’ve lost and yearn just as desperately for a return to normal. We want to gather for worship the way we Continue reading

Ruminations

body of Christ, Dorothy Day, Ezra, finding faith, God's word, human relationships, laying a foundation, loving God, loving our neighbors, ministers of reconciliation, Nehemiah, pandemic, political divisions, quarantine, racial divisions, rebuilding, reconciliation, relationships, reshaping faith, return to normal, seeds of grace, social divisions, St. Augustine, tolerance, understanding, unity

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.