Love

I loved her so dearly; I'm still realizing just how much.  Every time I walk now, I remember our walks.  Every time I hear a dog bark, I remember how I am no longer afraid.  I think of how she loved.  She didn't hold it against me when she had to go to a shelter because we had no home. She would only wag her tail and jump up and down whenever we took her out.  And when we finally had a home for her, here in Port Jervis, she took a victory lap around the house, around the garden, and voila!  She was home.
Belle loved everyone.
What a model for Christian love!  To love dearly, and deeply, without reservation, the way we are loved by Christ.
It is what we focus on during this season of Lent; how we take the radical love Christ has for us, into our lives, and our world.
Thank you, Belle.

Fasting for Lent

Is not this the fast that I choose:  to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break eery yoke?  Is it not to share your bread with the hunry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?  Isaiah 58:  6,7

This is what God requires - that we treat each human being and all creation with the dignity given them by God; that we do not judge and point fingers, and deem some worthy and others not, that we understand that we are all one family, and all of us are loved by God.

When we keep God's fast, we will have truly turned our hearts and minds to what is important - love of God and love of neighbor.

May our Lenten fast be a hunger for justice, a work towards alleviating prejudice and discrimination, and a humble walk knowing that God loved us so much that God was willing to die for us.

Welcome!

Memento mori - Latin for remember your mortality.  Remember you are human.  It is a humbling thought, and one that will guide this post.  Remember, Patt, that you are human.  And to those who will read this blog, it is my plea to you also - remember that you are human, caught up in this marvelous world that God has intersected in Jesus Christ.  In our humanity, we will make mistakes.  In our humanity, we will be cruel and unloving.  However, on this blog, you must be kind.  You must be loving or you will be blocked.
Here, you are welcome to ask questions and work out the understanding of what it means to be human and in Christ.  We will walk together.  Memento mori.