The First Presbyterian Church

Durango, CO 81301

27 June 2009

Dear Saints:

I wrote last week of God entering “back into himself” prior to breathing us – each and all of us – to life. It is a beautiful way of speaking of our own coming-to-life. There was a pause – a deep and soul searching moment without measure when God studied again his own mind, thinking deeply, deliberating long and hard before setting forth on an enormous work of eternal significance. Then, us: male and female – in God’s own likeness.

I believe God birthed this subtle and beautiful work – humanity – with joy. His was a great joy – an eternal joy born of the deep love shared within the Triune God and the burning desire therein to share their love, to spill it out into the world. As Mother Teresa writes, “A joyful heart is the normal result of a heart burning with love.”

The First Presbyterian Church

Durango, CO 81301

20 June 2009

Dear Saints:

You are each unique; each and all of us – unique. Each of us, all of us – unique and “like God.”

As many of you may know, it is common practice for the Roman Catholic Pontiff to hold a general audience every Wednesday at Saint Peter’s before an assembly of religious and other pilgrims. For many folks of all traditions and not merely for Roman Catholics, to be present on Wednesday for the Pope’s audience is a treat – even a highlight of a long planned trip to Rome. Perhaps some of you have been there. And, perhaps you too thrilled to see and listen as his words were translated into many languages of our far-flung human community.

Over a five year period between September 5, 1979, and November 28, 1984, Pope John Paul II used these Wednesday gatherings to deliver 133 mediations on “Human Love in the Divine Plan.” Ten years ago, at the outset of these catechetical instructions, Pope John Paul II meditated at great length on the two different accounts of creation given to us in the first book of the Bible, Genesis . . .