The Buoyancy of Unsuspected Joy

I am a retired minister from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) living in central Illinois.  In the practice of my ministry, I found myself writing sundry formats of materials - bible studies, stories, meditations, poems, sermons, hymn texts, and what I called Reflective Prayers.  Those writings began to appear with my immersion into parish ministry, first as a student pastor and then as full time pastor in a succession of congregations starting in 1976.  Those writings that proved to be useful to me continued to be produced.  These reflective prayers began in response to reading The Prayers Of Catherine of Sienna, edited by Sr. Suzanne Noffke, O.P. in early 1984.  At first, I wrote them in reflection over the lectionary readings for a service when I would be preaching; later I wrote them for all the services involved: Sundays and Ash Wednesday and Maundy Thursday.  They proved to be useful to me in the pursuit of my ministry and continue to be so in my retirement.  In all this time, I have shared my life with my wife of, now, 57 years.  We currently include two dogs and several cats in our home.