Tag Archives: faith

Living out of Necessity

Posted on December 5, 2020 by Bob Ritzema

I wrote recently about my vocation in older adulthood. I relayed some points made in Gordon Smith’s book Called to be Saints: An Invitation to Christian Maturity. Smith says that each of us has a God-given vocation, that our senior … Continue reading →

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Life Review: My Hardest Work Experience

Posted on March 12, 2020 by Bob Ritzema

I recently talked with a young adult friend about difficulties she’s having at work, and ended up telling her about the most difficult experience I had in five decades in the workplace. I’ve decided to write out the story as … Continue reading →

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Forgetting and Identity

Posted on October 23, 2019 by Bob Ritzema

I recently re-read Falling Upward, Richard Rohr’s book describing the differences between spirituality in the first and second half of life. Some of the things that I hadn’t paid much attention to when I first read the book six years … Continue reading →

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Traffic Jams And My Reason For Hope

Posted on September 24, 2019 by Bob Ritzema

I’ve written on my other blog about Tish Harrison Warren’s book Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life. She’s interested in how we can find the sacred in the mundane events of daily life. I wrote there about … Continue reading →

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The Christian Communist

Posted on April 16, 2019 by Bob Ritzema

I’ve been writing recently about stuff–our tendency to acquire too many things, our difficulty letting go, our need to simplify as we get older. Recently I ran across a quote on possessions and spirituality by Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk. … Continue reading →

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Save the World? Don’t Look at Me!

Posted on December 31, 2018 by Bob Ritzema

Earlier this year I read Assimilate or Go Home: Notes From a Failed Missionary on Rediscovering Faith (San Francisco: Harper One, 2016) by D.L. Mayfield. Mayfield is a young woman of faith who spent much of her early adulthood volunteering … Continue reading →

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Living in an Age of Accumulation

Posted on September 1, 2018 by Bob Ritzema

George Carlin may be right about a house being a place to keep our stuff, but, nowadays, we’re less inclined to leave home in order to get more stuff. That’s because more stuff regularly appears magically on our doorsteps while … Continue reading →

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The Seven Deadly Sins for Seniors: Lust

Posted on August 6, 2018 by Bob Ritzema

I’ve been writing about the seven deadly sins, using as my basis the book Glittering Vices: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins and their Remedies by Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung. I’m especially interested in how these harmful habits manifest … Continue reading →

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The Seven Deadly Sins for Seniors: Envy

Posted on February 6, 2018 by Bob Ritzema

The Men’s Group at my church has been reading and discussing the book Glittering Vices: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins and Their Remedies” by the philosopher Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung. DeYoung believes that. by studying the “capital vices” … Continue reading →

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Time’s Eunuch

Posted on January 15, 2018 by Bob Ritzema

What does it mean to be “time’s eunuch”? That phrase is found in a sonnet written by Gerard Manley Hopkins in March, 1889, just a few months before he died. The sonnet, which can be found here, was proceeded by … Continue reading →

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