richardburbach

Bread baker… Soup maker… Spiritual seeker… Blessed husband... Frustrated farmer… Aspiring pray-er. Companion with others. Minister of the Word. I love poetry, reading biography and spirituality, morning walks along the creek with Jeb the Dog, global travel and intimate dinner parties. My heart is tugged between a home on the Nebraska prairie and my love affair with NYC ignited by my first visit as a wide-eyed high school sophomore from Omaha. I have sky-dived from 15K feet and circumnavigated the globe. After twenty-three years as a Jesuit and thirteen years of ministry as a priest, I requested release from my vows and left the Society in March 2002. Bills got paid and my desires were largely filled as a major gifts development officer for the College of St. Benedict and then the University of Minnesota. With the loving support and generosity of my beloved partner of seven years, I have headed off on a crazy pursuit to return to ministry. This began in earnest with a 12-month hospital chaplain residency completed in August 2013. Now I frequent a community center for the homeless, teach English to immigrants and am reviving a practice of offering spiritual direction. I seek to learn the wisdom of the poor and, somehow, live in meaningful and mutual relationship with people on the economic margins and periphery of our dominant culture. I value the earth and desire to grow in deep respect, appreciation and cultivation of the integral and reciprocal relationship we humans have with the natural world. I want to become a better instrument of disarmament by pursuing non-violence as best I am able; confronting anger, abusive power, status-seeking hierarchy and structural violence – beginning with myself and in my immediate sphere of relationships. Along with many others, I yearn for a more vibrant, vital, nurturing community of spiritual support, challenge and commitment. I am trying to develop the ability to consistently choose less and to grow in gratitude, generosity, humility and anonymity. I hope to cherish beauty and creativity more and more and in all its expressions and, ultimately, to leave with NOTHING! A work in process. To be continued….