About the Presentation

Patricia Raybon’s award-winning writing life didn’t follow her home. Instead, the University of Colorado journalism professor faced a mountain of discord. A strained 25-year marriage. Conflict with two grown daughters. An unsettling alienation from her aging mother — and a troubling distance from a silent God. But could this struggling Christian, far from her childhood faith, pray prayers that led to lasting change? Join Patricia for a candid conversation on how her struggle to learn to pray, and her dismay at a distant-seeming God, transformed not just her prayer life – but every other aspect of her approach to contemporary living.

About the Presenter

Patricia Raybon’s personal essays on family, culture and faith have been published in the New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, USA Today, USA Weekend, Guideposts, Country Living Magazine, the Chicago Tribune and many other publications.

She is the author of two books – one on racial forgiveness, called “My First White Friend,” which, in 1997,  won the prestigious Christopher Award for “artistic excellence affirming the highest values of the human spirit.” Her new book on her struggle to learn how to pray, called “I Told the Mountain to Move,” was published in Spring 2005 and is a finalist in Christianity Today magazine’s 2006 Book Awards competition in the “Spirituality” category.

A former Sunday magazine editor and features reporter at The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News, she recently took early retirement from the University of Colorado at Boulder where, for 14 years, she was an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She now writes full-time from her home in Aurora where she lives with her husband, J. Daniel Raybon. They have two grown daughters and two grandchildren. Patricia and her husband are long-time members of Shorter Community African Methodist Episcopal Church in Denver.

Additional Resources

www.PatriciaRaybon.com

Selected Bibliography

Patricia’s favorite books on prayer and spiritual growth:
“Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places,” Eugene Peterson
“Cry, the Beloved Country,” Alan Paton
“Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth,” Richard Foster
“With Christ in the School of Prayer,” Andrew Murray
“Scribbling in the Sand: Christ and Creativity,” Michael Card
“The Joy in Loving,” Mother Teresa
“The Art of Forgiving: When You Need to Forgive and You Don’t Know How,” Lewis Smedes
“My Utmost for His Highest,” Oswald Chambers.
“I Told the Mountain to Move,” Patricia Raybon
“The Power of Prayer – and the Prayer of Power,” R.A. Torrey
“Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home,” Richard Foster

Patricia’s favorite books on elder care:
“Another Country: Navigating the Emotional Terrain of Our Elders,” Mary Pipher, Ph.D.
“Caring for Aging Loved Ones,” Focus on the Family

Patricia’s favorite books on Islam:
“The Kite Runner,” Khaled Hosseini
“The Bookseller of Kabul,” Åsne Seierstad

Other favorite resources:
New Living Translation Bible
The Prayer Bible, Jean E. Syswerda, general editor
The Message Bible/Remix
New International Version Bible