Brother Fire

So my bags were packed and I was ready to go, at least as much as I was going to be ready. My friends and family helped to pack-up the truck -- Thank you! My brother Paul, and friend Theresa are packing scientists who seemed to know exactly how to fit things together to optimize the full volume of the truck while being gentle with my things and keeping my possessions safe from too much movement or damage. My last days living on Long Island seemed surreal. After the truck was packed, I spent a couple of days with my BFF Ginger (I'm such a geek -- "Best Friend Forever") while I attended my last Mass with Prince of Peace on Sunday, and my last day of work on Monday. My friends from Prince of Peace were unbelievably gracious and loving to me. They offered a "Going Forth Mass" which included Celtic prayer and blessings. I truly felt super-charged, blessed and so loved. The car trip (truck trip?) took 17-hours of driving; it was 11-hours the last time I drove fr...

Clearly I've been absent from my blog for quite a few weeks. It's been somewhat of a...well...I don't know how to describe this period of time. I thought I had well-laid plans and a strong sense of what my future was going to look like. And sure enough, God threw a monkey wrench into the works. I hate when God changes things just when I think I have everything worked-out. For quite sometime I imagined that I would begin my ministry as a priest by building a Catholic Community on Long Island, New York. In addition, I thought that I would continue working for Catholic Charities -- providing services and housing for homeless folks who live with a disability. I figured that after I gained community-building experience and the community was well-established, I would consider immigrating south to Virginia Beach, VA or Charlotte, NC where there are existing United American Catholic Church ministries that could use my help. However, as the saying goes: "While I make pl...

I can't help but harp on John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as VP nominee. Not only is it insulting to the voters (especially to the Republican voters), but it has shined a new light on the hypocrite Republican pundits. Jon Stewart did an excellent job at illustrating their hypocrisy.

This is one speech that didn't make prime time at the DNC, but worth seeing. Peace!

Yesterday, Sen. John McCain selected Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate for this year's presidential election. There are so many worthy candidates he could have chosen to be the Republican nominee for Vice-President. And clearly there are special interest voters that he needed to consider when he made his choice: conservatives, evangelical Christians, young voters, moderates, women, environmentalists, undecideds, etc. So I imagine that he must have thought long and hard about who could produce the most votes, as well as who could fill his shoes as President of the United States if needed. So lets take a look to see which votes that John McCain is hoping to garner with this selection. According to a number of sources (take a look here , here and here ), Palin is the Governor of Alaska for only 19 months, and prior to that was a City Council Member (1992-1996) and Mayor (1996-2002) of Wasilla, Alaska (population less that 5,000). She is a staunch social conservative,...

When a friend shared this video with me -- my first thought was, "What a wonderful gift!" Please take a look -- it will make your day. God bless!

I have tried to live a missional life as long as I can remember. I think that I've tried to live a missional life longer than I've known what it means to live a missional life. Some might say that I live an alternative lifestyle. Others might say that I've made some poor decisions when choosing the direction of my life: "Don't go into the helping professions -- you'll never make any money." And one of my favorite comments: "If you got paid for half the volunteer work you've done, you'd be rich!" I see these observations as a sure sign that I'm living missionally. When I say that I live a missional life, it means that I live as though I've been sent to proclaim the Word not only through traditional means (i.e. leading a faith community), but rather living the Gospel in my life's work by modeling Christian living in my day-to-day activities, living the Great Commission -- Missio Dei, everyday! To me, missional is not a technique...