I promised you an update on what I am doing here, where I think all of this is going. I think it’s only fair I tell you who have followed me through these last few years what is happening here, and the whats and whys of all of this change.
It all started one year ago today as I write this, October 12th, 2017. It was the 100th anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima, and I had just gone through a 33 day guided retreat for Consecration to our beloved and ever blessed Mother. It was an unexpected revelation to me, and it reinvigorated my desire to serve as her tool to bring souls, most especially my own, to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. My prayer life skyrocketed, my focus was sharp, I grew a beard. (I know, that last part is silly, but for some odd reason, I grow a beard when I start focusing hard on my faith. I didn’t even know I did that until this moment as I write this!)
In the midst of this, I felt suddenly and firmly called to step into the internet community. I had been trying to make sure all of my media consumption, my TV, my music in the car, the articles I read, and the websites I visited were all focused on faith. I wanted to make sure I was taking this newfound reinvigoration of my faith seriously. In this time, I suddenly realized that I was called to be one of these voices. I did not know how, or what I had to do, I just knew I had to do it.
Then came Christmas, and as I often do, I fell off the spiritual wagon. I just knew that I would get back on any day, except I didn’t. Then, this summer, the news came out in Pennsylvania on the Grand Jury report. It was then I realized that the world had gotten very dark, and I needed to step up and be the saint our sweet Virgin Mother had called me to be. As soon as I got serious and got my own prayer life back in order, this website came straight to the forefront of my mind, and the vision expanded.
I need to let you know, I have no idea what I am doing. I barely know how to write a blog, and now I have a video studio set up in my office, and appointments set up for podcasts. All this while I continue a full time job teaching the faith in a Catholic high school, teaching several evenings in the parish, and with my full weekends serving in the parish as well. I have bit off way, way more than I can chew, have no technological experience in what I am doing, and have no idea where this is going.
But I am happy, because I know I am following the will of the Holy Spirit.
So, if my web design is bad, if my videos lack quality, and my podcast audio is not that great, please forgive me. If my content is not on point, and the direction I’m going doesn’t make any sense, give me time. I don’t really have the full vision of what I’m doing yet. I’m new at all of this. I will get better.
Having said that, here’s my current plan:
- Transform the blog into a collection of Catholic vignettes, a collection of writings to inspire people to try in their lives to become holy. I want to share that holiness is for everyone, and that everything in life can be brought to the Lord as a gift to Him, sanctifying our entire lives.
- I want to create a video library to help people really learn their faith. I know there is a lot of that already out there, most of it better than anything I can create. I also know that people respond to many different kinds of voices, maybe there are even a few who would be moved by mine.
- Podcasts have become a really big deal to so many people, and I know if they only had a solid example on how to talk about the faith with other people, they would be more inclined to do so. Our faith is the center of everything, and yet people are largely silent. I want to help them get around that, and maybe even teach them something new along the way.
That’s really it. That’s the whole plan. I don’t know what else the Lord may bring along the way, but that’s the gist of it. It is certainly enough to keep me busy, and if the Lord wants any more from me, He’s going to have to give me more hours in the day!
I know many of my loyal readers are very interested in issues that pertain directly to the diaconate. That makes total sense, since that is precisely what I wrote on as I was going through my own formation process years ago. While I certainly want to support the diaconate, and I am thankful to God for calling me to this ministry, I also must recognize that my purpose now, as a deacon, is primarily to serve God’s people. I will certainly post from time to time about my own life as a deacon, so there will be posts of interest just by nature of my vocation.
I leave you with this thought if you are one of these still in formation: Formation will end. It might not feel like it will, but it does, and on the other side of the fence you will find a newfound duty and obligation that you too must live out. Think of this new project of mine not as a departure from what I used to post on, but instead its natural fulfillment, a fulfillment that you too will have to go through. God has called you to formation for a purpose of His own, and you too will have to pick it up and follow Him.
If you feel so called, please keep me and this new apostolate in your prayers. We really are flying blind here, so we need the grace of God more than ever!
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