Just Shine On

Posts Tagged ‘trust’

As I write this post, it is August 15, 2018.

Today is the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Mother. Today was a Holy Day of Obligation, and I went to the 8 AM Mass, just minutes after reading the report from the Pennsylvania Grand Jury and the reactions of people, Catholic and not, from across the globe.

This report, which covers the heinous crimes by the clergy, (of which an estimated 90% were from prior to the 1990’s) comes on the tail of the scandals in Argentina and Australia. A bit more personal to me, an investigation has also been launched against the major seminary in my own diocese, after an extremely damning piece on the conduct of some who have attended, was published by an ex-seminarian whom was one of my first JSO Instagram followers.

Considering everything that has been going on, and all the attention the Church has been getting from the major news media, it is safe to say that I, among many others, are beside ourselves, with a storm of incredibly difficult emotions.

I feel sick about the children who have been failed, their innocence destroyed and lost. I am angry about the coverups done to save face. I feel powerless to help clean up any of this mess and promote healing. I feel betrayed because the Church that I have fought for and defended for so long, is now being smeared by the hundreds of men who were unfaithful to the vows that they made. This goes beyond the breaking of promises though. This is pure evil, and it is unfathomable to me that this is the current face of the Catholic Church, especially since we know that our teachings hold us to the highest of standards when it comes to sexual conduct.

Read the rest of this entry »

Back in December, as I was sitting in the Abbey Church one night, I wrote this poem titled “All That I Am”. I was feeling an incredible sense of peace in that moment. Whenever I feel like I need to recenter my focus for my life, I read my poem to get myself back into that mindset and remember the most important purpose for my life.

All That I Am

Read the rest of this entry »

Last spring, I got into a conversation with a friend of mine about my favorite places to go relax on campus.

I told him that I loved to climb up onto the roof of one of the dugouts on campus, and look at the stars. I explained that it was dark on that particular field, away from campus lights and all the people. It was quiet and you could hear trees whisper. He then asked me a question that made me feel a little vulnerable:

Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever read the book ‘Maniac Magee’ by Jerry Spinelli?

One of my favorite parts of the story is when Maniac takes on the challenge to untangle Cobble’s Knot. It started out as a baseball-sized, tightly packed, weather-crusted knot. Sounds pretty hard to untangle, right? With patience though, Maniac works until it becomes “a gigantic hairball”. Then, ‘around dinnertime’ he had successfully defeated Cobble’s Knot.

Sometimes, in the course of our life, we can find ourselves in situations that resemble Cobble’s Knot. For a while, it may seem that we won’t be able to untangle it. The mess is too big, and we’ve weaved so many loops to hide the truth.
Let me use a real life example, as somewhat embarrassing as this might be.

When I was 12 Read the rest of this entry »