“The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the present, but a place that is created - created first in the mind and will, created next in activity. The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating.”
Well it certainly has been a long time since I last shared some thoughts on this bloggity blog. The usual demands of work, my classes, life, etc. swallowed up most of my time and did not allow for any time to reflect on life and wax poetic here at the CS Prophet. I truly do plan on writing a lot more often this summer and this initial salvo is intended to catch you all up on where I have been and what has been going on in my life the past few moons. It may ramble at times but I hope there will be one solid theme that comes across…the future and the amazing prospects it holds for all of us.
It was another successful semester at the BSC Newman Center with my students and I feel as if we accomplished a lot of good wherever we went. Some of my students are moving on via graduation or transferring and I will greatly miss them. While I like to think I offer them a good amount of insight into life, faith, and education, they open up my eyes on a daily basis and teach me a great deal as well. They teach me how to be a better man, a better role model, a better campus minister, and most importantly a better human being. All of them, each in their unique way, remind me to hold strong to the Jesuit credo of being a man for others. For those that are leaving us, please stay in touch and know that you will be missed. For those that are returning, hold on tight, the good times are just getting started.
The end of the Spring 2010 semester also saw the completion of my course work for my Master of Arts in Theology degree. This coming year will be chock full of thesis writing and passing my comprehensive exams and then I will finally be a theologian…officially! It was another successful semester and I did well in the class and I am extremely excited to complete my degree. I have been fortunate enough to make some great contacts and I have a few standing offers to teach at local colleges upon the completion of my degree. It is quite flattering to know that people would like me to teach their students and I am confident I would do a great job. For me, there is something surprisingly calming about being in front of a class/audience/group giving a presentation/speech/lesson. I feel at home when I am teaching and enlightening minds and I truly feel blessed to have that ability as one of my gifts in this life. I am always striving to get my name out there and I jump at any chance to speak at colleges, conventions, workshops, etc. In addition to increasing my speaking appearances, I would also like to explore the possibility of freelance writing. I feel as if I could offer good insight if confronted with the appropriate topic and would love to share my musings with a wider audience. If you ever hear of a need for writing pieces on theology, young adult spirituality, travel, food, or many other topics, please let me know!!
As most of you know, one of the biggest changes in my life has come with the moving out of the apartment in North Buffalo and moving home to Clarence. I finally made the decision that I want to save for a house and there was no better time than the present to pull the trigger on that idea. The excitement builds every time I ponder the thought of being a home owner and I know nothing but goodness awaits me in this venture. The past few months have seen great changes to the house at 5115 and I am currently typing away whilst sitting in my new bedroom – if you have ever been to the house, you are in for a shock…it is totally different now…and in a good way!
Without exaggeration, the best thing that has happened to me in a long, long time is the addition of SL in my life. If you are familiar with our story, it is quite the funny one and goes all the way back to the good ol’ days at Canisius (where leaders are made). We were always very friendly, got along great, had many common friends, and pulled off the greatest prank ever on AB. After graduation we parted ways for a number of years – 6 of them with her living in another state – and we did not have much contact…maybe a random e-mail every other year? All of that changed a few months back when a common friend of ours started talking her up to me and suggested we should hang out when she was back in the 716 for a visit. The plan was to have dinner together and possibly meet up with more friends later in the night. Have you ever had that feeling in you when you are just completely sure of something and you don’t really know why? As soon as she walked in the door and I saw her, I just knew…I just knew that she and I were going to get together and be crazy awesome together. I can’t explain why I knew this, but I did. Maybe this was a tad presumptive of me considering we hadn’t even eaten the cheese yet (Cabot seriously sharp cheddar for those scoring at home) but I just had a feeling. We spent all night long – and I do mean ALL night long talking and then we spent the next night together as well. Just catching up and talking for hours and hours and hours. This awesome weekend was followed up by 86…err...84…err, 80 something days (checkout awfulcountdown.com for the correct count) apart. Long story short, we talked every day and made it through to my visit to see her. We spent an even more incredible few days together full of beaches, restaurants, beautiful weather, and rock band and she introduced me to some of her friends who were beyond amazing and completely welcoming. Our friends described our drive back to Buffalo as our “make it or break it moment” and I’m pleased to say we passed with flying colors. I’ve made that drive many times before and that was by far the easiest and most enjoyable of them. So now we’re back in Buffalo together and I can honestly say that I am crazy about this girl. You often hear people say that opposites attract but that certainly isn’t the case for us. We have so many similar interests and the same hysterical sense of humor and that causes me to be completely comfortable and relaxed with her. I can’t even begin to properly put into words how much I enjoy spending time with her and just like being with her. I had gotten to a point where I didn’t know if this was possible and she completely turned that upside down. I may not be able to articulate it well enough here, but I will certainly try to show her how much she means to me by my actions.
I mention SL here because A.) She is super important to me and I am so happy she is in my life and B.) We are going to set the blog world on fire this summer. We have an extremely long list of things we want to do this summer (and beyond) in Buffalo and we want to share our journey with you. Consider it a “1,000 things to see and do in Buffalo before you die” type blog. We will keep you posted along the way and let you know how it all plays out, what you should experience for yourself, and maybe some things to avoid. Check back often because we have already gotten started with the Dave Matthews Band concert at Darien Lake (full review coming in a separate blog) and we’re only getting warmed up.
So what the heck does this all have to do with the future? The future is what you make of it. The future is what you dream of it. If you want it, go out and get it. If you really want something, nothing should stand in your way.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
40 Days to Change the World
In a few short days, Ash Wednesday will be upon us and a new Lenten journey will begin. I was lying in bed the other night unable to sleep, and my mind started wandering and pondering on what I could “give up” for Lent this year. Let’s run through the mental check list, shall we? Candy? Nah, I’m not 12 anymore and I don’t really eat much of it these days. Coffee? That would be a little redundant as I played that game last year. Beer? I did that one a few years ago as well and it seemed like a hugely trivial denial when I thought about it. My thoughts began to wander in a different direction until I had a mini-revelation…although at 2:30 AM, any revelation can be considered a big one. What if I took all of the energy and will power I used each year for giving something up and put it to good use? What if I took the “bad” and turned it into good. That’s when it hit me – 40 Days to Change the World. My plan was hatched and the scheming began immediately – this resulted in another hour of no sleep but it was worth it.
The goal itself is rather simple: Perform at least one act of random kindness each day for the 40 days of Lent. OK, so there are 45 days in Lent this year but everyone remembers Lent as 40 days and that is why I am going with that. This past Sunday at Mass, our community members had a chance to offer up ideas for Lenten kindness. They all received little slips of paper that said, “One act of kindness I suggest as a practice for Lent is…” I will take some of their suggestions and some of YOUR’S as I go through this journey of love in action to make my world a better place for all who live in it. Be sure to add comments here with your ideas of what acts of love and kindness I can perform during Lent. If I inspire along the way and cause others to do acts of random love and kindness, all the better!
There are a few cornerstones to this project that I should discuss a little bit before I go any further…
- To better my world, I must better myself – I like to think that for the most part I am a pretty decent person. I always try to meet the needs of my family and friends (and sometimes strangers) ahead of my own; I am a pretty positive and happy person and I try to encourage others to be positive and happy as well; I try to remember all of the good in my life and never forget the blessings; I’m a loving guy. All that being said, I can still do more. I should still do more. I have been given so much good and it is my responsibility to share that good and encourage that good wherever I go. Acts of kindness and love should not be seen as an obligation but freely given as a fellow human being to all of my brothers and sisters in the world – theologically speaking we are all created in the image and likeness of God, so why am I better than anyone else? I’m not. Everyone deserves a little love and light in their life and I am hoping to be the one to show it to them. A wonderful result of all this giving is that I will in turn become a better person myself and hopefully encourage others along my way. We can all be great and we can all love – social justice isn’t just for rock stars.
- Live simply so others may simply live – This is a motto commonly found connected with alternative spring break programs and service sites around the country. Not that I lead an extravagant life to begin with, but I plan to scale back what I do and how I do it a little more. I have a ridiculously large amount of clothing that I do not wear anymore so that will all be donated to different charity agencies throughout the city. I’m sure there are a number of other things I can do to accomplish this but they are not coming to me right now. I’ll keep you updated.
- Love in action – We all know that love is shown more in deeds than it is in words but there are a few types of love I will be focusing on. “Caritas” is the Latin term for charity and also refers to Christian love. This relates to the good work and good deeds we can do for others. “Agape” is Greek and relates to the love of God. For our usage, we will label it as divine, unconditional, self-sacrificing, active, and thoughtful love.
- In a perfectly appropriate twist of fate, Holy Week will find me in Baltimore on Alternative Spring Break with my students. I can’t think of a better way to spend my last week of this project – instead of struggling to get to the finish line, we will be building up to a crescendo, reaching the highest point at the conclusion.
I will be offering my thoughts, reactions, struggles, hopes, dreams, experiences, etc. here, so be sure to follow along the journey. 8 days until the adventure begins. I welcome all suggestions and ideas for tasks I should accomplish.
Peace & Love
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
If there's a light in everybody, send out your ray of sunshine.
“It takes a night to make it dawn and it takes a day to make you yawn, brother. And it takes some old to make you young, it takes some cold to know the sun, it takes the one to have the other.” Life is Wonderful – Jason Mraz
I had originally not planned on doing one of these musings, a look ahead to the New Year, if you will. I have never been big on making New Year’s resolutions because I feel like people usually make silly pronouncements that they either have no intention of or no ability to keep. Some of my favorites are: “I will lose 50 pounds this year…I will curse less…I will not eat junk food for an entire year.” While these are all very noble and hopeful, it is not likely that they will come to pass – and let’s be honest, who doesn’t love the occasional chicken wing or ten?? Instead of these lofty goals and plans, why not make smaller, easier to attain goals? Set up a large number of smaller targets that are easier to attain and you will feel awesome once you reach and achieve them. If we aim for grandiose goals and fail, we usually beat ourselves up over it and can’t help but let negativity creep into our psyche, causing us to move further away from where we want to be. However, if we start small and build up our momentum as we pass by the simple benchmarks, our confidence will grow and before we know it we will have reached that once lofty goal. Little by little, piece by piece, bit by bit. That’s all we can really ask of ourselves.
I am constantly trying to improve and grow as a person, so my small goals of this New Year go a little something like this…
Fill the Jar – One of the gifts I received for Christmas this year was a prayer/blessings jar. It is actually quite the incredible idea when I stop and think about it. Because we are a very sensory and tactile oriented culture, we often forget about the things that are not visibly and physically present in front of us. A perfect example of this is all of the blessings in our lives, also known as everyday miracles or even prayers. The concept of this jar is simple. Whenever you think of something that you are thankful or grateful for, feel blessed by, or would like to pray for, you write it down and put it in the jar. My hope for this New Year is an overflowing jar full of thanks and gratitude. I am extremely blessed with so much goodness in my life that it leaves me in awe…I should never forget that. By writing down my random thoughts of thanks, I will certainly become more in tune and cognizant of these blessings in my everyday life.
Pray More – I know this one may seem funny considering what I do for a living but I feel like there is always room for improvement here. I feel that the more aware I become of all the good in my life, the more I need to be offering up prayers of thanksgiving. Ideally I would like to set aside about 10 minutes every day to do this and to just simply “be.” As is true with most of our lives, I am constantly on the go and packing my schedule full of things to do. I rarely take that much needed “me time” and if I am able to set aside a few minutes each day for “me and G time,” I can only benefit by it. Again, I have so much to pray for and so many people to pray for. I am blessed with so many amazing people in my life and I know that they all need certain things as I do, so hopefully my prayers for them can help in some small way. God knows all their prayers for me have helped.
Love – “Because life's too short anyway, but at least it’s better than average. As long as you got me and I got you, you know we’ll got a lot to go around, I’ll be your friend your other brother, another love to come and comfort you. And I’ll keep reminding, if it’s the only thing that I ever do, I will always love you.” Song for a Friend – Jason Mraz
I like to think I am already pretty good at telling those in my life that I love them but I can always tell them more often. We all love to be loved and want to be wanted. It always feels great to hear that you are loved and it feels even better to tell someone you love them – friends, family, lovers, whomever. Like the song says, I am going to try and remind those in my life that I love them. After all, it is the least I can do for all of their help, love, and support over the years. I honestly have no idea where I would be without them.
Spiritual Direction – Something I desperately need to get back in the habit of attending on a regular basis. For those of you who do not know what a spiritual director is, she/he is basically a person who is your spiritual counselor. Ideally you meet once a month and review all that is going on in your life. They are an amazing asset to have because they represent an impartial third party who can listen to you and offer insight while also challenging you to do more and to grow more. I unfortunately have fallen away from this practice due to a crazy schedule of work and finishing my MAT, but I actually need this direction more now than ever in my life. Campus ministry, like many pastoral roles, is a very time consuming job filled with responding to the wants and needs of your students/community members while also trying to provide quality programming for them. It is a job where I am the one listening, helping, offering support and guidance, and simply presence. But who is the person doing that for me? Who is there to listen to me and support me in my pastoral work? This is by no means a knock on my friends and family because they are ridiculously awesome and supportive. I am talking about a person who understands the ins and outs of what I do and can somehow relate to my professional and pastoral experiences while offering insights into my work. I had an amazing spiritual director before but he is now unbelievably busy himself as he is the new rector of the Jesuit residence in Buffalo and just wrapped up the search for a new President at Canisius College. I guess you could say that I am in the market for a new one.
Read More – I am not talking about reading more for work or school (I do plenty of that now) but more for pleasure. I need to make it a goal to explore more my interests and hobbies through books and the amazing insights they can offer. I firmly believe that we can never learn enough and we can never stop growing intellectually, spiritually, and inter-personally. I will not be putting a number on how many books I want to read but I will commit to reading a little bit every night. I was once in the habit of keeping my current book my bed and reading a little, even 5 pages, before bed each night. It is definitely time that I got back into that habit and read more about: Theology, Higher Education, Politics, The restaurant business, Jason Mraz, Dave Matthews Band, American History, Golf, and The Jesuits just to name a few.
Practice Gratitude – “Oh my, the congregation in my mind, is an assembly selling gratitude and practicin’ their lovin’ of you. Live high, live mighty, live righteously.” Live High – Jason Mraz
No matter what is going on in our lives, what we have or do not have, we can always be gracious toward the people we encounter on a daily basis. Dictionary.com defines “gracious” as being “pleasantly kind, benevolent, and courteous” while also adding “merciful or compassionate.” When we define the word that way, it is a pretty awesome thing for us to aspire to. Can you imagine what our world would be like if we were constantly kind, benevolent, courteous, merciful, and compassionate to each other? That would be an unbelievably amazing place to live and love. Obviously the real world is unfortunately not like that, but we can certainly try and make it a better place by our graciousness and gratitude. Aside from this resulting in more gracious people taking over our world (a la pay it forward), it simply puts us in a better mood and a better frame of mind. Aren’t you always in a better mood when you have pleasant interactions with people? Wouldn’t you like that happiness to creep into your entire being? I know I sure would. Even though this sounds simple, it is incredibly difficult to do and definitely requires the baby steps I spoke of earlier. A reasonable goal for this endeavor would be to do one random act of kindness for someone each day for a week. Then try two per day and so on and so on. We have all heard the quote “give until it hurts” but a wise man once told me “give until it feels good…then the giving will become a regular habit because you want the good feelings to stay.” Awesome.
So there you have it – my first take on the new decade and what I hope to be accomplishing in the following year and for the rest of my life. If it gets too hard and you want to quit on your resolutions or goals, think of the movie Finding Nemo – “just keep swimming, just keep swimming.”
Peace and Love.
I had originally not planned on doing one of these musings, a look ahead to the New Year, if you will. I have never been big on making New Year’s resolutions because I feel like people usually make silly pronouncements that they either have no intention of or no ability to keep. Some of my favorites are: “I will lose 50 pounds this year…I will curse less…I will not eat junk food for an entire year.” While these are all very noble and hopeful, it is not likely that they will come to pass – and let’s be honest, who doesn’t love the occasional chicken wing or ten?? Instead of these lofty goals and plans, why not make smaller, easier to attain goals? Set up a large number of smaller targets that are easier to attain and you will feel awesome once you reach and achieve them. If we aim for grandiose goals and fail, we usually beat ourselves up over it and can’t help but let negativity creep into our psyche, causing us to move further away from where we want to be. However, if we start small and build up our momentum as we pass by the simple benchmarks, our confidence will grow and before we know it we will have reached that once lofty goal. Little by little, piece by piece, bit by bit. That’s all we can really ask of ourselves.
I am constantly trying to improve and grow as a person, so my small goals of this New Year go a little something like this…
Fill the Jar – One of the gifts I received for Christmas this year was a prayer/blessings jar. It is actually quite the incredible idea when I stop and think about it. Because we are a very sensory and tactile oriented culture, we often forget about the things that are not visibly and physically present in front of us. A perfect example of this is all of the blessings in our lives, also known as everyday miracles or even prayers. The concept of this jar is simple. Whenever you think of something that you are thankful or grateful for, feel blessed by, or would like to pray for, you write it down and put it in the jar. My hope for this New Year is an overflowing jar full of thanks and gratitude. I am extremely blessed with so much goodness in my life that it leaves me in awe…I should never forget that. By writing down my random thoughts of thanks, I will certainly become more in tune and cognizant of these blessings in my everyday life.
Pray More – I know this one may seem funny considering what I do for a living but I feel like there is always room for improvement here. I feel that the more aware I become of all the good in my life, the more I need to be offering up prayers of thanksgiving. Ideally I would like to set aside about 10 minutes every day to do this and to just simply “be.” As is true with most of our lives, I am constantly on the go and packing my schedule full of things to do. I rarely take that much needed “me time” and if I am able to set aside a few minutes each day for “me and G time,” I can only benefit by it. Again, I have so much to pray for and so many people to pray for. I am blessed with so many amazing people in my life and I know that they all need certain things as I do, so hopefully my prayers for them can help in some small way. God knows all their prayers for me have helped.
Love – “Because life's too short anyway, but at least it’s better than average. As long as you got me and I got you, you know we’ll got a lot to go around, I’ll be your friend your other brother, another love to come and comfort you. And I’ll keep reminding, if it’s the only thing that I ever do, I will always love you.” Song for a Friend – Jason Mraz
I like to think I am already pretty good at telling those in my life that I love them but I can always tell them more often. We all love to be loved and want to be wanted. It always feels great to hear that you are loved and it feels even better to tell someone you love them – friends, family, lovers, whomever. Like the song says, I am going to try and remind those in my life that I love them. After all, it is the least I can do for all of their help, love, and support over the years. I honestly have no idea where I would be without them.
Spiritual Direction – Something I desperately need to get back in the habit of attending on a regular basis. For those of you who do not know what a spiritual director is, she/he is basically a person who is your spiritual counselor. Ideally you meet once a month and review all that is going on in your life. They are an amazing asset to have because they represent an impartial third party who can listen to you and offer insight while also challenging you to do more and to grow more. I unfortunately have fallen away from this practice due to a crazy schedule of work and finishing my MAT, but I actually need this direction more now than ever in my life. Campus ministry, like many pastoral roles, is a very time consuming job filled with responding to the wants and needs of your students/community members while also trying to provide quality programming for them. It is a job where I am the one listening, helping, offering support and guidance, and simply presence. But who is the person doing that for me? Who is there to listen to me and support me in my pastoral work? This is by no means a knock on my friends and family because they are ridiculously awesome and supportive. I am talking about a person who understands the ins and outs of what I do and can somehow relate to my professional and pastoral experiences while offering insights into my work. I had an amazing spiritual director before but he is now unbelievably busy himself as he is the new rector of the Jesuit residence in Buffalo and just wrapped up the search for a new President at Canisius College. I guess you could say that I am in the market for a new one.
Read More – I am not talking about reading more for work or school (I do plenty of that now) but more for pleasure. I need to make it a goal to explore more my interests and hobbies through books and the amazing insights they can offer. I firmly believe that we can never learn enough and we can never stop growing intellectually, spiritually, and inter-personally. I will not be putting a number on how many books I want to read but I will commit to reading a little bit every night. I was once in the habit of keeping my current book my bed and reading a little, even 5 pages, before bed each night. It is definitely time that I got back into that habit and read more about: Theology, Higher Education, Politics, The restaurant business, Jason Mraz, Dave Matthews Band, American History, Golf, and The Jesuits just to name a few.
Practice Gratitude – “Oh my, the congregation in my mind, is an assembly selling gratitude and practicin’ their lovin’ of you. Live high, live mighty, live righteously.” Live High – Jason Mraz
No matter what is going on in our lives, what we have or do not have, we can always be gracious toward the people we encounter on a daily basis. Dictionary.com defines “gracious” as being “pleasantly kind, benevolent, and courteous” while also adding “merciful or compassionate.” When we define the word that way, it is a pretty awesome thing for us to aspire to. Can you imagine what our world would be like if we were constantly kind, benevolent, courteous, merciful, and compassionate to each other? That would be an unbelievably amazing place to live and love. Obviously the real world is unfortunately not like that, but we can certainly try and make it a better place by our graciousness and gratitude. Aside from this resulting in more gracious people taking over our world (a la pay it forward), it simply puts us in a better mood and a better frame of mind. Aren’t you always in a better mood when you have pleasant interactions with people? Wouldn’t you like that happiness to creep into your entire being? I know I sure would. Even though this sounds simple, it is incredibly difficult to do and definitely requires the baby steps I spoke of earlier. A reasonable goal for this endeavor would be to do one random act of kindness for someone each day for a week. Then try two per day and so on and so on. We have all heard the quote “give until it hurts” but a wise man once told me “give until it feels good…then the giving will become a regular habit because you want the good feelings to stay.” Awesome.
So there you have it – my first take on the new decade and what I hope to be accomplishing in the following year and for the rest of my life. If it gets too hard and you want to quit on your resolutions or goals, think of the movie Finding Nemo – “just keep swimming, just keep swimming.”
Peace and Love.
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