Another Andy

Yesterday, it was Andrew Luck. Today it's another Andy!

Frustrated he flung out the nets with a vengeance. The catch hadn't been good, and his fellow fisherman hadn't helped! How could he just sit there for hours doing the same thing? They hadn't caught hardly anything. What a life - this couldn't be for him!

A stroke of Luck

This can't be happening I groaned as I threw up my hands and leaned back in the chair. Michigan hadn't won against Ohio State since 2003. Here we were, clearly better (I admit a certain bias), and it looked like 2011 was going to be the same all over again.

The game was close, and Michigan couldn't seem to pull away. Denard Robinson finally scored what seemed to be the clinching touchdown, only to have it taken away after a video review. Then two penalties! It was third and a mile from the goal line! What was going on?!

A Blog

It seems like I have been meaning to write this forever. God had a plan, and the idea occurred to me on a trip to England last December. But how to make it happen?

How to explain the Campion transformation?! What made a sickly old man into a pillar of strength and hope - like John Paul II? How can we explain the radical change in the life of St. Edmund, John Paul II, or any other?

An Idea

Me in front of Westminster

I walked into the huge stone vaulted ceiling, and it seemed like I was stepping back in time. Hard to believe what this hall had seen in the previous centuries, but my mind went back to November 14, 1581. Edmund Campion stood his ground as he was convicted for treason. But in his own words, “The plain reason of our standing here is religion and not treason.”

Edmund Campion was an incredible Catholic, Christian, but above all, he was an incredible man. We need figures like this today. So often we look to musicians, athletes, or movie stars that aren’t even worth our admiration.

But I can hear the words of another man also spoken in England echoing in my ears:

When I invite you to become saints, I am asking you not to be content with second best. Having money makes it possible to be generous and to do good in the world, but on its own, it is not enough to make us happy. 

Happiness is something we all want, but one of the great tragedies in this world is that so many people never find it, because they look for it in the wrong places.

The key to it is very simple – true happiness is to be found in God. We need to have the courage to place our deepest hopes in God alone, not in money, in a career, in worldly success, or in our relationships with others, but in God. 

God wants your friendship. And once you enter into friendship with God, everything in your life begins to change. (17 September 2011)

Benedict XVI said this to the youth on September 17, 2010. What the world needs today are men and saints! What we need are men and saints! This might sound crazy, but this is what we need to think about, talk about and live out if we are going to be happy.

A Call

I sat at the table in a kind of stunned silence.  It is one of those moments when the world seems to freeze.  My mind raced.  What did she say?  “I just know that you are going to become a priest.” She was my friend’s mom, what did she know?

“She must be kidding,” I thought to myself.  I had never even considered it.  As I tried to shake myself free of this random idea, it wouldn’t come loose.  Not knowing why, deep down inside I had the feeling that she was right.

This problem was, I was starving. I had different things that I tried stuffing my heart with, but nothing seemed to work. Studies weren’t that difficult.  Grades weren’t a problem.  Sports went pretty well.  I had friends.  Even a girlfriend didn’t do much to relieve the situation.  I wanted something more, yet I knew that only something totally different would satisfy me.

I was tired of playing the game of life, I wanted to live.  Studies were to get good grades.  Sports to have extra-curricular achievements. Social activities to have lots of friends.  All of this to be admitted into a good university.  A college diploma to be hired for a good job, etc, etc.  Was my life going to be dedicated to great achievements culminating in retirement?  Is this what I wanted – to be sixty years old with a lot of money and “free” to do what I wanted or rather was still able to do with the leftovers of my life? No.

I wanted something more – no, rather God wanted something more. God had a special plan for my life as he does for all of us.

And I was not the only one.  Through the Regnum Christi movement, I met up with other young men who wanted the same. By prayer and conversation with a priest who helped to guide me, I little by little made the decision to take the step and join the seminary of the Legionaries of Christ. 

I served the Mass for Benedict XVI
and received communion.

That was 1999, and I have since studied in Germany, the United States, and now Rome. I am currently in my last year of theology, and in December 2012, with the grace of God, I will be ordained a priest.