First pass at a mission statement

This needs some work, and is perhaps more of a rant, but here goes:

Mission Statement:
I used to think that this was just for us, for those who would actually embark upon the journey together, however I have come to realize that we do this not only for ourselves, but also for anyone who has ever dreamed, and who has yet to realize that dream. The only unique characteristic we possess is the freedom to go and the firm belief that we will accomplish what we set out to achieve. Life is too short. There were multiple points along the way when my choices could have determined the rest of my life, and I would be “settled,” whatever that means, and would be living a more formulaic and established life. However, these choices never came to fruition, and I find myself a graduate with a master’s degree and all the aspirations in the world to travel the world, to explore and understand new cultures that I have only ever read about, or seen in some television special. Life is about what happens when you are planning for the next step, so apart from the general and unavoidable contingency planning, this trip will take place purely through spontaneity, and will show each participant what we are capable of. What the human spirit can accomplish when it is given the opportunity to thrive. I believe the human spirit can be molded to fit whatever situation and dreams lie in our minds, and that we should seek this reality, rather than to fit our spirit to some societal or economical mold. The human spirit thrives on adventure, on the unknown, on the frightening and the exciting. When is the last time you really felt your pulse pick up, or your heart flutter? What do you really want out of life? What would it take to achieve this? What are your goals, hopes, aspirations? What is your greatest fear?
Too often I believe our greatest fear is that we would have the opportunity to accomplish our greatest dream. We fear success, we fear failure, but it is often in those moments when we expose ourselves to fear, when we confront those things in life that truly scare us and make us feel uncomfortable, that we grow and become the people we have the potential to become.
Life is too short to simply follow the flock, to do what we think we should do, rather we should strive for what we desire to do in the deepest part of ourselves, and that springs to the outlying corners of our minds on those days when truly allow ourselves to dream.
This started as a mission statement, but perhaps is closer to a life philosophy. Never let someone else tell you what your dreams are, only you can discern and determine that by deepening your self-knowledge, and your relationship with our Lord and Creator. If something scares you, you will most likely benefit from confronting this fear and not hesitating to follow where this confrontation leads.
When have you felt most alive? What are the moments in your life that cling to your mind and refuse to let go? When have you felt most truly inspired? What does inspire you? If you can answer even some of these questions you are well on your way to finding fulfillment and joy in your life. We need this inspiration, this hope, this living on the edge to push us through what we never thought we could accomplish.
For truly, we are the music-makers and the dreamers of dreams…and if not us, then who?

This time of year

Graduation time. The time for the end of something long-fought and hard-earned, and the beginning of something new. New faces, new locations, new challenges and new struggles. Life is full of these it seems, and never seems to let down. This is why we have decided to do something different. I fear that life will simply lull or pound me into concession and submission. Submission to something I never necessarily asked for, and concession of all the crazy dreams and ideals of youth. So the call is to become the best version of yourself, or so the Matthew Kelly craze of late has termed it. I believe there is a lot of truth to be found in these words, and the real truth of the matter is that what it takes to become that best version of ourselves is very different for each one of us. For me, this means taking some time off with a brother and friend and attempting to travel around the world. Do you ever feel like life here in the states is conducted over some kind of safety net? That all of our risks and struggles are real, but if ever we should fall, there is always someone there to pick us back up again? Well, however unfortunately, I do not feel that this is real life. No one asked any one of us whether we wanted to be born, and the fact that we were born does not entitle us to anything. Perhaps you say it should, that every human person deserves dignity and the right to life, and I agree, and in this great country, the United States of America, these rights are often preserved. But at the same time we are sheltered and coaxed into thinking that we have it the best, and therefore why go anywhere else. That every other country in the world is essentially in disarray, and so there is no need ever to leave. That everything we here have is as it should be, and so we should not protest. Just go on about your life, get yours, and life will be fine. I hesitate, I chafe, I know there is something more and I want a piece of it. I want life to fight back, I want to have to struggle to make things work, I want a little taste of blood in my mouth every once in a while. This comfortable, established, and ordered life is certainly for some, and perhaps will better agree with me at some point as well, but not now. Now I take life by the horns and run with it, run to the far corners of the globe in exploration and expectation of finding the great truths of life hidden in some backwoods or alley gutter. I expect to find it raining in the Amazons of Brazil or in the concise steel structures of Tokyo. Life is lived by exploring new possibilities and new potentials.

The questions are asked: how much money do you have? What about all of the shots, vaccinations, visas, etc.? My answer is another question: how much does it take to travel the world? And are you going to let the little things stop you from chasing your dream?

There is the famous platitude that one should shoot for the moon, and if one fails to reach it, that person will still find themselves among the stars. This trip is not so much about the external reality, but more about what kind of changes and impacts the external reality is going to have on our souls. This trip is a journey of the soul if you will. A quest to find ourselves, with the knowledge that we will be stretched, will be challenged, will have let-downs and triumphs, and at the end that we will come out stronger people for what we have sought and achieved, whether this be an accomplished journey around the world, or simply an expedition to the West Coast and back. And so I venture to ask you:

What are your dreams? And what are you doing to make them a reality in your life?

Good Luck Fr. Dennis!

This picture encapsulates the event that brought three friends together to celebrate the life and ministry of a great man by the name of Fr. Dennis Miller. A priest at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Student Center since the beginning of my own time there, he has been a support and an inspiration for the family and student communities alike that together comprise the parish population. My time at Iowa State University was challenging as I was forced to confront the realities of life to which I was rarely exposed during the greater part of my life up to that point. I vaguely recall visiting St. Thomas and feeling somewhat comfortable there during one of my first campus visits to Iowa State, but of course it was also quite different from my very conservative and traditional home parish in Rockford, Illinois. Nonetheless, despite the somewhat more scarce periods of kneeling during mass, and the sung Alleluia after the Gospel reading, I adapted and came to enjoy my new experience of Catholicism. Many good friends were an invaluable support during this time, not the least of which being my high school buddy and one of my best friends of all time, Andy May. Other men and women supported me and helped me to see that despite the imperfection of the human elements of Catholicism and the issues with St. Thomas Aquinas as a parish specifically, at the heart lay the reality of an encounter with Christ, and the need to share that with every single person encountered in our lives. This is what Fr. Dennis continually communicated to me, and was one of the reasons that I stuck by the Church, and ultimately served as a leader within it, a peer minister over the course of my junior year at Iowa State.

During this time, Fr. Dennis was the voice of reason and truth, explaining the intricacies of what it takes to become a Catholic priest, and constantly sharing his experience of the faith through discussion, and his wisdom and knowledge through conversation and the passing on of books and catechisms and any resources or materials that he saw fitting to my spiritual needs at that point in time. Fr. Dennis, was, and as I realized upon seeing him this past week, still is a figure that I look up to as a friend, and as a role model. There is a sense about him that inspires some measure of awe in my heart and soul, and I think it is the beauty of his devotion to his vocation. He still never hesitates to offer a smile, and truly carries a deep sense of joy with him that proves contagious to everyone that he meets. He is both a leader and a man of the people. He has left an indelible mark on the students that he has taught and pastored at St. Thomas Aquinas, and I know will continue to do so in the six parishes of his future assignment. I pray that God bless and continue to inspire him, and that the Holy Spirit remain constantly with him that he will possess the strength of faith and passion for people to continue to provide the spiritual sustenance and intellectual challenge that the world needs.

God bless and keep you Father, and thank you for all the ways in which you have impacted my life. I would not be the man I am today without your support and teaching.

Passion

Passion drives us! It fills us and pushes us ever onward, through every trial and struggle. We need it as much it needs us to have a purpose. We feel it in the adrenaline-filled moments that define our lives, and yearn for it in the ordinariness of daily life. Yet where does it go? How in the world does it leave, and where does disembodied passion have to go? Who can it inhabit? These are things we cannot know, and yet we do know when it is there, we know when it fills us, and interestingly enough these occurrences can be pinpointed and linked to certain activities or pursuits in our lives. This is a topic I continually return to, because I feel it is so extremely critical.

Our bishop spoke this past weekend on hearing and following the call of God, and how doing so brings great peace into our lives, and that following our own will or the will of the Evil One will only bring us an ever more profound feeling of desolation. Why in the world would we seek the latter? I would posit that not only does following the will of God bring peace, it also brings passion! It brings with it the pursuit of something greater than ourselves. It is in these moments that we forget ourselves and really look to the joy of those around us that we feel this sense of peace and are filled with these feelings of passion.

I want all of you to have passion in your lives! Chase your dreams and do what you must do in your lives to feel fulfilled! Follow every possibility, pursue every opportunity and never hesitate to improve yourself and yet always look to those around you. Seek love with temperance, success with magnanimity, joy with generosity!