Living Monstrance

For a while I volunteered at an assisted living facility in Boston and I had the privilege of taking one of the residents, Jack, for a walk. Now, Jack was blind, so I had a big responsibility. He would wait for me, and I would meet him in the lobby and guide him out the door [...]

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Several years ago, I got a phone call from a great friend of mine.  We became best friends in college and have kept in touch pretty regularly, even though he lives with his wife in New Jersey and I am in Boston.  Well this night he was filling me in on what had happened to [...]

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As a Minister of Holy Communion in the hospital, I had the privilege to visit many people who came from all types of backgrounds and were in all types of situations.  I would see joy, sorrow, pain, relief, the whole gamut of emotions it seems.  But the greatest sadness I ever saw was from a [...]

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Right now, my mother has been at home struggling with cancer.  There have been ups and downs, good and bad, but we are all making it, and the Lord is doing great things in our midst.
One of the problems we face is her eating.  Her appetite hasn’t been good, so we have to be creative [...]

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I taught CCD to sixth-graders for a year.  It is a great privilege to be in a classroom teaching young ones about God, and it is a place where God does great things.
Now, let’s face it: Catholic education in America, and in Boston, is not what you would call top notch.  When you teach CCD, [...]

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I had the privilege of volunteering as a Minister of Holy Communion in a Boston hospital for several years.  The hospital is a place where many people experience great darkness in life.  It is also a place where the Lord does some of the greatest things.
One day, before making visits, I decided to go to [...]

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The Franciscan community I lived with for a while did not have any money or means of transportation.  So, for long distances, we used different ways of getting around.  One of them was hitchhiking.
That might sound risky at first, but when you are serving the Lord, He provides.  We saw only great goodness and generosity [...]

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My mother was in the hospital for nine days.  When we finally brought her home, the first thing she did was … sleep.  Yes, sleep.  You see, one thing I’ve learned about hospitals is that no one - no one - gets rest in a hospital.  The doctors are working long hours.  The nurses and [...]

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I taught high school mathematics and chemistry for a brief time.  Now, before the school year began, there was an orientation that lasted a few days for new students.  So, this was my real beginning with the students.  “Nice,” I thought.  “We’ll ramp up slowly.”
At that first day, a mother of one of the new [...]

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As a Franciscan postulant, I got to tag along with another postulant on a parish mission that the priests and brothers were giving.  We postulants got the easy part - spending the day in the parish school.  Well, torture for some people, but for me a gift.
In one class of seventh-graders, my brother postulant was leading an interactive discussion [...]

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