What is it that informs, defines, inspires, moves, thrills, delights me in my identity, relationships, communities, mission, and destiny? From most to less significant:
1. Catholic. Not Catholic Christian, Catholic. I love, above all, Jesus Christ, my Lord-Savior-Brother, second person of the Trinity. I do not love him individually, but personally, as a member of The Church, the one, catholic, holy, apostolic, spousal, maternal, Marian, sacramental, infallible, efficacious, institutional, mystical, sinful, hierarchical Roman Catholic Church.
2. Family. To my wife, immediate and extended family I am husband, father, son, brother, grandfather, father(and other)-in-law, uncle, cousin, nephew, grandson.
3. Friend. To a mesmerizing, bewildering variety of random, eclectic, eccentric, gifted, wounded, marvelous people.
4. Catechist. My defining ambition has been to listen, within the Church, to the voice of Christ and the Word of God, and to "echo" that in my own voice, person, action. Above all, I have desired that the voice of Christ be heard by my own blood and other young people.
5. Chastity. Since my most severe moral challenge has always been chastity, I have cherished the Catholic ethos of sexuality, especially the catechesis on the male/female human body of John Paul the Great, and the entire Catholic support system including confession, spiritual direction, men's support groups, ideals of virile purity and fidelity, as well as the miracles of a happy marriage/family and holy friendships.
6. The Poor. My other defining ambition: to be tender, attentive, comforting to the suffering and poor, including the mentally-emotionally tormented.
7. Charismatic. In this lay renewal movement, I received a new movement of the Holy Spirit, and encounter with Pentecostal/Evangelicalism, and a deepening of my Catholic faith.
8. Culture Warrior. Coming of age in the 1960s, I breathed in the liberal euphoria of the age, but was blessed in the 1970 by a grace-filled marriage and a series of grace-filled encounters and took a militant, warrior stance against my cohort's cultural progressivism.
9. Social Doctrine of the Church. In addition to concern for the poor, I have desired to understand, interiorize and live the Church's social teaching in all dimensions: solidarity, the common good, subsidiarity, respect for life, reverence for marriage, and all our liberties.
10. Philosophy. Armchair, amateur, lay, uncredentialled, non-professional philosopher ("lover of wisdom") am I. A defining passion has been to read, reflect, discuss broadly...theology, philosophy, social sciences, history, literature and culture/politics. In this I have ambitioned to emulate: mentor-autodidact-pugilist-librarian Pat Williams; best-friend-little-big-brother-beatnik-convert-charismatic-Neocat John Rapinich; catechist-publisher Frank Sheed; itinerant Catholic Worker founder Peter Maurin; mystic-scholar Baron von Hugel; mystic-radical-eccentric Simone Weil; artist-musician-mystic Kiko Arguello and others who gained wisdom from broad and undirected reading, personal experience, prayer and the life of the Church.
11. American. I cherish our legacies of liberty, law, democracy, market economics, entrepreneurship, and the abundance gifts and energies that have blessed our nation. My patriotism, in contrast to a narrow and defensive nationalism, in always in the context of a broader Catholic internationalism: no isolationism or "America First" here! Likewise, my pledge of allegiance includes an awareness of the Calvinist-Enlightenment-Masonic (non-sacramental; non-Marian; non-magisterial) underpinning of our founding and history which express in oscillations between individualism, collectivism, Faustian technocracy, consumerism, and bourgeois self-satisfaction.
12. Communio Theology. In the teachings of John Paul, Benedict, Balthasar, the David Schindlers and their colleagues at the John Paul II Institute in Washington DC, I encountered an articulation of our Catholic faith that is grounded in revelation and tradition, fresh and innovative, profound, profoundly delightful and inspiring.
For all of this I can only say: "Thank You, Lord!"
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