It’s been a few days since I’ve written, so I apologize as writing is part of my Lenten intention. Here’s something that’s been on my mind the last few days. Every other week I meet with a group of friends for prayer and discussion. In the midst of the chaos of this world it’s nice to have a place for spiritual replenishment. So Friday night as I was walking to my car feeling pretty good about things, when I reached for the car door I dropped my Bible. “Nice” I thought to myself. A few minutes later after pulling into my driveway I open the car door and bloomp, I dropped it again. “Smooth” I muttered to myself. Finally, just three or four steps into the house, I dropped it a third time. Only this time as I picked it up the story of Peter denying Christ three times popped into my head. Now I absolutely wasn’t denying Jesus, I mean I had just left a prayer group, I was on fire. It got me thinking though…have I been slacking somewhere? But maybe that’s all we need sometimes, just a little nudge to remind us why we’re here and who we’re sacrificing for. It’s real easy for us to use life as an excuse to stray off the path…too busy, too stressed, too…whatever. There’s a line from scripture that sticks with me in moments like this when I question my actions. It’s from Luke and it occurred just as Peter denied Jesus the third time and it goes… “And the Lord turned and looked at Peter…”-Luke 22:61 Talk about getting the wind knocked out of you, I mean it’s bad enough when we fail Him, but when you truly realize that He knows you’re doing it and we do it anyway….it’s almost heartbreaking. What am I saying? It is heartbreaking because regardless of all He’s done and will do for us, just like Peter, we ARE denying Him. i hope you all can find the fire within yourselves to always be the light for others. As always I’ll be praying for you all.
Remember to live the Faith.God bless.

The St. Francis of Assisi Church on 31 St has always held a special place in my heart. I guess it started when choosing a confirmation name I chose Francis in honor of my paternal grandfather. After doing some (required) research on the saint of my choosing I was blown away by the life of St. Francis of Assisi. Years later I would make the first of several annual trips to the steps of this church with the Holy Cross Youth Group to drop off food at the homeless shelter there. Over the last six years I’ve walked past the church countless times coming and going from work at all hours of the day and night. I’ve seen and spoken with homeless people sleeping outside the building when the shelters full, I’ve stopped to pray, and left food at the foot of the statue of Jesus as a homeless beggar, but I’ve never gone inside…until today. Like I had said the other day, just being in a church gives me a sense of peace and comfort, but this was different…better. As I stepped through the door into the nave I was overcome with a feeling of tranquility from the smell of wood and blast of warm air from oversized steam radiators that instantly made me think of my grandfather (mom’s side). After praying for a bit, I just sat back and took in the beauty of this place that I had been to so many times but had never seen. Realizing that I had to get to Penn, I said a final prayer headed back out into the chaos that is New York. Here’s where it gets pretty cool. As I was crossing over 7th Ave I hear “Hey leatherneck!” Turning to look it was the homeless marine I had spoken with last week. As I got closer by the look on his face he was genuinely happy to see me. I squatted down next to him and had a conversation like we were two old friends, as I heads out I said “I’ll see you next week” and down into Penn I went. Working my through the main concourse towards where I needed to be for my train I finally came to a stop by one of the message boards to wait for my track number to be announced. As I’m standing there in half awake state (thanks daylight savings time) looking at the sign I started to get a feeling like someone was staring at me. Not sure exactly how long I was standing there but as my track number came up I turned and saw one of the homeless guys I had met awhile back. With a smile and “fist bump” he says “Hey you remember me?” “Absolutely buddy, what’s going on?” I said back reciprocating the fist bump. For the second time in a matter of minutes, I was talking with someone who was just happy to talk to someone like old friends. After a little bit I shook his hand and told him I’d talk to him soon and literally had to run down the stairs to make my train. As I am sitting on the train I can’t help but feel like in some way I got to “see” Jesus, St. Francis and both my grandfather’s today. Pretty great Sunday afternoon. As always I’ll be praying for you all.
Remember to live the Faith.

God bless.

So I’ve received mixed reviews about my Lenten posts, ranging from supportive to questioning. The truth of the matter is, I actually enjoy when people comment on or question what I’m doing because it gives me yet another opportunity to share my Faith. I mean I even have a Christian Surfer “who do you surf for“ sticker on the nose of my paddle-board, just so as to not miss an opportunity to evangelize, even when I’m in the water. But all of the questions and comments made me think of the story of the three servants from Mathew 25:14-30. When I was growing up I never understood why the last servant got in trouble for being safe with the money. To be fair, when I was younger I was a pretty small person, so accordingly I faced my share of bullying, so I guess the safe route always seemed like the way to go. Fast forward a few years, a couple of feet, a lot of pounds, even more life experiences and I see and approach things a bit differently now. So obviously it’s a parable, but in my youth I found it difficult to separate the idea of money as Faith. Although, it does make you think, how many people cherish their faith as much as their money or materialistic things. Too often, I think, we take Christ for granted. But getting back to the story in Mathew I think there’s a few lessons we can all take for our everyday lives. For the sake of this I’ll give you three. First, God is always with us so, never let fear stop you from living your faith. Next, in the same way the master gave his servants money in the hope they would increase it, we were all given the Holy Spirit, and it’s our charge to share and teach our faith to others in words and more importantly, deeds. Finally, in the end we will all be judged in heaven by our how we live our lives here. So when faced with an opportunity to share your faith remember to be courageous and “spend it” like it’s not yours because that’s what God wants. I’ll be praying for you all.
Remember to live the Faith.

God bless.

It’s funny how life can come at you so differently from day to day. We all have our share of good days and bad days, then there are days like today. Not bad, but a day where it felt like I was being tested at every turn, so I decided to take a little detour on my way to Penn Station. When faced with any kind of bad moment, experience, or day it’s common for people to blame God. We all need to remember that God does not tempt us.
13 And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. -James 1:13
But it’s our own vanity and misconceptions that prevent us from seeking and excepting help from the only true place we can get it, our Faith. And although I am a believer in that we are the church, not the building, sometimes it feels good to just sit for a moment in the presence of Christ. So I headed to my “city church” after work. There’s something about stepping through the doorway that just feels safe. Like in Proverbs 18:10 where it says that “the name of the Lord is a strong fortress, the godly run to Him and are safe”. Now even though the tabernacle is in front of me, when I close my eyes to pray I feel like Christ is sitting next to me. It never ceases to amaze me the power we are blessed to have at our disposal, we only gave to accept it. After praying and simply sitting in His presence for a little while, as I opened my eyes it was like a weight lifted…which was good because I had to start running to make my train. I hope you all remember to always look to God whenever you need help, nothing is to large or to small for Him. I’ll be praying for you all.
Remember to live the Faith.

God bless.

     As I was finishing my lunch today a random person from work asked me if I ever felt hypocritical? A bit taken a back I asked what he was talking about, to which he said something along the lines of he saw me bless myself before I ate, but he assumed (correctly) that I sinned in other times of my life.  “Absolutely not!” I answered quickly, “I pray BECAUSE I’m not perfect”.  It was at this point that he probably thought he shouldn’t have tried being funny.  Over the next few minutes he got a quick spiritual life lesson. I told him that imperfections aren’t bad, as long as the end goal is perfect.  Lets be realistic,life isn’t Instagram.  These perfect little moments. Life is messy.  I took a picture out the window and then told him to take a look out of the same window.  In the pic the world is neat and clean…the cars, the sky, the water.  But that’s not real. In real life everything is moving in a chaotic manner.  Those cars are trying to get somewhere and eventually home. The sky, may cloud up and rain or be beaming sunshine, but either way that’s going to help things grow. And the water…well for me it’s going to keep moving until it finally breaks as perfect surf-able waves.  I finished up by saying that I, like the cars, am just trying to get home… Heaven. The sun and the rain, well I hope I can be the light for someone and maybe help them grow in their faith. And as for the waves, I just said surfing is awesome.  But more important than all of that, I told him that Christ came for those of us that know we’re sinners. 

32 I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.”-Luke 5:32

I’ll be praying for you all.
Remember to live the faith.

God bless.

Before I begin I just want to say that as I read the Bible whenever a certain chapter, verse, or line hits me I make a mark so I can go back at a later time to reread it. So as I was looking through my Bible to pick a topic to talk about today I opened to Mathew 6:22-23.

22 “Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light.23 But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!     -Mathew 6:22-23 

After reading it a couple of times it hit me that it’s a pretty good passage to start our Lenten journey with because sometimes it’s difficult to truly see our own faults. We have no problem pointing out the flaws in others, but in ourselves….not so much. Or maybe we see it but brush it off because we’re “normally good”, and my favorite during Lent is the “well I messed up already today, I’ll just start again tomorrow” attitude. Unfortunately that’s not how this works, but when you can’t or won’t see the errors in yourself it becomes difficult to genuinely see right from wrong anywhere. But that’s the beauty of Lent. We’re given this opportunity to hit a spiritual reset button. To look beyond our own vanity, and humble ourselves to God. In baptism we all received the indelible mark on our foreheads, cleansing us of original sin… cleaning the slate. Today when we receive ashes on our foreheads, it’s a reminder for both ourselves and the world around us that we acknowledge that we are imperfect, but repentant, and we’re doing this because Christ sacrificed Himself for us…cleaning the slate. So as this journey begins, remember we are all in it together. I’ll be praying for you all.

Remember to Live the Faith.

God bless.