Over the past few weeks, I've had many reaching out to me asking a variation of this question: "What is going on at Franciscan?" So allow me to share, from my perspective, what I see happening. I'd like to emphasize the phrase, "from my perspective". I do not portend to be authoritative source on all [...]

I'm an optimistic person. I not only think the glass is half full, I'm glad that it isn't totally full so that there is room for growth. But I was already debating the value of 2018 before my son fractured his femur on our cruise ship. So good riddance, 2018. I'd like to thank everyone [...]

"Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled." These are the words we hear Elizabeth say to Mary at the end of the Gospel today. About ten chapters and thirty years later in the Gospel of Luke, when Jesus was doing his public ministry, a woman cried [...]

When I was about 15, my older sister took me to see U2 live in concert. It was their Joshua Tree tour. I had actually only been to one other concert before that, which was the Monkees 25th Anniversary Tour. So, yeah, this was a little different. I actually didn't know much about U2 except [...]

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke.  Glory to you, O Lord.  In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas [...]

Yesterday I officially became a candidate for the diaconate in the diocese of Steubenville. It is a great honor! After posting some pictures of the Candidacy Mass on Instagram, I received a number of congratulations from friends, as well as comments asking, "had you told us about this before?" The answer: not really. Two years [...]

How can I sum my experience at the World Meeting of Families in Dublin, Ireland this past week? Perhaps a British author said it best: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." I must confess that I generally avoid big papal events. My last (and only) World Youth Day was [...]

https://youtu.be/a-79L6A2zWU I vividly remember the summer of 1994, a summer that would change my life forever. I had just graduated from Rollins College in Winter Park, FL (just north of Orlando) with a degree in theater, and was busy playing bars with my band and working at an improv comedy club. The band was really [...]

One of the best things I've ever created (other my kids, which was not a solo venture) was writing Between the Savior and the Sea, a novel that tells the Gospel story from the eyes of Simon Peter. I'm always thrilled when someone comes up to me at an event and shares how they were blessed by it. [...]