Growing in Faith and Petersboat

It’s natural to detach from our parents as we grow into adulthood. God seems to have designed the human person to do just that. But it also seems that the process of maturing is taking a little bit longer these days. Nor does it enjoy the success rate it once did.

It’s also natural for a child to move from saying, "I believe in God because my parents do," to saying, "I believe in God because I do." And if that child is ever to become a mature Catholic of deep faith that transition is also necessary. This is what continues to interest me, this process of moving from worshipping our parents to worshipping God.

I mean no disrespect by the expression worshipping our parents. I did it too. We all did. All children do. That's how God designed us. That's how life begins: we’re formed by our parents. But when we begin to think for ourselves we begin also to understand that our parents are not God. They are not perfect; nor can they save us.

The emotional mourning that often accompanies the discovery of our parents' inability to fulfill us, easily masked by the excuse to rebel, is made all the more painful these days by a cultural storm clamoring for our attention at every turn. Growing in the Faith is treacherous.

So, dear young people, I pray that this Christmas you find some way to be taken up into the Mystery yourselves, and there find the God Who formed you in your mothers' womb when He gave you life in the first place - and Who alone can satisfy your heart’s desire for perfect love.

While We’re At It: Why Shoud I Be Catholic?

My father was a Protestant before becoming Catholic in his 20's. I know that many of you are converts as well. Your witness emboldens us who are "cradle Catholics" to be unafraid to confirm our trust in the Church. I imagine it wasn't easy for you, considering how some of your family and friends may have perceived it as an affront. It's one of the ironies of being Catholic in these times: whereas in the 16th century it was culturally radical to leave the Church, it is now radical to stay. In any case, in a world (and country) where there is so much division, I feel proud to belong to a holy institution that exists for the purpose of co-creating with God a real, visible unity among the nations. It seems the world's destiny, since Christ is not divided. +

Many of you, being parishioners, old students, and friends, know something about me already. For those of you who don’t, here’s a short telling of my vocation and Petersboat.

After graduating from college in 2,000, I was offered a teaching position in a middle school but felt little attraction to the atmosphere of the school system. Instead, I extended my summer jobs (waiting tables and caddying) into the off-season and accepted an invitation to join a team of youth ministers at my home parish.

Around that time I suffered a series of lung problems that would lead to my taking a position with a homeless shelter, knowing that the work would be less physically demanding and more rewarding. It was during those days that I began thinking about the priesthood.

I had had a love for the Church, because my family - although not the most outwardly pious - nevertheless preferred the company of devout Catholics; our closest friends were families from the parish, and we would have priests to the home.

Confirmed in my discernment of a vocation while on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje, I applied and was accepted to the minor seminary in Douglaston where I studied Philosophy through Saint John’s University. I then entered the major seminary in Huntington with eleven other men, enjoying my time there very much; it was an experience of deep fraternity.

I was ordained in 2008 and was assigned to Holy Name of Mary in Valley Stream. After five years, I was sent as chaplain to Saint John the Baptist High School in West Islip where I served for six years before being sent here to Christ the King in 2019.

I started this Petersboat ministry back in 2010. It was initially a blog, but even then there was an audio section of meditations. After that, it became an archive of the weekly videos I had been making for the students in the high school.

These days, I tend to remove posts after a while, preferring not to catalogue content indefinitely, but I do enjoy being with you like this, even though it’s a bit “pushed off from the shore,” as was Saint Peter’s boat, when, on one occasion, the crowd was so great on land that Our Lord thought it best to teach the people from the boat (cf Lk 5:3). +