Who I Am and What This Is About

It has been now almost ten years since I moved to River Forest, Illinois, to live in a massive, beautiful, but silent, Dominican priory. I believed that it was the beginning of a journey that would lead to entering the Dominicans, becoming a priest, and having a long and contented career with the Catholic Church. I remember how certain I was, about everything. Certain about what I was doing. Certain about the faith. Certain about my place in the world.



I am not as certain now. I don’t question the existence of God—strangely, in some ways, I never have—but I do question my faith and my place in it (and, to be truthful, my place in the world more generally). These questions have ebbed and flowed in how central they are to my consciousness from time to time. Right now, they are very central.


To try to wrestle with them, I find it useful to write. I have been doing it for a while—annoying, I am sure, my friends with my long e-mail rants and screeds. In the hopes of limiting the cluttering of their inboxes, as well as the testing of their patiences, I have decided to write all of these thoughts in one spot. That way, people that want to read them can do so, and those that don’t can easily avoid them.

Most of these thoughts will be related to faith, specifically the Catholic faith, though I am sure I will wander off into other topics. Although this post is coming across as incredibly dark and serious, I will try hard to be funny as much as possible.

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