I’m a 49 year old married Christian, father of four girls (two of whom have moved out; two of whom are pre-teens). I’ve been married since February 29th, 1980 to my high school sweetheart, Joyce. We live in Natick, Massachusetts, the town we were both raised in.
For about the past twenty years, I’ve been a member of Saint Patrick Roman Catholic Church, here in Natick, where I currently serve as a Reader (lector) and an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, as well as serving as a catechist. I also worship regularly at Saint Augustine Church in Andover, MA, which is very close to my place of work. My Catholicism is very much at the core of who I am – and increasingly so. I am engaged in prerequisite coursework for the Master of Arts in Theology program at Franciscan University of Steubenville, which should keep me thoroughly occupied – and too busy to write much – for the next several years.
I’m currently employed as an IT Project Manager by a large pharmaceutical company with a couple sites in Massachusetts, for which I’ve worked for the past twelve years. I’ve earned a B.S. (Information Technology w/ Business minor) from UMass (Lowell), an A.S. (Computer Science) from Mass Bay Community College, and I hold the PMP certification from the Project Management Institute, as well as a pile of dated technical certifications from various networking technology vendors. My professional ambitions involve providing my current (or some similar) organization with competent technical and business acumen for as long as my financial requirements dictate, though my real desire would be to teach full time, which I hope my M.A. will eventually facilitate.
My intellectual interests begin with the Word of God in Sacred Scripture, extending through other areas of theology, and its cultural expression: religion. I’m also interested in many areas of philosophy and cultural criticism, history and political thought, law, language, music, and economics. Not that I know much of anything, but I’m working on it. I have little interest in most of the social sciences – especially psychology, which I see as largely a fool’s errand – and I am frankly contemptuous of the reductionist materialism that permeates the sciences in general.
Politically, I am officially unenrolled/independent, as I cannot presently bring myself to be formally aligned with any of the parties – though I find the contemporary Republican Party far less odious than the alternatives. I am a staunch social conservative who is deeply troubled by the relentless encroachment of the liberal nation-state into all areas of personal and community life – especially its alarming interference in the realm of the family, including its advocacy for the debasement of marriage and the murder of children.
My personal interests, in a sense, are limited only by the doctrine of the Incarnation: everything that is not false is at least potentially as weighty as eternity. God’s breaking-in to human history has sanctified creation, and makes it possible for us to know history itself as the theater of our encounter with Him. Even though I chronically move through my days and nights with a dull mind looking inward at useless constructs of my own imagining, I also know that every experience is pregnant with grace and the redemptive power of holy joy; that every moment of my life is ripe for Christological encounter, if only I could mange to heed the urgent plea of the Apostle Paul in Colossians 3:17, "whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." (RSV)
I remember traveling to the University of Steuebonville in high school and praying at the Tomb of the Unborn Child there. It is indeed a very special place.
I enjoyed perusing your blog. Please check out my big pro-life site. It has tons of pro-life information including quotes from abortionists and clinic workers. I hope you can find it useful. Thanks!
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