The back of my office door

You can tell how big a person is by what it takes to discourage him. - Unknown
I found this quote during a very difficult time in ministry and it was a constant reminder to keep my focus. While I cannot always be gushing with gratitude, I do try to keep things in perspective.

Office Quote #3

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. - Dr. Seuss
While there are many things to miss in not being married and having children as a priest, reading Dr. Seuss to any of my potential children is a big one. So many of my favorite childhood books were Dr. Seuss and it was only later in life that I realized what a genius he was in making reading and language so much fun.

Office quote #2

Ninety percent of the world's woe comes from people not knowing themselves, their abilities, their frailties, and even their real virtues. Most of us go almost all the way through life as complete strangers to ourselves. - Sydney J. Harris
       The promise of Christ is to come to know ourselves through Him.  It is a challenging act of forgetting self and then discovering self as we commit our lives to Him and to His Gospel. I think one of the challanges in following Christ is not to follow Him so that we can know ourselves better.  While that reality and result are true, we don't follow Christ because of what we hope to gain in self-discovery or actualization, we follow Him because we profess Him as Lord.

Quotes from my Office: #1

No Day is wasted on which you laugh.
       For the longest time I did not know who said this, but it seems to be a variation on a quote by Nicolas de Chamfort. His quote reads as follows: The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed.  Either way, I like to laugh and it has been in my office since my appointment to Epiphany.