The Long Journey Into Light

A Short and Vague Biography

I call this website the "Long Journey Into Light" for a number of reasons. 

First, one of my favorite plays is Eugene O'Neill's The Long Journey Into Night.  O'Neill, in writing this autobiographical play, accounts for his own conversion from the darkness into the light.  The point being this: you must enter the dark in order to leave it behind and discover the ultimate Light.

His play was fittingly titled The Long Journey Into Night because his play detailed that part of his life in which he entered into the darkness he had always fled before.  Entering the Night meant that he could finally, after a lifetime, enter into the Light.  The play is an analysis of his entrance into the former.

Well, this website and my blog in particular highlight my journey into Light.  Struggles with the "Night" remain--albeit in smaller doses than O'Neill--, but the "Light" always wins when we allow it.

The life of faith is a journey.  Christ leads us from the front, walks alongside us, and is pushing us from behind.  Yet in my better moments I recognize what Solomon talks about in Proverbs: man often walks away from the Lord, gets on the wrong path, and stops making progress towards Almighty God.  I am no exception.

Recognizing that Christ is with us in these three ways is important when we consider the life of faith as a journey.  Every journey has a place of beginning, a destination, and a way to get there.

God, I have come to learn, is our beginning, our destination, and our way to get there.  We are here because of Him, our goal us eternal life with Him, and our way to get there is through His Church--in particular, the sacraments.

It is in service to His Church that I feel called to spend my life.   Today I am a seminarian of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis undergoing formation at St. Meinrad Seminary in St. Meinrad, Indiana.  There is no place I'd rather be. 

How did I get here?  Family, friends, clergy, teachers, parochial school, work experience, volunteer experience, time at IU, etc.  More than anything, it has been Christ working in and through the Catholic Church and the loving protection and graces given me by the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

Finally, the journey into light is "long".  It's a lifelong thing that will extend even into Purgatory if I get there.  You see, the journey to God is a journey to eternal life in Heaven.  That's a long time by our standards!

But it's also "long" in the sense that it is "against great odds".  The way to God isn't exactly simple; it isn't supposed to be easy.  It's tough to enter into through the eye of the needle.  When we surrender, it becomes possible.

Mary, Queen of the Way: Pray for Us!