This isn't my blog. I just write it.

Downtown Fort Wayne

After talking about, and planning for it and talking more and making a list to talk and plan more, I finally did it. I created my very own page for blogging.

Again.

This isn't the first time that I've kept a blog. I thought that I was very cool in 2006 when I created a blog, but wanted to "get the hang of it" so I kept all the posts private. It quickly became an online journal for my meanderings and sarcastic commentary. So I rapidly decided that if I were to pursue this blog-writing-thing publicly, I would definitely need to not use this particular set of posts. I would absolutely keep the entries for my eventual autobiography, but that's another topic for another day.

So, through the changing of my jobs, I did find myself writing publicly. Through newsletters, editorial letters, grants & proposals, short form in social media, press releases and yes, a public blog. Two blogs, actually. But they weren't mine, I was simply a contributor for other public blogs. Which was great practice, again.

Now, I have a job in communications. In addition to the writing, I've continued my public speaking. And at this point, it's more embarrassing to have to actually say that I don't blog on a regular basis than I would like to admit. So, I made the decision: remove the excuses and get out of the way. Because the truth is, this job that I have isn't actually a job. It's a vocation. I love being here and serving the diocese as a director of communications. But even more than that, I know that the work that is being accomplished here in this office serves a larger purpose. I like to use a phrase that I borrowed from my friends at a local radio station, "This is God's office, I just work here."

And I truly believe it. It's impossible to be oblivious to the way that God's hand is in everything that we do here: in the ways that we support local parishes and ministries, in the way that the insurmountable tasks just happen to get finished and in the way that there just seems to be an endless supply of Catholic stories that are begging to be told.

I pray that the words and content found here help lead people to encounter the love and mercy of God. I'm inspired by the pioneering efforts for Catholic communications of persons like the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen and Mother Angelica. They spoke to the world in ways that shouldn't have been possible. But that's the awesome thing that happens when you allow yourself to say yes and get out of the way so that God can work through you. So, in the end, this isn't my blog-- I just write it.