My path began as a poor kid in an alcoholic family in inner-city Philadelphia. At nineteen, hunger for God led me to enter a Trappist Cistercian Abbey in Iowa. After a quarter century as a monk— including seven years living in nearly total solitude as a hermit, I became a spiritual father and teacher.
First, I became spiritual director and chaplain to contemplative Trappistine Nuns. Then I was made Director of Formation at New Melleray Abbey where I formed new-comers in the monastic spiritual life. Next I was called to live as a monk among the destitute poor in the Andes Mountains of Bolivia. God brought friends from the States to my side and we established a medical clinic for the sick and injured Quechua natives. Then followed the founding of an orphanage and a retreat house.
Against all expectations, in 1987, at 50 years of age, I felt free in the Lord to consider marriage as a holy way of life. After a year of painful discernment, against all the traditions of men, I dared to marry. During twenty years of seeking union with God and transformation in Christ in the married life, I have broadened and deepened my understanding of the spirituality of married love. Surprisingly, God favored us with two children. The experience of being a parent greatly expanded my vision of the process of sanctification and transformation by the Spirit.
During all these many years I have continued to walk as a spiritual companion to many, clergy and lay. My spirituality now incorporates the best traditions of monastic history and breaks new ground by interpreting the ordinary experience of Christian life in the world as a perfect way to consummate union with God and transformation in Jesus.
My path began as a poor kid in an alcoholic family in inner-city Philadelphia. At nineteen, hunger for God led me to enter a Trappist Cistercian Abbey in Iowa. After a quarter century as a monk— including seven years living in nearly total solitude as a hermit, I became a spiritual father and teacher. 