New Beginnings

I began this Blog one year ago in July 2009, and maintained it during a year of transition for both me and for the DeLaSalle Education Center.
Now, as July 2010 winds down, I realize that my transition as the executive director of a great institution is complete, and I am in a different "space", as they say.
I am now no longer in a position to offer my "official" viewpoint on DeLaSalle developments. It would therefore be misleading for me to continue "DeLaSalle Musings".
So I have decided to end this Blog, and to begin another.
In the new Blog, I want to write about the more personal developments going on in my life. Some of my observations in the new Blog may be based on my new job with DeLaSalle, that of Director of Sustainability. In that role, I will be raising money to finish the current capital campaign, and then establish a new fund for the future support of DeLaSalle. That is an important role for me and for DeLaSalle, but it is far different than the role I was in when I began "DeLaSalle Musings" last year.
But I do not expect that most of what I write about in my new Blog will be about my new position with DeLaSalle. What I expect to write about is why and how my transition and transformation took place, and some of the other hopes and longings I have for the future.
For instance, one development that took place over the last year was something I did not bring up very much in this Blog, and which I would now like to address.
It concerns my spiritual journey.
As I transitioned from DeLaSalle this past year, I applied for, and was accepted into, the permanent diaconate for the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.
If I am privileged enough to remain in this program, I will be ordained a deacon in the Church in June 2014.
I have always had a strong desire to serve God in a ministry. I believed, and still do believe, that I was ministering while I worked at DeLaSalle the past 30 years.
But something deeper was at work in me during the past few years, and it led me to decide that I needed to pursue this deeper calling.
When I was a child, and even through early adulthood, I thought I was being called to become a priest.
In fact, that's why I originally came to Kansas City. I left my home and family in Wilmington, Delaware to consider entering the seminary to become a priest. I joined a religious community in Kansas City called the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity.
After a year of formation and discernment, I decided that I wanted to marry and have a family. It was then that I met Karol, who after 36 years of marriage remains the love of my life.
But the call to holiness and to service did not stop. I was deeply drawn to spiritual life and prayer, and to love God and the poor.
After my son, Aaron, died tragically in 2002, I began to understand more about myself and my weaknesses. I discovered that I had experienced a mild depression for most of my life. Through counseling, life coaching and prayer, I found healing and new purpose in my life. I began to wonder if I might still be called to ministry.
In the Catholic Church, there is a form of ordination for married men (and in a few cases, for single men), that does not necessarily lead directly to priesthood. This is the permanent diaconate. Permanent deacons serve the Church and the world in specific ministries. Their ordination provides them with some sacramental gifts, but also gifts for service in ministry. I decided that this call might have been what I had experienced throughout my life. I wanted to minister to those suffering grief or mental illness, and, God willing, to offer consolation, encouragement and healing as God would direct me. I applied to the Diocese and was accepted this past January. I am thrilled and delighted with this graced opportunity.
I hope to write more about this call and what I hope to do now through ministry AND in my continuing service at DeLaSalle. For me, that means I should create a new Blog so that I can express these issues without there being any confusion with my new role at DeLaSalle.
I appreciate your readership. The new Blog address will be posted here soon.
God Bless you!
Jim