February 2025

     I was born in Yonkers, NY, and I am the 3rd oldest of eight children. We moved to Long Island when I was ten. My father was an accountant and my mom stayed home to raise us kids. My father was also an abusive alcoholic. My mom bore the brunt of most of the abuse. She was a very devout Catholic back then and tried her best to raise her children in the Catholic faith. When I was 13 years old my father was killed in a train accident. My mom didn’t have a job and didn’t know how to drive a car. My thoughts went from “when will the fighting ever stop?” to “what do we do now?” You see, as abusive as my father was, we were so totally dependent on him, we didn’t quite know where to turn.
     This is where one of those “twists” come in. The Catholic Church we were attending didn’t do very much to help us, but a Baptist Church that my oldest sister had started going to helped in many ways. Eventually, our whole family, even my mom, started going to this Baptist Church. They had a good youth group there which centered around their choir. I started reading the Bible and started to understand more what it meant to be a Christian. But about my senior year in high school, I didn’t feel like I fit in with the choir and dropped out of going to church altogether.

     I went to Manhattan College (a Catholic College run by Christian Brothers) and majored in Mechanical Engineering. One of the elective humanities courses I took was titled “Understanding The New Testament”. The teacher was a Priest who I really liked and learned a lot from. However, I questioned the scriptures more and more and also
questioned my faith.

     Upon graduation in 1979, I accepted a job with Texaco as a Petroleum Engineer in Houma. I lived there for three years until Texaco closed that o[ice and then moved to Metairie where I worked in Texaco’s Harvey o[ice. While there, I transitioned from various assignments into rig operations, where I would stay for the rest of my career. During this time I had started dating my wife Kim, who also happened to work for Texaco.

     When we were dating, Kim was a practicing Catholic and I started going to church again with her at St. Clement of Rome. We were married on July 30, 1983 at St. Joseph’s, in Gretna where Kim’s parents were married. We were blessed with two sons, Brett and Casey. Things were good: we had a small, but nice home. Kim “retired” to raise our two sons, we were involved with the church and Kim was also very involved at their school.     In 1996, I left Texaco and went to work for LLOG Exploration Company and worked there for seventeen years as the Drilling Manager and Vice President of Rig Operations. As time passed, my high stress job, being on call 24/7/365 for years, and other things, led me to drinking more (something I swore as kid I would never do) and I turned away from God, once again. I retired in 2013, but that didn’t solve my problems.

     In April of 2019 I was diagnosed with stage 4 non-hodgkins lymphoma. After going though 6 rounds of chemo, the cancer was still present and I was prescribed an oral medication, which I take every day, to stabilize the cancer. Two years later I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and underwent 28 radiation treatments. My life was a mess and I was turning to alcohol because of my lack of faith at the time. On November 11, 2021 certain events showed me I had to change. I had to get o[ of the roller coaster! That day was the last drink of alcohol I had. I began going to AA meetings the next day, which I believe the Holy Spirit led me to. One of the things that AA taught me was the importance of being of service to
others.

     I went to the first men’s ACTS retreat at SCS which showed me once more that, along with Adoration, Community, and Theology - Service to others is what brings us true joy in life. My many new ACTS Brothers and Sisters have helped me through some other struggles with their prayers, of which I am humbled by and forever grateful!

     The RESCUE Project, “That Man Is You”, the Tuesday morning Bible Study I attend from
time to time, and most of all, the unwavering love of my dear wife Kim, have gotten me off the roller coaster and strengthened my relationship with the LORD. Sure, there are still some days where there are ups and downs; but, being part of the SCS Community has shown me that the love of God our Father, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are unwavering, unending and unconditional.

     So, if you feel like your faith life is on a roller coaster, Saint Catherine is the place to be to get you back on the right track! There are ministries for all interests, but you have to take the first step. I promise you will find being a servant to others – being a servant to the Lord – will bring you the joy you’re looking for! God Bless You!