Meet Emmanuel: artist, autodidact, papa, Catholic

I've been a Catholic for thirty-eight years and my reversion happens a few seconds after my eyes open each morning. I've always been a practicing Catholic and never missed a Sunday Mass (except when in the hospital a couple times). 

I am not holy...just to set anyone straight...I have obvious flaws that annoy and interior flaws that sometimes make me fear for my salvation. 

My greatest challenge in practicing the faith is remaining hopeful and consequently joyful. I place great hope in the thought that God created out of nothing. He has much more to work with now so imagine what He must be planning! 

My favorite Spiritual writings after the Bible are Fr. Emil Mersch's The Theology of the Mystical Body and The Hermitage Within (by an anonymous monk). 

I cannot really pin down a verse in scripture because I like how it interacts with the person in the story (of course I place myself in their shoes). Two favorites are when the woman at the well says "give me this water to drink that I may not have to come here and draw" and He answers with "Call your husband." This shows me that the living water comes when we encounter our lives honestly in the light of God's Plan in Christ. I listen to the Gospel of John on mp3 (by Leonardo Defilippis) and when Jesus encounters the magdalene after the resurrection and says "Mary" she replies "Rabboni!" and almost instantly my eyes moisten. 

My favorite saint is St. Benedict Joseph Labre because he tried so hard going from vocation to vocation only to find that his vocation was going from place to place. My favorite quote is long. 

Unfortunately my mentor died with the last pope and hasn't yet found a replacement. 

My ministry in the Church is to raise an angel, a mother superior, a priest, a hermit, a worker artist, another nun, and a victim soul.

My education is my Mp3 player as I work. My favorite movie is Fiddler on the Roof, I mentioned my favorite book already and my music is hands down the Akathist hymns for good friday and Rach III for variation.(I listen to these about twice a day or more with little to no variation). 

I am good with my hands so I create sacred art when I can but as a day job I am a finish carpenter/restoration remodeler. I talk a lot. What is very cool or interesting about me is that I am a Catholic. 

Thank you, Emmanuel, for sharing your life! Others in the I'm a Catholic series are Kim and Cat.