This post is much different and shorter than most of the posts I have written lately. Someone recently said how much they enjoy my blog posts and the blog in general, but added that I should talk about things happening in my own life from time to time. So today’s post is just that type of entry.

One week ago today, I moved into a new condo in the heart of downtown Scottsdale. The place is still a mess, no pictures are up on the walls, and the box spring for my queen bed won’t fit up the stairs. Ha ha! I need to purchase a platform bed at IKEA this weekend and purchase some other things to help get this 1267 square foot place in order. The refrigerator rocks though! It’s a great location and very close to my job at the parish. It’s a blessing to have it!

On Tuesday of this week, I began my career as an Adjunct Theology Professor for the University of Mary – Tempe. The classes are held at the Arizona State University Newman Center. I am teaching Introduction to Theology 112. It’s a survey course of the many tenets of Theology. My course outcomes are: 1. Discuss the nature and sources of Theology and examine the different modes of Theology; 2. Explain the importance of Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition in the Life of the Church and how Dei Verbum has brought the Scriptures into the light of the laity since the Second Vatican II Council; 3. Examine Christology and Mariology and how they correlate to one another; 4. Examine Ecclesiology and explain how Sacramental and Liturgical Theology give life to the Church; and 5. Discuss Moral Theology through the eyes of the Catholic Church and how the Church stands against the moral relativism of the current age. The two main texts for the course are Peter Kreeft’s, Catholic Christianity and Theology for Beginners by. F. J. Sheed.

To say it lightly, I am fired up and excited to be teaching again in the classroom. I have missed being out of the classroom this past Fall semester, but know that this class at University of Mary – Tempe is a good fit for me. When Bishop James Wall suggested teaching to me as a career just over 12 years ago, I never realized that I would enjoy the classroom as much as I do today. It’s a definite blessing!

Piggybacking on teaching in the college classroom, I am also teaching and presenting Fr. Robert Barron’s – Catholicism Series with Fr. Chad King, Parochial Vicar at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Scottsdale, Arizona. We have been promoting this great series for nearly one month now at the parish. The first fruits of that advertising was presented to us today. Between the morning session (9:30-11:30 am) and the evening session (7-9pm), we had 150 parishioners and other fellow Catholics from the area join us for Episode 1 – Amazed and Afraid: The Revelation of God Became Man. It was a great turnout to say the least. We hope they return and bring others with them in the weeks ahead. We are both super excited and find ourselves fist pumping as we watched the series to prepare for the presentations and as we were watching them today with our parishioners. The Holy Spirit is moving over the “waters” at OLPH and we feel blessed to be right in the middle of it all during the Year of Faith. I wonder if this is how the Apostles and disciples of Jesus felt on the day of Pentecost.

Please pray for all that I have written about here today. Please pray that more people come to the Catholicism Series and learn about the beauty and mysticism of the Catholic faith. Please pray for the Catholic Church in general and that during this Year of Faith fallen away Catholics will return to the one true faith.