How does one explain a day of near perfection? Today seemed like as close to a perfect balance of spiritual peace as I can ever remember. No pressure to be anything I am not, no spiritual battles within, no demons circling around me, just several opportunities to dwell in the spirit of the Lord in a variety of ways.

1. My morning Matins in the prayer grove – a warm morning so quiet you could hear a pin drop, the bougainvillea all leafed out again towards their summer bloom, their branches reaching out in all directions, a silvery sky shimmering in the morning light. Psalm 42: “As the deer longs for the water-brooks, so my soul longs for thee, O Lord.”

2. We blessed our house with Holy Water from the Jordan River (courtesy of St. Thomas the Apostle Byzantine Catholic Church), hitting all the rooms and praying, “This home is blessed and sanctified by the sprinkling of this Holy Water in the Name of the Father+, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen” The rabbits didn’t appear to like the water too much, but that’s OK.

3. I attended the official ground-breaking ceremony at the property of the future St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Church. It was nice to be out in the fresh air on a glorious day and to see the excitement of a thousand people come together to share fellowship and pray and celebrate what ought to be a beautiful shrine to the Lord Jesus Christ. Funny to see Fr. Greg and a bunch of diocesan priests in their robes wearing hard-hats to break the ground. There’s still a lot of find-raising to be done, but it is a joy to see and feel the excitement of building a new Catholic community from scratch and to know I will be a small part of it in the weeks and months ahead.

4. There’s no small amount of joy and satisfaction at being able to sit on a patio on a still afternoon, the air fragrant with flowers, a chilled Pinot Grigio in hand, surf music playing softly in the background, to tell your wife you’re as spiritually happy and at peace as you’ve been in a decade or more. I feel as if God has allowed me this small moment of comfort if only as a preparation for what I know is new hard work to come. But that’s OK – I know the way of unification with God’s will and the Holy Spirit is always a cross one must bear, but for this small comfortable break I am thankful. It’s been a long hard road, but if I ever doubted my own calling I never once doubted God’s inherent goodness. To be able to spiritually take a long deep breath and exhale in peace and satisfaction is no small blessing indeed.