I am an Idaho native. My wife and I have a wonderful college-age daughter.

I was raised in the Roman Catholic Christian religious tradition. I have read and studied about various religions and spiritual traditions. I will support and walk with anyone from any spiritual tradition. My only request is you want to develop your inner life and grow in your relationship with the Divine and your true self (which I dare to say, I believe are the same thing).

My Spiritual Journey

In the last few years, I started to question what the Catholic Church taught me about God. I started the spiritual and religious deconstruction process. I questioned everything the Catholic Church taught me about God, the earth and our relationships with each other, and her teachings about God and Jesus. I always experienced God as an inner reality, and I realized I didn’t need an intermediary for me to have a relationship with God. I wanted more of this. I wanted to find a God who lives with me in the everyday trenches with my disappointments, in my relationships, with my traumas and my wounds, and with my joys and triumpants. I have had a hard finding this God in the Catholic Church or in protestant churches. This was a difficult time for me. This is a church in which I grew up and ministered for nearly half of my life!

To feed my spiritual hunger, I looked to other spiritual, and religious, traditions to find a deeper, direct experience of God. As a young adult, I joined the Charismatic Revewal in the Catholic Church and in fundamentalist churches. I really enjoyed the charismatic’s emotional component. After some time, I found the teachings and life outside of praise/worship services to be lacking of real mysticism.

I read books about the mystical traditions in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. I went on Shamanic Journeys which showed me much about myself, and taught me another tool for self-discovery. Also, I dipped into Buddhism. In Buddhism, I really found spiritual solice in my putting my ego in the backseat of the car rather to be the driver! In the Gospels, I heard Jesus echoing the Buddist writings about lesser ego and detachment. I realized I was looking for a mystical spiritual traidition that fed me, accepted me, and mentored me. Later, I figured out that mysticism is within me rather than in a church or spiritual tradition.

In my twenties and thirties, I spent a lot of time trying to find how to live out my spiritual path. For a few years, I was in a seminary for Catholic diocesan priestly formation. I realized God made me not to be emotionally alone. I want a lifelong partner with whom I can share my days.

From my seminary experience, I received a wonderful theological education and a lifelong desire to integrate theology into my spirituality. Often, I see ways to integrate other spiritual traditions’ practices into my spiritual practice and experience of God, others, and the natural world.

Further along my journey, I found Reiki (Energy Healing), deeper Meditation practices, Somatic Healing method and deep emotional clearing tools. I realize I found what I was looking for: a deeper, real, and integrated, relationship with God and my spirit, mind and body. I found God loves and lives with me at the deepest parts of my psyche, my body’s cells. God accepts my emotions, thoughts and experiences. God is my partner in my life!

Currently, I see spirituality as deep human (body, mind, heart, and spirit) experience. When I bring all, or most, of these human aspects to my prayer and meditation, I find my spiritual life is much richer, and my spiritual growth is more substantial. I experience emotional release and healing when God and I face my pain and joys, wounds and traumas together. I feel I have a very deep, real, and cooperative relationship with God who lives within me rather than on a heavenly throne.

To paraphrase Carl McColman, I find spirituality not just a place to find a moral code for living and way to eternal salvation in the afterlife; these are extremely important! Further, I find spirituality as a path to good mental and emotional health which leads to healing of my phsycial pains. From my experience, my spirituality, my emotions, my mind and my body are directly linked. One effects the others. Spirituality is a way of life as well as a practice. My spirituality enriches my relationships, my experience of God, and my experience of the world. I have the tools to be joyful and content and appreciative.

I strongly agree with Jerry Wright who calls this interconnected relationshiop of my personal parts (mind, spirit, heart, body) as “Psychological Mysticism.” We bring out entire selves to God. God dwells with us in the trenches of my emotional wounds, traumas, and our joy and peace. God dwells with us every second of every day, all of our lives. When we increase our awareness of God’s presence, we may commune with God and True Selves. It is truly a cooperative relationship. God and you want the same healing and goodness for you! It is no wonder my favorite church song is “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” God is closer to me than my own blood. God’s presence is what keeps our cells working. God’s presence is what keeps the world’s molecules together! Truly, God is emmanuel, God is with us/within us. I pray all of us grow in our awareness that God is within us!

If any of my story resonates with you, I encourage you to schedule a Discovery Session with me. We will discover how I can assist you on your Spiritual Journey.

Immanuel ("God with us"), Isaiah 7:14