I know what you’re thinking, how can something be both … and? This whole idea might seem ridiculous or contradictory especially when it refers to God and the Catholic Church. Yet, it really isn’t all that crazy.

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When I first encountered the expression “it’s the famous Catholic both and” during my first year of seminary studies, I found myself pondering the same questions that you might be asking yourself now; what could that possibly mean? Yet, if you really think about it, the meaning becomes clear. Catholic priest, author, and educator Fr. Felix Just, S.J., Ph.D., writes that just like every coin possesses both heads and tails, or every battery has both positive and negative terminals, the concept of “both and” holds true in many aspects of life. Consider the Earth, which has both a North Pole and a South Pole, or how every day has both sunlight and darkness. While these are all “things” the reality of the “both and” relates very well to life as well. We as humans have both our joys and our sorrows, our successes and our failures. Each of us has both strengths and weaknesses. We are both sinners and have the potential to be saints. This same idea relates to our faith as well. Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully human; the Church is built upon both Sacred Scripture and Tradition; the Church is both a Divine Mystery and a Human Institution.

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While I am not the best writer – I guess that is one of the downfalls of being dyslexic – I have always thought it would be fun to have a blog and share my thoughts on the things I hold dear in life. My faith, family, friends, cooking (and eating!), traveling, the fine and performing arts, and more. I thought a good way of doing that would be to start a blog, a personal website, where I could share fun, lighthearted news instead of the constrained grim and heartbreaking news we hear each and every day. Thus, we have “The Catholic Both/And Blog.” As I mentioned earlier, I’m not the greatest writer. I’ll try my hardest to get the grammar, spelling, and punctuation right, but there might still be some mistakes. So, I hope you can forgive any errors or misspellings you come across.

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Finally, please know this is NOT the place to find the answers to the deep-rooted and age-old life questions and problems. It is – and never will be – a place to find scholarly academic material for your next research paper. It is, however my hope, that it will be a place where you might find reflections that will lead you deeper into a relationship with God. Maybe a place where you can turn when you had a long and stressful day and just need to spend some time scrolling without the violent and temptations that social media seems to offer all too often. Whatever might come of this site please know that you are always welcome here and I will always be open to hearing from you about how something here might have changed your life or helped your family. And, if nothing else, it will be fun for me to become the modern day Doogie Howser, MD. with a much newer computer.