The Journeyman

The Torch Has Been Passed

2010-03-09T05:45:47Z

Today, the Diocesan torch has been passed. Bishop Joe Vasquez sat in the Cathedra of Austin (temporary moved to St. William's in Round Rock for today's svent) and with that, is now my bishop.

I watched the first segment of the Mass at home via the webcast, until the conclusion of the homily. Kudos to the committee who organized the liturgy.

There's really not much more to say from my chair. I wasn't there and I haven't met Bishop Vasquez (beyond shaking hands after a couple of Masses at a small parish in Houston). Of course, keep him and all church leaders in our prayers.

If you missed the Mass, CatholicTV will keep it online in their cathedral events section after a couple of replays.

Paulist Assembly

2010-03-09T05:32:30Z

Image by wallyg via Flickr

Editor's Note: I wrote this post while in NYC a couple of weeks ago, but wasn't able to post it and then, well, forgot about it.

I've spent the last three days at the Bishop Molloy Passionist Retreat House in Jamiaca, NY (which is actually Queens, but as far as "city" names go, everything in Queens is connected to a local neighborhood "city"). While i wish I could be taking an actual retreat here in the midst of everything, I've been taking part in a Pre-Assembly Regional Meeting for the Paulist Fathers religious order.

I'll break this all down.

The Paulist Fathers is the religious order that has probably done things you've heard about, without realizing it. They staff St. Austin's and the University Catholic Center in Austin. They are the guys behind the Busted Halo website and SiriusXM Satilitte Show. The movie Entertaining Angels about Dorothy Day and Romero about slained Archbishop Oscar Romero were produced by Paulist Productions. If you're ever heard of Greenleaf's Servant Leadership, the Paulist Press publishes that book as well as countless others. They were the first religious order founded in the United States by a citizen of the United States. Their mission is to serve as Missionaries to North America, giving the Gospel a voice.

Every four years, the Paulists elect fellow Paulist priests to serve on their Assembly. This is the highest-authority body within the Order and they set the agenda for the next four years for the newly elected or re-elected president to enflesh. Prior to the Assembly meeting, which will take place in May 2010, they invite all Paulists as well as lay associates and collaborators to gather to discuss the current situation of the Order and to get an idea of the rumblings from the ground for the Assembly.

I can't say too much about it. No, there's not some super secret church rule. Since there is no ordination this year, they aren't asking everyone to travel to one place at one time for the pre-assembly, but rather to one of three regional meetings across the country. The final regional meeting is yet to occur and to respect the process, they asked that we not comment on the listening session to those who are yet to attend. While I don't know if any Paulists or Paulist collaborators read this, I'd rather not chance it.

I will say that I was very impressed with how open, honest and candid the Paulist family can be when looking at major issues. Please keep the Paulist Fathers and their new leadership in your prayers

A New Way To Work

2010-03-03T21:15:52Z

I'm taking a quick break from the other work I'm doing at the moment to comment on working.

I've held three paying jobs in my life: Pizza Hut, UTeach Student Associate, and the University Catholic Center.

Image via Wikipedia

Pizza Hut's working conditions are easy to assume. As a cook, my role was to make the pizza or pasta dish to the exact specification passed down from on high. Variation or invention was not allowed. I earned minimum wage ($5.15 at that time). I didn't really need the job as a high school student, but I wanted save some for college and have some financial options. I didn't last very long.

At The University of Texas at Austin's UTeach Natural Science program had a Student Associate position which, basically, paid you $10 an hour to "volunteer" somewhere within the local area that would benefit you as a future educator. I volunteered at Anderson High School to organize their chemistry storage area. No structure or supervision. I think I worked there for about six months.
Next, I went across the street and started at the University Catholic Center. For five years, I did a little bit of everything being paid various wages and salaries. Structure, but variation and invention was useful. I had supervision and oversight, but nothing oppressive. As a young man finishing college, starting out in the world and eventually, starting a family, it was a great setup.

As of March 1, I'm now a field agent for the Knights of Columbus. Basically, I'm self-driven completely now. The major difference with this new role and my previous jobs is location. We converted a second bedroom into a home office that is my primary work location. My contact with my boss will be mostly by telephone and once I have my bearings set, I may hardly talk to him if everything is going well.

What's the work/home balance? How do you make that happen when the physical boundary between work and home no longer exists? At the UCC, I worked when I was at the UCC. When I was at home, I was off the clock (excluding some e-mail processing).

I've followed Lifehacker and various other blogs for sometime now that include a good amount of content aimed toward freelancers and other folks who work from home, so I have some ideas. They're all untested by me though. This is an interesting experiment (with live ammo) .

I'm trusting that the Holy Spirit will lead me toward the balance and I'm hoping I'm paying enough attention to realize it when I see it.

Pope Benedict XVI's Intentions for March

2010-03-01T14:59:00Z

Image by sam_herd via Flickr

For the month of March, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, asks our prayers for the following intentions:

World Economy
General: That the world economy may be managed according to the principles of justice and equity, taking account of the real needs of peoples, especially the poorest.

The Churches in Africa
Missionary: That the Churches in Africa may be signs and instruments of reconciliation and justice in every part of that continent.

Troubled Soul

2010-02-18T21:30:20Z

I read the so-called manifesto written by the gentleman, Joe Stack, who is assumed to be the pilot of the Austin plane crash into IRS offices. In short, what a troubled soul. Nothing, nothing can justify, on any level, such criminal and inhumane actions.

Reading his nearly final words and to hear how he understood his life to unfold is simply sad. Sounds like he contributed as much to his problems as anyone else, but nevertheless sad to know that people exist under such troubled states.

He made plenty of stabs at the Catholic Church and the tax-exempt status exercised by religious institutions, which frankly, aren't worth defending. Beyond simply that the tax code allows it, the charitable work done by most mainline religious organizations, which, in many cases, saves the government from increased spending on social services, justifies the exemption.

That being said, I do have some issue with churches being exempt from state unemployment insurance, but I digress.

In short, in addition to praying for all those innocent folks who were killed (if any, the latest news hasn't indicated any deaths), injured or otherwise impacted, let's pray for him and all others under such stress. May no one else see this as an example of how to handle this type of stress and may they find enough help to keep them going.

Picture by Alberto Martinez AMERICAN-STATESMAN

V's Voice

2010-02-16T05:03:03Z

Image via Wikipedia

A few days ago, I helped my wife setup a blog at http://v.kraft.im . I know I'm biased, but I'm impressed with her and her blog so far. Read it, add it to your feedreader, tell your friends about it.

We were talking a few minutes ago about the benefits of blogging and one comment she's made over the past months in the Olivia era is that she felt like she was losing her quick-witted nature.

Me: "I think one good thing about your blog is you can practice your wit."

V: "Yeah, let's face it, Olivia doesn't get it. I say something witty and she just stares. [imitation of a blank stare]."

I miss blogging as much as I used to and V is helping to remind me of the fun of it. I've increased reading blogs through Google Reader while decreasing actually writing in one. There just has to be a better balance. How much of blogging is about making a brand image for yourself and how much of it is expressing yourself? What's the balance?

The Wisdom of the Church

2010-02-12T15:49:25Z

Image via Wikipedia

Sometimes during an office of the Liturgy of the Hours or Mass, there's a reading that, frankly, seems not in the least applicable to your life, but sometimes, St. Paul, the Holy Spirit--someone--is trying to get your attention.

From this morning's Morning Prayer, a reading from the letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians:

Never let evil talk pass your lips; say only the good things men need to hear, things that will really help them. Do nothing that will sadden the Holy Spirit with whom you were sealed against the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, all passion and anger, harsh words, slander, and malice of every kind. In place of these, be kind to one another, compassionate, and mutually forgiving, just as God has forgiven you in Christ.

My Daughter, Football Pro

2010-02-08T04:39:28Z

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Tonight, the family was at a Super Bowl party and we received further proof that Olivia absolutely loves football. She was enjoying herself and having a good time throughout the entire game until the moment the game clock reached all zeros at the end of the 4th quarter. At this point, she started screaming and yelling.

Olivia wanted to watch the Super Bowl and when the game was over, she was ready to go to bed. The worst part is that we have to wait the equivalent of her entire lifetime before football seasons kicks back into gear. I suppose we'll have to actually go outside and play.

Pope Benedict XVI's Intentions for February

2010-02-01T14:59:00Z

For the month of February, the Holy Father asks our prayers for the following intentions:

Scholars
General: For all scholars and intellectuals, that by means of sincere search for the truth they may arrive at an understanding of the one true God.

The Church's Missionary Identity
Missionary: That the Church, aware of its own missionary identity, may strive to follow Christ faithfully and to proclaim His Gospel to all peoples.

How Can I Help You?

2010-01-28T23:59:00Z

[This is the last in a series looking at my decision to leave the UCC and what's next for me. Return to the first post.]

A Knights of Columbus Field Agent?

Yes sir! Yes ma'am! The Knights of Columbus was founded in 1882 by the Venerable Servant of God Father Michael McGivney. Fr. McGivney had his own seminary studies interrupted by the premature death of his father, forcing him to return home to work for the survival of his family. Later, as a young priest, he witnessed first-hand what was happened to the families in his parish if and when the primary breadwinner died. Emotionally, it's hard to lose a family member, but financially, it can be downright cruel.

Fr. McGivney at one point volunteered to be a count-appointed guardian to a boy whose family couldn't prove to the court that they had the means to support him. (At that time in Connecticut, families had to prove their income potential after the husband passed away. If they couldn't prove enough potential, the courts would move to break apart the family to try to keep the family as financially solvent as possible).

Between that and seeing a need for a way for Catholic men to have a sense of belonging, he founded the Knights of Columbus as a fraternal benefits society to give men both a brotherhood of which to be a part as well as to help ensure the welfare of widows and children if one of the members died.

As a Field Agent, basically, I would see to further enact Fr. McGivney's vision of financial security to Catholic families if the unthinkable happened for a geographical area within Austin. I will be assigned a number of councils (the local, parish-level organization) and will meet with those families to help them assess their financial needs with a particular emphasis on life insurance, annuities and long-term care insurance.

In other words, I'm not about what you should invest in or not nor other things like that, but rather to help with the questions of: What would happen if one of us passed away? What is a safe vehicle for retirement? What happens if the stock market crashes the year before I retire--can I plan for that? What happens to my family if I need some type of long-term care (rehab hospital, nursing home, home health care, etc)?

The Knights of Columbus offers to members various products to help find solutions to those questions and my job will be to personally help members figure out what they need and to get it.

Additionally, I will be a resource to my councils to help them in other ways related to the Knights and to help introduce men to the Knights of Columbus.

Vanessa and I are excited about this new opportunity and I'm honored that I will be welcomed into so many homes around Austin. I'm looking forward to being able to do some good for families. If you have any questions about this all, leave a comment, give me a call or shoot me an e-mail.

Thank you all for your prayers for our family as I transition into this new role.

When One Door Closes...

2010-01-27T23:59:00Z

[This the third post in a series looking at my decision to leave the UCC and what's next. Return to the first post.]

What are you going to do now?

When discerning how to handle the conflict rising in me, I created a list of priorities:

Need to be home more.
Need to make no less than my current salary.
Need flexible schedule.
Need to continue doing something I'm passionate about.

At first, I started thinking about if I should try to flesh out "Brandon Kraft Tech Services". When friends, small organizations I'm involved with, etc have asked me to help them on some level with a website, I use Tech Services as a platform for offering them webspace, domain name and some other really basic things at a low price that, frankly, I would like to see offset the total cost of my website. I don't spend much on this, but it would be nice to be able to tell Vanessa that all my geekness is budget-neutral. I'm too nice and never charge enough to really offset all of my costs, but whatever.

That would give me 1, 3 and 4 (to a degree). That's scary though. With little savings (at least little when you have a wife and kid, thinking about all of the possible unforeseen expenses there) and only one income source (my salary), I don't feel that it would be a prudent choice to do that. Simply stated, there's too much that could go wrong with no safety net and I would have to seek out and find any and all support structures for starting this business.

I'd would like, sometime, to do something like that or freelance, but I know I need some more structure and experience before completely jumping off the deck. If nothing else, need to make it a hobby that produces a side income first.

I started thinking about other churches or non-profits, but quickly dismissed that thought. Moving into something similar than what I've been doing, while safe, wouldn't be different enough to meet my objectives.

While all of this thought is going on, I've been increasing being more active with the Knights of Columbus. Originally, I joined the St. Ignatius council, built and currently operate their website. The UCC started a new push to reactive their dormant council and as part of that, I was convinced to serve as the Financial Secretary for the new council, something that is actually fun and I'm enjoying.

The Knights of Columbus is a fraternal benefits society, which means they exist to give benefit to their members. In their case, the Knights offer life insurance, annuities and long-term care insurance to their members and I met a few different field agents who work toward that aspect of the Knights.

I found my way into contact with the General Agent for this area who told me more about the position and that they were looking for someone in Austin. It would allow me to office from home while meeting with families in their homes. My schedule would be flexible, as long as I get the work done. The salary starting off is in the right ballpark. The mission of ensuring the financial well-being of a family after a death is important to me.

For those that don't know, my father, the sole-income source for my family, died when I was 12 years old; without his life insurance, I have zero idea how my family would have survived. Losing him was incredibly hard emotionally, but financially, he had planned well-enough to ensure that we had enough to make ends meet.

If you add up working from home, with a flexible schedule, suitable income and a cause I care about, it resulted in a possibility with real merit. Vanessa and I talked. The Knights and I talked. I will soon be the newest Knights of Columbus Field Agent.

What does that mean?

It All Comes Down to Kids

2010-01-26T23:59:00Z

[This is the second of four posts regarding my decision to leave the UCC and what's next. Read the first post.]

Why are you leaving the UCC?

I met my wife through a mission trip that I only went on because a friend asked me to go in the UCC computer lab. Four of the five priests and the deacon at our wedding I knew through the UCC (and the fifth I met because of the trip I met my wife on!). We went to the marriage preparation workshop here and had our daughter baptized here. As much of my family existing is because of the UCC, they are my primary motivation in moving on.

Having two weeks at home after the birth of Olivia got to me. I liked being at home. I liked being able to go in from working in another room into the living room with Vanessa and Olivia. If I missed Olivia, I just picked her up. I liked that a lot. As much as I tried to shake it, I simply missed being at home with my family. I know, I know, most people spend 40+ hours a week at work outside the home and that's great. It's not what was enriching me though.

I was fortunate enough to transition out of pastoral ministry into a position driven more by operations when Olivia was born, which was a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it established regular, set hours and allowed me the freedom, without guilt, of being at home even though most things within the building happen in the evenings. The curse, however, was that I missed the students.

In all fairness, there's no way to have my cake and eat it too. Can I have all of the hours at home I want while still doing everything that satisfied me at the UCC? At least with our current workload levels, it's not possible. Do I do something that isn't as enjoyable while not being as home as much as I want, do I do something I enjoy quite a bit but be at home even less, or do I go for a third option?

I'm choosing option three.

Austin's New Bishop

2010-01-26T15:06:36Z

Rocco can knock out the words faster and with a nicer flare than I can, so I'm going to throw you over to him to read the skinny on our new bishop.

Bishop Vasquez is the fifth bishop of Austin, three of whom were priests of Galveston(/Houston), of which two of them were Auxiliary Bishop at the time they were appointed to Austin. The third had already been named Bishop of Beaumont before being appointed to the Lone Star State.

Of our five bishops, four of them were already bishops. Our first bishop, Bishop Louis Reicher, was the first to be ordained after his appointment.

Bishop Vasquez, 52, is the second-youngest bishop of Austin, following his immediate predecessor, now-Archbishop Greg Aymond who was 51 when he succeeded Bishop. John McCarthy.

I've personally participated in a couple of Masses celebrated by our new bishop; both in Spanish at St. Stephen's Parish in Central Houston. If I remember correctly, their parish priest was either deported or couldn't get a visa to enter the U.S. from Mexico, so he celebrated all of their Sunday Masses until the paperwork cleared up.

Congrats to Bishop Vasquez. He will be in our prayers!

[Ed. Note: The series of posts that were started last night regarding the shifting direction of my life will continue tonight with additional posts tomorrow and Thursday. They'll each go online around 6:00 p.m. Central.]

All Good Things...

2010-01-25T23:59:00Z

All good things must come to an end and this is true once again.

After much discernment, prayer, conversation and a bit of gut feeling, I am resigning from the University Catholic Center, effective March 1st. I've been employed at the UCC full-time through various positions since the summer of 2005 and have done a great range of project and activities. These five years with all of the experiences I've had, new friends I've met and folks I've (hopefully) had the blessing to help have been quite amazing, unique and, in the true sense of the word, special to me.

I've seen quite a bit at the UCC. When I started, Fr. Dave was a year into the director chair, Fr. Ed Koharchik was a newly-ordained priest, Fr. Richard was packing up after helping with the transition of leadership. Deacon John was still working full-time at the UT System and thus not at the UCC anywhere nearly as often as we see him now. Pat Martin was the business manager not long after taking over for her husband, Deacon Terry Martin. Terri Grayson welcomed students and parents at the Front Desk. We had no development office or effort, all of the musicians were volunteers and I was the first student-employee in a number of years.

Fr. Dave left to serve as vocations director for the Paulists. Fr. Ed Koharchik left to serve the Paulists in outreach ministry and was tapped by then-Bishop Aymond to serve as pastor in Dripping Springs. Fr. Richard went back to hospital and other pastoral work. Pat moved on to start her own business and Terri left us to move on to other opportunities. I've had the pleasure of working, on staff, with some amazing folks-- Jimmy Rose, Chris Babb, Amelia (Perry), Michelle Goodwin, Amber Fogarty, Ana-Cristina Gonzalez, Vanessa Mena, Deacon Tom Johnson, Ruben Garza, Beth Boren, Rosa Marroquin, Eugene Martir, Patrick Sheffield, Allie D'Amico, Adam Henry, Emily Bivona, Alicia Bivona, Maricar Reyes, Rob Johnson, Scott Ball, Jason Pinkstaff and the rest of the CCS crew here during the Diocesan campaign and eight great students from San Juan Diego Catholic High School. I've learned from all of these folks and so many more in our student organizations and our resident community.

The UCC was my spiritual home when I first walked onto the 40 Acres in August 2002. I've been in this building, more or less, every day since then. I can't remember how much has changed. The baptismal font, crucifix behind the altar, the chairs, the altar and ambo, the stations of the cross were all great changes in the chapel space. I used to talk to Gloria in the office that's since been renovated into our reconciliation chapel, the computer lab used to be just another classroom, the basement had completely inadequate heating and cooling, our parking lot used to have a full-time attendant facilitating the double-parking. I've fought with people who couldn't understand why we wouldn't let them park in our lot at 7:45 p.m. on a Sunday night (I don't care if the Tower has a big "1" on it for the football team... you can't park here!)

This building, this community, these organizations have been a home to me when I first left home and helped to guide me into making Austin my home. This community took a know-it-all, overall closed-minded 17-year old into a know-most-everything, relatively open-minded 25-year old. (The transformation seems more extreme in my head than it does typed out.)

In short, it has been truly an honor and blessing to be able to call this place my home and my workplace for all of these years. The University Catholic Center and all of the people I've encountered through it will hold a dear place in my heart.

I'll follow-up with more on why I'm leaving and where I'm going.

Pope Benedict XVI's Intentions for January

2010-01-01T14:59:00Z

For the month of January, the Holy Father asks our prayers for the following intentions:

Young people and Social Communications Media
General: That young people may learn to use modern means of social communication for their personal growth and to better prepare themselves to serve society.

Christian Unity
Missionary: That every believer in Christ may be conscious that unity among all Christians is a condition for more effective proclamation of the Gospel.