Tattoo Artist Turned Benedictine Monk

November 16, 2014 by Be Holy

via Immaculate Heart Catholic Radio – Faith, Hope and Love.

Andre Love doesn’t look like your typical Benedictine monk. But for the last six years the former tattoo artist has been a member of the order at Mount Angel Abbey in Oregon, where he is an iconographer and curator of the Abbey’s art collection. The Statesman Journal recently profiled Brother Andre Love and his incredible journey to the monastic life.

Six years ago, Mount Angel Abbey’s serene hilltop campus shook, as leather-clad Bobby Love rolled in on his motorcycle. Love removed his helmet revealing pierced ears and a mop of dreadlocks. With tattoos on his hands, arms and neck, he looked like an extra on “Sons of Anarchy” not a someone attending a retreat for those who might become Catholic monks.

Love knew from a young age that he wanted to devote his life to being an artist. After dropping out of high school and serving in the army, he discovered he could make $100 an hour as a tattoo artist, and developed a reputation as a tattoo artist in New York, New Orleans, Seattle and Austin. Despite having friends and material comfort, Love was still unhappy. He told the Statesman Journal:

“Everything said I should be happy, but I felt very alone and adrift. I looked at myself and realized that I had become a product,” Love said. “I was doing art not as personal expression but for what the kids want, what the kids would shell out the coin for.”

It had become about money, brand and ego. It had become about drugs and booze. He’d left his family and divorced three times.

“I had no clue what love was. I had no clue how to love or how to let other people love me and that’s why I was miserable,” Love said.

He admitted being an addict.

“The addiction was only a symptom of a greater problem … spiritual bankruptcy,” Love said. “I came to the realization that I need God. I needed to be a whole person in the sense that it’s not just about the material or the physical, but there was a whole spiritual dynamic that I had completely ignored.”

(more…)

via Immaculate Heart Catholic Radio – Faith, Hope and Love.

Soulful Recall

November 2, 2014 by Be Holy

My Lord, my God, my All,
Give me a heart for You,
Give me the heart
Of a child,
Your child.

Create me anew,
For I wander
Far from You,
You, Who woos me constantly,
You, Who wants me eternally.

Each day, upon day,
Challenges me to hold on,
Hold on to Faith.
Hold on to Hope.
Hold on to You,
You, Who are Love.

Though You are constant,
I am inconstant.
Searching my moments,
In soulful recall,
I see my tempters three,
Worldly, fleshly and demonic.
They, too, hunger for me,
But where You
Would take me to Yourself,
And make me Like,
And of Yourself,
They would devour me,
Chew upon me,
Suck out the juice,
And spit me out.

Give me the time.
Give me the inclination,
For I live in a world
Of voices,
And distractions.
They whisper in my ears,
Shout, and demand allegiance,
Calling me to come away,
To go astray,
To worship at strange altars.

In Your Light
I see my way.
In Your Light
The way to You
Shines as a highway,
Luminescent in the night.

My Lord, my God, my All,
Fight for me.
Fight them all.

Dr. Peter Kreeft’s conversion to Catholicism from Protestantism (Full)

November 26, 2013 by Be Holy

Conversion Miracles in the Ether of Cyberspace

June 23, 2012 by Be Holy

Leah Libresco a prominent atheist blogger at Patheos, a religion website, has left the ranks of the faithful no-faith for true believer status among the Christian hordes. Debate sparked this unexpected decision.

“The great thing about a lot of the atheist and skeptic community is that people talk more critically about ideas and want to see proof provided,” “That kind of analytical thinking is completely useful and the Catholic Church doesn’t need to and should not be afraid of because if you’ve got the facts on your side, you hope they win.”