Who's in Charge Here?
Stories of My Life
by
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As I look back on my life, which was a “long and checkered career,”– my words--I come to the conclusion that on most of the major decisions I had very little input. When I was six months old, the prayer of Father Slattery intervened and saved me. When I was finishing high school, I was going to join the Navy. When I told my cousin Lester Jones, he used such strong curse words about the idea that I decided that I had better not get into that profession. Then Father Gerleman made me feel kind of small by reminding me that I didn’t know where I was going to college or what I was going to study. I didn’t know anything about the future. Why wouldn’t I give the seminary a try? Of course, that was one thing I didn’t want to do. The price was right, however, at $100 a year for room, board, and tuition. How could I go wrong? When I got into the seminary with all those Germans, I stayed just out of spite. That’s how I got into the holy priesthood. It seems the Lord has guided me in ways I never expected, though I had tried to set my own path first.
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About the Book
From an Iowa homestead, ahead of the Great Depression, to the plains and mountains of Colorado, this book is about a priest using his wits and sensibility to affect the lives of everyone he met. In his journey, he plowed forward, but had to turn corners quickly into fields he hadn’t imagined. The supposed director of his life found himself being directed. Why are 300 Christmas cards his reminder that this was all good when so many people from every walk of life think of him as friend and family.
About the Author
A seemingly self-directed man and priest, at age 90, concludes that of the major decisions in his life, he had little input. He was guided into paths he avoided with vigor, but despite his protestations, and through the twists and turns of his life of service to people, he finds that God is good. From six months old to his work with the poor and needy late in life, a power outside himself was stronger than his stubborn disposition