I was a monk for 21 years—three of those spent as a hermit in the Catskill Mountains. In that serene sanctuary of prayer, worship, and solitude, something profound happened: my idea of Jesus gave way to my experience of the presence of Jesus in the concrete reality before me. I learned that the more honest I could be with the reality in front of me, the more tangible Christ’s presence became. That season bore fruit—a deep familiarity with the nearness of Jesus.

The next chapter led me to London, where I lived and served as a missionary monk for three years. There, my understanding of prophetic worship began to deepen, and my spiritual family began to widen. I encountered a vibrant body of believers whose passionate love for Jesus ignited, deepened and further formed my own. In this melting pot of worship, tradition, and ecumenical diversity, multiple forces began to converge: my monastic roots, my love for the Church’s contemplative tradition, and the living flame of prophetic worship. This synergy would become part of the genesis of Mission1249. But another chapter awaited.

From London, I moved to Northern Ireland, where I served for a year as a missionary in a land marked by a long history of division between Catholics and Protestants. In Derry/Londonderry, I witnessed something sacred: a culture of signs and wonders that included an abundance of the miraculous began to intertwine with a culture of prophetic worship and anointed intercession. As we prayed and worshipped together across old dividing lines, we began to taste the fruit of a future age. Revelation came as an experience of Beloved Identity that transcended political and denominational  identity, we are sons and daughters of God. That truth began to displace decades of pain and inherited conflict. In that atmosphere of God’s love, the wounds of history began to heal. That move of God changed me. It brought me back to the beginning. Back to Christ. Back home. It was time to build again. To start afresh. Mission1249 was born.

However before leaving Northern Ireland there’s one last unexpected turn in my journey. While my love story with God is my first love story, in the context of my growing friendship with Marie Thérèse, I began to realize that my heart hadn’t completely given up on another kind of love story. What began as an innocent friendship slowly became something more—something sacred. The journey from impossibility to inevitability was not paved by rebellion, but by a deep trust in God’s timing and ways. We chose the long road of obedience, even when the path seemed unbearable. And then, in a moment only God could orchestrate, I received a letter from our Holy Father, Pope Francis—blessing, encouraging, and endorsing this unfolding work of God in my life.

The result? A life, a marriage and a mission—blessed by God and by the Church.