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Mural I painted half a year earlier, Mother Mary nurtured a path for creating the St. Dominic’s Mural—through that path a new dimension of Her maternal character was revealed to me and with it came a fuller awareness of the nature of my vocation as a Catholic Artist. As I focused on illustrating the Saints wrapped in Her mantle, She was gently stirring my soul to realize I am among them, receiving the same gift of Her love, being lead ever closer to Her Son, Jesus. I penciled the humble St. Juan Diego knelt before Our Lady of Guadalupe and reflected on God the Father’s presence symbolized by rays of sun, and Her womb glowing, pregnant with the child Jesus. It is my hope that the viewer, wherever he or she may see the painting, will recognize in the Saints a glimpse of his or her own life with all its trials and joys; and by recognizing that communion, realize the love and mercy of Jesus radiating through His mother Mary, extending through the Saints, empowering the Church to be the hands and feet of Jesus, who alone is the way to the Father.

If I remain silent about the times God was truly present in my life, then amid times that seem devoid of His presence, an erroneous thought may ensue that He was never there. He made known to me that His grace given to me was necessary for the painting but that the same type or amount was not necessary in the margins of time before or after; this is what it is like to be a Catholic Artist in the service of God. It is a strange position in life to be the vessel which created a grand work of art and a sacred object of beauty and to be compelled to testify to its beauty. If I imagined the reality of my career as if another man were seated within such a calling, I would find it easier to be honest about the grandeur of God’s presence in his life and work, and I would have no trouble distinguishing between the greatness of his work and the humble reality of his personal existence.

A lot of promising things are also happening in the Cincinnati area through Young Adult Groups that I’m a part of that are growing in new ways day by day. Another exciting thing happening is through the Cincinnati Illustrators Group that I’m a part of – they’ve been accepted as an official chapter of the USA Urban Sketchers Group and more and more we’re participating in group sketch events throughout the Cincinnati Area. I’d like to add another reflection: A lot – correction: All of my ministry is letting my light shine, letting my talents shine, that I’m actively using all that God has and is giving me to glorify Him. These are the ways God seeks to work through you and I. "It is Jesus you seek when you dream of happiness; he is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; he is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is he who provokes you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is he who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is he who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.

One concrete example of how God can work through your weakness is this: If you are not always displaying power and success, and you choose to also display your weakness, a witnessing person may be able to see their weakness for what it is, and realize that there can be success for them in spite of it. So here goes a display of my weakness, for the purpose of God potentially using it for good. Besides, it is God’s work to reveal his power in my weakness. Of course your striving is imperfect and you may not even know what God’s will for your life is, but you can at least desire to desire God’s will.