So, God is good. We’d been wandering in the desert for five years or so and, as sometimes happens in our life, God decides to act in an unmistakable way and I get this phone call:

“Wanna be the Academic Dean at Saint Mary’s?”

“Um, yes please.”

“Don’t you want to know the details? Don’t you want to know how much you’ll be making?”

“I guess. . .”

Then, prayer:

“Lord, what are you doing? I hate green. I mean, I. HATE. Green. And Saint Mary’s? My nemesis?  Is this really where you want me to go? I’ll do it, (of course I’ll do it), but please send me a friend. Amen.”

A couple of days later I’m at the Catholic Men’s Fellowship annual conference and I bump into to an acquaintance:

“Hi, Rob. I don’t know if you remember me, but I took your class on Catholic Education at Saint Thomas the Apostle’s Institute for Catholic Theology.”

“Sure,  I remember you. You’re my friend Mike’s brother-in-law. You teach at a public school, right?  How can help?”

“Well, I’m thinking about teaching at Veritas and I wanted to ask your advice.”

“You shouldn’t do that. You should teach at Saint Mary’s.”

“What? ”

“You should teach at Saint Mary’s.”

“I actually have an interview there tomorrow.”

“Really? Me too! What for? ”

“Dean.”

“Wait. . .what? Me, too. . .for Dean of Academics.”

“Oh, ha! Mine is for Dean of Students.”

“Kevin, this is so funny. I was just praying about this and I told God I’d do it, but I told Him He had to send me a friend. You’re an answer to prayer–you have to take the job.”

“No, you don’t understand: you’re an answer to prayer.”

“Huh?”

“I’ve been really struggling with this decision about whether to work for Veritas or not, so I asked my brother who’s a priest what I should do. He said, ‘Kevin, when I’m in a situation like this, I tell the Lord, “God, I’m stupid. Make it totally clear to me what I’m supposed to do.”‘ So, that’s what I prayed last night and then you just say that out of the blue. It’s a sign!”

It was a sign. And that’s how Saint Mary’s’ former-Dean-of-Students-now-Assistant-Principle and I answered each other’s prayers and both started working there. 

More tomorrow. . .