Post 1: An Intro To 100 Churches, 100 Chaplets

If you've stumbled upon this project, welcome. I call it a project because this is about a deliberate action, rather than thoughts on a given subject. Ideally, the action might inspire you in one way or another, to take action yourself. Which would be great. But if you want to follow my project, thanks.



I think the best way to kick this off is to let you know what's going to be happening in this space for the next two years. Yes, this is something that has a beginning and an end. By December 31, 2011, we should be done. We'll have visited 100 churches, prayed 100 chaplets. And I'll have likely rambled my wa through a lot of the questions I have about returning to the Church of my youth.

I live in a small town near Valley Forge Park, right outside of Philadelphia. I was raised Catholic, and by the age of 19, felt that I had pretty much outgrown the Church. And now, at 51, I've been trying very hard to come home. I honestly sometimes wonder how God feels about that. I mean, I'm damaged goods. At the same time, I know I'm damaged, which is how I think He prefers it. When I was 20 and perfect and cocky I don't think He was all that fond of me.

In trying to discern something that I could do as an exercise in faith/spiritual practice, I did what I always do. I bought a whole lot of books. Books are good if you want to talk about being a spiritual being, because when you say "I've read ___________", people like to tell you how much they admire your spirituality. Oh, it's a crock of bullshit, I know, but it sounds nice, and far be it from me to deny people the right to compliment me.


So after deciding the book option hasn't really accomplished a whole lot so far, I found inspiration somewhere (I wish I could recall where) to start a project. Something that could combine my love for a bunch of things - my faith, architecture, writing...with my desire to do something helpful for a cause. What cause remains unclear. So does a lot of my belief system.