Category: Life
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Tony
My dad Anthony (Tony) Louis Passaro Jr. was born on August 23, 1950 over a month premature. He was the only child of my grandmother Mary and grandfather Anthony L Passaro Sr. My grandma had several prior miscarriages before the birth of her only child. From the little I know of his birth, I know…
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On Loneliness, Loss, and Lasting Love
This is it folks, the blog post that will break the internet. If you couldn’t tell by the title I’m ambitiously going to person-splain the meaning of life. But before I get into it and switch gears, allow me to set the stage of the state I am in while I’m writing. I’m eating candy…
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When the Game Slows Down
My orientation into chaplaincy has begun. Who knew orientation could feel so disorienting? While inundated with information, it is amazing how many golden nuggets of truth and wisdom I have received in a weeks time. One statement I am fixated on, even though I have not yet visited a single patient is this: “The game…
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Mommy and Dad (as you are in my phone) I Hope I get this Right
I’m so naïve. It didn’t take long. I wept for the first time today, and it wasn’t because I visited a church during an emotional service where they were saying goodbye to some people they really love, to send them to Burundi perhaps indefinitely. I didn’t weep because I was confronted with my own darkness,…
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What do I do with these blank pages?
In 2010 I wrote to be funny, more specifically I wrote comedic fiction for a class to counterbalance writing my thesis on Islamic extremism in Southern Russia and what exactly that looked like. But what I was most proud of is a story called the Cheesebringer, which was a dumb coming of age story about…
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A Time Before Certainty
Matthew 13:1-32 I worked on an organic farm for 4 seasons. It’s interesting how many factors go into having a fruitful crop: the seed, the soil, the sun, the water, the bugs. Some of these can be controlled. We can add water, we can spray pesticides (technically not in organic farming). Much of farming maintains…
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Saint Listener and Hearing Different
If you are looking for a good cry, I would suggest seeing “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” the new Mr. Rogers documentary. If you’ve been wanting to feel like you’re endeavor to love and to be a compassionate human being falls far short of perfection, I’d also suggest watching the movie. What I found most…
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The Gospel of Life: Believe
John 20: 24-31 – Let God Show Me “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” A disciple, Thomas, states what it takes for him to believe. Jesus waits a week, then appears to Thomas even…
The Reconstructed 