Ever since I finished the final episode of A Friar Life two years ago, I’ve been thinking about how I would reboot the series. Last summer I even started tinkering with a different introduction. I thought about friars I wanted to include, what I would do with them, and so on. I couldn’t wait to start again.
There was just one problem. Okay, two problems: time and money.
Living in Chicago and being a full-time student made the prospect of filming friars very difficult. Not only did I have little time to travel, but being from the East Coast province, there weren’t many guys in the Midwest that I actually knew. Even if I had the time, there weren’t many friars within driving distance to film.
Well enough is enough, I say. Excuses excuses. I clearly have the time to travel (as I have been on and off of an airplane multiple times a month for the past year), and since these travels often include speaking and selling my book—two things that I have been given permission to funnel back into the ministry—the money wasn’t really an issue anymore either. With my first priestly assignment on the horizon, I felt that it was sort of now or never.
And so… for the past two months I have been traveling around the country to show the life that we live. I’ve been to a center for the poor, a university, retirement home, and high school, and over the next I plan to visit the friars in foreign missions and urban ministry.
My hope is to have an official trailer of the places I’ve been so far in about 2 weeks, and to release a new episode each Friday this Easter season. Talk about something to rejoice over!
I hope that everyone has a blessed Holy Week!
Breaking In The Habit 
Father,
You are an inspiration with all that is happening in the church today.If the church had more open honest speaking people like yourself who can actually relate to it’s members then I would go back to the church.I did not leave the church, the the church left me………….Noel
I graciously suggest you visit Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM from the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, NM.
He’s a remarkable person with a deep understanding of many things.
Congratulations! Dressing with holiness and happiness, both gifts directly from God, the habit of our seraphic father between the saints Francis is really good to see in these times of cruent secularization event inside the Church itself. Try to celebrate the Latin Traditional Mass too! I will pray for you to our Most Holy Mother of God to preserve your such angelical hapiness and vocation, pray for me sinner too!
Pax
A young physician