I made a film in 2004 on Ronald Reagan that had a pretty interesting cult following. People like Jim Cavezal, Bruce Willis, Gary Sinese, Mel Gibson and Mel Gibson’s Producer Steve McEveety. In 2002 I experienced a spiritual awakening, courtesy of my then eight year old son Brian. Brian has autism and in 2002 I was losing hope. I fell into a malaise and in a manner of speaking I was a bit lost. I still attended Mass every Sunday but I was just going through the motions. As Lent 2002 approached I thought I would challenge God. I remembered in the 1970s one of my cousins had been hit by a car during Spring Break in Florida. It was during Lent at that time that my parents took me to Mass every day in prayer for her healing, (she recovered) so I thought why not challenge God to do the same for my son. As I entered Lent 2002 my journey was a pity party, “why me?” “why us?” “why him?” I would ask. It was during that experience that a few things happened and turned my life around.

I met a priest by the name of Fr. Leo Patalinghug who was new to my parish and that (which is another story) led to the start of a movement called Grace Before Meals (www.GraceBeforeMeals.com) which today has published two books with a third about to be released and touched countless people encouraging them to get back to the table with their family.

The second thing that happened to me was at my son’s annual Special Olympics event. Perhaps because of going to Mass every day my eyes were open, my ears were in tune, and my heart was open I saw something that changed my life to this day. If you have ever been then maybe you have seen it and maybe you haven’t and need to find it. But on that day I observed the most beautiful thing. These kids are full of joy, I thought to myself, they will never hate, they will never judge, they will,only love (unless we screw that up) and it occurred to me, isn’t it funny that we call them disabled when in fact we are the ones who are broken. We are the disabled, the handicapped, the broken. This memory has cemented in me a commitment to service in any way I can making use of the talents I have been provided.

So from 2002, skip to 2005, now three years into my faith journey and Steve McEveety who was contacted by some guys from Mexico contacts me and asks if I’d be interested in doing a film on Our Lady of Guadalupe and I lept at the chance even though I knew very little about the apparition. In many ways I just thought of it as a “Mexican thing,” boy was I wrong and what a ride it has been to learn and now share this most complete story of the global miracle known as Our Lady of Guadalupe.

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