Life Transitions and Covid-19

“Maybe this is your Marley & Me moment” That is what Francesca, my wife, said to me last night when discussing a large life change. No, don’t worry. My new puppy is fine and he is planning on living a long life. She meant that maybe this was the moment where I realized what I had was actually what I wanted. That I did not always have to be striving for something else and something bigger. God would lead me if I let him.

I am terrified to write this. I have just made a large decision that will impact my life and my family’s life for years. It was not made on my own though, God gently nudged me. And by a gentle nudge I mean he slapped me upside the face.

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a tendency to be stubborn. It is a gift of my Irish ancestry that I like to think I always know best, and have no problem arguing my point. Fortunately for me God is far more strong willed than I am.

Last week my wife and I were supposed to go to Italy on our Honeymoon. When we got married last September there was no time to take a long honeymoon, we just took a three day weekend. This was because I was starting a new job at an Agriculture Technology company that seemed to be my dream job. The pay was good, I had stock options, and I got to go out into fields.

I planned on staying in this company until it became publicly traded and I would be able to retire if I wanted. It would have also given me the money I needed to start the massive company I want to start one day.

God had different plans though.

This week I was laid off.

My job was gone.

My path to the comfortable life disappeared.

It is easy to blame external circumstances. The company needs to survive, and due to the current fundraising environment during coronavirus, we could not raise the money we needed. Half of the team had to be let go to ensure survival of the company.

But it left me without a job.

I also partly blame myself. Remember when I said God slapped me upside the face? I started Bishop Sheen Rosaries about six years ago, and have always had it as a side hustle, and a way to provide rosaries to people. I have never treated it like a business. For the past 2-3 years I have been interested in selling the business. God never seemed to let me.

I could never figure out why, so two weeks ago I decided to do a St Joseph Novena and asked St Joseph and Jesus to show me what I should do with the company. The Novena ended a few days ago while I was on a staycation (we couldn’t go to Italy so decided to spend time together without work). When I reported back to work on Monday, through video chat due to the shelter in place edict we have in Illinois, I was told that the company was not able to afford my salary.

It was not due to performance, or anything I had done. It was a tough decision that management had to make. It puts my wife and I into a bad place financially. We lost 2/3 of our income in one day, and we still have large student loans to pay off.

Though it looks bleak I do know that God will provide. He wants me to run Bishop Sheen Rosaries full time. So effective today I will be. It is time for me to stop running from him and starting running towards him.

You will notice changes on the website and with my emails. I hope that you approve of all of them, and I would love any feedback you send.

If you get a chance, please help me out and share my blog posts on your social media and to your friends in the faith.

I will be starting an email chain every day for the next two weeks to see what the response is. It will be a quick post about that day’s date in Catholic History and one historical thing that happened. I will keep them around the same length as this article. We will start tomorrow on March 25th with the founding of Venice in Italy.

I hope that during this time of suffering and terror, little reminders of the good and bad that our Faith has gone through in the 2,000 years of its existence will bring some comfort. We are in unprecedented times for us, but not for the Church. The Church has seen worse, and will continue to thrive due to people like you.

Thanks,
—Brian Kearney

P.S. during the writing of this article I got a text from a priest friend and a seminarian friend that said they would be offering mass for this transition. God likes to keep making points, or I do not seem to get them.