Fr. Dave from Busted Halo Visits!
{Programming note: The Saintly Silver giveaway is still chugging along. Get yourself entered, ok? It ends Friday at 8am! }
Late Friday night, as I was dozing off, I heard my phone buzz. It was an email from Fr. Dave Dwyer, host of “The Busted Halo Show with Fr. Dave” on the Catholic Channel over on SiriusXM. Busted Halo has been a client of mine for several years and while Fr. Dave and I chat plenty via email, we’ve only met once in person. It was a quick howdy over chips and salsa (this time he didn’t break his tooth!) and a “see ya next time you’re in Texas.”
As providence would have it, I’m currently working on the latest print issue of their newsletter and he was in town for a wedding. On Sunday, he swung by the house to drop off the edits and hang with me and the kids for a bit. He laughed as soon as he got out of the car. If you’ve ever listened to him on the radio or on one of the podcasts, you know how hilarious that laugh can be. I’ll just tell you, it’s even funnier in person.
As he was sitting at our kitchen table fielding 8,000 questions from my kids, he quipped, “This is just like interviewing Cardinal Dolan.” To which John Paul says, “Who’s that?” I know, we gotta work on that kid’s catechesis. We talked about work, the radio show, kids, family life, his bad math skills, the Church, his summer trip with my other favorite Fr. Dave (Farnum) and our current number of ER visits – all over a great glass of peach sweet tea.
Trust me, there are more quotes, but I’m saving them for Friday.
The thing I love about having a priest or religious sister over at the house is simple: it reminds me of the importance of my vocation as a mom. I believe the presence of both – religious and family – is important to both vocations. Our family gives religious a taste of the struggles, and the joys, we experience in a marriage and as a parent. On the flip side, though, the holiness a priest or sister brings to our home is invaluable. For one, it provides my children to see that vocation as a real possibility and that folks like Fr. Dave are just regular people – all striving for holiness.
I think at one point I asked Fr. Dave not to use the kids as too much fodder for this week’s shows. I’m pretty sure he laughed. And, I’m pretty sure you know which kid he was laughing about.
Fr. Dave, thanks for the laughs and the gift of having you here. Next time, I’ll serve the sweet tea and make you a killer Texas meal. Promise! Oh, and tell Brett to go easy on the legs 🙂
I hope his “Team Whitaker” stories make it to the podcasts, since I don’t have satellite radio. Sounds like a fun visit!
[…] you a priest?” John Paul to Fr. Dave. He wasn’t sure what to do with a priest without his collar on. I explained that […]