“Six years ago, Mount Angel Abbey's serene hilltop campus shook, as leather-clad Bobby Love rolled in on his motorcycle. Love removed his helmet revealing pierced ears and a mop of dreadlocks. With tattoos on his hands, arms and neck, he looked like an extra on "Sons of Anarchy" not a someone attending a retreat for those who might become Catholic monks.”
Read Statesman Journal Article: ‘Tattoo artist turned monk: not your typical art story’
Too often we think pop culture and the Church are disconnected… Actually, we think they're enemies. I know I buy into thinking this at times.
This tattoo artist become monk is a reminder of how contrary that popular notion is.
If that were the case Brother Andress Love never would have become a monk and here is why. He was a passionate artist yet missing something in his life.
Divorced three times, drugs, and alcohol. No obligation in the world. Don’t we all seek freedom? Yet why do we feel unsatisfied?
"Everything said I should be happy, but I felt very alone and adrift. I looked at myself and realized that I had become a product," Love said. "I was doing art not as personal expression but for what the kids want, what the kids would shell out the coin for."
What was he searching for and what did he find in the Church?
I’m having a difficult time with the recognition of homosexuals at the forefront of President Obama’s message for the 2014 Olympics. This could open the floor to conversations on multiple levels. (Feel free to comment.) However, I bring this up for one reason. 
I wonder if 41 years from now, as I venture into old age, if today will mark the 82nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade — the supreme court decision legalizing abortion through all nine months of a woman’s pregnancy in the United States.
