Page 37 - Priorities #50 2011-June/July

37
SMB: What do you believe is the most serious issue facing the human race today?
TLG: We have forgotten that we are beggars in God’s kingdom. All of our technology all of our independence, all of our wonderful assertions of free will and creativity that have been given to us have intoxicated us with illusions of who we are. We are adopted sons and daughters dependent upon the grace and mercy of God in all things. Can we return to a sense of awe and wonder? Might we be firmly planted in this world while submitting ourselves to the will of God - working each day to bear fruit from the application of our gifts? If we can act as the hands, eyes, and mouth of our Lord, we will emerge in and out of issues, tensions and problems with a deeper sense of who we are and a greater capacity to cultivate our inheritance of lasting peace.
This holy mystery of the dance between our freedom and God’s will is not one I ever expect to fully understand. My faith guides me today to recognize that God touches everything. He works in every detail from the seemingly miniscule to the monumental. He is sculpting our spirits every moment.
SMB: Outside of your work in communications, what do you enjoy doing?
TLG: I’m an avid SCUBA diver, cantor at San Carlos Cathedral, passionate cook and burgeoning bread baker. I think I most proud of the 501 3 (c) Occhaita Foundation my sister Franca Gargiulo and I setup. We collaborate with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City to use the multidisciplinary prism of opera to engage the hearts, minds and talents of students in the arts. We will also be producing new operas for film.
SMB: What is one of your greatest accomplishments?
TLG: It’s really a work in progress; being a husband and a father. What an amazing blessing to be given God’s gift of being a guardian for my beloved’s soul, co-creating life and acting as a shepherd.
SMB: Who has been the biggest influence in your life and why?
TLG: My mother and father: my mother for her deep wisdom and beautiful faith and my father for his passion. Daddy’s words guide me every day...
May love surround you
May music move your heart, and
May you be graced with the passion to create something new every day.
Caption