James M PerklAs the Icons in Daring Steps from Darkness to Light reveal, my biography is not so much about where I have been on pilgrimage or served in mission, what I have studied or accomplished, but who I have come to see myself and others to be through the eys of Jesus, Mary and his Holy Family. Throughout the book, as you gaze into the icons or read the reflections found within, you will hear Jesus say many times to you, "I love you more." At the end, you will perhaps see and come to accept as I do, that Jesus loves you most! This is what is presently causing my heart to burn at the end of my life, several years past forty years of ordained ministry. Like the two pilgrims at their beginning on the road to Emmaus, this daily living encounter with the Risen Lord continues to lead me to share the Good News and celebrate the Mass in all the places where I have been called to serve as Pastor and spiritual director of so many beautiful souls. The beautiful colors in the icons not only reflect the variety of people and personalities I have met along the way, but also the actual oceans and lands I have crossed especially to the Philippines and Africa while on mission. Without exception, all around the world, I have come to meet Jesus; feeding him, giving him drink, finding him in the most distressing disguises of the poor as he found me. Called to follow Jesus as a priest, I have served in several capacities. Within the role of Pastor, I have walked with seminarians as a member of the St. Paul Seminaries spiritual direction team and while at Mary, Mother of the Church, it is an honor to be a member of the chaplain team that responds to police and fire emergencies in Burnsville, Minnesota. The other ministries to which I have been called to serve, have even more intimately drawn me within the Heart of Jesus and into His Holy Family. As an iconographer, it is a joy to reflect the breadth, length, depth, and height of God's Love I have found along the way and seek to reveal what I too have come to see through the eyes of Jesus. Seeking to practice the presence of God in each moment of my life has allowed my life and Priesthood to be captured by the Gospel. Even more amazingly, expressed through the icons the Holy Spirit has written, and to which I am most humbled to lend my hand and now share with you. May your biography too be seen in a new way, through Jesus' eyes and so made even more fruitful within His Sacred Heart. Read More Read Less