Diocese of Davenport - Year of Faith Profile: Bishop Martin Amos

I'm Bishop Martin Amos and I'm Bishop of the Diocese of Davenport
I'm originally from uh... from Cleveland, Ohio I was born in 1941
the day after Pearl Harbor
I went to the uh... seminarian in Cleveland I was ordained a priest there
and I served there until i was just going to uh... and just turned sixty and
that's when i was made Auxiliary Bishop in Cleveland
I was going to turned sixty five and became the Bishop of Davenport
So I have been here six years in in November and i'm really happy to be part of
of the diocese
How old are you when you became aware of your catholic faith?
You know-don't i don't think and i've never had a conversion moment this Ah-Ha
time oh now I'm aware that I'm a Catholic Christian
uh... it was probably something that just
didn't happen over
a day or two were we get probably started my family when my mother which teach us
how to pray and then we'd have be carted off to church in goto CCD and so
we started pretty early on we had uh...
which I would say our family was particularly religious how we did have
religious things around there was a crucifix and things around so
probably very early on I realized
that I was a Catholic Christian
How does faith impact the decisions you make?
Well, I hoped--I hoped it impacts it alot
uh...
because I think
I think faith
isn't what I
believe I don't its a noun, i think faith for me is a verb
and so uh... its its
all of the the teaching i've had and construction i've received of prayers
they've made all that stuff
I hope that says I want to
live the life of Christ that's no longer i've lived the Christ Jesus living in me
so that whatever i say whatever i think whatever i do
flows from
the faith that I have if Christ is living in me so
it is probably uh...
I hope it impacts everything they do
How do you pray?
Sometimes, very poorly (laughs)

First of all
I think i have all of the the issues that everybody else has to in
trying to make sure that I are about the time for prayer
uh... i can get very distracted during prayer , and have to keep coming back again
and again for to what i really doing
how do i pray?
well liturgical prayer for me is very important so by celebrating Eucharist
This means a great deal to me and it's not just something i do it really is a
prayer
I'm faithful to saying the Liturgy of the Hours - praying during the day
for and with
God's People
and then uh... above and beyond that exposes the it's it sometimes it's
sitting very quietly in just being aware of God's presence
uh...
i guess i hope i hope again and it permeates
my my day that it's
its those carved out time but it's also
the times when it just hope I'm I'm listening to God's Spirit saying
this is what you should be doing
what scripture passages or stories inspiring?
probably
my most favorite uh... is is uh... from the Book of Kings where uh... Elijah is
up on them on the mountain waiting for God to come
and there's all these manifestations there's thunder, lightning, fire and
all this stuff
and in God's
not in any of those
but then finally come to see in the uh... gentle breeze in the whisper
that's been my experience of God it's it's not
He doesn't speak to me right here man the thunder and the lightning that but
if it's in the quiet moments or even the after the fact when i look back and
reflect on what i've done or said first thought
that uh... i think
I hear God speaking to me so thats that's always been one of my my favorite
favorite passages
who has been a model of the catholic faith in your life?
has probably been a lot of them
uh...
early on that they would have been my grandmother
uh...she
she was deep
deeply religious faithful
uh...
they have to so many parishioners
uh... would have been models of faith to me- some
some of the things that some of those people went through
and how
faith filled they were
... I heard somebody say uh...
if God it gave it to me, God will bring me through it
and so its those kind of people that have always inspired me
How is your Catholic faith helped you to deal with live's challenges?
uh... my faith helps me deals with lives's challenges --i believe God puts me
where I at for reason and it's either that i'm supposed to learn something or
i'm supposed to help somebody else learn something
through this so
it does impact my daily life