Hey Paulus, What's with the beard?

First let me regress back to my young teenage years. During one lent I picked up the bible and said, "Whatever I open to is what I will read for Lent". The book opened to Job. Yup the book of Job. At that time in my life I knew Job was one of the books in the Bible, but for me I never read it. So the book of Job was it. That was my focus for that particular lent. After reading it I was disturbed and frighten by what I read. For the next two Lents I re-read Job, each time frustrated at trying to find the message in the Book. One day I asked my dad about the book. I told him I was confused about what kind of God we believe in. My father, wanting me to come to my own understanding of Job, recommended that I keep reading the book of Job sections at a time and always remember to trust in God and stay faithful. Over the next couple of years I came to an understanding of the story of Job. There are a few interesting sub stories such as Satan's important question, Does man have a free will to worship God? Job's faithfullness to God even in anguish and desolation, the three friends who in trying to defend God's actions actually misrepresented God, and the mystery of suffering. So into my young adult years as a tradition I read Job each lent. Somewhere along the way I shifted to Bishop Fulton Sheen's Lenten meditations and the little Black book as my traditional reading during lent. Then when I retired from the military I found myself being asked by my parish's men's group to play the part of Peter in the Local community's Living Last Supper dramatization. To keep focused on the Lenten season, and the walk Jesus was and is making, I decided to grow a beard and let my hair grow out for the play instead of wearing a fake beard. The whole experience of reciting the lines and focusing on the Apostles and what they could have been thinking during Jesus' last hours is very humbling. Each day during Lent I see and feel the beard and know something is different. The facial reminder keeps me focused on my daily Lenten journey. I've been a part of this production and very special group of men for five years now. The Dramatization takes place each year Monday through Wednesday of Holy Week 7pm at St. Dorothea Church in Eatontown, NJ