Br. Timothy Danaher on Being in the Boat with God

“Salty. Now there’s a word that well describes fishermen. Along with it comes a string of supporting adjectives: Terse. Somber. Laconic. Matter-of-fact. Proud. Quiet.

“Everyone’s familiar with the stereotype, whether you grew up in Baltimore, or simply were forced to read The Old Man and the Sea in high school. During college, I spent two summers working on salmon boats in Alaska. It’s true that fishermen are just these sorts of men. Sure, they know how to keep themselves sane on long hours with little sleep – telling stories, some hoot-n-holler, discussing the state of the union – but at the end of the day, they come to get a job done. Out on the water, there are exhilarating moments, hauling in a full net of fish, or graceful mornings trolling on a glassy surface and laying out lines in the early dawn. But these men don’t come up north just to breathe in clean air and get poetic. They’re there to catch fish and make money.

“Last December I was on a flight sitting next to a tugboat captain. He was quiet and had a large beard, which the stewardess said reminded her of Zac Brown. I’m a talker, so we talked, and I asked him why he chose his profession. He replied very simply, ‘Well, my old man drove boats and showed me how… I’ve spent all my life in boats.’ I was fishing for something like, ‘What kind of meaning do you find in your work?’ He basically shrugged his shoulders and responded, ‘This is just my work. What else would I do?’ It quickly occurred to me that those on the lookout for ‘deeper meaning’ are often outside viewers, like journalists, or inquisitive neighbors prying for some material for their blog posts. Real working men, like our tugboat captain, simply work. They like it or don’t like it, but it’s their life.

“I like to think of the early Simon Peter as one of these men, not looking too much into why Jesus wanted to go to the other side, but just gathering the men to make it happen: ‘Alright, the Master said we’re going to the other side, let’s load up and get rowing.’ But God has a way of changing men, if they hang around him long enough. . . .”

In a recent commentary, Brother Timothy Danaher, O.P., reflected on how God allows certain storms in our lives so we may cast ourselves ever more on Him.

To access Br. Timothy’s complete post, please visit:

Dominicana: In the Boat with God (17 FEB 14)