About

About the Website

Life is a Prayer is the culmination of about ten years of work on more than eight different websites. Originally, I (Jeff Geerling) had the idea of making a simple page where I could put pictures up of family members to share with them, and post my resumé. This was back in the days of Netscape Navigator 3.0 and Claris Home Page.

Over the years, I started working on some more profitable ventures, including some websites for private small and large businesses, and my own mini web-domain had begun to grow. After I joined Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in 2004, I had less and less time to manage my websites, so it was a long-term goal to consolidate my work on the web.

With the power of the semantic web, CSS, XHTML, PHP and related technologies, I have been able to merge all my web development prowess into a single domain, and I'm able to control the look, style and content of my site with ease unheard of in my early days of web development (ca. 1996).

The website was converted to use the Drupal Content Management System in 2009 after many years of being a plain-vanilla HTML website. The site uses many modules for extensibility and image/content organization and management, and runs on a server at Hot Drupal.

About the Author

Jeff Geerling - Social Media Portrait I am a computing and media consultant, living in the Archdiocese of Saint Louis, Missouri. I have been working on many different websites over the past few years (including Kenrick-Glennon Seminary's website and Life is a Prayer.com), and decided to begin a blog in my first year of studies (in 2004) at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary which I still maintain today. In 2009, I started Midwestern Mac, LLC, a company dedicated to web design, Mac support, photography, and graphic design. I also set up the LOLSaints.com site and podcast, as well as Open Source Catholic, a site for Catholics sharing their web and technology solutions.

I currently work full-time with the Archdiocese of Saint Louis, increasing the Church's ability to communicate using new methods of social interaction and new technologies both online and in the 'real world.'

As of February 2010, I am engaged to a beautiful woman, Natalie, whom I intend to marry this coming October. You can read about our 'engaging' story, and you will be able to read about my experiences on the road to marriage (and beyond) on my blog.

I love discussing faith, politics, religion, technology and philosophy on my blog and with others, and I try to glorify God in all my activities. I am involved in many different Pro-Life activities, and try to help save the lives of those who are most neglected in American society—the unborn, the elderly and the handicapped.

I have used both Macs and Windows PCs extensively, but am staunchly in favor of using the Mac as my main platform. I've only had one or two small problems with any of the Macs I've owned, and I can count on one hand the number of times the Mac I'm currently using has locked up in the past three years (without ever reinstalling the system!).

One of my other passions, photography, has grown from an enjoyable hobby to a passion in the past few years. I currently shoot with a Nikon D90 (main body) and D40 (backup body) SLR, and have used many different Point and Shoot cameras (and a film SLR) before. You'll notice there's a whole 'Pictures' section on this site—with few exceptions, I shot all the pictures in that section, and if you'd ever like to use one for something or another, please ask (I also have a bunch of photos on Flickr). I have learned a lot at Strobist, and I suggest you visit the Strobist site and forums if you wish to improve your photography by learning how to light.

I pray daily for an increase in vocations to the priesthood, and remember fondly the five years I spent in formation for the Catholic priesthood. I ask that you pray for all seminarians and priests, as well as for those discerning a vocation to the religious life or to married life.

-Jeff Geerling, December 2008
(email Jeff Geerling)
(my Google profile)