Who I am and the origins of this site

How this website came to be

My name is Glenn Dallaire and I live in Bristol, CT, USA. I am happily married to my beloved wife and friend, Brenda, and together we have seven wonderful children. I was born on September 14--the Feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross.

I have been working in the Computer IT Tech Support field since 1994. I love the Catholic Church and the holy faith of our Fathers very deeply. However, this was not always the case.

Although I was raised a Catholic, by age 16 I stopped going to Mass, and I had very little interest in God, the Catholic faith or even spirituality in general. This religious indifference continued throughout my teenage years and into my early twenties. Then, thanks be to God for His mercy and kindness, I met my wife-to-be, and through her holy and faithful example, God enkindled in me a desire to know Him. (As a side note, our first date was on the feast of St Mary Magdalene (July 22), and we were later married on the feast day of Our Lady of La Salette (Sept 19), all to show, once again, how God arranges things using specific dates as a significance). But going back to the story, at that time my wife was associated with a movement founded by a certain mystic, and as I began reading the autobiography written by this mystic, I was immediately enraptured by her extraordinary faith, and the remarkable graces that God gave to her. Through the reading of the life of this mystic, faith in God was awakened in me; I had a deep longing for God for the first time in my life. I was 28 years old.

Inspired and edified by her exceptional love for God, I continued reading the lives of other Mystics of the Church, including the life of the remarkable mystic, St Gemma Galgani, whose fervent love for God has deeply inspired me. So, I decided to put my computer skills to work for the love of God, and over the course of over a year I put together a website devoted to St Gemma, located here: http://www.stgemmagalgani.com/. Since I first read her remarkable Autobiography back in the year 2000, Saint Gemma has always been my favorite Saint. Her heart was all on fire with the love of God and anyone who reads her autobiography, diary or letters will be completely moved by her fervent devotion to God.

Next, I put together a second website devoted to another extraordinary mystic, the founder of the Passionists, St Paul of the Cross. Since then I have also built websites devoted to the Miracles of the Church and the Miracles of the Saints.

For me, the Mystics of the Church website and my other websites are really a "work of love and reparation" so to speak, and I have really been enjoying creating them over the past few years. I spent much of my life in selfish and sinful pursuits, so the websites are a sort of reparation for me; a kind of redemption for my "past" life.  While studying and learning about our Mystic-Saint friends in heaven, I have been blessed through these websites to meet many wonderful people in the process. My hope and intention for all of my websites has always been that in some small way they might help to bring souls closer to Jesus and Mary.

Since coming back to the Catholic faith in 1996, I have read the inspiring lives of quite a few mystics, quite often the lesser known mystics. In fact, I have a small library of books, most of which are on the lives of the mystics. For me, it was without a doubt the heroic example of the mystics that led me to God and the practice of the Catholic faith. And so, I am deeply indebted to the Mystics of the Church for their loving witness and their heroic lives of sacrifice and virtue that penetrated into my little world of self-centeredness and religious indifference. And because of my life of indifference towards God and my countless sins, I have taken great comfort in the Psalm 25 which says: "Remember O LORD that Your compassion and Your love are from of old. The sins of my youth and my frailties remember not; in Your kindness remember me, because of your goodness, O LORD....Remember Your mercies O Lord."

And so, it is in a spirit of deep gratitude and thanksgiving that I am creating this website in honor of the extraordinary Mystics of the Church, especially the lesser known mystics that inspired me the most.

It is my fervent prayer that the pages herein will be of some small service to the Catholic Church and Her faithful followers. I pray that the Mystics' fiery love of God may penetrate into the hearts of all who visit here, and inspire in us a greater love and devotion for our God, who is most worthy of all of our love.

I enjoy receiving emails and discussing the Mystics and Saints of the Church so feel free to contact me with any comments or suggestions. My email address is: gdallaire1@gmail.com
Glenn Dallaire -webmaster
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"My God, my God, I love You. But, per­haps I love You too little, oh Jesus? ... Are You not happy? ...But this needs to come from You, if you want me to love You more. Yes, I should love You with a unique love. Oh! I have told You so many times, oh Lord: if my life does not end in seeing the suffering of someone who loves me so much, what other pain do You think could bring about my death? ...I told You that it is enough, oh Lord, what you have suffered for me and for sinners. Yes, enough! ... My shoulders shall replace Yours in bearing the cross!" -St Gemma Galgani