Miles O'Brien Riley grew up in Indiana and California with talented parents and six creative brothers and sisters. Together they performed skits, played musical instruments, wrote poetry and songs. As a boy Miles read children's parts on Saturday morning radio. At school he participated in plays and edited and wrote for his high school and college publications.

Miles completed doctoral studies in theology at the Gregorian University in Rome and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. He studied marriage and family counseling at the University of San Francisco and communications at Stanford, Notre Dame, Loyola of New Orleans and received a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.

Fr. Miles was ordained at the North American College in Rome in 1963 and served as a parish priest at several parishes in the Bay Area. In 1970 he founded the Communications Center for the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Since then his main ministry has been the mass media.

He has written five musical comedies, published eleven books and hundreds of articles and reviews. He has produced a dozen films and hosted over 1500 television and 4000 radio programs. He has received three Emmys and ten national Gabriel Awards for outstanding radio and TV productions. He is listed in Who's Who in Religion in the United States, Who's Who in the Catholic Church in the U.S. and Who's Who in America.

During his 35 years of media ministry, Fr. Miles has conducted communications training workshops throughout the United States and in 50 countries worldwide. He worked as spiritual director at Canyon Ranch in Tucson for over nine years and has served as presenter and resource for groups like The Police Chiefs and Sheriffs of the Western States, National E.P.A. directors, Bay Area Rapid Transit executives, and the Young Presidents Organization nationwide. His favorite tools are humor and storytelling.

HAPPINESS=FAITH, FAMILY AND FOR-GIVENESS

Happiness is ultimately an attitude, a choice - and involves three things: faith, family and for-giveness. People near death talk about two of those - only and always - their family and their faith: the two most important and taken for granted realities of life.

Faith beyond religion as in spirituality, mysticism, an experience of the transcendent, the divine, the God-moments in our lives. Family as in blood family, love family, extended family, universal family--functional and dysfunctional. After 43 years as a priest and marriage and family counselor, Fr. Miles believes that the key to both is for-giving, letting go of old hurt and anger in order to heal.

ENRICHING YOUR MARRIAGE AND FAMILY AND SELF

Love is an inside job: it begins with you. It includes vulnerability, nurturing and forgiveness. It means letting go of fear, judgment and expectation. Love is a free choice of the will (not simply an emotion or feeling) that desires the spiritual growth of those you love.

With a degree and 43 years of experience in marriage and family counseling, Fr, Miles O'B. Riley, PhD. will present stories, examples and practical strategies for deepening your love - particularly through commitment, time together, appreciation, communication, spiritual wellness and coping with crisis.

LOVE HEALS: Insights and practical keys for creative grieving -

We all suffer the pain of loss: the death of a loved one, a hurtful divorce, the loss of health, a tragic accident. We all experience variations on the typical stages of denial, anger, barter, depression and acceptance.

Fr. Miles O'B. Riley, PhD, author of Set Your House In Order: a practical preparation for death (Doubleday, N.Y., 1980) with 43 years of pastoral experience as a priest and grief counselor, will use real life examples, concrete tips and group interaction to focus not on our losses but our healing.

HAPPINESS IS WHOLENESS

A whole person has his or her act together. Often referred to as integrity! A whole person has health for the body, humor for the heart, hope for the mind, and healing for the soul. Signs of wholeness - sometimes spelled "holiness" - include: enthusiasm, creativity, peace, humor and an attitude of gratitude.

We all search for that illusive purpose of life: to be truly, deeply, authentically happy. This practical workshop will offer specific suggestions to help you realize your own wholeness - and happiness.