Month: November 2025

A 1084 Word Interview with Brooke Joiner from Catholic Owned

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Editor’s Note: Matthew Chicoine interviewed Brooke Joiner, co-founder of Catholic Owned® via phone call on October 17th, 2025. Some of the questions/answers have been rearranged, edited, and paraphrased to provide the best reader experience without losing any integrity of the answers given.

From Calcutta to Catholic Commerce

You and Matteo met while serving with the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta. How did those experiences among “the poorest of the poor” shape the spiritual foundation and mission of Catholic Owned?

Great question! I went to Calcutta by myself to serve and my husband went there with a group. We had met and were introduced by seminarians. We were married the next year and lived in Italy for the next four years. 

We consistently try to say yes when God is calling us to do something. And that started with both of us saying yes to going on the mission trip to Calcutta. 

We experienced a similar call from God to leave both of our jobs to start Catholic Owned. 

The Call to Radical Trust

You both left successful business careers to go “all in” on Catholic Owned. What did discernment look like in that season, and how did you recognize that this was truly God’s call for your family?

We were working in the yachting/marine industry in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. At the time of us thinking about doing something different we had three children. We have done (and are still doing) Mother of Divine Grace Homeschool. Part of the preschool curriculum is to listen to the Glory Stories from Holy Heroes and we had heard the Our Lady of Fatima story so many times. We started doing the First Saturday devotion, and this led to us praying the Rosary daily. This devotion started to create a chasm between our work and who we desired to be. God told my husband that we needed to start this business, so we started working on it on the side. The chasm just grew and it got to the point that we were willing to do whatever we needed to do to go “all-in” with Catholic Owned, which we did a month after our fourth child was born.

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Never Rejected: Christ’s Promise of Hope, Trust, and New Beginnings

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Guest Post by: David Tonaszuck

A reflection on the Gospel of John 6:37-40

Dear Friends in Christ,

Today’s Gospel offers us an astonishing promise from Jesus: “Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me… everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.”

If you’ve ever feared being left out, or wondered if you’re good enough for God, this Gospel is for you. Here, Jesus is perfectly clear: when you come to him, you are welcomed. The will of his Father is that not one person is lost. Christ came to gather all and reject none.

But how can we draw hope from this in our ordinary, messy lives? It all leads us to the Paschal Mystery—Jesus’ dying and rising. When Jesus hung on the cross, it looked like God’s love had failed. But the resurrection shows us the truth: no darkness, no rejection, no defeat is the end of the story in God’s hands. What Jesus says in this Gospel, he lives out for us—and for each of us, there is new life beyond the grave.

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Christ’s Appearances Before and After the Incarnation Explained

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Long before Christmas in Bethlehem, something remarkable appears throughout the pages of the Old Testament: manifestations of God that hint at a divine mystery yet to be revealed. The Church has wrestled for centuries with a profound question: When God appeared to Abraham, Moses, and the prophets, who exactly did they see?

The answer involves what theologians call “Christophanies,” appearances of the pre-incarnate Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, before He took on human flesh. But the story doesn’t end at the Incarnation. The manifestations of Christ continue in the New Testament, culminating in feasts we still celebrate today. Understanding both the Old Testament appearances and the New Testament revelations helps us grasp the full scope of how God has chosen to make Himself known.

What Is a Christophany?

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The Simple Catholic Sunday Funnies: Episode 22

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Welcome to another The Simple Catholic Sunday Funnies! Growing up, one of my favorite parts of Sunday was flipping to the comics section of the newspaper: a little pocket of humor, color, and light-heartedness to start the week.

Now, in that same spirit, I’m excited to share this weekly collection of wholesome, funny Catholic comic strips. Thanks to the incredible talents of artists like Father Alvaro Comics, The Catholic Cartoonist, Sam Estrada, Tomics, and Fr. Michael DeBlanc. These comics bring a joyful twist to our shared faith, reminding us that laughter is one of God’s great gifts.

Enjoy Catholic comics!

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