I grew up listening to stories about my dad’s Uncle Wendell. At first, I remember thinking that this was some magical character my dad invented to entertain and inspire us, just the way my father seemed to be entertained and inspired by this man he adored. We would hear how when dad was a kid, he would follow Uncle Wendell around, entranced by his mechanical abilities to fix anything and entertained at the same time with his warm personality.
I imagined scenes of breezy late summer days in northern Ohio, white clouds in blue skies, soft lake breezes and the sound of Cicadas humming in the trees. I could picture a young version of my dad, blue eyes, tight blond curls, trying to make a whistle sound from his blade of grass (he always taught us this important skill as kids.) Little Glenn might have his freckled nose too close to the engine as he positioned himself “overseeing” Uncle Wendell’s work. Maybe he tried to direct where he thought his uncle should connect a wire, and then I would recall some joke about how awesome “copper tubing” was, though I never quite understood what that meant.
Many of the things my dad proclaimed to love about his uncle were the very things I loved about my dad. He was a handy man, an inventor, a jokester, and a craftsman. As Dad would work in the garage, from a large project pile of scrap metal, wires, and other things that bewildered me, he whistled a tune that would float through the air, and his peaceful contentment was palpable. I would linger near him for hours at a time, just drawing or playing with dolls; whatever I could do to absorb any amount of his serenity.
Editor’s Note: Matthew Chicoine interviewed Father Edward Looney via phone call on July 1st, 2025. We have rearranged and edited some of the questions. This provides the best reader experience without losing any integrity of the answers given.
You’ve written and spoken extensively about the Blessed Mother. What first sparked your devotion to Mary, and how has that relationship deepened over time?
What really started it was—I joke—I came out of the womb loving Mary. My mother and father were separated by the time I was born. I grew up in Oconto, WI, and in my hometown, there was a woman who organized pilgrimages to Medjugorje. And I think she had a great influence on Marian devotion in our parish. I remember starting later with rosaries.
Once you realize our Catholic tradition is 2,000 years old, and once you start reading the Early Church Fathers, it only deepens your devotions. The writings and quotes of the saints inspired me too.
In your book A Heart Like Mary’s, you offer practical ways to imitate Our Lady. What’s one Marian virtue you personally find the most challenging to practice as a priest?
Editor’s Note: Matthew Chicoine interviewed Jose Pulido via phone call on March 7th and 14th, 2025. Some of the questions have been rearranged and edited to provide the best reader experience without losing any integrity of the answers given.
Your personal journey from being a “staunch, articulate atheist” to Catholic evangelist is fascinating. Could you share more about that mystical encounter with the Holy Family that changed your life?
Absolutely, it was December 24, 2011. Christmas Eve The Gothic Cathedral in Barcelona, Spain. In my Colombian tradition, it was tough to celebrate together with my family. My sister and mother were back home. My brother and father were with me in Spain but decided not to come to Mass. I was wandering the city and was talking to the poor and offered them prayers since I didn’t have money on me. I heard the Mass bells ringing and I entered the church and started making my way to the front. Looking back on this experience, it was an exercise of spiritual poverty and grace. I thought I was going to be with my family during Christmas Eve Mass. The Spanish used at Mass was a different dialect (Cataline) that I wasn’t used to speaking so I only understood every tenth word. This wasn’t what I wanted at that moment because I felt down and like I failed.
Very clearly I heard the voice of Satan. He was gloating about how he separated my family and that I lost and that I would never have a whole family.
I oriented my heart toward the Lord during this time to help from not having a breakdown. During this time, the Blessed Virgin Mary spoke to me telling me that I have always been part of the Holy Family and that I alway had the perfect family. This experience happened to me while I was still in Mass. During the collection, I had two coins and Satan came back telling me that I didn’t have the right offering and was a sinner. How could I be a member of the perfect family if I was imperfect? I felt this weight again and went back to the Lord. I felt consolation from Mary and Joseph.
They again encouraged me that I have an inheritance and have the right to ask for the graces.
This was a pretty emotional experience, I had tears and snot, I was not attractive at the moment. Again, Satan tempted me telling me that while the Holy Family might accept me that the Church wouldn’t. I felt crushed again.
I again felt Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in my heart encourage me to give this Church a chance. During the sign of Peace, there was a lady who still gave me the sign of peace despite my appearance. So Satan went away.
The next message I was sent was that Jesus was present in the Eucharist. On the way back to the hotel, I received the fifth message, I was coming down with traveler’s sickness. The person who was taking care of me was my dad. I came to this realization that in order for me to experience the love of Saint Joseph and Mary that you need to go to your parents. Some people think the Holy Family is a replacement for your family and parents. And maybe that is in extraordinary circumstances like Saint John Paul II, but in most ordinary cases you need to love your parents to find the love of the Holy Family.
In your book, you mention combining Sacred Tradition with modern behavioral science. How do these two seemingly different approaches work together to create effective evangelization methods?
Many Catholics feel intimidated or unprepared when it comes to sharing their faith.
What’s one common misconception about evangelization that you’d like to dispel?
That evangelization has to be awful or a fight. Evangelization can be joyful and loving! There’s no contradiction between joyfulness and truth.
You’ve taught thousands of people through workshops across North America. What’s the most surprising transformation you’ve witnessed in someone applying your evangelization techniques?
The most surprising thing is the upside up transformation. Adult children go from not wanting to go to Mass to now volunteering with their mom with local religious orders.
I was coaching this mom and she and her daughter were yelling at each other about the faith. After one coaching session and three weeks later, they were going to Mass and hugging each other.
When you approach it with a craftsmanship of love. For example, grandma’s cookies aren’t great because she is perfect, it is because she has developed her craft of baking over decades. And that is how my work has been effective, not because I’m perfect but because I took the time to learn this craft with love.
And we have this language used by the Holy Family, found in Scripture. It feels good to evangelize, it’s kind of controversial to say, but it should feel good to evangelize our faith. It is the work of the Holy Spirit!
We always talk about the evangelizee, but never the evangelizer. This book is about how parties thrive. We have to love ourselves (not just the person we are evangelizing or just ourselves). It is both/and.
Your background includes Ivy League education and corporate experience. How has your secular professional background influenced your approach to Catholic evangelization?
Mass is unboring…bring your coworker to daily Mass this month!
Immensely! In two ways. The first way it really opened my eyes to ways of what was possible with evangelization. Routinely, I would bring my colleagues to daily Mass.
The second ways was uncovering the means to accomplish this good. I had various companies talking about religion during the lunch hour. It wasn’t because I was unique, it was because I really wanted to evangelize and I developed this craft. Anybody can learn this. The craft is to dream like Joseph, talk like Mary, and to make all things new like Jesus. We all have an inheritance to claim those things. We must be our shoulder to the wheel. The doctor must read the Scripture to found how faith and reason interact. The accountant must read Scripture and attend Mass to see how faith and reason interact. Like one of the core principles for the Marines which is “Every Marine, a rifleman”, in the Catholic space it should be similar: “Every Catholic, an evangelist.” Just like how the Marines are successful with great training, so too Catholics in order to be successful need great training.
In developing the craft in my classes it is always about how to apply this to sharing the faith.
You mention teaching people to “dream like Saint Joseph” and “speak like Our Lady.” Could you explain what these spiritual practices look like in everyday conversations with non-believers?
To dream like Joseph you have to see everything and everyone (including yourself) as God sees.
To speak like Mary you have to be willing to express yourself regarding the faith. You have to be willing to talk about your personal connection to the faith.
For Catholics who feel they’ve tried everything to reach loved ones who have left the faith, what hope or fresh perspective does your approach offer them?
Great evangelization should be life giving for the evangelist, at least a lot of the time. The Lord says the summary of faith is to love God with all your heart and love others as yourself.
It is necessary to love others as yourself. The gift of love must go both ways. In order to love others as yourself we must first love ourselves. When the Lord looks at the Rich Young Man in the Gospel of Mark, it says that the Lord looked at him and loved him. If the Lord looks at us and loves us, then when we look in the mirror at ourselves should we not also love ourselves?
Where is the best place for my audience to learn more about you?
On Instagram at @share.faith.now
About Jose:
Jose M. Pulido draws from 15+ years of experience evangelizing in various secular settings to inspire and equip others to share Christ.
His experience includes evangelizing at universities, Fortune 500 companies, and various non-profits (in the US, Latin America, and Asia).
He’s also advised numerous organizations and parishes on evangelization and catechesis through staff trainings, public workshops, & retreats. He started evangelizing for the Lord at George Washington University’s Newman Center, where he was the first disciple of FOCUS when they joined the campus. He’s worked with Georgetown University on Young Adult Latino Ministry, having founded Catholic Latino Leadership Initiative, while working as a young adult in Washington, DC. He is a spokesman for The Mary Foundation – A non-profit dedicated to the distribution of sacramentals and evangelization materials (www.catholicity.com). He has appeared on ESNE TV, doing a three-part series on Evangelization for the segment Mujeres De Encuentro. He is also a Senior Advisor at Omnia Catholic, a social media ministry aimed at supporting young adult ministries. Jose Pulido is a member of the Catholic Speakers Organization. This is the leading resource for faith-based speakers. He is a frequent presenter on the University Series in Ventura County, a series aimed at supporting faith formation for adult Catholics. He is also a member of Fruitful Futures Project, a non-profit dedicated to helping others find fruitfulness in their callings. He is part of the leadership team for That Man Is You (TMIY) at his parish.
He has a Masters from Yale University and a Bachelors from George Washington University. He speaks English, Spanish, Japanese, and is hilarious in Korean & Tagalog.
He is most relaxed when reading Sacred Scripture, doing origami, going for a nice walk, or showing others how to engage in life-giving evangelization.
Editor’s Note: Matthew Chicoine interviewed Thomas Salerno, via phone call on February 7th, 2024. Some of the questions have been rearranged and edited to provide the best reader experience without losing any integrity of the answers given.
What drew you to write about Blessed Nicolas Steno?
I’ve known about Nicolas Steno for a while. In college, I took a lot of geology classes and came across him in my textbooks. The textbooks rarely mentioned he was a priest. He is not well known even in Catholic circles. He’s not as familiar to people as Gregor Mendel. But Nicolas has been a hero of mine and I wanted to write about him.
Because he is still “just” a blessed he doesn’t get as much “air-time” as a fully canonized saint.
If you could sum up Nicholas Steno’s life in a couple sentences for my readers?
His life represents a relentless pursuit of truth. He came into the Catholic Church from a Lutheran family. No matter what subject he was studying, he was never afraid of where that journey towards truth would lead him.
How did you balance making complex geological concepts accessible to young readers while maintaining scientific accuracy?
That’s a great question. I tried to keep the book as jargon-free as possible without “dumbing” it down. I thought about it as if I was a 10 year old again. How would I process these concepts at that age?
Image courtesy of Word on Fire.
Your book connects scientific discovery with religious devotion. Could you share a particular moment in Steno’s life that you found most compelling in demonstrating this harmony between faith and reason?
I think it would probably be during his conversion story. Steno initially tried to reason his way to the faith by studying the Church Fathers. On All Souls Day, he had a very powerful experience when he perceived God personally telling him to join the Catholic Church. It was through an ordinary experience: he was about to make a wrong turn on the street and a passerby told him to go the other way. In his heart, Steno was wavering on “which way to go” (that is, whether to stay Lutheran or become Catholic) and he took those words as coming directly from God.
As someone writing for children about both science and faith, how do you approach explaining the relationship between understanding God’s creation through scientific inquiry while maintaining a sense of wonder and reverence?
Another great question! I really try to communicate in my writing that scientific inquiry is a way for God to help us learn about His creation. It’s a way to give praise back to God and to give thanks for creating the beautiful, diverse, and complex world He has made.
The title mentions “Tongue-stones” – could you tell us about the significance of these fossils in Steno’s work and how they became a gateway to his broader discoveries?
“Tongue-stones” is a name that people from centuries ago in Europe gave to fossils of sharks’ teeth. Steno was originally an animal anatomist. So when he dissected a shark, he noticed how their teeth were identical to tongue-stones; they were essentially petrified shark’s teeth. This allowed him to marshal evidence that fossils were actually what they were evident to be: remains of organisms from long ago.
During your research, what surprised you most about Blessed Nicolas Steno’s journey from scientist to Catholic bishop?
Two things surprised me. Firstly, that he was still able to keep practicing science while performing his duties as a bishop. And the other thing that surprised me was how much trouble he got himself into in both the Protestant and Catholic areas. He was a reformer at heart so he didn’t have a whole lot of support from his congregations. At one point he was receiving death threats simply by opposing corruption in his diocese.
Your book includes field-guide sketches and a glossary. How did you decide which visual elements would best help young readers connect with both the scientific and spiritual aspects of the story?
To be honest, I left that in the hands of my design team at Word on Fire. One thing I have learned in this experience is how much of a team effort it is putting together a children’s book.
As a Catholic writer addressing scientific topics, what advice would you give to parents and educators who want to nurture both scientific curiosity and religious faith in children?
I think that the best advice I can give is to not be afraid to learn about these things with your children. If your child shows an interest in science or nature, nurture that interest, but also find out why they are interested and show celebrate that passion. Ask questions and be engaged with your children’s interests.
I dedicated the book to my mom because she allowed me to be interested in my study of paleontology and fossils. She took me to museums and we collected various things from outside like rocks and minerals. She let me chart my own path of learning.
Any last words of advice for my readers about how to grow in your Catholic faith?
Two things recently have deepened my faith: Spiritual reading and a dedicated daily prayer routine. The Church provides a wealth of different types of prayer, but if you can establish that daily prayer time with God it will be a game-changer.
Thomas Salerno is a museum educator, author, freelance essayist, and podcaster from Long Island, New York. Thomas has a degree in anthropology from Stony Brook University and is the author of the debut children’s nonfiction book, The Riddle of the Tongue-Stones: How Blessed Nicolas Steno Uncovered the Hidden History of the Earth.
Living in the Arizona desert, Lent has always held familiarity for me. The death themes of brown, sand, dust, dry… it’s a part of the Lenten season that never leaves. Jesus walked the desert for forty days, and I have many a time had the briefest taste of His experience when the temperatures go north of 112 and I’ve walked to my mailbox without water. The hot summer sun oppressively bears down upon me, and in the distance, an oasis looms that begs to quench my thirst. I know, despite how my eyes deceive me, I can chase that beckoning pool, but it’ll never quench my thirst.
It’s easy to understand the folly of chasing the mirage, and the wisdom of simply going home, but not every temptation is as simple to navigate as a walk to the mailbox. Some sins still get us. They promise wonderful things that only lead us deeper into the desert bereft of any relief. We wouldn’t chase sin if it weren’t alluring like the “oasis.”
A Time to Desert Our Sins
Lent is the season to confront the sins that entice us as we walk in our desert (without our dessert). In a season typically rife with talks about Jesus’ wandering, I want to contemplate the effects of sin and God in our lives by looking further back to the prefigurement of Christ’s wandering, when the Israelites wandered the desert.
Recall: God plagues Pharaoh until he releases the Israelites to Moses and they flee to the desert. After singing the Song of the Sea where they express gratefulness to God, they realize their conditions in the desert were lackluster. They start to lament that He and Moses had saved them at all, desiring the good ol’ days back in Egypt. God hears their ungrateful cries and provides them with food and water.
God Calls His People to Obedience
After this, Moses leads them to Mt. Sinai where God offers to enter into a covenant with them. If they obey His commands, they will become a “kingdom of priests,” or those who represent God. The Israelites agree, and God tells Moses many commandments on the mountain. These weren’t oppressive rules, but instructions of how the people and God would relate to one another, similar to wedding vows.
As God is giving Moses the instructions to build the Ark of the Covenant, the Israelites get impatient. They ask Aaron to make them the golden calf, violating the first two commandments and threatening the covenant. God says to Moses “God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in covenant faithfulness. He forgives sin, but will not leave the wicked unpunished.” (Exodus 34:6-7)
In the end, the Ark of the Covenant is built and set up within a tent as God commanded. The book ends with Moses trying to enter… and being unable to. As the representative of the Israelites, their unfaithfulness to the covenant is fracturing their relationship with God, and not allowing them to be close to Him.
Rules to Guide
In Leviticus, God gives the Israelites many more commands and instructions. God promises He will be very good to them if they are good to Him, but he will bring wrath down if they are not. The people hear this and do good. When we look forward to Numbers, we see Moses speaking to God from within the tent containing the Ark. This means the people had stayed close enough to God and made reparation to bring themselves closer to Him again!
It doesn’t last. In Numbers, as they walk through the wilderness of Paran, the Israelites complain and eventually riot saying they don’t want to go to the promised land. God says the Israelites can have it their way. They will not enter the promised land, only the next generation will in forty years. Later, Moses receives the same fate as he, too, offends God.
There’s still more rebellion from the Israelites, so God brings a punishment of poisonous snakes upon them. To remedy this, God tells Moses to make a bronze snake and hang it on a stick, so that whoever looks upon it would be healed.
Then the king of Moab asks a pagan sorcerer to curse them. Three times this sorcerer tries, but he can only offer blessings. While the Israelites are down in their camp grumbling and turning against God, He is with this sorcerer protecting and blessing them.
God is a Patient Father
Do you see the pattern? Time and again, the Israelites offend God, but He remains just and good to them. This is why these stories are so important and repeated so often throughout the bible. These stories illustrate that God will keep His word on his covenant promises, but He will also allow His people to separate themselves from Him and bear the consequences. This is true thousands of years later, and the words of Moses to the next generation in Deuteronomy are too.
As the new generation goes to the promised land without Moses, he speaks words of wisdom to them. He tells them many things, particularly to be more faithful to the covenant than their parents were. “Listen Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all of your soul, and all of your might.” This prayer is called the Shemah, which means “Listen” in Hebrew. In Hebrew “listen” means more than to hear, you must respond to what you hear–or obey.
God Won’t Desert You
Today, it isn’t enough to read your bible, you must obey the will of the Lord. Similarly, Love means more than an emotion or feeling. It’s a wholehearted devotion to God, a decision to align your will, emotions, mind, and heart to Him. We’re called to this same alignment now. This quote became a very important prayer to the Jewish people because it concisely stated what we know to be true. We are a people set apart. Israel’s obedience to this would make them a unique people among the nations, as it makes Christians unique in the world now.
As the new generation will be intermingling with the idol-worshipping Caananites, Moses urges them to worship God alone. Idols degrade humans and destroy communities, but worshiping God alone leads to blessings and life. These idols are sin, like the mirage in the desert: enticing, and tempting, but they bring devastation.
Moses instructs on God’s laws, which sound pretty average today but were radical and revolutionary for ancient Egypt. They’re better compared to similar rules at the time, like the Code of Hammurabi, where you can see how different circumstances, beliefs, norms, and people generally were back then. This gives a better understanding of how incredible these laws were, and how God was holding the Israelites to the highest standard they would be capable of back then. It’s the same now: Christians are called to higher standards than the rest of the world deems necessary. They make us weird, but the fruits speak for themselves.
Continued Promises
Moses continues: if they stay close to God, blessings will abound, but if they stray then exile will come to them. He urges them to choose life but admits he knows they will not after he dies. While this is pessimistic, it is also realistic. He says this because he knows them. Moses promises them that one day, when they’re in exile, struggling with venomous sin, they can always turn back towards God. He will welcome them back with open arms. For even when God rightly brings down justice, He transforms those just acts into life for those who look for healing, as when the Israelites looked upon the serpent.
Eternal truths about the relationship between God and man abound in this set of books. We constantly offend God and reap the consequences. He also constantly forgives us when we come back to Him. We don’t earn that forgiveness, He just gives it, if we want it. When we take that forgiveness and choose to live lives that ignore the mirage of the oasis, and instead keep our eyes fixed upon God, the blessings overflow. Our Lenten walks in the desert keep us keenly aware of the sting of suffering. Looking forward to Easter, what we truly see on the other side is the greatest promise of all: Heaven.
About Our Guest Blogger:
Desirae Sifuentes is a military wife, mom of 5, and theology student at Franciscan University. Growing up largely ignorant to her faith, she ventured off and found her way back home. This led her to passionately pursue her own catechesis. Now she’s sharing that journey, and how to grow, learn, and defend your catholic faith online at @uncatechizedcatholic.
The holidays are a time for family, friends and celebration. Decorations, special treats and activities bring us joy as we bring the year to a close and prepare for a new one.
Despite the festivities, the season also brings holiday stress. We are easily distracted and overwhelmed with expectations and traditions that can negatively impact our mental health.
As Catholics, we are called to see past the commercialism of the holiday season and focus on the many blessings of our lives, including the birth of Jesus. Thankfully, our faith provides many opportunities to focus on what makes this season important for our faith.
Read on for five ways faith can help with your holiday stress.
Spirit of Gratitude
Gratitude changes everything (and so does coffee, unless you’re a tea drinker.)
Even though our modern Thanksgiving differs from its historic origins, it is still a day when we gather with loved ones to share a meal and express gratitude for how God has blessed us throughout the year.
However, gratitude is not solely meant for Thanksgiving. It can be done daily in a journal or added to your prayers. Additionally, studies have shown that gratitude has many health benefits, such as improving sleep and mood. It also helps with anxiety and depression, which can be heightened at this time of the year.
To help with holiday stress, thank God for three or more blessings in your life each day. Be intentional with your daily blessings and track how it improves your mood and stress. Consider continuing this practice throughout the year.
Practice Patience
Commercialism tends to impose the holidays upon us way before the actual date arrives. Decorations, treats and holiday-themed products hit stores early, encouraging increased spending and a longer holiday season. By the time the holiday arrives, it’s no longer enjoyable and you’re ready for the next one.
The holiday season can also highlight what we are missing in our lives. Children await Christmas with much anticipation for special gifts under the tree. Singles are longing to share the holidays with a spouse. Parents with infertility issues are longing for the day they can celebrate with their own children.
God teaches us the importance of patience throughout life. Patience describes love (1 Corinthians 13:4), is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and is an instruction from God throughout the Bible.
Patience is a requirement of faith. God asks us to wait for his divine timing for the desires of our heart. As all of us enter this season of busyness and stress, ask God to give you patience for yourself and with others. While the holiday season is filled with anticipation, it is also important that we patiently wait for what is in store for us.
Rituals and Traditions
The Catholic faith is full of rituals and traditions that we practice throughout the year. And the holiday season is no different.
Catholics celebrate the season of Advent for four weeks leading up to Christmas. Our Christmas season lasts until Epiphany, which is in January of the new year. We celebrate the Nativity of Our Lord on December 25 with nativity sets in our homes and churches until the Christmas season ends. On January 1st, we celebrate the feast of Mary, the Mother of God.
All of these seasons and feasts have their own traditions and rituals, which help to keep the holiday season in perspective.
Having an Advent wreath and calendar are both reminders to wait on the Lord and to do good work in this season of waiting. Because Christmas doesn’t end on December 25, we keep the light of Christ shining brightly in our homes and with all we encounter. We are also invited to celebrate other aspects of the holiday season, such as the three kings at Epiphany and mother Mary on the first of the year.
Having rituals and traditions eases holiday stress because of their continuity and stability. They bring us comfort and something to look forward to each year. Embrace these Catholic traditions in your holiday routine. Do a couple of things to get started so you don’t overwhelm yourself or your family.
Community Support
Ask the Holy Family to give you comfort during times of loneliness this holiday season.
The holiday season can heighten feelings of loneliness and isolation, especially for those who live alone, are mourning the death of loved ones or in a transitional period of their lives.
By getting more involved in parish life, you will ease those lonely feelings and be surrounded by like-minded people. This provides a sense of belonging that will lift your spirits.
Connect with your faith community during the holiday season by attending Mass and making the effort to meet someone new. Volunteer with a ministry to help someone in the community or give Christmas gifts to a family in need.
Holiday stress may come each year, but the Catholic faith provides us opportunities to focus on God’s love and the birth of Jesus. May our faith bring comfort and joy to you and your family this holiday season.
About Our Guest Blogger:
Samantha Smith is a Catholic blogger and copywriter. You can follow her blog at spiritandsparkle.net.
💲This month marks a significant milestone for me as my freelance work has exceeded my “day job” monthly income.
How did this happen?
It’s much simpler (not necessarily easier) than you think.
In 2015, I started my blogging journey, which served as a way to cope with the grief of losing my unborn child due to miscarriage and to continue my mission of spreading knowledge about the Catholic faith.
Writing has been a lifelong passion for me. 📝
As a kid I developed a deep love for reading I used to visit the library weekly, borrowing 20-30 books.
The stories that I read fed my creativity and led to my desire to write.
At the age of 7 I started writing adventures on my mom’s typewriter.
In college, I fostered the skills of reading and writing when I earned a Bachelor’s degree in history (and minor in philosophy).
I completed my Master’s Degree in theology in 2014.
But my higher education credentials aren’t what got me freelance work.
Sure it helped but it wasn’t the main reason.
Instead of merely talking about my expertise, I demonstrated it through consistent daily writing.
It’s easy to tell others about the degrees, programs, or certifcations you amassed.
But it’s more effective to SHOW that you know the subject matter.
And how do you show others?
In the case of my field (content writing), it meant “showing” up everyday.
Over the past 8 years, I’ve been writing daily, whether on my website, through social media, in my notebooks, or in the margins of the books I was reading. 📚📖
I also proactively reached out to websites in my niche, writing guest posts while managing “The Simple Catholic” blog.
Even those numerous unfinished drafts played a role in my freelance success.
One unique aspect of my work is my ability to connect almost anything back to the Catholic Church and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Here’s a few things I can tie back to Catholicism:
🦔 Hedgehogs
🙂 Tetherball
🪃 Boomerangs
✨ Grand Admiral Thrawn
🖇️ The Office
🌟 Kaleidoscopes
♟️ Board games
🏈 Paper football
⚾ Baseball
📦 Cardboard boxes
I even captured the attention of a client who saw a post I wrote about John the Baptist and eating locusts (with honey of course)!
Success occurs when your passion intersects with your skill and you hone your craft over time.
Repetition is soooooo key.
If you’re a Catholic small business owner seeking engaging, faithful Catholic content for your website, reach out to me yesterday (or today) if you’re behind schedule. 🙂
