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?
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.
