Building The Kingdom One Story at a Time

“Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.”

-Pope Paul VI

Recently, I was invited to be a guest on the Modern Day Disciples Podcast hosted by my dear friends Kevin Bernaga and Ana Fuentes and produced by Jenny Rose Jalique and Rob Dela Cruz. I was their second overall guest and first musical guest on what was deemed “Praise and Worship Sunday” which will occur monthly.

The premise of the show is to get Catholic people of faith from the Diocese of San Jose (and beyond) to share their stories of encounter and conversion.

In this episode, I shared my story of growing up in a Catholic/Protestant household but finding that the sacraments are what helped root me in my Christian Catholic identity. I shared the story of how I met my wife, as our relationship helps me encounter the living God each and every day. Marriage truly is a vocation and our family is our primary vocation. I shared three original songs: “We Lay It All Down”, “Mold Me Lord”, and “Beautiful Lord”.

Overall, I loved sharing my story and songs on the podcast and I love MDDPodcast’s mission to give a voice to wonderful lay people who have a relatable and livable faith. I echo the words of Bishop Barron as he exhorts the laity, now more than ever, to rise up and take the church back like how many of the Saints did. It starts with sharing our stories because that helps foster community, creates empathy, and promotes love. The kingdom of God is built on love.

A few behind-the-scenes tidbits:

This episode was recorded at around 9:00pm in my office in Fremont, Ca.
We were in my office conference room and 7 people, including myself, were present.
It was a Tuesday, on the feast of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, October 1st. Kevin mentions this in his prayer. Later in the episode we talk about a future event happening on October 7th, the day after the release of the episode. We say it’s happening tomorrow when in reality it was happening 6 days from that day.
Alexa and Ariana Kempis were mentioned in the episode. They are cousins of Jenny Rose, one of the producers of the pod. They were both former teens in my Youth Ministry, Prymer, at St. John the Baptist parish in Milpitas. Alexa reached out to me after the episode aired. It was so great to hear from her.
The first song, We Lay It All Down, required 3 takes to record as nerves got the best of me.
Based on the conversation we had before we started recording I wasn’t sure if I could say “Philippines” so, I just say: an island comprised of 7,000 islands. I should have just said Philippines because there was no real reason why I couldn’t :-)
We ended around 10:30pm and everyone had to go home right away. John Kellett and I hit up the local In N Out and continued to fellowship and share stories. We should do this more often.