Fr Steve: Welcome to another episode of encounter, grow witness with the rockstar host Beth Spizarny, Beth, how are you doing? Beth: I'm doing well. And the inimitable Father Steve Pullis here with us. I've been working all month on that adjective. That's the one I chose. Fr Steve: Yeah, that's great. Beth: But remarkable. I went with inimitable. Fr Steve: Well, I'm glad that, uh, I am not imitatable because God has made each of us unique and different, and God uses me to glorify him in one way. He uses you to glorify him in another way. We have an awesome guest with us today. We'll introduce in a moment and see how God is using her to, uh, to glorify him and bring many people to know him. But before we do that, as we're in the month of November here, Beth, um, I think, uh, we were talking beforehand about Thanksgiving and what a great holiday it is and how much food is, uh, kind of central to Thanksgiving. Uh, and you had a great, uh, great question. Beth: Yeah. I'd like to know the worst Thanksgiving food, your opinion on the worst, and I'm ready to disagree with you Fr Steve: The worst possible or the worst. Like my mom made, are you asking me to like call out my mom's menu? Beth: Or like custom food that's customary. I mean, don't pull out, you know, something, most people will never see, but different families make different foods. Fr Steve: Yeah. So I think I shared this, um, on, uh, another podcast I used to help with, uh, when we had a similar question. Um, but uh, one of the great things my sister started making this, um, sweet potato casserole that we never had growing up, but it's literally like dessert in the middle of the meal. You know, it's got the brown sugar and I think like pecans on the top. And I thought that was going to be awful. Cause I didn't like sweet potatoes growing up, but that is a kind of surprise rockstar for us. I would have to say the least, um, and this might get me in trouble with my Irish ancestors, but I'm not a huge mashed potatoes fan, huge mashed potatoes. So they're not awful, but they're low. They're low on the Thanksgiving hierarchy Beth: He doesn't like dogs. He doesn't like mashed potatoes folks. I don't know what to say. The roll is the correct answer. The roll. There are families that still put out rolls and we always have a customary box or basket of rolls. And what you're supposed to do is smile and walk past it. That's what you're supposed to Fr Steve: Beth, can I change my answer? Beth: No, you can't. It's too late. I love mashed potatoes have been deleted from Thanksgiving tables all around the world. Fr Steve: Well, oh, well, someone we don't want to delete, but we want to invite onto, uh, our, uh, our conversation into our conversation is Emily Mentock. Emily, how are you? Emily: I'm doing great, so happy to be here guys. Beth: Hello, welcome. Fr Steve: Emily, do you have an opinion on, uh, the Thanksgiving foods that are, or the one food that would be lowest on the Thanksgiving food list? Emily: I am least likely to put on my plate on Thanksgiving is Turkey. Actually, I go for the rolls. That's one of the few things I don't eat meat. I haven't eaten meat now for this'll be my sixth Thanksgiving, no meat, no dairy. And so I have to pass on the Turkey and go for the rolls. My family would answer the worst Thanksgiving food is the vegan green bean casserole I bring every year. Fr Steve: Do you bring like a single portion for you? Emily: I bring way too much. I'm like very ambitious because for me like green, that's my main, I fill my plate and then there's always a way too much. No, don't bring us this Fr Steve: Right. Well, we have a roll lover and yeah, Beth: That's true. Yeah, but it's good. I'm glad there's food for you to eat, if you can't eat Turkey, Emily: Which is fine. I don't want people to fuss about it. So I just go for, what I can. Fr Steve: Have you had like a vegan or vegetarian? Yeah, that kind of, Emily: I've done tofu, but I've never actually tried an official Tofurky before Fr Steve: Is it tofu shaped like a Turkey? Emily: It's like tofu, shaped. Yeah. Like shaped and tastes tasting like a Turkey, but I don't go for the imitation meats. It kind of freaks me out. Just more green. Fr Steve: The impossible Turkey Emily: Haven't tried that, but I've seen the, actually, when I was at the pistons game, I had an impossible burger. We were talking about basketball before this. Fr Steve: Did the pistons win? Emily: They did not no, it was kind of rough, but it's okay. Fr Steve: Yeah. Well, um, I think it's going to be that kind of year for the pistons, but uh, things are looking up and speaking of things that are looking up, we want to talk about something great that, uh, that you're involved in and the reason we're having you on. And you know, Beth, we haven't had a guest on here before, but we were talking about, um, you know, in, in working with people who are, uh, mission direct or lay ecclesial ministers in the church, just the way, um, discouragement can creep in and we can kind of get into a spirit of competition and how helpful it is for us to just keep our eyes first of all, on Jesus, but also keep our eyes on like all the good things that are happening in the church right now Beth: And celebrate each other. Right. I mean, we can celebrate our coworkers in the vineyard. We've got to celebrate each other in the work that God is doing in our midst. It's exciting. Fr Steve: Yeah. So Emily, before we get into the cool exciting thing, we're going to talk to you about just want to, um, you also host a podcast for the archdiocese of Detroit Emily: Yeah, open door policy. So successor, to father Steve, which I host with father Patrick, so had a great blessing of meeting many joyful missionary disciples. Who've come on that podcast to share their story. Fr Steve: That's great. Well, I'm glad you're doing that. And you've been working here in the archdiocese for a couple of years. I remember meeting you kind of digitally just before the pandemic. Emily: Yeah. It'll be two years the last week of January. Fr Steve: Okay. So that's awesome. Um, but we want to talk to you about, um, this, uh, initiative you're part of, but before we do that, we're, I'm filled with preliminaries here. So my apologies before we dive into talking about real plus, true. Um, we just want to kind of pick your brain about your own discipleship and your own following the Lord. And we've talked a lot about the necessity for prayer, what it means to follow the Lord. Um, you know, Beth and I have talked about what our prayer life looks like, and we thought that'd be a great question just to start off by asking you, like, how do you pray? Emily: Yeah, definitely. So I, my prayer is it's kind of structured. I'm working on the more spontaneous prayer actually this morning in Pope Francis, his audience, who's talking about an authentic come holy spirit. Like, and how do you really mean, like, what does it mean to really invite the holy spirit to come into your moment? Um, so I've been working on that, but my, um, prayer life, I would say it's pretty structured. I love mass. I love like going to adoration to daily mass. And I'm just one of those people who need that sort of like ritual of my Catholic faith to keep me close to God. I can, I, as an extreme extrovert, struggle more with the silent side of things, but doing things as a group together, um, has been really life giving to me. And I luckily live, I mean a 30 second walk away from our parish. Emily: I live downtown. We go to St. Aloysius. So that's very convenient. They've got a daily mass and then, or even structured, you know, working for the archdiocese. I work in the communications office and, um, you know, one of our values for the archdiocese is, um, prayer that we pray before every meeting. So I start in my job, I have a lot of meetings, so I am praying every 30, minutes to an hour to begin every meeting with a prayer. And, um, sometimes I guess you can fall into a routine of that as well, but I try to approach it as authentically as possible and kind of work and pray together through that. So, yeah. Fr Steve: Um, and you know, just so our listeners know that is a value of the archdiocese Beth and I always start before we record because it feels like it would be weird as the intro to our, like the recorded part of our, of our podcasts. Um, but we do pray before we get started and Ron or faithful producer here, uh, if, if we are kind of, kind of gearing up and planning and ready to go around and he'll say, Hey, let's pray before we get started. So I'm always grateful to have Ron reminding us about that value as well. Emily: Yeah. I think it's super important, especially, I mean, in our service to the church that like, even if it's kind of a routine too, to just have to begin that way. Um, but to know that you're inviting making that intention to invite the holy spirit into your work, whatever we're doing, whether it's a meeting about deadlines or you're actually brainstorming what to do for advent or lent that, I just think it's been a really important part of staying focused on mission. Beth: Absolutely. Right. Otherwise, w w we're too busy. We're too busy. We're too busy. Sorry, Lord. just too busy. We have too much work to do for you. We don't have time to talk to you. Sorry. Jesus. Fr Steve: We're doing that right. Close up shop, go home. Beth: Not going to be any fruit Beth: Yeah. Prayer. Yeah. Well, the other piece we kind of been talking about and reflecting about for, you know, being healthy and working in ministry is kind of how we collaborate with others. So we'd love to know, obviously you collaborate with a lot of people in your role within, um, the AOD communications, but you know, what does collaboration look like in your life? Emily: Uh, definitely listening. Um, that's just been such a huge part of it. Um, so in my role, I collaborate with our entire communications department and in my particular role, also with all of our, you know, quote unquote clients who are the other offices and ministries in the diocese, sometimes parishes, when they have particular needs that we can help with. And what I've found is that even if we, you know, our job is to bring certain best practices, you know, my skill set and bring that to the table, to serve these offices and ministries in the area of communications and marketing, listening to their goals and to their needs and not just, you know, kind of rubber stamping, this is the plan. This is what we know how to do, but trying to adapt that to their particular sort of goals for their ministry or to the program that they want to run, whatever it is to their podcast goals. Like you guys. If father Steve was like, Hey, I want to have, I have an idea for a podcast. And it's like, okay, how do I really listen to that? And so that's what I found, um, sort of balancing that line between an expert and being in having expertise in what I do, but needing to adapt it to others, like always starts with listening for our department to be successful. Fr Steve: How do you, so, so you bring an expertise, um, how do you help people when the idea they share with you is, um, maybe not the best idea or Emily: It was a good idea fairy. Fr Steve: The Archbishop talks about that, right? Like, Hey, I had this good idea and then run with it or even, you know, I think all of us are, we're trying, you know, a spirit of innovation and it's one of the good habits called for, but sometimes we don't get it right. And I think you have a responsibility work before we get into the innovative thing you're doing, but just to help kind of coach people in saying like, Hey, that doesn't really align with either the mission of unleash the gospel, or we don't see that aligning with, um, the needs we have right now. Right. So maybe it's an idea that would have worked 20 years ago or would work in a different setting. How do you work on kind of collaborating with people when you do have to say, like, I don't know if we can go down that road. Emily: So this is what I do when people come to me in meetings like that, I learned this framework a couple of years ago, actually at a, at a conference, a secular work conference, but it's, I found it to be really helpful to apply to our work here, which is if someone's coming with an idea and maybe their ideas for how they liked something to be, executed and then just kind of pause that conversation and bring it back up to mission first. Okay. Let's just get the conversation back up to the mission level. And then I ask them with that mission in mind, what is your goal? So not what do you want to actually have us do? What do you want us to design? Or what video do you want us to make, but what is your goal? Who is your audience? What are you trying to accomplish? Emily: What is your message to them? And from that, once they know that once they're able to express that, and then I'm able to repeat it to them. So we're on the same page about what we're trying to accomplish. Then I can propose, you know, maybe the correct tactics for accomplishing that goal. You know, maybe it's not, um, a, a print resource if we need to distribute it to 30,000 people, maybe it's not, um, a podcast, if we're only trying to reach 20 people, you know, so finding the right tactics to serve that, but always bring it first to mission then to their goal. And then my job in an area of expertise is to bring the right sort of tactics and strategy to accomplish that goal. Was that too tactical? Fr Steve: I mean, that's really good. That helps us think about, you know, all of the, the leadership and the customer service, you know, aspects that so many people have to integrate into their work and say, let's put those at the service of the gospel because nothing's more important than making Jesus known and loved. And, um, that's just, you know, we should be our best at that. Right. Um, use all of the, kind of the wisdom of the world and to have that at the service of the gospel as well. Beth: Um, I think it's also neat that, I mean, it's the communications department and you're saying the core way you collaborate is by listening. Right. Right. I think most people would say the best way we collaborate is by communicating right. And getting it out there, but that it starts with listening and receptivity and then also inviting people to consider the broader mission. That sounds great. Yeah. Fr Steve: Yeah. Beth: Thanks for doing that. Fr Steve: So real plus true. Um, this is a really cool initiative. And, uh, I've heard about it, you know, talked with you and, uh, other people who are working on it, um, a number of months ago, but you launched, um, not that long ago. So just, uh, kind of the beginning of the school year. Um, so tell us a little bit about what real plus true is. Emily: Yeah. So real plus true, I mean, I guess the straightforward answer is that it's a project sort of inspired by and around the catechism of the Catholic church. Um, what's the goal to bring, you know, the beauty and truth that's contained in that text, you know, sort of our deposit of faith and bring it, um, into, uh, the modern world using the mediums that we know are most likely to reach our target audience of millennial and gen Z. So young people. So we know they're consuming more video than ever in digital spaces. And, uh, we believe that the catechism, which most people have experienced as a sort of a textbook, or just as a book in general, which maybe if you're not engaged with your faith, you're not inclined to pick up and start reading page one. Uh, uh, but really what's contained in there. We really wanted to bring that to the modern world. And so we were inspired with this idea of creating videos, really beautiful, captivating, like watchable shareable, um, videos for a younger audience, um, and sort of unlocking the catechism through that medium. It's a video project. Fr Steve: Yeah. Yeah. To bring the catechism to life for people. Um, and this is all around the 20th anniversary of the catechism Emily: It's coming next. Year's the 30th anniversary. Fr Steve: Sorry. [inaudible] thank you. I was like 92. So this is all around the 30th anniversary of the catechism coming up soon, right? Emily: Yeah. So October, 2022 is the 30th anniversary, which is 60 years after Vatican two. So the, this catechism for the universal church that we have now was published 30 years after it was sort of commissioned at Vatican two. And this is the 30th anniversary of that. So it's actually like, for something that's perceived as like containing all of that is containing all of, sort of, the deposit of faith and church teaching. It's not old the book in church years. Fr Steve: Yeah. So like every 30 years something big happens. Right. Counsel, and then the catechism, Emily: Well, we, you know, one of the lines from the prologue of the catechism that was really inspiring to us is that, um, I can, I'm so immersed in this project. Now I can even tell you that it's paragraph eight. Okay. Uh, that, uh, intense period or renewal periods of renewal in the church are intense moments of catechesis as well. And I think that there is not a Catholic out there who would say that we are, we are not in need of a period of renewal in the church right now. And so, you know, what does that look like in that looks like bringing catechesis as part of that? Um, another thing that made us really inspired for the timing of this project was, um, there seemed to be such a focus this year, 2021 on the Bible, the word of God, with the institution of word of God Sunday, we saw Bible like Bible reading challenges all across the actual world with Bible in a year with father Mike and such. Emily: And so, you know, what, what follows that if you read the Bible and the catechism is like second, only to the Bible in our faith. And so if everyone's reading the Bible, now it is our, is our hope that then the next thing they would want to pick up is the catechism. And so we're trying to align with the timing of that. Um, and then the final piece of that made it, the timing seemed very providential was with the new directory and Pope Francis instituting the ministry of catechist, which is super relevant to you guys. Um, it just seems like there's a, there's a movement around that right now that helped us feel very convicted. And the way we were feeling called to work on this project, Beth: how did you come up with a name real plus true. Emily: So we knew we didn't, we didn't want to call it something like the catechism project. Emily: So our target audience for this is for people who, you know, I get quite honestly, we'd probably be turned off by a resource that's titled by that we wanted it to meet people where they are without the name being, um, I guess in marketing role that we would call friction to them actually clicking the link or giving us a follow on Instagram. So, um, but w what real and true kind of refers to how we see God as presented in the catechism and in our faith. So that it's a real God, right? It's not just this idea, this abstract concept of creator it's, God as real, and the truth of our faith is contained there and truth the truth that sort of, um, we say like lights, sort of the path of how to live out your faith as a Catholic. So the name came from wanting to avoid the word catechism, but then feeling really inspired to point to something that's universally true and real and true God and Jesus. Fr Steve: That's great. And the videos are so cool. The scripts are awesome. There's these kind of fun, little introductions and, and explanations. And it's gotta be a really fun project to work on, uh, with all the creativity that goes into helping people think about, um, you know, as you said, the catechism can feel or be interpreted as a textbook, but there's so much depth to it that needs to be pulled out. So it's gotta be a lot of fun and kind of getting to be creative and how to bring that to the world. Emily: Yeah, it definitely is fun because, well, yeah, a super great team of creatives and advisors. So full disclosure, father Pullis is also on the advisory team for the project Fr Steve: So I get to see some of those scripts, which is awesome. It's just so cool to see, Emily: You know, again, just going back to knowing that the catechism has that, like that wisdom and that truth, that the, we want people in our target audience to discover. And so thinking creatively, it's not about translating the catechism into a digital resource. I mean, technically the book exists in full on the Vatican website, so it's not about just digitizing it. It's really about how do we sort of like bring that living voice into a medium for the modern world that people can consume. And, and within videos that can stand up against secular entertainment videos. So we have, um, one that sort of a, um, like collage style kind of like Vox media, if you're familiar with them, the introduces the concept, we have a more sort of like universal illustrated animation style, really similar and inspired by the Bible project, if you're familiar with that resource, um, and how they sort of, and they use animated videos to break open the Bible and then a live action, more YouTube style video to kind of connect it to real life. And, um, so it has been really fun to think about, you know, each section of the catechism that we're moving through and breaking open in those three different ways. And, and our goal is truly to be as relevant and as beautiful and captivating to the lives of our target audience as any secular resource they might come across Fr Steve: Well, and you're doing a great job with it. Beth: I think it's really great. What, what response have you seen so far? It's been a little, almost two months. Two months. Emily: Yeah. Over two months. Um, it's been, you know, it's been positive for the most part. We're feel just super blessed by that. And, um, in particular, you know, we've had seen positive response yes. From our target audience of people who we want to sort of have their curiosity or their openness to their faith inspired by encountering these videos. Um, but also by the, catechist's really some really innovative catechists who work in parishes and ministry across the country, across the world who see the videos, understand what we're trying to do, and then get excited to bring that, um, with their own kind of touch added to it, to the people that they are sort of, um, charged with forming. And that's been really inspiring to see because the videos, it's not like a, um, a program like alpha or something where, you know, we're creating them and the way a parish could adopt it is to have a night and you would just watch them one at a time. And here's your discussion guide. And and, you know, you just follow it step by step. We've created them. So that, I mean, yes, they, you could follow along and get something out of it, watching them through, but really that, um, anyone who's trying to really be innovative in their ministry and look for modern resources, video-based resources, instead of a textbook could take one of those and use it to start a discussion in their parish or their groups they're working with. Fr Steve: That's awesome. You know, one of the things I, um, I I've just been impressed with, this is the way it, you know, in talking about the response, the way it understands, uh, sometimes you don't know, as you put stuff out there, the impact it's gonna have, right. It could impact people, teachers catechists, to inspire them to, um, to teach in a way that's effective. And that's kind of like a couple levels removed from the actual person. Um, but the way it can just be a grace in someone's life, that could be a step on the way to their conversion. I think about that a lot, Beth, I think we've talked about it just how much it takes to help someone come into relationship with Christ, right? Rarely is it like here's a video or here's a homily, or here's a book like boom, done that, that we need all of these steps. Fr Steve: A lot of them are relational, but some of them kind of touch our heart or touch our mind to help us on the journey. And I know in my own kind of growth in faith, how important those things were. And this is where I think real plus true is going to be really helpful that, you know, not to be too dramatic here, but you'll only know in heaven, the impact that it had, right. The impact it has on someone that maybe it opens up a door that then they can have a conversation with a, with a friend about the faith, or maybe it'll push them to church and that'll be an opportunity for them to encounter the Lord in the Eucharist. Emily: I am so passionate about that father Steve. Um, I think you maybe know this, but my own journey back from. So I had basically completely stopped practicing my Catholic faith when I was in college and then like my early adulthood years. And, um, I had stepping stones in the form of digital content. Like on social media. So I encountered a Bishop Barron tweet and then a homily, and then one of the videos, and then, um, actually some content that, one of my on real and true, um, Edmund Mitchell, he was creating content around the catechism called reverb culture. That was like kind of cool millennial focused that I found just like searching on the internet for answers about my faith before I had, I mean, I had, you know, my aunts and uncles, my family who were Catholic, but some of it really need to be, you know, my personal response to how God was working in my life at the time. Emily: And, um, it was through things like listening to podcasts, reading what other people had written, even as blogs on the internet, watching Bishop Barron, YouTube videos that, um, eventually yes, there was like that final homily listened to that made me think, okay, I'm going to go back to mass this weekend. How do I look up a mass time? But there were so many pieces before that that played as like a stepping stone. And I think that's an important piece for people to understand about kind of two things that I think are really important for people to understand when we're creating sort of like digital evangelization content, uh, number one, that it can be a stepping stone, um, that any one piece doesn't have to work be presented that like, oh, this has to get people back to mass or not, but it can play a role Fr Steve: It has to answer every question. Emily: Every question, yeah. Say like, Jesus is the answer. And I mean, any piece, one piece could, and we should have a healthy awareness of that, but it doesn't need to do all of that. Um, and number two is that for a lot of people, and this is especially true for people my age and younger that sometimes those digital spaces, they feel as much like real life as real life, you know, we're true sort of like digital natives or having this hybrid. And so some of the like encounters you might have commenting on someone's Instagram post or what someone's sharing about their faith experience in a blog, because we've grown up like both with a feet in both worlds, you know, digital and real life that that feels not, not the total replacement, but very authentically personal. And so I just think that if I found in my career, um, it's important to keep both of those things in mind. Fr Steve: And it's so helpful for our, I know for me in my ministry Beth, I think I can speak for you, but correct me if I can't, um, for, uh, and all of our listeners to think about how we reach this generation of young people who are, you know, the highest generation, I think in human history have not no religious affiliation, um, that, that there are different ways and different kind of experiences being a digital native, where the, uh, the digital world is home court for to continue the basketball references we were talking about earlier. Uh, but its own court for a lot of our young people and finding a way to help them encounter Christ there. Um, and you know, giving them digital, stepping stones. Beth: And if, uh, if catechesis is a faithful echo right of the gospel, then you're creating a digital echo right. In a way that people can recognize. I always think about how a lot of times in catechesis or formation, right. We kind of hand someone, um, I wa I was abroad and someone handed me a mango and I didn't know what it was in high school. And they handed me this and they're like, eat it. And I'm, and they were all laughing. Cause I didn't want to eat it. And they thought it was so funny. I didn't know it was food. I literally. I thought like, is this something you can't eat? I didn't know what it was. You know, it was a long time ago. And, but I think a lot of times in catechesis, right? Well, we offer people, they don't know that it's food, they don't get the relevance to their life. They don't see the difference that it can make. Right. So for you guys to be breaking open the catechism and like making it so relevant to people's lives, right. We want to know who we are and where we come from. We want to know if there's a map, if there's some way to navigate through the world we live in, right. We've thrown away the maps. Right. We've thrown away our stories. Emily: The map analogy is so spot on Beth. Yeah. I don't know if you even realized it. Fr Steve: Well, I was thinking of it like peeling a mango. Emily: It could be our next, our next video. Yeah. Mango analogy. And I think you're right. You know, one, it's not enough to just put things out into the digital world, you know, parishes, aren't going to reach people, especially not young people, just, just by making a Facebook event for, you know, your event that's going on. That's not going to reach people. We need to think about evangelization in digital spaces. Um, the same way you would think about it going into real in real life. So I think Pope Benedict use the term digital continent as like the next sort of space for the next frontier for evangelization. If you think about missionaries that were going to unexplored continents back in the day, like you have to think about how to encounter people there and their culture and their tendencies. And how do we translate the truth of the gospel in a way that they're going to understand? And the same is true for a digital spaces. It's not enough to just put it out there. We need to think really carefully and prayerfully about how we're going to reach people who are living in that world. Fr Steve: Yeah. That's so apt. I mean, John Paul talks, John Paul, the second talks a lot about culture and um, evangelization of cultures. And it's always the two steps of honoring everything. That's good in the culture. Right. Realizing that Christ can be found Christ can have a home in every culture. Um, so finding what's good in that and not just saying, oh, those kids on that internet over there. Beth: And yet it's also true that everyone won't be a good digital evangelist right. In the same way. So like, I mean, I know it, we have a lot of older parishioners, right. Who really it's a stretch and it's a struggle just to incorporate video content. I had one catechist tell me that he thought video content couldn't be effective at all. And I felt, oh dear. Yeah, I think you're really wrong. But that was his perspective, right. From where he was. So like, we're not all gonna reach everyone, but how great that you guys are creating a tool that can go where a lot of people aren't natives, right. They're not digital natives. And there are people in our, yeah, just, there are people who will struggle with being generous and learning these different means of communication. Right? So the fact that you guys are going where the people are and speaking to people in a way that they can hear is Emily: Fantastic. Yeah. And I think for like the resources like this, so it's also SU it's free. The reason the videos are really free. It's not a program that you buy into. It's also in four languages, English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. And that was really important for the launch of the project. And part of that is think because, you know, parishes don't, I think it's probably challenging for most parishes to go out and create video content for their audience. I mean, sure. You could do it with a phone, but it takes effort. It takes someone who cares about wanting to do it that way Fr Steve: And the Emily: Same way that you don't expect, you know, your religious education teachers to write from scratch the second grade religion textbooks, or like first communion prep, like, okay, we're not expecting everyone to go make beautiful animated videos from scratch for our parishes. But hopefully this is a resource that people who are looking for those, um, ones that will speak, especially to a younger audience can go out and use, right? Fr Steve: So if people want to find out more, this is the obligatory plugging information. But if people want to find out more about real plus true, how do they do that? Emily Emily: Realtrue.org is where you can find it and definitely sign up for our newsletter. Especially if you're a catechist listening for this, we'll also be publishing, um, sort of discussion guides. So that was a requested resource. We don't, we didn't want to launch as a, as a strict program, but people have said, Hey, I want to use these in my parish. Do you have discussion guides? So those will be coming later this month, every time we have new videos come out, um, those will go through the newsletter. So realtrue.org sign up for the newsletter. Um, also every social media platform, you can find us at real plus true, uh, Instagram, Facebook, Tik, TOK, uh, Twitter, LinkedIn, all of them. So yeah, it really trying to reach everyone out there in that digital continent. Awesome. Beth: So great. Yeah. Yeah. So closing. Do you have, what word of hope would you offer for people who are out in ministry like doing their thing? Emily: I am really well word of hope. There's definitely a lot of people working in ministry who are, inspire me with their commitments. So, you know, communications is an interesting area of kind of both mission direct and mission support. Um, I mean, here we are in the archdiocese, we qualify it as mission direct, but there's a lot of work that we do that also support the ministry professionals to help get the word out, help, um, help them reach more people, help them move people through sort of like that path. And so what's been inspiring to me, both in my work, in the archdiocese and through real and true, real plus true is, um, the people who are looking at that, seeing it as innovation and wanting to innovate even more with it. So it's the, there's plenty of people who are kind of just, you know, I'm sure you guys you've talked, I've listened to you talk about in the podcast. We can just go through the motions, go through our liturgical calendar, check off our boxes, but there are so many people out there who really are trying to innovate in the way they do evangelizing evangelization focused catechesis. And, um, this project has been a great blessing to kind of highlight the ones who've reached back out to us. And, uh, it gives me a lot. It gives me a lot of hope for the church. Fr Steve: Yeah, that's awesome. And my job as we wrap up is to thank you to thank you for, um, using your gifts and talents to build up the church and this resource that I am very confident it's going to help people, um, to find, uh, the inimitable joy that from giving one's life to Christ. So Beth: Thank you. Emily: Thank you guys. Thank you, father Steve and, Beth, and so grateful to be here, to share a little bit more about this project with all of your listeners. Fr Steve: Well, I'm really glad Emily took some time to be with us Beth. I mean, it was great to hear, I've got to hear about real plus true, but, um, for our listeners to know about it, to hear about, um, the great work I think they're doing, and, um, that it's at the beginning of this long project. I mean, this project is going to go on, you know, we're just a couple of months in, but it's going to go on well beyond a year with videos, kind of with each segment of, uh, um, of the catechism talking about those four, four pillars of the catechism, um, with what we believe and, um, liturgy and sacraments and prayer and how we live our faith, right. More, uh, moral life, um, that I, uh, I'm just really excited for this project. I know next time we're going to talk more about innovation and how we can just kind of think through that, but it's good to have a concrete example of someone who isn't, uh, just thinking about innovation, but really trying to put it into practice. Uh, I mean, how did you feel about a real plus true. Beth: It's a really exciting project. I mean, when I saw it, I'm just, uh, I, the catechism has so much beauty and truth in it. There are so many different, there's just so much good in the catechism. And I agree, I think in general, people are reticent to pick it up reticent, to look at it. And I think not only like those of us in church work or like who are active in the church, but those who are not right, those were disengaged, especially young people she mentioned, right. Gosh, to get that, to get that truth and that beauty out there in a way that people can hear in a way that's accessible to them. I think it's really exciting. Yeah. Fr Steve: Yeah. So much thanks to Emily. And, uh, hopefully it's an inspiration or an encouragement to all of our listeners that, you know, God wants to use each of us to do something. Maybe it's to continue building on what, uh, the ministry we've inherited in parishes or wherever we are, but maybe it's about, uh, building something new. And, uh, we'll talk next time about how we can do that, how we can be men and women who embody the spirit of innovation. So, uh, yeah, it's been great. Thanks, Beth. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Beth: So this has been the encounter grow witness podcast. This is a podcast by, and for those who work in ministry, supporting each other to grow in our relationship with Christ and the church to enable us to be better witnesses of his love in the world. So let's, um, let's keep going. Let's be better fishers of men together. Don't forget to like, and subscribe to this monthly podcast on apple, Spotify, Google, or wherever you get your podcasts.