Olivia Colombo 0:15 Hello and welcome to this teaser of the To the Heights podcast. This is Olivia Colombo at Catholic TV, and I am so excited to be sharing a little bit of this new project with you. I'm a young Catholic Changemaker, a college student, journalist and aspiring theologian. At any given time, I can be found painting murals for church, planning my next mission trip to Haiti, working for Dr. Jane Goodall's Youth Leadership Council, maybe ministering to homeless in Boston, teaching kids about ocean ecosystems on the beach, or most likely drafting up my next article for Boston College's Catholic newspaper. In my many diverse interests of theology and ministry, science and social justice, and journalism and media, I've had the blessing of crossing paths with so many young people who are making differences in their own ways. I wanted a platform to share authentic conversation with young Catholics and those who minister to them about what it looks like to live the faith in our own ways in 2019. The title of the podcast "to the heights" comes not only from the fact that I'm spending my time at Boston College, which is nicknamed "the heights," but also "to the heights" comes from the translation of the quote "Verso L'Alto" by Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, a 24-year-old Italian student, mountain climber, and potentially soon-to-be saint who gave his life to caring for the poor and vulnerable. His literal and spiritual mountain climbing is where the idea of ascending for the heights and reaching for the glory of God comes from. Using this prayer and reminder to keep reaching to the heights, this podcast aims to introduce you to young people with incredible stories and fire for Christ, in hopes of sharing authentic conversations that might inspire listeners to climb the mountains in their own lives, for the glory of God. In this very first season, we get the chance to talk to youth ministers, young nuns and priests, high school activists, college students living the faith on campus, pro-life leaders, a priest from Rome, and co hosts of a youthful Catholic show, and so many other unique and inspiring people. Here is a little sneak peek of the stories of reaching to the heights that we have in store. Tommy Tighe 2:39 How did I keep the faith in college? Uhh, I went to mass every Sunday, we had a very, I guess you could say like hippie-ish church, St. Mark's in Isla Vista where like, the priest wears Birkenstocks and sings literally the entire mass, where people are sitting--there's not even pews there's just chairs, and people sitting in between the lines like barefoot, I mean, it's very loosey goosey kind of place. But there was a community like when I went to college I, I, I wish that I could say I kept going to mass because I was already 100% bought into the faith. But I did sort of like kind of drift away a little bit. But I went to mass because of the familiarity of like a place to go to every Sunday that felt like home. That meant a lot to me. So even though maybe that's not like the right reason. That's what kept me there. And luckily, I met my wife while I was there. And we just kept going to Mass together after we kind of moved away from college. So that was very nice. Fr. Sinisa Ubiparipovic 3:36 Be courageous, be bold. Stop trying to conform. Keep focused on Christ, pray he will give you the courage and the Holy Spirit, fight for your soul. Fight for the salvation of your friends. Rely on the Holy Spirit for courage. Never get discouraged. never quit, never, never despair, but always focus on the cross and you will have everything you need. That's all the answers are right there in the cross. Sr. Bethany Davis 4:02 The daughters of St. Paul, were something that I always came back to. So like all throughout high school, whether there was like a boy in the picture or not like it was like the Daughters of St. Paul, were always something in the back of my head. And like I said, I came to volunteer a lot. So the the sisters were always something that was like, I think this is something that I want to do with my life. Like I said before, like religious life doesn't make sense, without Jesus, and no vocation make sense without Jesus. So it's like, really ask him what he wants. And don't be afraid of that question either because they promise you that Jesus doesn't want you to be miserable. I promise you that God did not create you to be miserable. God created you for greatness and he created you for happiness. And He created you to be one with him, which is happiness. Max Loeb 4:52 Um, I was born with a heart defect. I had procedures when I was little and they did the surgery. They thought everything was successful. For the first couple of days, and as they went on with more and more tests, it looked less and less successful. And they had to do one more test to kind of decide if they needed to go in and fix anything. And the night before that test my mom, we were walking around the hospital, she walked into the chapel. And she, obviously she prayed for me for, I don't know, maybe for 5, 10 minutes, but I didn't know what she was doing because I wasn't religious. And then the next day, when we took the test, everything was fine. And I got to go home the next day. And again, I didn't know those God at the time, because I didn't know who God was. But the moment I first found God for myself, was I think it was the winter of my... either the winter of my freshman year and winter my sophomore year. I'm a big college football fan. Derrick Henry is one of my favorite players; I'm an Alabama fan. And in his speech, after he won the Heisman Trophy, he said something to the effect of never being afraid to pray to God who always hear your cry. So that night, I prayed for the first time and I felt something. As the weeks went on, I made the decision to join the RCIA program. And in April 2017, I got my sacraments of initiation. Sarah Ryan 6:10 I started doing tobacco control work around the same time that I dove really deep into my faith. And I think that my prayer life has supported me in it as an activist in ways that essentially, I don't know if I could do the activism that I do, if I didn't have my faith. I learned that the Holy Spirit is always going to push me to do things that I don't want to do. Like going to confession scares me a lot. And I cry beforehand, every single time. But it is a beautiful sacrament. That is like saving. Yeah, we all know. And public speaking terrifies me to no end. But there's messages that need to get across and somebody has to say them. So you know, there are things that you don't want to do that you need to do. And I think that the Holy Spirit is always going to push me to do those things. Gavin Larnard 6:57 Before practice, we were just shooting around and having fun. And we just, I don't know how the conversation started. But we just started talking about our faiths. And Mr. Klein was like, I never knew you guys were so faithful. Like, and we just kept talking, we talked about... Gabriel and I talked to them about Resurrection Parish and the amazing Life Teen program there. And we came to the conclusion like, hey, why can't we do that? For BC High? Mickayla Hagar 7:26 I think the coolest part of Israel for me was just I had the opportunity and the blessing to go when I was in high school. So when that opportunity came full circle, and I was bringing high schoolers. That was really cool. It was a different experience for me this time around because it was very much... I guess, like the coolest thing that I do in my job, like in general is I try to set up encounters with God, like encounters with the Lord, for the teens. And for those, you know, we have confirmation, also a part of our programs, those in confirmation. And I just like to set it up, and then get out of the way, like step back and let the Lord work. I feel like we've all experienced maybe a retreat high when we were in high school or something where you ride the wave for a little bit. And then like, reality hits you in the face. And you're like, oh, what the heck Lord, you know. But this is just like, Man, it's it's radical. And I think a lot of it has to do with just how much we pray when we're on mission trips. I mean, even if the kid comes in to the, to the trip, and he was like, I just wanted to like be a good person and help someone like they can't help but be radically changed, radically encounter the Lord. And what I find is they come back, and they're just hungry for that. So then they start coming to our Thursday Holy Hours and all of a sudden, like going to Life Night isn't something their parents are forcing them to do. They'll come to Tuesday night rosary like they're they're all in. Steve the Missionary 7:27 Catholics can disagree about plenty of things within the church. And both sides of that disagreement are actually still within the the playground of Catholic teaching. So that we can disagree on various things and still go to Mass together and still not call each other heretic and, and still be Christian brothers and sisters. Kristan Hawkins 9:12 Well so, I started volunteering the pregnancy center in the summer. But that summer, so I was 15. And that just changed my whole perspective. You know, what I wanted to do with my life was going into that summer I wanted to be an aeronautical engineer. I wanted to work for NASA. I just won a state scholarship. I was the only student representing Virginia at the National Space Camp for high school students. So like I had like plans like what I wanted to do and then everything just changed. You know, I I learned about, you know, really what was happening, the atrocity of abortion, how it's happening every single day and yet no one was talking about like, and I knew like, I couldn't be quiet about this. Like I was called to talk about abortion. And so that's kind of changed. You know, my whole perspective, my life plan where I thought I was, where I was going in my life. And so I spent that summer counseling women, the pregnancy center was phenomenal in training me and actually allowing me to, to get right in there and train and counsel women who are coming to the clinic, thinking abortion was their only option. And one thing kind of led to another. But it was interesting to see the plan that God had for my life was completely different than the plan I thought I was going to have. Fr. Sinisa Ubiparipovic 10:30 There's no such thing as a bad day. I don't believe in such things. I think that days are something that we make up in our heads. Because I think that is a result of a lack of gratitude. Right? So if you recognize how much God has blessed us, and the grace is bestowed upon us and the gifts He's given us, how can you have a bad day? Like if you have, if you said Mass that day? How can you have a bad day, having brought Jesus into the world? Or we've heard one confession, absolve one person from this sense? How can you have a bad day, right? But doesn't mean to say that there won't be difficulties and challenges that's not, that's just part of being alive in this planet, right. But to call that day, a bad day, I just, I'm never going to settle for that. Right? It's always "Thank you, Lord, for these for this, for this day, for these gifts, for the, to be able to say Mass, to be able to console someone in the sacraments of Confession, to be able to, you know, have a youth group, to be able to have food in my stomach, to be able to glorify You by my life. So I think I think the priesthood has really instilled in me a deeper sense of gratitude, which has intensified a sense of joy for life, and that sense of purpose and a sense of meaning, right. And so it starts with gratitude. I think that's the antidote to a lot of ailments in our life. It sounds like it may sound cliche may sound something offered that before but we think stop to think about if into most joyful people in the world are the ones who are grateful because they recognize what has been given to them as gifts from God. And when you recognize that grace, most gifts, there's nothing but to be grateful and joyful and have purpose in their lives. Olivia Colombo 12:03 With the help of Catholic TV, I'm so excited to be finally airing this project. I've had a blast, and I've learned so much in talking to different people about how they are reaching to the heights within their own vocations at their own age in their own way. There will be a new episode every Monday. And for now you can stay up to date by finding us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @TotheHeightsCTV, or find me @OliviaRose_Art or OliviaRoseart.com. The first episode will air on Monday, June 3. So get ready and I will talk to you next week. Until then, keep on reaching to the heights! Transcribed by https://otter.ai