An unlikely evening at Soho

This image was taken from the pages of Fr Robert Barron and The Catholicism Project, a compelling DVD series he and his team worked on for the past ten years.

On Friday 4 May, his last day in England before departing for the States, he introduced the series to those who hadn't yet heard about it, and told how it began. Six of us -- Fr Mark Vickers, Gonçalo Costa, Jamie Macdonald, Pascal Hebditch, Max Lawrie and I -- had the opportunity of being there at St Patrick's Church in Soho.


For the uninitiated, the reason why I say it's an "unlikely evening" is because Soho is touted by many as London's red-light district. And they can't go far wrong — there are a lot of R-rated shops and places of entertainment in this area. But just after passing by these, we come to a road which has a series of buildings joined together. The building to the end is a treasure, plain and simple.

There were a number of things that particularly spoke to me during Fr Barron's sharing --

1. The project took a good ten years to finish. When I was invited to like the page, the Catholicism DVD project was nearing its final stages, but I didn't know what I was in for. Two years after liking the page, here I am in St Peter's, watching, listening, voraciously writing and taking down everything that strikes me.
2. There was an episode in Fr Barron's Word on Fire YouTube series (coming before the DVD project, of course) where a fan of Martin Sheen was led to "Charlie Sheen", then "(Archbishop) Fulton Sheen", and then finally Fr Barron's videos. That was an unexpected, but really good way to draw people in. 
3. A bad book, even about the love of Christ, is still going to be a bad book. Presentation of content is important. It's not enough that the content itself be outstanding; a lot of content on that regard doesn't have the quality expected of it. 

Now I do want to spread that love in a compelling manner too, in my own little way. When people ask me what I do best, I have one simple answer: I can sing. I don't know what the Lord has in store for me, but if He made good things happen with that DVD project... I hope to be able to do something to that magnitude too.