What's the Word?

Starting Your Spiritual Journey: Faith, Prayer, and the Hallow App

• Jaime McFaden

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In this inspiring episode of What’s the Word, host Jaime welcomes Brian Enriquez, a co-founder of the Hallow prayer app, to discuss divine timing, faith, and the transformative power of prayer. Jaime shares a personal story of how a dream led to a meaningful connection with Brian and the Hallow team, highlighting how God puts people and opportunities on our hearts at the right moment. Brian shares his own spiritual journey alongside Hallow’s CEO, explaining how prayer transformed their lives and inspired them to create an inclusive, accessible app that supports people of all backgrounds in deepening their spiritual practice. They explore the app’s features—from bedtime Bible stories to meditation music and prayer challenges—designed to make prayer approachable for everyone. Brian encourages listeners to start with the “Intro Challenge” and embrace humility as the first step on their spiritual journey. Tune in for heartfelt stories, practical tips, and inspiration to help you connect with your faith in everyday life.

Download the app here for a FREE trial: https://hallow.com/

SPEAKER_01:

All

SPEAKER_00:

righty. So everybody, here we are. We're back. It's What's the Word. And today I am so excited to have a very special guest, someone who was literally the brought to me by divine intervention, first through a vision and a thought that I had in a dream about this amazing app that I've seen, and you've probably seen it everywhere. And then all of a sudden, lo and behold, someone that I actually know, a dear friend of mine, had just met this wonderful human. And this soul is now on the podcast with us today. So Brian Enriquez, I'm so excited that you're here. You are the founding team member of Halo. There is a beautiful team that you guys have created and you are working on building this community through the whole customer team. You also graduated from Notre Dame in 2015, I see. You moved to Washington, D.C. You did some really cool public service for three and a half years with the government, I believe. Yes?

UNKNOWN:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep,

SPEAKER_00:

that's right. And then a couple of friends of yours decided, you and some friends, like, hey, let's dive into something that is really near and dear on our heart, that God had put on all of your hearts. And Let's be real. You have created the number one. I'm going to give you a really big shout out because I think that it needs to be known. The number one prayer app that is out there right now. And it is just continuously growing day in and day out because of the fruits of the labor and how you've watered that. So welcome to What's the Word? Brian Enriquez, how are you doing today?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I'm doing great, Jamie. Really appreciate it. Yeah, excited to jump in. Just been really blessed recently with just an incredible amount of support from the team, from the community that we've built over the years and excited to see where the Lord takes this conversation today.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, me too. And I've prayed on it. And I'm so thankful that you accepted and said yes to this invitation. So for those that are listening right now, I have to give a little bit of backstory. Brian and I do not know each other up until very recently. And now we do. And we've got a whole brother sisterhood that we're going to support one another in the ways that we can. But get this. And this is just I think this is something really important to share. When you have something on your heart, when God put something on your heart, just like Brian and his friends, how I shared in his introduction, had something put on their heart and they shifted what they were doing for a career. They shifted what they were doing in their life and they did it together. When we have something like that put on our heart, I had a dream and I work for apps. And for those of you that know, you know me through all the different apps I've worked on, different fitness apps. But what happened was I've really been into this app, Halo, and I had this dream that somehow, some way, I would be collaborating with them. I didn't know how. It's one of those. And literally the next day, one of my dear friends, Andrew, who I call Money Bear, reached out, and we had a conversation, and I had shared this dream with him, and he literally said, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but he had just met you like weeks ago.

SPEAKER_02:

That's right. It was very recent.

SPEAKER_00:

Very recent. It was so recent where he was like, oh my goodness, I actually met one of the founding team members. Would you like me to connect you? I was like, can you do that right now? And literally was just, thank you, God. Thank you, God. I will, you know, I'm here to serve however possible, right? And So we made the connection. Brian and I had a couple emails. This was before the holidays. And then all of a sudden we both were busy, you know, this, that, the other. And we finally made it happen. And we got on a call and we both found ways that we can support one another. And now here we are featuring you on What's the Word, which is just so cool, right? Like what to you, when you think about divine meetings or the people in your life that come into your life, how does that resonate with you when it comes to your faith and your journey today?

SPEAKER_01:

you know um so i

SPEAKER_02:

think for example just um taking a moment like i just got pizza earlier uh today before the show which is great and great piece of pizza gluten-free sadly i um you know i'm on the diet and it's it's one of those things where it's not by choice like my body's like you have to you know do this oh

SPEAKER_00:

yeah

SPEAKER_02:

um but you know and just taking a quick moment afterwards just be like hey Thanks, man. God bless you. And just like looking at them, like the person who's serving you the food, just be like, hey, God bless you. And it shocked me because in just those little moments, you know, you can just sometimes spread a little bit of joy. And just even though with a smile on your face, I can make a difference in somebody else's life. So,

SPEAKER_00:

yeah, like we really a lot of the times I think we might be unaware. And if you're listening to this right now, this is a perfect opportunity. Smile at somebody today. Reach out to somebody that you love. Tell them you love them. Connect with somebody that you've never met before. How, Brian, let me ask you this. How do you go about, right? You've built out this app and we're going to dive into that today. You've built out this app with your friends where you now have created the number one, I have to say that because it is really beautiful that it came from this know spark idea uh this feeling this notion that you had and you guys created the number one prayer app and you're helping support so many people and not just catholics and i like that you brought that up when we had our first conversation you said you know we want this to be accessible to anyone that is looking to even just dive into prayer can you talk a little bit about that right now

SPEAKER_02:

oh yeah 100 so i mean really the the hallow story is our own spiritual journey that's kind of manifested itself as this app. So our CEO, Alex, he was atheist agnostic in college. That's where we first met. We were roommates at the University of Notre Dame. We were randomly assigned together. And he didn't really know what he believed. I mean, he was raised Catholic, but he had fallen away from the church. And he wouldn't consider himself a practicing Christian or Catholic. And so that journey of trying to search and understand was where I met him. I was very much the status quo Christian. I grew up Catholic, but you'd go to mass once in a while, you'd go to church, but Jesus was not my number one, if I could say it that way. And sort of that all changed after I met Alex and we began having debates. We started talking about God and really, you know, prayer is what transformed our lives. Prayer transformed everything because we discovered that through meditative prayer just sitting in silence with god and praying and asking like you know what is your will and i want to get to know you and hearing the word um that just that changed everything and so when we built hallow we wanted it to be a place where everyone could come and feel welcome regardless if you're catholic or not um the yeah we want the content to be something that can speak to you and i think we've achieved that by not necessarily having it focus on like preaching to you so much as it is, hear all these different ways of praying. and see what resonates with you and what's on your heart.

SPEAKER_00:

And it's a beautiful interface the way, like I said, I've worked on apps for well over 10 years and the way that you have made the interface of the app so accessible. So like the other night I was having trouble falling asleep. And so I love that you have the category of bedtime Bible stories. And then you also have, you know, meditational music and so many ways that someone can get in there and very easily. But with, I mean, you have a pretty big category. catalog a really big catalog from what I've gathered so far because I've started to dive in more and more and you know what has this journey been like for you as someone who's an entrepreneur that God places on your heart you've now created this number one app you're inviting and reaching out and asking and building this community all over the world of people to pray together you know What would you say to someone who doesn't know the app that's going to go check it out today? Like, where do they start?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that's a great question. So first of all, I would just encourage you that if you're interested, it's okay. You know, don't be scared. Don't be nervous. It's all audio. We have a few pieces of content that are video. But really, I would just start with the introduction challenge. So you can just type in intro when you open up the app. There's a little search bar on the bottom. Tap on that and then type in or just type in intro. And then the intro challenge will come up. There's also the how to pray challenge, which is great. And you can go through that. And it just kind of walks you through step by step. Like, how do you get started? What's the opening? And really, you know, the beginning is the virtue of humility. um because when you desire to know god that means that you have enough humility to realize that you aren't god and i think our culture today is maybe a bit backwards where it's like i'm number one what can you do for me and if you're sitting there thinking well i feel like there's a higher power and i really want to talk together but i don't know how that is showing the virtue of humility, because you're like, I don't know all of the answers, but I want to find them. And I think God will bless that and will guide you to what you need to see, so.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow, on that note, and we can be as gentle as possible with this, but I do feel as though in our world and my own personal experience, right? Like for anyone that's in my community knows I'm stepping out and doing something where I'm not the expert. This is the first time in my life where I'm really, I just, it's so on my heart. I can't, I'm on fire for Jesus, for God. And I can't not say something. Although half the time I go and speak and I feel like what people might hear is, you know, like it might not be clear just yet because I'm not the expert. However, I would love your advice. thoughts feelings um because i know right now we live in a world where there's a lot of pain suffering anger hatred and a lot of people being feeling ripped at the seams and i feel like prayer can be such a great way to bring us back together but i think there's i would love to know your feeling or feedback on those that might be listening right now that they might have a a different feeling about prayer or what about this oneness concept or what about spirituality in general?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think for me, it's this idea that regardless of what divides us, what unifies us is this desire to love one another and grow in love. And, you know, St. Augustine talks about this beautiful reflection on what the Trinity is and, It is a mystery, but one way of thinking about it might be when you talk about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, it's this eternal exchange of love. So you can think of the lover, the beloved, and the act of love. So the lover in this case would be God, the Father. The beloved would be God, the Son. And then the act of that exchange of love is the Holy Spirit. And so understanding that one way of thinking about god is this beautiful exchange of love that is communal you know as a trinitarian tradition it's a communal god that we worship um how might we reflect that in the day-to-day like i think we have that hunger on our hearts as human beings that we want to live in community with each other and but sometimes it's difficult as you pointed out with hatred and violence and all these different things and I would hesitate to have said this 10, 15 years ago because I didn't really know what the implications of it were, was or were. But for me, I do think that the answer is Jesus, like coming to understand Jesus and who he is and the message that he has laid out for us in the scripture. I think that is the answer that that's the antidote to hatred that the world needs is the love of Jesus Christ.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I couldn't agree with you more. And that has been thus far in my journey, which really honestly led me to you and to Halo. is I had a dream and I witnessed Jesus in the dream and I wasn't sure what to make of it. And it took me a while to really reflect upon, oh my goodness, there was a lot that came through, right? And over time I started researching and then I started reading books and I started reading scripture, the book. I started reading stories of Jesus. I started reading teachings of Jesus. I started looking at, and I realized in that everything I was reading and everything I was feeling and everything I was knowing was that The answer is love, loving your neighbor, loving each other, and yet why are we not talking about that more? So I would love to hear from you because we clearly have a similar feeling on that. How do you think that HALO and what you're doing today and the people that you're bringing together in your community and the people in my community that we're bringing together, how can we be the light in spaces that are dark? What can we continue to do together?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, to me, that's like one of the key questions. It's like, we're in this, you know, world, this broken world that in many ways is still beautiful, you know, regardless, even though it's a broken world, how can we continue to find that light? And, you know, there's this reflection that every single day we have an opportunity to say yes or no, and this is going to tie this into the word later. But it's like, you know, our day is really a collection of decisions and what we say yes to and what we say no to is kind of one way of thinking about it. And so I think when you say yes to God continually over time, you spend more time with God, you end up reflecting and becoming like God more and more, right? Becoming more and more like Jesus. Because that's what he wanted his disciples to do is to imitate him. Right. And so I think when you start to spend more time, as you mentioned, you know, sitting in scripture, like I always thought that the Bible was this old tome from like way long ago. That's like irrelevant because you open it and then you get to like Abraham and Noah. OK, I kind of know what's going on. And then you get to numbers and it's just like, you know, Japheth begot such and such, begot such and such, begot such and such. And you're like, what is going on? Like, I don't really know. and so jeff cavins and father mike schmitz in the bible in a year which we have in hallow and then you could also listen to that for free on spotify on all these different platforms that really opened my eyes to the beauty and the depth and the richness of scripture you know um and so i think spending more time with God then makes it such that you kind of reflect his light in the world of darkness. And hopefully people get to see a small sliver of Christ in you. That's, I think the goal is, you know, just trying to do that every day. And it's easier said than done. And there's some tactical things that we can talk about of how you do that. Cause you say, oh, Brian, that sounds great, but that's difficult. How do you actually do that every single day? And we can talk about it, but, but yeah, I mean, I think it does start with, um with a life of prayer and i was wondering who thought that prayer was like i don't know this like big thing it's like you're i don't have time like i can't pray today i have all these other things and there's this beautiful reflection from saint therese of the zoo um she's known as the little flower she's one of the doctors of the church from france and she says that for her Prayer is just, it's the lifting up of the heart and the gaze sort of to heaven. And it's this simple, basically recognition of like, where you're focusing your effort if you just focus on god you're having that connection and then you can understand prayer as really as relation is what i would talk about is when you're praying you're entering into relation with god and it's okay if it's not perfect scripture talks about how um the holy spirit intercedes on our behalf with groans that are inexpressible through words so god himself is sort of purifying and perfecting our prayer before the father. And so if you're unsure, it's okay. The key is like, okay, God, I want to spend time with you. And I don't know really what that looks like. You can even start with a simple thank you. You know, just every day, just saying, thank you, Lord, I'm alive. You've started off the day with prayer. It took you like five seconds. And it's a tremendous habit that you could form.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. Oh, yeah. It's interesting. And I know you and I talked about this in our last conversation. I'd love to share just a smidge of this. We both have another connection in fitness, health and wellness, and really nourishing this beautiful body that we reside in, right? This temple that we have. And I'd love to know from you, like, I know for me, when I share my faith now, I first found it in fitness because that was where I found my discipline and being kind to my body and taking care of myself. That's where I found that. But what is that for you? And how does that, you know, cause I know prayer, like for me, gratitude is a big thing. And now prayer has become, I pray. I mean, I pray a lot now. That's like hours. Do you pray a lot? Like, do you go through sports where you're like, I feel like I'm talking to God all day long now. Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes. And the key is, I mean, one way of doing it is just saying like, like before I work out, like, okay, Lord, I'm offering up this workout. And it's that simple. It's like, Lord, I'm going to give you this workout. And what you're doing is you're inviting him. into that space in your life it's not like you have to be saying a rosary when you're you know you're doing your jump jump scotches you know or you're lifting like you know your dumbbells or whatever but it's like just being intentional it's okay god like i want to offer this to you you know like that you're already praying right so it's not it doesn't have to be this big laborious thing um and i think for me in terms of when you think about self-care and when you think about um fitness. I mean, yeah, I had a background in, um, in Taekwondo and martial arts and Brazilian jujitsu, which actually I'm going back to class today, which will be fun. Um, I'll be excited for that. Uh, maybe not so excited tomorrow morning when I wake up, but, um, yeah, you know, I mean, I think for me, it's, um, it came from this desire and recognition that I couldn't keep going. I actually developed a condition called vitiligo in the alopecia areata. Those are, among other things, really triggered by stress. And I hit this point where I was like, I was so stressed. I graduated. I had a great job, but then I was like trying to find meaning. And it was just so stressful. just like i was like i was like holding on and like my body was like dude this is this has got to stop right like i was i wasn't able to eat gluten anymore i mean it all kind of like hit at the same time and so there was this recognition like i physically need healing and for me that healing began when i started spending more intentional time in prayer and just giving that stress to god Just be like, okay, God, you know what? Like maybe I'm the one trying to figure all this out when I really should be asking you what you want me to do. I

SPEAKER_00:

love that. There's an image that continuously plays in my mind now. I don't know if you feel this way too, but it's, literally like an image of jesus with a briefcase where like he's leading me right like i'm not i don't i don't need to i've spent so many years and so many of us i feel in our world are really trying to control everything really trying to you know make and and for the better right to make sure that we have what we need and all do all these things check the boxes but in reality you know what would you say about that how do you feel

SPEAKER_02:

yeah here's how i feel about it jamie it like i'm trying to come up with my life plan And I just like try to draw a person and I end up drawing a stick figure. And then God shows up and it's just, you know, the Sistine Chapel and it's just like super beautiful. I'm like, okay, I'm pretty sure that's way better than what I can come up with. And so I think, again, it comes back to the humility. It's like recognizing that and trusting that the plan that God has for you is so much more beautiful than anything you can design or dream of. The key is really allowing him the space to act right. And that's where the word comes in. We can talk about that later, but that's why I selected that word. We're

SPEAKER_00:

going to get to there. We're going to get there. Don't worry, everyone. He's picked something really special and I'm excited. We'll get there soon, but I have, I want to ask you what you just said. Go for it. You had just mentioned and tapped into, and I think right now because of the state of where so many people I personally know, clients, friends, people that I've worked with in the community are questioning, you know, does God really exist? Or having these kind of feelings of how, you know, how could these terrible things happen? Or I'm really going through grief in my life or something that is really pulling their faith away from believing. And I want to talk about this because I think it's really important that people know, you know, I will admit in my life journey, and I know Alex has shared in his, there were times where I too questioned these things. And you had just said, All we need to do is make space for God to show up, right? And I think if you could expand on that a little bit, especially speaking to in our world right now, there's a lot of new age practices. And I don't, I don't, I'm not here to condemn anything or anyone because that's also, I think for me personally, what led me away from my faith was feeling like everything I did was wrong. Like you're not doing this right. You're not doing that. You need to be this way and this way. Um, but what would you say to somebody that might be listening right now that maybe something's resonating with them and they're at the same time, they're like, well, go a little deeper into that. How do you make that space for God?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Well, I mean, so I'll give some thoughts and I'll give an example. Um, So I think there was a sister, a nun who recently shared this beautiful reflection, Sister Mary Grace, and she said that God is pursuing us. And it's beautiful. God is pursuing us. We don't need to fight for his attention. And there's different models of God, of this higher power that exist out there. And the one that I... ascribe to, and I think is the correct one, is this idea that God created everything out of love. He didn't need anything from us and still doesn't need anything from us. But he wants a relationship with us individually because he loves us. And he is a good father. And so really what that means is saying yes to him is kind of You do that how on a regular basis? Through prayer. How do you pray? Well, we can't get into that, but there's many different ways. There's

SPEAKER_00:

many ways on the app, everyone. Just go download the app right now. Yeah, exactly. Go download. There's two versions that you can get it for free literally right now if this is resonating in any way, shape, or form and hitting your heart. Please go do yourself a favor and just give it a try. Okay. Keep going. And a

SPEAKER_02:

hundred percent. And for the record, you don't need the app to pray, right? Like you can right now just be like, you know what, Lord, thank you for this day. Boom. Took two seconds and you've already prayed. And if you do that every day, I guarantee you things are going to start happening in your life. So, so the space piece, I think really comes down to prayer as, as relationship. So if you want to, for example, if you want to court somebody, if you're a boyfriend, girlfriend, what are you going to do? You're going to stalk them on Instagram. You're going to look at their pictures. You're going to figure out who are their friends. What are they about? What do they like to do? You want to spend time with them. It's the same thing. With God, it's like read the Bible, learn about the lives of the saints, spend time in prayer every day, try to go to church. All of those things are you're spending more and more time with God and he will bless that and he'll recognize that and then he will show you how to continue to go even deeper. So the key here is is when you're saying yes is because he's interested in you you don't have to fight for his attention which i think is really important i'm going to give you an example of how this worked for me recently i had a friend i have a friend last week who flew in we skied together and this friend is sort of like questioning what they believe they're like i don't really know if i believe in god i think there might be a higher power but i don't really know what that means and i'm like look This is not a broad higher power. There's a person of Jesus Christ that specifically has this desire to know you as a person. It's not like some blob in the sky. It is the person of Jesus Christ who wants to get to know you. So then I prayed. I was like, Lord, how do I help her see this in a way that might be like that that's not like preachy i don't want to be preachy you know what i mean like i just want people to experience it so we're like driving back and said okay like will you be open to having a session in hallow play and they're like sure let's do it okay great i picked something that is jeff cavins daily reflection so he does a reflection every single day on the gospel reading of the scripture reading of that day and so it changes and i didn't know what the scripture reading was So I go ahead and hit play. And it ends up being the reflection of Simeon. It's, you know, Simeon being presented with Jesus as a baby in the temple, Mary and Joseph going and following the law to, you know, kind of offer and consecrate the firstborn son to God in the temple. And then as he's reading it, Jonathan Remy is technically the one who reads it. He's from the chosen. He's reading the scripture and then

SPEAKER_01:

Jeff goes to interpret it.

SPEAKER_02:

That's right. He starts to, and I'm like, That seems kind of like, like, I don't know if that's going to really resonate. Like, it'd be one thing if it's like Jesus healing somebody or Jesus doing something. Jesus is a baby. And it's kind of like a bunch of law related things from the Old Testament. And I'm like, I don't really know, but I trust you, God. And so I just made that space. I was like, God, you know what? I'm going to make this space for you in our day. And I hope you can touch her heart. And then blew my mind. They were like, oh, afterwards, they're like, wow. um i've prayed i've sung that a thousand times like they're uh in the music space they're a conductor and the song of simeon apparently is very very popular and there's all these different renditions of it and then she goes and plays this like this uh chant you know like very high you know like anglican style chant which is beautiful in the church that's the song of simeon And then they were like, oh, like I've never reflected on that from the perspective of prayer. And it was just like this beautiful thing that I would never have known. Right. Connected with them. But I was, I made the space. I was like, I trust you, God. Like, let's just see where this goes.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And, and he blessed that and like touched her heart in this really cool way that I never would have guessed. So.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, and I love that. Thank you so much for sharing. And I think it's so important that we all recognize those moments are going to happen more and more, the more that you make that space. That's what I keep finding. Exactly. In the connection with you, in the connection with anyone around me. So speaking of those kind of connections, not only is Hallow the number one prayer app and doing so many wonderful things, you're traveling globally, you're going all over the place, you're, you know, you're speaking into so many hearts in so many areas. And it's not just the Brian and Alex show. Now you guys have brought on Jonathan Rumi who play, you know, you have all, Gwen Stefani was doing a thing for Christmas and that was so beautiful. I loved listening at Lauren Daigle. Father Mike Schmidt, you've got so many. And not to name drop, but these are leaders in spirituality of our time that it's really incredible when we get to see them say yes to this app. So I'd love to hear a little bit about what that's been like.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I mean, for me, it's been a tremendous blessing and this otherworldly experience. I'm going to give you an example. I grew up as a kid watching Man vs. Wild, watching Bear Grylls, like jump out of helicopters and like go into the Everglades or, you know, go into a desert and survive and do these crazy stunts. And, you know, I would say that he is one of my childhood heroes.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And when he said yes to working with us in Halo, we got him in the Advent Challenge to read some C.S. Lewis. and Sheldon Van Auken. It was, it's just like a dream. I'm like, wow, like this is like, like I grew up watching you and then now you're, you're saying yes to working with something that I helped create is just insane. And that on top of that, like in a few weeks, I'm flying to London and we're two of the headliners for a conference in London. So it's, it's like, if you go to the website, it's Bear Grylls' face and then it's just me.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And I'm like, this is, if anything, the craziest example of how God works because I am literally nobody. Like I would die in like two seconds if I was in the wilderness. But the fact is that like God has chosen me to do this thing. And so all that I have to do is say yes and let him work. You know what I mean? If I would have like, there's no, there's no world in which I would have come up with like, oh yeah, like all this hollow thing is going to do this and do that. And we're going to get Mark Wahlberg and all of these people. That never would have happened. The question is asked, how did you get them? The answer is really, it just depends on who it is. Jonathan Rumi, we had a mutual friend. He was living in Los Angeles at the time. We had a mutual friend that went to his parish. We just, through that mutual friend, had a connection and talked to him. He was excited and worked with us. We've had people like Joe Montana reach out to us. You know what I

SPEAKER_01:

mean?

SPEAKER_02:

Notre Dame people. There's the Notre Dame connections So he reached out and supported us early on. And there's all these different, you know, like, and then Mark Wahlberg was through another connection that we had and had the time to pitch and say, hey, you know, Mark, are you interested in this? And he was like, let's do it. And, you know, so it was just really cool to see, like, how God has worked for all of those people to where they've come to say yes.

SPEAKER_00:

You just brought up a word that you've said over and over, and then we're going to get to the word, everyone, because we're going to wrap this baby up. But before we do, you just said the word connection about... five times right we had this connection here and then there was a connection here can you speak to that for someone that's listening right now that might be feeling isolated alone stressed out run ragged what is that like the power of connection

SPEAKER_02:

yeah well i mean if you're listening to this and you're you're feeling kind of alone i think the first thing to recognize is that you're not alone At the minimum, you're listening here to Jamie's podcast. And so you're part of a broader community and you're not by yourself, which is incredible. You know, and I think church is a place where that happens. We're going to church. I mean, for example, for Jonathan, he was going to this church and that enabled us to have that connection. And so I think God wants to have a relationship with you. But then outside of that, the two greatest commandments are what? To love God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself. And so, you know, going to church accomplishes both of those things, right? at least should, because you're going to worship God with your neighbor. Right. And so I think if anything, you know, I would encourage people to reflect on where they're at on their spiritual journey, figuring out if going back to church or something or going to church for the first time is something that you're open to. But I think, you know, that's one way of having a connection. Like anytime I go abroad, you know, I'm Catholic. There's the same, basically the same liturgy in all these different places. And I feel instantly like, oh, I go here and I belong. You know what I mean? Because I know what's going on. And you might come from a different tradition and that's totally okay. But I think that might be something that to consider is like, hey, maybe it's time I think about going to church.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you believe we're all divinely connected?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I think we're all divinely connected through the body of Jesus Christ. I think we are the living body of Jesus. Scripture says like, you know, we have, Jesus has no hands or feet, but us. So yeah, I mean, I really do believe that.

SPEAKER_00:

i love it okay so now everyone we're gonna get to the word of the day so this podcast used to be about a word that was just one word thematically and now we've opened it up that it can either be a word or it can actually be a word from scripture so can you please let us know what what is the word of the day today

SPEAKER_02:

so the initially what came to me was yes i'll unpack that for you in a minute but it was the um the scripture from uh from the new testament the gospel specifically of luke uh in chapter one where um mary says behold i am the handmaid of the lord let it be done to me according to your word and to me that that phrase is known as mary's fiat is known as her yes And it's beautiful because it's this juxtaposition to Eve and the garden in Genesis, where really God said, you know, you can eat of all the fruit except for this one tree. And when she went and picked it and ate it and gave it to Adam, what she was saying was she was saying no to God, right? I don't want to do what you want me to do. I'm going to do what I want to do. And Mary has this beautiful, like redemptive arc of saying, well, I don't want to do what I want to do. I want to do what you want me to do. And it's this yes. And so that was kind of like my theme that I was trying to weave throughout today is this, you know, every day we're presented with choices of what we say yes to. and and what we say no to um and when we say yes to god it's especially in this day and age in this culture he will reward you abundantly and maybe in ways that you aren't aware um and in ways that you might not conceive of so it might not be he's going to reward you monetarily with the lottery ticket or something but maybe he rewards you with um a conversation with a homeless person And maybe you have the opportunity to spread joy to that person and give and show charity to them. Or a conversation with an old friend that calls you out of the blue. So I think the key here is if... saying yes to god and just being like god i don't even really know what this looks like just in honest prayer be like i don't really know but i want to say yes to you help me help me figure this out you know it's that's another scriptural words lord i believe help my unbelief um and you know god recognizes that and so that's that's the word that was on my heart is just trying as hard as i can to say yes every day to god to what god has in store um and part of that involves you know just like asking to know what his will is it's like okay well what do you want me to do here instead of having it be your own will so

SPEAKER_00:

oh that's so beautiful and what a beautiful way to end this segment and the last thing i do want to ask you though is in terms of legacy because i think it's really important that we talk about these deep subjects but in terms of legacy if you were to know like a legacy that you could leave on this planet you know as of right now what is that legacy something you want somebody to take away from this conversation today what would that be

SPEAKER_02:

wow um

SPEAKER_00:

and you have 30 seconds

SPEAKER_02:

exactly yeah within 30 seconds what's what's your legacy i mean if if i could only be known for one thing i would hope that's love um and that It's not just any old love. It's the love of God trying to reflect that, reflect that light to other people. And so, yeah, like I would want that to be the legacy. And then in terms of what I want people to know is that God loves you, even though you may not believe it, even though you might be suffering, you may not understand it. That's one thing that I've come to know deep in my bones is that God loves you. And it's just a matter of trying to spend time with him to understand that you know, what it looks like to live in a relationship with him. Cause it's going to look very different for each of us.

SPEAKER_00:

So. Amazing. Oh my goodness. Well, you just brought so much love today. And I, you asked me when we had our first conversation at the end of our conversation, you said, is there anything that I can pray for, for you? What can I pray for, for you? And that was one of the nicest things anyone's ever asked me for sure. And especially being that I, I didn't know you. Right. And I really appreciate that. So. What can we, those of us that are listening, me right now, Louie, producer, what can we pray for for you today?

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you. Yeah, I mean, if you could just pray this 2025 that as we continue to work on Halo, that we only do God's will and that we try to bring people an experience of love and prayer that's authentic and that helps people find God. That would be great.

SPEAKER_00:

amazing okay so everyone in the show notes you can click and get hallo you can download it right now you can find brian at hallo on instagram and that's all in the show notes so you can take care of all that brian is there anything else that you'd like to share as we wrap this one up

SPEAKER_02:

uh just one phrase that we like to use at hallo which is Stay prayed up.

SPEAKER_00:

Stay prayed up. That first thing I ever saw with Hala was Mark Wahlberg, for sure. He was the first person I saw. And I was like, he was getting into the ice bath or something like, what is happening? But it definitely caught my attention. So we're doing it. Well, thank you so much. Thank you to everybody for being here. What's the word? Louie, the producer that's here so patiently with us. Thank you to everybody. Thank you to God. And Brian, it was so wonderful chatting with you. Everybody, that's a wrap for What's the Word? So say yes. Remember that. Thank you for joining me here at What's the Word. Follow us on social media with the links on the screen and don't forget to like and share with your friend. Your support helps us grow and continue to make inspirational content. See you next time on What's the Word.