WEBVTT - Spiritual Sunday: Finding Peace and Purpose with Hallow CEO Alex Jones 0:00:02.160 --> 0:00:07.080 Hey there, everybody, and welcome to your spiritual Sunday. I'm 0:00:07.080 --> 0:00:09.680 Amy roboch here TJ is with us in spirit. But 0:00:09.720 --> 0:00:14.360 we have got a very exciting guest. His name is 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:18.040 Alex Jones. He's the CEO and co founder of Hello, 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:20.639 and I bet a lot of you know exactly what 0:00:20.680 --> 0:00:24.120 I'm talking about because this is the world's largest Catholic 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:28.560 prayer and meditation app And Alex, I was reading the 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:32.400 background of how you even got to where you are now, 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:35.800 and it's remarkable your story, and I think it will 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:37.800 be relatable for a lot of people, or at least 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:40.400 for anyone who's questioned their faith or anyone who is 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:43.000 lost their way and is trying to find their way 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:46.960 back to some sort of religion, some sort of spiritual path. 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:52.040 And you have taken your personal experience and created a 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:56.160 remarkable organization that is helping so many people find their 0:00:56.240 --> 0:00:57.000 way as well. 0:00:57.080 --> 0:00:59.680 So welcome Alex to the podcast. 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:01.560 Well, thanks so much for having me. 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:03.800 All praise to God. I appreciate the kind words he does. 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:07.080 God does really cool things. I just screw it up 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:09.080 all the time and then he fixes it for us. 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:10.640 But it's been really cool to watch him work he's 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:12.760 done absolutely phenomenal things. 0:01:12.800 --> 0:01:13.600 So it's been a blessing. 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:17.120 Well, it's a blessing to have you here on the 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:21.759 program because I just think your story is probably so 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:24.400 familiar to a lot of people. I too was raised 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:27.240 Catholic as well, so I come from that background and 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:30.399 had my daughters go to Catholic school. My daughter actually went, 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:33.240 my little one went from pre K all the way 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:35.720 until she graduated from high school here in the city 0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:40.920 at Catholic school. So very familiar with that specific religion. 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:43.440 But tell me a little bit about your journey and 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:46.560 your faith because you two were raised Catholic and then 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:48.919 you drifted away as a teenager, So can you explain 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:50.880 a little bit about that part of your life. 0:01:51.240 --> 0:01:52.919 Yeah, and the one thing that I'd say, we certainly 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:54.320 I'm Catholic and I love being Catholic. 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:55.040 It's changed my life. 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:57.360 And I'll tell a little bit of the journey to 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:01.000 me coming back to my faith. But Hallo is Hell 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:02.960 is just about trying to grow deeper in a relationship 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:03.400 with Jesus. 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:05.440 We don't do any other religions. It's just Jesus. 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:08.000 But anybody who's interested in a relationship with Jesus is 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:10.560 uh is well meant hollow. We started very focused in 0:02:10.600 --> 0:02:13.760 the in the Catholic world, and we're always authentically Catholic. 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:16.600 It's we never hide who we are, but we've always 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:19.400 tried to build something for anybody of any Christian background. 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:21.560 So at this point we probably have about half the 0:02:21.560 --> 0:02:23.680 people on the app who are Catholic and half the. 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:25.960 People who are who are Protestant. Brothers and sisters are 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:29.520 people interested in broader Christian spirituality. But yeah, my. 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:33.799 Journey, so I was, like you said, I was raised 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:36.160 Catholic by my mom, dragged me through all the Catholic 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:39.120 sacraments in religious education, all that Jazz is a saint 0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:44.200 of a woman. But when I was a teenager, high school, college, 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:46.560 fell away from my faith. Would have considered myself agnostic 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:51.360 or atheist for that time. And when I graduated, I 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:56.280 got really I started working, you know as stressful, working life, busyness, anxiety, 0:02:56.320 --> 0:02:59.040 all that stuff. But even more so than that, I 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:01.520 was fascinated with this idea of whatever a spiritual and 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:04.120 contemplative life was, of like trying to find real peace. 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:07.960 And so I started meditating. I started trying to figure 0:03:07.960 --> 0:03:10.720 out how to meditate, and this was maybe seven eight 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:13.399 years ago, and so I was about my mind first 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:16.320 went to kind of India and Eastern Buddhist meditation, and 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:18.000 so I was about to hop on a flight to 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:20.280 go to India, and the flight was like two grand 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:22.840 and there was these two apps that had just launched, 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:25.280 had Space and Calm that kind of walked you through 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:30.080 secular Eastern Buddhist meditation mindfulness meditation, and they were like 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:31.720 seventy bucks. So I was like, all right, I'll give 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:33.760 the apps to try. That's a lot cheaper than the flights. 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:36.200 And I loved them. I started using them. I started 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:39.640 using them every day, and I thought they were great. 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:42.560 Like really it was almost like technology without technology, Like 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:45.720 you could piss a pick, pick a session, press play, 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:48.720 close your eyes, plug in your headphones, and be led 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:49.440 through this meditation. 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:50.800 You didn't have to go to a studio. It was 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:51.640 just ten minutes. 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:53.840 Before you went to work. It like was personalized. It 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:55.280 was with some of the best guides in the world. 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:57.360 And so I really liked the structure of this app. 0:03:57.360 --> 0:04:00.040 But every time I would meditate and mindfulness meditation and 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:02.000 mostly is just you're focusing on your breath for a 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:03.640 while and then you let your mind go at the end, 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:08.760 and you build up longer times as you advance. And 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:10.360 there's a bunch of different ways to meditate, but that's 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:12.200 kind of the core way. And every time I would meditate, 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:15.480 my mind kept feeling this weird pull towards something spiritual, 0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:18.520 like an image of the cross, or the name Jesus 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:21.520 or the words Holy Spirit. Which I was agnostic, so 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:24.040 I thought that was very strange, and I started reaching 0:04:24.040 --> 0:04:26.360 out to people because it kept happening. I started reaching 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:28.520 out to people, you know, whether it was a priest or, 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:30.280 a pastor, or a friend who took their faith more 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:32.560 seriously than I wasn't. Just asking this question, Hey, is 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:35.160 there any way there's some sort of intersection here between 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:39.520 this meditation thing and this Jesus thing. And they all 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:42.040 laughed at me and said, yeah, it's we've been doing 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:42.800 it for two thousand years. 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:44.800 You probably should have heard about. It's called prayer. And 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:47.440 I was like, no, no, I know about prayer. Prayers. 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:49.400 They're like, hey, thanks for stuff, sorry for stuff. Helped 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:51.320 me with stuff or maybe the things that I memorized 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:54.479 as a kid. But I had this one pastor who 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:56.880 was like, yeah, those are great ways to talk to God, 0:04:56.920 --> 0:04:59.280 but have you ever tried to listen for him? And 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:00.680 I was like, what is that even mean? How do 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:02.440 you listen for God? It's not like he calls you 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:06.279 in the morning, it's And I started discovering this whole 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:10.279 world of contemplative and meditative prayer within Christianity that I 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:12.640 just never heard of before. There's dozens and dozens of 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:14.760 different techniques, and it makes sense. There's hundreds of thousands 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:17.799 of different monks all praying contemplatively within the Christian tradition, 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:21.920 and things like suit to be in ignation, spirituality, all 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:24.800 these really beautiful caramelize spirituality, recollection chant, all these really 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:28.200 beautiful ways to pray. And one of them's like you to vino, 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:30.080 which is a way to meditate on scripture. You pick 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:32.760 a short passage of Scripture and you pick a word 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:34.919 that sticks out to you from it. And so I 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:36.839 randomly opened up a Bible, I think it was my 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:39.560 wife's that was laying around to Luke a levin where 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:41.800 the disciples asked Jesus to teach him how to pray, 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:44.000 and he gives them the our Father, our Father, who 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:46.120 are and haaven hallowed be thy name, and the word 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:48.720 that stuck out to me in that passage was Hallow 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:51.599 and it was just ten minutes and I just sat 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:55.640 with that word. But it just completely and radically changed 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:57.000 my life. Brought me back to my faith, brought me 0:05:57.040 --> 0:05:58.640 back to the church, brought me back to his most 0:05:58.680 --> 0:05:59.960 important part of who I am. Let me to quit 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:01.760 my job during my four one K like twenty six 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:03.640 years old, and did this crazy idea for an app 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:08.200 But it was just this beautiful combination of this deep 0:06:08.240 --> 0:06:11.400 sense of peace, deeper than any secular meditation or any 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:13.840 workout or any breathing exercise or anything I'd ever done, 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:18.000 but combined with real like hallo means to make holy. 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:19.680 So was God trying to make me holy? Was I 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:21.280 letting him make me holy? Was I supposed to be 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:23.880 helping other people grow in holiness? And the answer was no. 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:25.880 I was just doing my own career, trying to get ahead, 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:27.960 trying to do whatever the world literally just following the 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:29.440 ways of the world as best as I could. 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:31.640 And so it was really stressful. 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:33.400 It was like these big life questions, but it felt 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:35.359 like I was wrestling with something real, something on the 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:37.200 other side. So I wouldn't do that for the rest 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:41.080 of my life and that's what started Hallow certainly not 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:42.719 my idea, just got beat me over the head with 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:43.840 it till I did something about it. 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:48.080 But that's so fascinating Hallo obviously the name of your 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:53.000 app and it was it really just like in that 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:57.520 one moment with that one word that resonated with you 0:06:57.760 --> 0:07:01.159 and it changed the course of your life. 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:04.240 Yeah, I mean yeah, is the short answer. I guess 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:06.480 the longer answer. You know, there's a bunch of pieces 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:08.440 to a spiritual journey you can't fit in a fifteen 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:11.520 minute you know, conversation or story and so things get 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:14.600 simplified down and you know, so there's an intellectual side 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:16.840 to it too, which for me, I'm not the brightest 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:19.760 intellectual theological philosophy ball, but I get lost in a 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:21.960 handful of the different arguments or whatever. But for me, 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:25.240 it was important to have really smart people arguing for Christianity. 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:26.280 There was a piece of it. 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:29.520 Like I grew up, Christianity was just dumb. It wasn't 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:31.040 thought through, it was just some old man in the 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:33.640 sky and actually hearing really smart people argue about it 0:07:33.680 --> 0:07:35.920 like crack something open, like well, I don't really understand this, 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:38.240 but there are really smart people who have thought through this, 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:41.480 and they're pretty compelling arguments. I'd say another really big one, 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:44.679 and especially looking back, I mean, men mostly just follow 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:47.640 what my wife was a saint is a saint and 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:49.400 took her faith very seriously. And so I'm sure like 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:51.080 ninety nine percent of it is I just wanted to 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:52.640 be like my wife and grow close to my wife, 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:55.360 so that that's like, that's I'm sure a vast majority 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:55.560 of it. 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:56.400 The prayers of a mother. 0:07:56.520 --> 0:07:58.840 I mean, you can't underestimate the power of the prayers 0:07:58.840 --> 0:08:02.000 of a mother. So my mom is certainly a massive 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:02.440 part of it. 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:03.800 But yeah, I don't. 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:05.600 I mean for us, and it's what we're focused on 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:09.360 at Hallow, all those things, you know, whether it's appreciating 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:11.920 the intellectual side or even diving deeper into service, all 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:16.120 of all of the really beautiful parts of faith. It 0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:18.160 doesn't mean anything if you don't know Jesus, Like if 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:21.200 you haven't met Jesus, and you have to know him, 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:22.880 you have to meet the guy. It's not just like 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:25.480 a it's not just a political ideology that you subscribe to. 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:27.640 It's not just a set of things that you like 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:29.680 say out loud. It's like you have to know a person, 0:08:30.040 --> 0:08:32.120 and for me, I didn't. I'd never met him, and 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:35.920 so that was the first encounter I think with something real. 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:37.679 And I met him in the silence, like I met 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:39.800 him in the silence through his word, which is pretty obvious, 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:42.120 you know. It's like, well he wrote us a love letter. 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:43.840 You should read it and you should sit in silence 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:45.360 with it. And I did, and I met him and 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:47.040 I fell in love with him and he's changed my life. 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:49.320 That's so interesting, Alex. 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:51.760 You said you met him in that moment, and yet 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:54.520 you were raised Catholic, you went to either I know, 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:56.320 for those of us who were raised Catholic, yes, you 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:58.840 go to church every Sunday. But when you aren't in 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:02.360 Catholic school, you go to see you go to a 0:09:02.400 --> 0:09:08.760 weekly type of meeting with priests, and you're learning about Catholicism, 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:11.440 you're learning about the Bible. But what was missed in 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:14.160 those years that you didn't connect with any of it. 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:17.679 It didn't resonate with you in any way. What did perhaps, 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:19.600 and I don't want to say the church got it wrong, 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:22.640 but how you were raised as a Catholic, obviously it 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:25.080 didn't impact you the way it did later when you 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:28.840 sought him out on your own. What was missed or 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:32.679 what was wrong or why didn't you connect with that 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:34.079 at that time? 0:09:35.200 --> 0:09:38.040 Well, I mean, you know, I think at the core 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:41.480 it's it's the hardness of my own heart. So it's 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:44.240 and actually, Mother Teresa has a really beautiful quote. She's 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:46.280 talking to the missionaries of charity, who are nuns who 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:48.640 have dedicated their life to serving Jesus and the poor 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:49.840 and the poorest parts of the world. 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:52.360 And she's talking to them and. 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:54.200 She goes, I worry some of you have still not 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:56.600 really met Jesus one to one in your heart. Have 0:09:56.679 --> 0:09:58.480 you heard him say how much he loves you. Have 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:00.760 you heard him say how much she cares for you, 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:03.120 how much he thirsts for you, how much he longs 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:04.240 for you when you don't come close. 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:06.040 Like there's is this beautiful quote. 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:08.679 But she's speaking to people, and even now, I mean 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:12.480 I can in my own prayer I feel myself just 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:14.320 talking to myself in my own head, and it's like, wait, 0:10:14.800 --> 0:10:16.679 I'm not talking to myself. I'm not just like listing 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:18.880 through a thing or memorizing a thing or repeating a thing. 0:10:18.880 --> 0:10:21.160 I'm supposed to be I'm supposed to be with Jesus 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:22.840 and then like when you raise your mind to him, 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:24.760 then you do you encounter him? 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:26.880 And I don't know. It's sad because I wish there was. 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:30.360 There's all these words that we as Christians have tried 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:33.040 to use, but they've been so overplayed that they've become cheesy. 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:36.760 Whether it's encounter or whatever it is, but that's the word, 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:38.720 like encounter, you actually do have to meet the guy. 0:10:38.800 --> 0:10:40.440 For me, I don't know. 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:43.280 The church I think. I mean my church was a 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:45.520 beautiful little parish church. They did a great chold proclaiming 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:47.840 the word, went to Mass every week, was my dad 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:50.320 was elector my mom taught one of the religious classes. 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:53.840 I mean it was. I think it was almost entirely 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:56.360 the hardness of my own heart. And that's I mean. 0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:58.840 There were people alive when Jesus was physically here on 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:01.760 earth who did not, you know, really truly encounter him. 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:04.000 But for me, I think we have an opportunity as 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:07.520 a church to lead with prayer. And you saw this 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:09.679 it was a much bigger thing maybe seven or eight 0:11:09.760 --> 0:11:12.520 years ago, where the number of people who were calling 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:15.520 themselves religious had dropped like ten percentage points in the 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:17.840 last decade, which is a crazy precipitous drop. 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:19.720 But it wasn't replaced by atheists. 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:22.120 It was replaced by people who would call themselves spiritual 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:24.199 but not religious. And so there's a part of that 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:26.640 that's like, well, you could argue with that. You could say, well, 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:29.079 you can't really be spiritual without being religious. Religious is 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:30.760 just to set a belief. So if you're spiritual and 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:33.400 you're sitting alone and trying to whatever, prayer, meditate, you're 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:36.000 praying with something or you're meditating with something, and whenever 0:11:36.000 --> 0:11:39.160 you ask anybody who's meditating, they always say, yeah, I 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:41.280 sit in the silence. There's something else there, Like, there's 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:43.480 definitely something else there. And so religion is just trying 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:45.400 to put words to that, in structure to that, and help. 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:45.920 You to live it out. 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:49.199 But the other thing you could do, as opposed to 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:52.120 arguing with it and as opposed to debating it is 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:55.920 lean into it and say, okay, hey, you're interested in 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:58.840 spiritual life, you're interested in something finding peace and having 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:01.920 a relationship with something on you there is something, There 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:04.040 is a great piece that the world can offer you, 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:05.920 and there's a great love waiting for you that nothing 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:08.080 else can offer you. I've got a way for you 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:10.160 to find it, and I've got the guy that I've 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:12.120 met through this process that i would love for you 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:14.199 to meet, and leading with that, I think we as 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:16.720 a as a church, as a Christian church, although different 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:20.319 groups within Christianity have done a much better job of 0:12:20.360 --> 0:12:22.640 it than others, but I think we have a real 0:12:22.679 --> 0:12:24.920 opportunity to lead with that and to just you know, 0:12:25.120 --> 0:12:27.480 to stop talking and just be silent and just let 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:29.599 God talk. You know, we talk so much and we 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:31.920 explain what he's saying, but it's just like, hey, just 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:34.280 let people alone with God. And that's most of what 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:36.720 Halla does is we talk for a little bit, mostly 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:38.880 just to make it less intimidating, and then we just 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:41.320 leave you in silence for two three minutes and God 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:43.439 does these He tells you exactly what you need to 0:12:43.480 --> 0:12:44.920 hear in the silence in your own heart. 0:12:44.960 --> 0:12:46.599 And it's just beautiful to get to watch. 0:12:47.600 --> 0:13:00.400 And obviously it's resonated, it's hallow, has been downloaded more 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:07.400 than eighteen million times. You've surpassed one billion minutes of prayer, 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:10.440 and you're the number one Catholic app in the world. 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:13.880 I'm curious and this all began in twenty eighteen, so 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:17.200 not that long ago. When you were in that period 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:21.800 of being an agnostic or even an atheist and searching 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:23.720 but not knowing what was out there, could you, in 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:28.680 your wildest dreams have imagined that this is where you 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:32.920 would be today, the influence you would have, and what 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:34.080 your message is. 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:34.400 To the world. 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:38.400 I'm just curious, how like reflecting back to that period 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:42.800 of not knowing and searching to where you are today, 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:45.840 that's a pretty dramatic shift. 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:48.199 Oh yeah, it's the craziest possible thing you could imagine. 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:51.280 I mean, the uh, and it's only getting crazier. I mean, 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:53.920 we I think those numbers are probably we sent you and. 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:56.400 Oh they're old. You got better numbers, bigger number. 0:13:56.760 --> 0:13:58.719 It's like thirty five million or hump and downloads. It's 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:04.160 crazy billion prayers. But it's uh. But God just does 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:06.679 incredible things. I mean, And it's funny, like the influence. 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:09.320 When you say the influence I have, I don't do anything. 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:11.720 I just I just put microphones in front of people 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:14.760 that read scripture and then leave people in silence. And 0:14:14.800 --> 0:14:17.720 God does so it's literally and when we've tried to 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:21.200 do things, it's always failed, and it's just us letting 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:24.320 God do it. And so the influences and anything that 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:27.840 works or anything that impacts souls is just God. But yeah, 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:30.000 I mean, had you told me we built the first 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:32.680 thing just for me, I liked the structure of this app. 0:14:32.840 --> 0:14:35.000 I wanted to grow deeper in this practice of prayer. 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:37.960 I had never a real contemplative, meditative prayer in silence, 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:40.960 and I couldn't find anything. And I knew how to 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:42.520 code a little bit. It was kind of fun. So 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:44.920 we did it as a project for me. Maybe spend 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:47.520 a couple months building something and helps me get into 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:49.360 heaven a little bit, and maybe hey, there's a friend 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:51.520 or family or something who finds use of it. But 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:53.680 had you told me like a thousand people would use 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:55.440 this thing, I would have told you were absolutely insane. 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:57.640 That's a lot. A thousand is a lot of people. 0:14:57.800 --> 0:14:59.400 Like if you look outside and you were if you 0:14:59.400 --> 0:15:00.640 were given, if I I was given to talk to 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:02.920 it a thousand people, I would be pretty nervous. Like 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:05.080 you're standing in front of a big room of people, 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:08.120 ten thousand people. It's like, okay, that's that's also really big. 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:10.400 And then it's like one hundred thousand. It's just I don't, 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:10.800 I can't. 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:14.360 My mind doesn't even doesn't a million, My mind doesn't. 0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:17.760 Even MetLife Stadium is seventy thousand people. But you're it's 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:20.440 so much more than that, Like that's that's mind blowing. 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:21.920 But it speaks to just this. 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:25.520 I mean, it's just it's God has been very kind 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:29.880 to me in that. It's there's absolutely no chance that 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:32.040 any of it was what we did. We have an 0:15:32.080 --> 0:15:34.200 incredible team who does a lot of really beautiful work, 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:37.320 but all of it is God, and He just each 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:40.760 one of the you know, we got to number one 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:42.480 in the App Store, which no faith based app had 0:15:42.520 --> 0:15:44.560 ever done in the history of the App Store. We 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:47.640 did that twice now, and each one of those was 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:49.560 just like the app was about to crash. Everything was failing, 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:51.400 and then we just surrender it to God and we're like, look, God, 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:52.640 this is your thing. If you want it to fail, 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:54.760 it'll fail. If you want it to succeed, it'll succeed. 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:56.600 The one thing we are not going to do is 0:15:56.600 --> 0:15:58.280 we're not going to take the credit. And he was like, 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:00.360 all right, good, that's what I was waiting for. Now 0:16:00.400 --> 0:16:02.080 you can watch it go to number one or now 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:05.040 you can get whatever number thing that is exciting and fun. 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:07.680 And for us it's I don't know that the numbers 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:11.960 are fun, but like like like thirty five, if we 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:14.040 got to seventy million downloads, I don't, I mean, there's 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:16.120 no I don't. I don't have any I don't have 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:19.760 any conception of what that is. For us, it's it's 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:22.840 mostly watching what God does and people who are really lost. 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:24.720 And really fallen away. 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:27.040 I mean, we've had moms who have lost children, who 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:28.720 haven't been able to eat and months, who are able 0:16:28.760 --> 0:16:30.120 to get out of bed for the first time. We've 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:32.080 had dads who are alcoholics who haven't been able to 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:33.560 be there for their kids, who are able to be 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:35.360 sober for the first time. We've had young people who 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:38.960 are really really wrestling with depression and suicide who are 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:40.680 able to find some sense of hope. It's some sense 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:43.200 of peace again. And I mean, it's just like the 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:45.960 coolest possible things you could imagine. We get to watch 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:47.640 God do in people's lives, and so it's just the 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:49.400 greatest blessing of a lifetime to get to watch them 0:16:49.400 --> 0:16:49.640 do it. 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:51.120 Wow. 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:54.080 And you've enlisted some pretty high profile folks or I 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:55.880 don't know how this all if they've come to you, 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:56.840 if you've gone to them. 0:16:56.880 --> 0:16:58.840 But when I started seeing names like. 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:04.560 Gwen Stefani, Chris Pratt, Mark Wahlberg, just to name Liam 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:07.760 Nice and Kevin James, I mean, just all of Hollywood's 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:12.679 A listers being a part of this in terms of 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:18.520 the meditations and leading folks down a certain path. How 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:21.520 does that collaboration even take place? Because look, a lot 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:24.760 of a lot of celebrities don't want to attach themselves 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:27.880