78: So I said, 'I'll build my own studio.'

Episode 78 John shares how the Lord called him to share the Gospel on local radio and now through a podcast from a studio at home in Limerick, Ireland. He credits his wife, Ann, with helping him to ‘stick with’ his faith when he was ‘inclined to go the way the world was going.’  We talk about John’s courage in finding ways to share the Catholic faith with others where they are in today’s world.

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Transcript

You're listening to All Kinds of Catholic with me, Theresa Alessandro. My conversations with different Catholics will give you glimpses into some of ways we're living our faith today. Pope Francis used the image of a caravan for our travelling together on a sometimes chaotic journey.  And Pope Leo, quoting St Augustine, reminds us, Let us live well and the times will be good. We are the times. I hope you'll feel encouraged and affirmed and maybe challenged now and then.  I am too in these conversations. And if you're enjoying them, it helps if you rate and review on the platform where you're listening. Thank you.

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Listeners, thanks for joining the episode today. We're in for a treat because I have a guest now from Ireland. So John is going to join us for this conversation and he's someone who has quite a lot of experience with using the digital space to talk about the gospel and share the Word of God. So welcome, John. 

Thank you very much for having me. Lovely to be here. 

Now, you said to me when we were talking before that your wife Ann had been really important in supporting you in your faith, particularly when you were first together, I think. Maybe you'd give us a little flavour of that.  

As you rightly said, I'm based here in Ireland. My wife was born in Ireland. We met when we were in UK in Birmingham, in an Irish dance. I was a shy guy and she was there waiting for somebody to come and dance and here I come. Couldn't dance. But anyway, we started going out together. We decided to date. Obviously we were exploring where we were both coming from. Faith was part of that. I was an ordinary Catholic, i.e. I went to my Sunday Mass and if my father and mother told me when I was young, Let's just pray the rosary, I prayed the rosary. But Ann, Ann coming from a similar background, but faith was very important. So, I mean, going to Mass every Sunday was important. Night prayers, children’s religious education was so important. There were times when I wasn't too sure about this stuff because I was inclined to go the way the world was going. And then Ann said, No, no, no, no, no, no, we'll come back again. And we might just say a rosary here now. We might just say an Angelus. So as time went on, I was encouraged to stay obviously where I was within the faith. I wasn't doing anything extraordinary neither was Ann. But I suppose we were strong enough. Thanks be to God for our parents. Because our parents both instilled that in us. All along my journey, and you'll hear some of that, Ann's always been there by my side. Look, stay with it, stick with it. The Holy Spirit, Our Lady, plays a big part in Ann's life and the rosary plays a big part in Ann's life. So that really gives a little bit of a flavour of Ann, my guardian angel, I call her.

That's lovely. Thank you so much, John. I'm reminded of another guest I had maybe this time last year, who similarly was reflecting on how his wife had encouraged him in making prayer part of his life in small ways that he perhaps wouldn’t have done on his own. So that's beautiful. And I think that will probably resonate with other listeners too. So tell us a bit about you now. Unlike me, you've been in this digital space and indeed in radio broadcasting for many, many years talking about faith and sharing faith with listeners. So tell us how that all began and the journey that you've been on with it. 

That's all down to Ann again, because my wife, Ann, she's very interested in art. About 20 years ago, they were setting up a local art group. I drove her into the station, to the local radio station, there were a few of the people there meeting. I was stuck in a room all by myself. Where, actually, there were about 20 different lines on a page of subjects. It might be politics, it might be religion, it might be sport. And this guy came in and he said, Are you interested in the radio? No. I said, I'm waiting for my wife to come out. As soon as she's come out, I'm gone. And he came in three times. You know, sometimes we must - three times? What are you supposed to do? So I said, But yeah, I mean, I'm interested in sports. Religion's important to me. Spiritual matters is important to me, but I'm getting out of here as soon as I can. I thought that was the end of that. I saw Ann and I went home and she asked me what that was all about. He said was I interested in being on the radio? And she said, What did you decide? And I said, No, what would I talk about? And a few months later, I was working about 20 odd miles away from here, driving home one evening, one Friday evening, it was. For some reason, I must have turned on the radio to this particular radio station, which I never do.  And all I heard was this guy is saying, We're looking for volunteers. Doesn't matter what you're interested to do. We need volunteers to come. Chat to the listeners. I phoned up Ann right away. Listen, you better say a few prayers because I've just got this through the radio. I don't know where it's come from. I never listened to this music. I phoned up the station. Went into the station, met the manager. He asked me what I wanted to do. Well, I said, Look, I think the gospel should be read every Sunday on the radio, especially for those who can't get to Mass, and a piece of music and a little reflection. I think that'd be lovely. He said, I agree with you. Will you do it? I said, Do what? I didn't know what to do, where to start. I knew I'd pray to the Holy Spirit, somehow I'll get some bit of a guide. I got a phone call from the station one evening from a lady presenter. She was actually presenting a program on a local radio station called Sacred Space. She said, Are you interested in coming on? Are you interested in different types of religion? No, no, no, no, no. The gospel, a reflection. However I'm going to do that, I don't know. And a piece of music. She was into the Buddha. And what she would do, she'd play a lot of secular music. She'd read poems. So I went into the station, brought in my seven or eight CDs that had religious hymns. We worked together actually pretty good. I found her a great evangelist in that she was listening to what I was saying. October 2008, this  was a few years ago. And of course, Ann was praying like mad. Maybe thought I was off the head, but at the same time, we said, Look, if the Spirit's sent it, I'm sure the Spirit's going to support us. This lady decided to leave. So they said, Would you like to take over the program? Of course I would, says I. What I'm going to do, I'm not too sure. The only thing I could do was go to a prayer group that I used to go to. Told the guys, Listen, I need prayer. I need somebody to come on the radio with me, local radio, every Sunday morning, one guy volunteered. We devised a plan with the Holy Spirit, of course. We'd have to split up the hour. Actually, I still use this formula to this day. The first part of the hour, we talk about saints for the week, any liturgical local matters that we want to talk about, and a piece of music. We find that very important. The second piece would be chatting to somebody or talking about a faith topic. Piece of music again. And then the third part was reading and reflecting on the Sunday Gospel. So armed with the books, the few books that I bought,  I wasn't too sure if people would really listen to us at all. Until I met a few people in the local supermarket. I met my local taxi driver who said, I listened to you at 11 o'clock at night. We were on at 10 o'clock in the morning and 11 o'clock at night. He said, The music you play is gorgeous. I love it. It's great music. But obviously if he was listening to the music, he was obviously listening to the other stuff. So that gave me a lot of confidence then to stay with it. That's how it all started, Theresa, 15 years ago. I didn't know how it was going to work out. I obviously had no experience. I do have a little bit of a stutter. So I didn't have any PhD in theology or whatever. Probably prior to all of that, I was in a few prayer groups and probably that gave me some little bit of courage to start it off. 

I'm inspired by how I can hear, you know, the way the Lord called you to that. That guy coming in three times and asking you about it and extra little pushes and things. It's very interesting. And yet you felt like it wasn't something you were thinking of doing and it wasn't something that you felt necessarily well-prepared for. That's a really interesting story that shows us how the Lord works in our lives sometimes. I think that will strike listeners too. Okay. That was a long time ago in some ways, you know, I feel, what's the word, inexperienced.  

I wouldn't say that.  

In the way I work compared with you, you've done this for a long time and it's evolved over time. So tell us a bit more about how - you’ve said you've kept the format. You did reach out to me when I first started the podcast, which I really appreciated. I looked at what you're doing then and I remember thinking, Gosh, an hour. How do you keep that thread going? But that seems to have worked well for you over time. So tell us a bit about how it's evolved into what you do now. 

The Lord never leaves us by ourselves. He knew that I needed a few heavyweights. I'm 75. There was a man called Shane. He was 30 years younger than me, but he was at the program, the Lectio Divina. I said, Listen, would you fancy coming on the radio?  He came on board. Lorraine, she was also at the Lectio Divina group. She again was very interested in her faith. So I said, Would you come on? So I had the two of them.  All I had to do was press the buttons. These guys were the guys who were really filling in what obviously I didn't have the training for in terms of speaking and bringing people on board. So as time went on, I said, is there any chance Shane, you can get us out on the internet? They said, Oh yeah, I could do a blog. So we started off doing a blog in 2009. We closed that down when we started a different podcast, but he came on, Lorraine came on, and between the two of them, they knew about people in the diocese and further afield. They were both very interested in what was happening in the diocese, but also in the world. Shane was very much into liturgical matters and also into the Sunday Gospel. So we were all joining together and it was a good bit of fun too. The more people that we met and heard their stories, especially vocation stories. That gave us the impetus to carry on because once or twice we heard little snippets coming back from people that we meet in the supermarket or wherever. I was interviewing a lady in Medjugorje once, she was from Austria, and she quoted Mother Teresa to me and that's always stayed with me. She said, Mother Teresa said, If you can, you must. John, however you feel pal, that doesn't matter. If somebody out there needs something and you can give it to them, do it. Then we started to get a little bit brave. We started asking different people would they come on. We asked bishops to come on, we asked priests to come on, we asked nuns to come on, we reached out.  As we were doing that, there was people out there who were listening to our podcast and radio program, but weren't going to Mass. To me, that was so, so important because these people never probably would have heard the gospel before, never would have heard good news for whatever reason, but at least we'd be giving them some connection. So with the help of God in their own space, in their own time, they were touching base with God and the Holy Spirit was touching base with them. That's how it's evolved. After a few years, the station asked me to do something and I felt I couldn't do. So what am I going to do now? So I said, I’ll build my own studio. So I bought equipment and a few mistakes, a few hiccups and many late nights. We’ve got it together now. So I'm now recording in my own room here in our own house in County Limerick. We can touch base with people from various parts of the world. We can have them in-house or we can go out and meet them. I'm fortunate and thank God that I have people like Shane still with me every week. And we're also fortunate to have people like yourselves that we're able to speak to, to get out the Good News and also receive Good News. I know that every morning I ask the Holy Spirit, Listen, what do you want me to do now? And you better give me some tools because I mightn’t have all the tools myself. A little bit of an idea of where I am and how I've been doing it. 

I echo that. I'm always praying to the Holy Spirit about the podcast, the guests, hoping that we are making something that is reaching people where they are. 

We started our own little podcast here and I wanted to pick a name and the name that kept on coming to me was Come and See. And that's coming from when the boys met Jesus and they said, Where are going? Come and see. To me, that's what it's all about. Come and see yourself. Come and listen to All Kinds of Catholic or whatever it is. Come and see. Tap in. I don't think there's any excuse for people like myself or yourself. If we can, we must. If we can get out that little message, and it’s gentle, right where people are. Look, I met people and I was having a pint of Guinness one evening and they were inclined to have a go because, the Catholic Church... I said, Did you ever hear of St Matthew? He was a tax collector. He was just going to get the money. Well this Jesus that I know, spoke with him, Matthew, I've got a job for you. That's the church I know. 

Now I'll put a link to your podcast, Come and See Inspirations, in the episode notes, because I think that's beautiful that there is an opportunity for people to hear the gospel and a reflection on the gospel, especially if they're not able to be at Mass or just have fallen away at the moment.  One of the things that strikes me, you mentioned prayer groups a few times there, and I can see that meeting together with other Catholics outside of Mass for prayer has helped you find some of those people that you now work with. So tell us a bit about what part prayer groups have played in your faith. 

Again, that's all Ann's fault again. She led me into this. So we were at Mass on a Saturday morning, a local priest, curate, decided that he'd like to set up a Holy Spirit prayer group with a number of people. Most of us were just ordinary Catholics, didn't have a clue what that was, but we said we'd go along. That was our first introduction to scripture and the Bible, the letters of Paul. He had to take it very gently with us and very slowly with us, but he gave us a little bit of an appetite because he was applying it to our own life. We were on the same journey, but I heard of another prayer group. It was  mainly Catholic, and charismatic. Never heard of it in my life before. They were jumping around the place, hands up in the air. The one thing they had, they had joy. The second thing that got me was they spoke about scripture, but in the way that we could understand it in our own daily lives. After a few years, I progressed on to another group. I went to Lectio Divina. Well I still go to Lecture Divina, it's our local parish here. A priest starts off -  it's an hour. We read the Sunday Gospel a few times. Father Frank goes through the background of it. Then we read it again. He gives us a little bit of insight into where to go with it in terms of meditations. And then he asks us to apply it to our own lives. And that's the hard bit. Because usually when we hear a gospel, we always have a go with the Pharisee. Oh, that's not me. I'd never do that. Of course I wouldn’t. But he keeps on challenging us. We're growing because we know that that's helped us to grow. Yes now I see that little bit of fault in myself. The other thing that I got involved with a number of years ago was prayer guides. I heard of this group, the prayer guides group. I said I'd attend it and see what it was all about. This was way before the radio station. And we're there for a year. We met for the full day every month. But that gave me so much courage again, because it was the time of the abuse scandals. It was people where they were really speaking about their own faith and how their own faith was tested and how they were living through their faith and the ordinary stuff that made them cry, that made them cringe, that also gave them joy. And we were there together. So with those various groups throughout my life, the Holy Spirit had to do something with John. He had to put some people there in front of me to help me grow. And those are the various people at the various times where I needed them. 

That's really interesting. So I'm interested in you bringing other people to your program to share their stories. And actually that's something that really has helped you to grow. Hearing other people wrestling with their faith, wrestling with what's happening in their life and trying to apply the gospel to it. It's all very connected, isn't it? I can hear that. And I can also hear real openness in you to hearing other people struggling with things and  not worrying about  whether they've got the theology 100 % because it's actually how we're living our life and how we're trying to grow in our faith. I see that openness in myself too. I think that's something that makes us right for the things that we're doing, the way that we're approaching sharing faith. I wanted to ask you about scripture a little bit more. Is there some part of scripture that really speaks to you? 

‘You did not choose me. I chose you.’ Now there's many times when I was like, Listen, I can't do this. I'm not good enough for this. And then for some reason that scripture keeps on coming back to me.  The other thing that I like is the one, it's in Jeremiah about the potter. So I went down to the potter's house and found him working the wheel. But the pot he was working at was spoiled in his hands. And how many times have I messed up? But the Lord has gently pulled me back and He’s re-worked me into the way He wants me, provided I allow him to do that. I was at a retreat many years ago. This lady, after having a cup of tea just before we went to bed one night, she asked me for a piece of paper. And next morning, she came back and she handed me the piece of paper. She said, In prayer, I got this last night to give to you. Well, I'm not too sure about these things, but anyway, I checked it out. It was for Acts 18, verse 9-10. And it says, One night the Lord said to Paul in a vision, Don't be afraid, but speak out and do not be silent for I'm with you. I've kept that with me all the time. I think for some reason the Lord is speaking to me through scripture to other people. 

Thank you. And I think it's good for people to hear that you've held onto some courage about what you're doing. Sometimes people might hear somebody speaking on the radio about the gospel and think, Oh, here's somebody who knows their stuff, you know, easy for them. It's really good for you to share the vulnerability that actually you've had to just take your courage and do it and that words in the Bible have helped you to do that. 

Very much so. 

And the other thing is, if I'm speaking with someone, I've got to be authentic.  I think, I hope, I know my vulnerabilities and try and live with them. But I'm not going to try and camouflage them. And I'm so fortunate that the Lord has graced me and given me all these blessings. The other side of it is people have said to me, Do you not believe in that stuff? You're not doing that stuff. For the last 20 years, I've had a great time. Thanks be to God. We've been able to go off to Medjugorje load of times and a few more places. Met some beautiful people. Again, gifts. By the way, I still enjoy my pint of Guiness. It's lovely. These days I'm very excited to be honest with you because of this synodality thing that started a few years ago. I'm very interested in that. 

I wonder if you might be a good person. Sometimes listeners say to me that the whole synod process is passing them by a little bit. They don't really know what it is. I wonder if you might say what you think it is and what it is that's giving you some encouragement about it. 

What I see is the same thing as what some of your listeners have said. In my own parish, and in most of the parishes around us, it's not mentioned. And I think that's so sad. Now I was so lucky because I reached out to people and I speak with people who tell me how they see synodality working for them. The way I see synodality work is what I've heard. It started off in Rome and I tried to practice a little bit here myself. It's this conversation in the spirit. So sit down, I must listen to Teresa, where Teresa is, listen to her, not be prepared to jump in if I don't like something she says, but wait for that and give that a few minutes to stay with me. Goes around the circle, about four or five of us in the room, we've all got different ideas coming from different areas, but we have trust in each other that we're going to listen to each other. We go around the second time, we might build a little bit more confidence into us, flesh out a little bit. And then the third thing then, when the conversation’s going, to see where we're going to go. We all have different gifts. And there's a lot of gifts within my own community, I see, that haven't been allowed to flourish. I think synodality is all about allowing the Holy Spirit to work to ordinary Joe Soaps who mightn't have a degree in this, that and the other. Unfortunately, it's going to take time. But synodality, I’m finding more and more of it. I go on Facebook or if I go on any sort of social media or any website, I type in synodality and see where that's going to lead me. I listen to the various talks. We're all in it together. We love our church. If we don't give this a go, synodality, I don't see why the option is. I think the most important thing on synodality though is the Holy Spirit.  One last thing maybe on synodality, prayer. And I mean this month of November, asking the saints, asking those who went before us. They brought us into our Church, which now seems to be experiencing challenges. There was always challenges. I think it's all about the Holy Spirit. That's the last thing I'd say. 

Thank you, John. I think that's helpful. It just made me think while you were speaking that for me, I’m conscious of the Holy Spirit working in my life. I'm conscious of leaving space for the Holy Spirit to work and trying to see where I'm being led. And then when I see that happening in the Church, in the hierarchy of the Church, I see the Cardinals meeting in Rome, wanting to see where the Holy Spirit is leading the Church. That's very familiar to me. And it's very encouraging to see that that's being made very transparent for us to see that even at the highest level in the Church, people are wanting to see where the Holy Spirit is leading. So it feels familiar to me and to you too, I can see. But I guess there are people who just don't use that language and so it just feels like something that they can't connect with. I hope something of how you've tried to explain it there has helped people who do feel a bit disconnected.  

At some times I must go out and look for myself.  It's unfortunate. Yes, I see the Cardinal's meeting in Rome, and I see bishops speaking. But I don't see it myself in my local area. I don't see it in newsletters. I don't see it anywhere else. So what I do is I bring on people into the podcast. I have the general secretary here. She's lovely lady.  And quite often she comes on and fills in as to what's happening, and she's very enthusiastic. And we're trying to bring on a priest or a lay person. Just to introduce a few more little ideas into the mix. 

I think that's reminding us that whoever we are, listeners and podcast hosts, there's something we can do to help other people understand this stuff.

I remember many years ago, Ann, my wife, mentioned to me that there was a local lady who was looking for a statue of St. Joseph. Can't you get one in town? No, they don't sell them in town anymore. Typical me, I went on the internet and I found out where they sell statues of St. Joseph and I bought a few. I bought a few more things and I found out that people wanted them. People were getting something from them so maybe there's something in this. No, I didn't want to make money, but I wanted to be able to, again, to share things with people. I bought a big van, bought a lot of religious goods and one Saturday morning I went into the local market. And people crowded around me. They were buying little prayer cards. And what it told me is that people are searching. People are searching. They might not want to go to the formal Mass. These might be big guys maybe with the odd earring in their ear and that sort of stuff. They were coming up and they were buying little things off me. That again was another part of, that there's people out there. I want to be able to do the best I can. The Lord has something for all of us to do. Before we were even born, He knew the story. He's given us all the gifts to do what He wants us to do. 

Thank you, John. You've given us real flavour there of your service to the Lord's will all your life as best you can and the skills that you've used, but also skills that you've developed and gifts that you've been given to help you do the things the Lord is calling you to do. That's really encouraging to hear about and I hope people will feel encouraged by this conversation. Now, just before we draw to a close, there's a prayer that you particularly wanted to share with us. 

There is, yes. So recently we’ve all come to know of John Henry Newman being made a Doctor of the Church. And there's a lovely prayer that I'd like to share with all of our listeners, for all of us. 

God has created me to do Him some definite service. He's committed some work to me, which is not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I'm a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He's not created me for naught. I shall do good. I shall do his work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place while not intending it if I but keep his commandments. Therefore, I trust in Him. Whatever I am, I can be never thrown away. If I'm in sickness, my sickness may serve Him. In perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I'm in sorrow, my sorrow may serve him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what he's about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me. Still, He knows what He's about.  Amen. 

Amen. Thank you very much, John. That's a great way to end this episode. Thanks for joining me today.

And Theresa, one thing. Thank you very much for all the work you're doing. Listeners out there, Theresa needs prayer. I need prayer. All those people doing the best we can. We all need prayer, a special prayer for Theresa today. God bless.

Thanks so much for joining me on All Kinds of Catholic this time.  I hope today's conversation has resonated with you.  A new episode is released each Wednesday. Follow All Kinds of Catholic on the usual podcast platforms. Rate and review to help others find it. And follow our X, Twitter and Facebook accounts @KindsofCatholic. You can comment on episodes and be part of the dialogue there.  You can also text me if you're listening to the podcast on your phone, although I won't be able to reply to those texts. Until the next time.