Can God Work Through My Family Story? | Catholicism for Catholics with Blessed is She
The Gathering Place, a Podcast from Blessed is She
Blessed is She
4.9 • 833 Ratings
🗓️ 1 May 2026
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode of Catholicism for Catholics, Dr. Mary Ruth Hackett reflects on how our Catholic faith shapes our relationships, especially with our families of origin.
Sharing from her own experience as a Protestant convert to Catholicism, Dr. Hackett opens up about the challenges, misunderstandings, and grace that can come when faith journeys look different within a family. Her story reminds us that evangelization doesn’t begin with arguments, it begins with living a joyful, authentic Catholic life.
In this conversation, she highlights three important ways we can integrate our faith into our relationships:
- Live your faith — Let your life reflect the joy and grace of the sacraments.
- Be well-formed — Grow in your understanding of what the Church teaches and why.
- Act with courage — When others ask about your faith, respond with charity and confidence.
Whether your family shares your faith or not, this episode offers encouragement to love well, witness authentically, and trust the Holy Spirit at work in every conversation.
If you’ve ever wondered how to navigate faith conversations with family members or how to live your Catholic faith more fully in everyday relationships, this episode is for you.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more episodes in the Catholicism for Catholics series from Blessed is She.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello there, welcome. I am Dr. Mary Ruth Hackett. I am one of your devotion writers and sisters in Christ here at Blessed is She. |
| 0:14.0 | And I'm so happy to be with you today to share with you my thoughts about Catholicism and relationships for this series. |
| 0:22.6 | If you haven't checked out the previous videos, I really encourage you to do so. There's some beautiful, beautiful messages there. |
| 0:28.6 | And if you've already checked them out, well, welcome back. |
| 0:32.6 | Today, we are going to be talking about integrating our faith into our relationships with the focus on our |
| 0:39.3 | families of origin. Now I converted to the faith about 20 years ago, almost 20 years ago, |
| 0:46.3 | and I grew up as a Protestant Christian. I had a strong background going to church, having |
| 0:53.3 | attended the same non-denominational church for most of my |
| 0:56.0 | childhood. When I married my husband, almost 25 years ago, I was actually working part-time for the |
| 1:03.2 | church as the church secretary. I'd been on the search committee that helped find our pastor. |
| 1:08.5 | I was a substitute organist, but I was terrible, so she didn't go out |
| 1:12.9 | of town very often. And I was a member of the choir. My parents were heavily involved as well, |
| 1:18.9 | and it really was my community. It was our family's community. And then I married a Catholic. |
| 1:30.3 | And I didn't convert right away. We actually had been married about six years when I entered the church. |
| 1:35.3 | So my thoughts about Catholicism and relationships |
| 1:38.3 | encompasses my relationships with my in-laws, right? |
| 1:42.3 | Because I was Protestant and they were Catholic. And then I became a Catholic, but I was a judgy, new baby Catholic convert. |
| 1:52.0 | But then also my relationship with my own family of origin before, during, and after I became Catholic. |
| 1:58.0 | So when I became, when it came to my family of origin, saying that it was |
| 2:05.9 | hard on my family was, I mean, that's an understatement because as one family member put it, |
| 2:11.9 | we've always had our faith in common and now you're turning your back on our faith. Ouch. My conversion was seen |
| 2:20.7 | by someone my family of origin as a rejection of our family culture, going back centuries. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Blessed is She, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Blessed is She and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.