While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples. The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” He heard this and said, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”
Matthew 9:10-17
Background
Hallow was started because I had fallen away, but returned to my faith through the discovery of contemplative prayer. Christ reached out to me through the Church’s spirituality and He changed my heart and my life completely. That’s why we started Hallow – to try to help people, especially those who have fallen away, to pray and to encounter Christ.
When we were first building Hallow, we built it just for ourselves. Contemplative and meditative prayer brought me back to the faith, and we wanted to create a tool to help us continue growing deeper in a relationship with God. But some of our friends and family soon started using the app and we had to figure out what we wanted Hallow to be. So, as with all serious decisions, we prayed about it.
My co-founder and I both ended up praying about the same passage: the Parable of the Ten Talents (Mt 25:14-30). And we realized something from that passage that we hadn’t really thought about before: how much risk the men must have had to take on in order to double their talents. How they must have made big, bold bets – bets that very well could have not worked out. And from that time in prayer we realized that was what God was asking us to do with this app – to take some big swings, to take risks, in order to try to reach out to those who have fallen away.
We realized Hallow isn’t something that’s necessary. It isn’t like a church or a doctor. I use the app every day, multiple times a day, but if it’s not around tomorrow, I’ll be fine. I’ll still be able to pray the Rosary, meditate with the Daily Readings, and go to Mass. You do not need an app to pray.
But what we do have is a unique opportunity to take some big swings and reach out to those hardest to reach, and through the grace of God, introduce them to His Love.
And so we landed on structuring Hallow as a startup (specifically a Public Benefit Corporation) – an organization that we knew was almost certain to fail, but that had a small chance of reaching out to those who were in their darkest moments and introducing them to the Love of Christ.
This is the ‘why’ behind everything we do. It’s why we work with celebrities. It’s why we take big swings on a superbowl ad or other TV commercials.
The vast majority of the content on the app is led by priests, religious sisters, bishops, theologians, and other great spiritual leaders, but we’ve found that partnering with celebrities can act as a really powerful invitation to folks who otherwise would never download a Christian app, and invite them into the beauty of the Church’s spirituality.
Philosophy
It is important, of course, for us to think through, seriously, who and how we partner with various creators. We are still early in this journey, but over the past few years working on this, and after many different conversations with faith advisors and time in prayer, we have developed the following philosophy.
We generally think about partners in three different categories:
1. Spiritual leaders
These are partners we trust to share their own personal reflections, meditations, and prayers with our community on the app without editing or scripts from our content team (Hallow’s full-time team with backgrounds in Catholic theology). We place an incredible amount of trust in these partners to be in-line with Church teaching. This group of partners is small, but includes folks like Fr. Mike Schmitz, Sr. Miriam James Heidland, Jeff Cavins, Bishop Barron, Mother Olga, Fr. Frankie Cicero, and others. We stand behind what these folks say, trust them to lead us in reflection and prayer, and allow them to guide conversations or interviews how they think best. We are honored and humbled to get to work with these partners. They are and will always be the core of the app.
2. Content Partners
These are the partners who act as voice actors reading scripts, musicians performing in bands, or individuals sharing their own personal testimonies on the app.
We think about this group of people similarly to how we would think about the cast for The Passion of the Christ or The Chosen (most of whom are not Catholic and many of whom are not Christian). We believe these powerful works stand on their own, point us towards the truth, and can be used for spiritual growth – despite the diversity of faith backgrounds involved in their creation. It takes great courage to talk about or portray the truth of the faith in our world today, especially in Hollywood, and we’re incredibly grateful to our many content and music partners who are willing to be a part of sharing Christ’s message.
We take great care to make sure all of the content on the app is in-line with Church teaching, but we do not stand behind each individual actor or musician’s past public comments, actions, or personal beliefs. Any answer to any question about where Hallow stands on Church teaching can be found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. We stand behind the Church’s teaching on all issues, including those that are unpopular in today’s culture and especially the preeminent issue of our time in our country – the right to life.
In thinking through this philosophy, we looked to the guidance usually given by the Bishops to Catholic universities when inviting speakers on campus (though unfortunately advice which nowadays is often disregarded by the universities): individuals can be invited to campus to speak, even if they publicly disagree with or act against Church teaching, as long as they are not given an honorary degree or some other award that implies an endorsement of their life’s work, and are not on campus to specifically promote the views that go against the Church’s teaching (excluding in the context of a debate). The current culture of ‘canceling’ or the idea that ‘platforming’ someone somehow requires an endorsement of everything they’ve publicly said is not something we understand to be Catholic teaching. If this were the case, that the Church requires each contributor to every piece of spiritual content consumed by Catholics to be fully in-line with Church teaching, publicly, in every way, we believe it would exclude Catholics from watching The Passion, The Chosen, many other great Christian media productions, and most religious music.
All that being said, the way we think through who we partner with is based on whether or not the core of what the person does or is known for is against the Church and Her mission (e.g. we would not have the executive director of planned parenthood on the app, or someone whose career or public persona is centered around fighting against the Church). Other factors we consider in these decisions include what the content is, how prominent or central the partner is in the content, and how the content is marketed and promoted.
We also want Hallow to be a place where anyone can come, regardless of background or political affiliation, and find a home in Christ, so we try not to have partners on the app who are primarily known for political work (except for those fighting for a topic on which the Church also has an explicit political stance, e.g., pro-life activists).
Partnerships with this and the third group below, are the ones that we know will cause the most controversy. We accept this. We also know that we will not always make perfect decisions, and I am certain we will make mistakes, but it is part of the risk we take on with Hallow in trying to reach out to those who have most fallen away.
A couple notes: partners in this category may offer their own personal testimonies or reflections on the app, but these are each reviewed in detail by our content team to ensure everything is in-line with Church teaching. This category will include both Catholics and Non-Catholic Christians.
The Catholic Church has changed my life. I’m proudly Catholic. It’s the most important part of my life. I believe it is the One True Church. I believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Hallow’s goal will always be to create something authentically Catholic and 100% in-line with Church teaching. At the same time, since the beginning, we have wanted Hallow to be a place where anyone interested in Christian spirituality could come and develop a relationship with Jesus.
We believe prayer is one of the few things that might actually be able to bring us together. Instead of focusing on what divides us, we think we have an opportunity to come together with what unites us and grow together as brothers and sisters in Christ in our relationship with our Lord.
In thinking through this philosophy we studied closely the sin of scandal: any “attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil” CCC 2284 (though commonly misunderstood as anything that causes controversy). As such, in addition to making sure all of our content is fully in line with Church teaching, we also take it seriously to work to never “scandalize by omission” and to be clear and unequivocal about the Church’s teachings on the app, which is why, on the app, we offer:
- Pro-Life prayer challenges, meditations, litany, and novena
- Catechism in a Year with Fr. Mike Schmitz from Ascension
- Meditations on Catholic Social Teaching to protect and pray for human dignity
- Courses on the Mass, spiritual warfare, imaginative prayer, feminine genius, Ignatian spirituality, “Catholic FAQs”
- Many Eucharistic prayers, meditations, novena, and Holy Hour meditations
- Sunday Homilies from Cardinal Tagle, Bishop Barron, and Fr. Mike Schmitz
- Daily Reflections on the Daily Mass Readings with Jeff Cavins
- And many more explanations of Catholic teaching and doctrine
We will continue to be public and explicit about our stance with the Church on all of Her teachings, even those that aren’t popular politically or socially.
3. Advertising partners
These are partners who do not have content on the app, but whom we work with to share an invitation of prayer with their audiences through marketing or advertising.
This is one of the primary ways we reach out to those who have fallen away. Both for marketing and simply in order to build the app, we work with many partners and organizations whose actions are not fully in-line with Church teaching. We host the app’s database on Amazon Web Services. We run ads through Facebook, TikTok, and Google. Most users download the app on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. We do our best to partner as much as we can with explicitly Catholic tools, but we also believe in working in and through the world to reach those who spend their time in these tools and platforms.
We will advertise Hallow anywhere that allows us to share the message of Christ’s love, within reason (more on that below). We will run ads on Fox, on CNN, on ABC, on MSNBC, on Ben Shapiro’s podcast (a devout Jew), on Candace Cameron’s podcast, on the New York Times, on the Washington Post, etc.
Many folks and organizations who we advertise with will be considered controversial. By partnering with them to share Hallow with their listeners, we certainly do not endorse the opinions of any individual channel or show. The same approach applies to the shows that we, as founders and staff, appear on to talk about Hallow. I’ve appeared on Chris Cuomo, Tucker Carlson, Fox News, Newsnight. I will go anywhere to talk about what the Lord has done in my life.
In thinking through how to apply the Church’s teaching on material cooperation with evil, we have developed the following philosophy around these partners: we will not give money to any organization whose explicit, core purpose is contrary to the Catholic Church’s mission in the world. This would include an organization like the church of satan, planned parenthood, or the kkk (is what I was referring to when I said “within reason” above).
Outside of these extreme examples, if you are willing to share about Jesus with your listeners and platform, we want to help you do that. We believe that the only real way to change someone’s heart who very staunchly disagrees with Church teaching is to share with them the love of Christ, which is the only goal of the app (and, we believe, a strongly ‘proportionate reason’). We partner with these shows, even ones that we disagree with on critical issues, in the hope that their listeners and even the hosts of the shows themselves will discover a deeper relationship with the Lord and be transformed by His love.
I’ll also note a common objection we hear that we do not agree with, which is the stance that if someone converts to the faith, they must wait many years before sharing their faith publicly. If that were true, Hallow would not exist.
Most organizations are not willing to talk about Christ on their platforms. You may not see it, but most of the time when we approach organizations or individuals about partnering with us, their answer is no. It takes courage, strength, and, above all, an openness to Christ’s message to do that. We are deeply grateful to all of Hallow’s partners for helping make this mission possible.
I know there will be people who do not approve of some of these partnerships. There are many who will hate us for someone we partner with. That’s okay. I will stand with my fellow sinners, of which I am the foremost. There are other great apps, podcasts, books, and resources that can be phenomenal for those who don’t want to be a part of Hallow’s mission.
During His time on Earth, Christ was criticized for associating with those who were the most hated in His time: tax collectors, outcasts, prostitutes, and sinners. And yet that is what He did. He did not ask them to answer a checklist of beliefs or renounce their sins publicly before He associated with them. Yes, He stood for Truth boldly and publicly and bravely, but that did not prevent Him from dining with sinners. He did so in order to transform them and us. And this is our goal as well – to transform all of us, including our partners and their audiences, with the fire of Christ’s love.
There are many folks on the app who do not need a celebrity invitation to give prayer a try. There are many folks on the app who already take their faith seriously – priests, nuns, bishops, monks, those who go to daily Mass, many who already pray every day. If this is you, it’s an honor to get to pray with you. My faith has been the central part of my life for the last 6 years now and I use the app every day. We certainly want to serve those who take their faith seriously as best as we can. We all have room to grow deeper in prayer. We all have an opportunity to give more of our lives to Christ.
But at the core of Hallow’s mission is not those who already take their faith seriously, but those who have fallen away – those who may have never heard the names Fr. Mike or Bishop Barron, those who might scroll right past a post from their local church, but just might stop scrolling for half a second to watch a post from someone they recognize from the movies. And this, this leaving of the 99 to go in search of the 1 lost sheep, this is what we at Hallow are all about.
To Close
I could share countless stories about the folks who have discovered God’s love through our advertising partnerships with celebrities, folks in media, and musicians, but there’s one I’ll share with you here that is particularly meaningful.
A woman wrote to us a few months ago:
“I just wanted to let you know. I don’t think I’d be standing here physically alive today if it wasn’t for the grace God gave me through your app”
She was a young married mother of three little girls but had been, for the last several years, addicted to drugs and alcohol and involved in a long-standing affair.
Her husband found out about the affair, left her, and took their kids.
She told me she was broken into a million pieces. Everyone she loved had left her. She was alone, exposed for the whole world to see her shame. She often thought she was better off dead.
But then she saw some little Instagram post from Mark Wahlberg telling her to pray.
“It was just too strange. This guy from the weird inappropriate Bear movies talking to me about the rosary. It was just too weird. So I downloaded the app and gave it a try.
And I realized something.
I was wrong.
I wasn’t alone.
Christ was there with me.
And He picked me up off the floor, scooped up all of my broken pieces into His arms, and one by one put me back together again.”
She began praying with the app every day. She got sober. She broke off the affair. She prayed for her husband’s forgiveness. He had his own miraculous encounter with Christ in adoration and forgave her. Their family’s back together. They’re having another kid.
Glory to God alone. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
This woman, and the countless other stories like hers we’ve received, is why we do what we do with Hallow.
Come, Holy Spirit. Please guide us. Come, Lord Jesus. Please lead us in Your Way.
It’s an honor to get to work on this.
I humbly ask for your prayers for us, our partners, and especially those we’re seeking to meet in one of the darkest or loneliest moments of their lives.
In Christ,
Alex Jones
CEO and Co-Founder of Hallow