Testimony: God’s Catholic Answers

Contributing Author Rob Brull reads Sharing Your Catholic Faith Story

By Rob Brull

Featured in Sharing Your Catholic Faith Story: Tools, Tips, and Testimonies

Faith was just a way of life while I was growing up in a devout Catholic family. Mom was the spiritual head of the household, dedicated to praying the rosary herself and making sure all in the family participated in the Sacraments. Dad was a little bit laxer in the rules of the Church but fully supported Mom in making sure we did what we were supposed to do.

As seems typical of many of my generation, when I went off to college I drifted away from my faith. The Evil One convinced me I did not need my foundation of faith anymore. These were new and exciting times. I had secular goals to strive for: wealth, success, and, most of all, impressing those around me.

Throughout my twenties, the only time I went to Mass was when Mom and Dad were coming to visit or when I went home to visit them. In my early thirties, God sent someone to me. A friend-of-a-friend asked if I would accompany them to church for Easter Mass, because they wanted to go but did not want to go alone. While I never accompanied them to church again, after that one trip I felt drawn to attend each week. This incident began a decade of attending Mass weekly but not doing much else. Getting me to Mass was the first step in God’s molding me.

While I was attending Mass in my thirties, I remember a gentleman from Catholic radio visiting the church, who encouraged us to tune into the new Catholic radio station. At times on my way home from work, if I was bored with sports talk radio and other news talk radio, I would tune in to the Catholic radio station. Catholic Answers was the show being broadcast, and they talked mostly about the interpretation of different verses of the Bible. But I was Catholic and thus considered the readings at church to be more than sufficient for what I needed to know about the Bible. However, God was planting a seed by nudging me to consider a deeper faith.

In my early forties, I hit the most trying times of my life. I experienced the death of both of my parents, lost a long-time job, and had a considerable amount of savings tied up in a real estate market that continued to plummet. Also, my oldest son could not attend pre-K4 because of disabilities related to fine and gross motor skills, and my marriage was probably not as good as it had been. At this point, God finally had my attention, and I was ready to let him mold me further.

I lost my job and, in his infinite wisdom, God gave me a much longer commute to work for my new job. He then led me to inspirational radio personalities who fired me up about my faith. Through these radio personalities, God convinced me that the answers to my struggles were not in the secular world, but in prayer. After a while, I even started looking forward to my drive home in traffic so that I could learn more about the Bible from Catholic Answers.

I ended up going to Confession for the first time in twenty-three years. I also bought my first Bible. Reading through it completely took almost a year as I contemplated so many things along the way. I continue to read through the Bible every day. It is part of our family bedtime routine along with the rosary, which I can still envision my mom praying when I was young.

These difficulties of my early forties seem so long ago now, even though it has only been a few years. Today has its own challenges, but I have such a different perspective knowing that I do not face them alone. I rely on the intercession of the saints and the love and mercy of our Heavenly Father and his Son.

The molding of my new self continues to take shape, and always will, as I strive to understand God’s will for me today and for the future.

Rob Brull is a member of St. Martin de Porres parish in Frisco, Texas. Rob and his wife Sara have four children. He participates in pro-life activities and enjoys teaching the faith to his children. An electrical engineer by training, he works as a product manager in the healthcare industry.