SEATTLE — “If you could have coffee with Jesus, what would you ask him?”
“I would probably ask him how he was so patient with everybody and so kind to everybody, even if he was really mad,” one student from Assumption-St. Bridget School in Seattle responded.
“How can I be a better person and follow him better?” another student answered.
“What his childhood was like, because it never says anything about that,” a young parishioner said.
The answers were among many given from parishioners of St. Bridget Parish in Seattle and shared in a series of videos posted to the parish’s Instagram account.
The video series, called “Glaze be to God,” is run by Hudson Ringstad and Luke Hull, two eighth graders at Assumption-St. Bridget.
With a passion for technology, the pair first began hosting the man-on-the-street-style interviews in January where they asked parishioners various questions related to Catholicism at St. Bridget and Assumption parishes.
Other questions the boys have asked are: If you could be the patron saint of anything, what would it be? At Mass, do you sing or do you just mouth the words? Have you ever personally witnessed a miracle?
Hudson and Luke were even granted an exclusive with Father Bill Heric where they got a behind-the-scenes look into the church’s sacristy and asked Father Heric several questions related to the priest’s vestments and Mass.
The inspiration for the video series came during a Northeast Seattle Catholic Community Pastoral Council meeting while the council was brainstorming ways to bring the parish family together in a lighthearted way. Shannon Hull, Luke’s mother, thought of the idea to create a series of short videos for social media.
Father Heric, pastor of the parish family — which includes St. Bridget, Assumption, Our Lady of the Lake and St. Catherine of Siena parishes — loved the idea and greenlit it immediately.
“It’s just a really creative and innovative way of inviting people into the life of the church and the Gospel,” Father Heric said. “The future is now, as they say — I wasn’t raised with social media or even the internet. [We’re] serving the community, including its younger generation, so I think we really have to give more and more time and attention and use more and more creative skill in that area.”
Shannon Hull said the initial goal was to put out five videos as they weren’t sure how long the entire process, including shooting and editing, would take. But the two really embraced the project, she said, and have already met the five-video goal and now plan on going to each parish in the parish family this summer to make more videos.
“Seeing how engaged these kids are and how much their faith means to them and how seriously they take it has been really inspiring,” Hull said.
In the videos, Hudson serves as the interviewer while Luke works behind the camera as the camera operator and editor.
It’s another outlet for Luke to showcase his technological skills. He already runs the weekly livestreams for St. Bridget’s Masses, but more notably, he’s DJ Lightning, a professional DJ whose gigs include Seattle Kraken and Seattle Storm games.
“Luke is a very gifted young man,” Father Heric said. “He really knows how to engage people with this modern technology. He is of the generation [of which] social media is one of the prime means of communication.”
Hull credited Father Heric not only his support and participation in several of the videos, but also for his work as pastor as his four parishes become one family.
“His leadership in our parish family is wonderful and uplifting and inspiring,” Hull said. “Our priests have really big jobs, and they are working so hard to move and transition these families through this process. I deeply appreciated his willingness to try something current and to really allow these kids to shine — and also be a part of it.”
She also noted the aspect of the project being a great way to connect the parishes with one another.
“The idea is that we meet people where they’re at and to highlight each parish as much as we can in the spirit of bringing our family together,” Hull said.
Finally, she brought attention to how the videos show off the local Catholic youth and their contributions to their schools and parishes.
“Really highlighting how this younger generation is actually engaged in Mass — the point is to make Catholicism a little more fun, a little more light,” Hull said. “We do have kids coming to Mass; there are vibrant school communities that are supporting our churches, and our goal [is] to showcase that.”
Check out the entire series on St. Bridget’s Instagram.