[EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second in a series that will explore how people across the Paterson Diocese have been using technology in interesting ways to evangelize.]
NORTH HALEDON High school and college students no longer have to take a vacation from learning about their Catholic faith on these hot summer nights.
Anytime, anywhere, Faith on Fire, an engaging new locally produced video series, is a mere click away on the Internet to give young people straight talk about a range of real-life topics on their Catholic faith and situations relevant to them, including happiness, their life’s purpose and Catholic rites and rituals.
Father Philip-Michael Tangorra, diocesan assistant coordinator of evangelization, and Salesian Sister Brittney Harrison, campus minister at Mary Help of Christians Academy here, have teamed up to host the Faith on Fire: an ongoing series of short five- to seven-minute videos that feature engaging discussions, skits, music and graphics, posted on the popular video-sharing site, YouTube. Hundreds of viewers from the Paterson Diocese and beyond have watched the videos that have been released since the series debuted on June 17. A production team, which includes the hosts and students from Mary Help and William Paterson University, Wayne, where Father Tangorra also serves as chaplain to Catholic Campus Ministry (CCM), will continue to release videos into the future.
“These engaging and dynamic videos give young people a booster shot of authentic Christian spiritual direction. They also provide a continuous presence [for Mary Help and CCM] and positive encouragement for them to stay the course,” said Father Tangorra, who noted that the images and music featured in the videos also reflect the rich cultural diversity at Mary Help, where he has been assisting with campus ministry; William Paterson; and northern New Jersey. “Before taping an episode, Sister Brittney and I outline a few main points that we want to make about that particular topic, but then we have a unscripted discussion about them when the camera rolls, so it’s real — and not contrived — for the audience.”
As Faith on Fire’s lively discussions, entertaining skits, eye-catching graphics and dynamic music attract and hold viewers, so do the catchy — and sometimes provocative — titles of the episodes. So far, producers have released the following shows: “No Vacation from Your Vocation,” “Happiness: How Do You Get It?” “Confession: Laundry for the Soul,” “Drugs: Why Not?” “Authentic Discipleship,” “Dating and Relationships: Tips from a Priest and Nun,” and “Prayer: God’s WiFi, Always Available, Always Free.”
“Father Phil and Sister Brittney are hilarious together. They have the chemistry of an old married couple. I like that they have discussions, not lectures. They are fun and capture people’s attention by giving lots of information — and not just saying that some things are bad and that you shouldn’t do them,” said Emma Manzella, a Mary Help junior, who helps shoot and edit the episodes and has enjoyed watching many of the finished products with her friends and family.
Each episode kicks off with a striking black-and-white title card and a few seconds of grinding rock music. In the show about dating and relationships, Father Tangorra and Sister Brittney remind viewers, “God has to be our first love,” as they sit behind a desk in Mary Help’s television studio.
“If when we are dating, we try to place all the joy, all the happiness, all the excitement and energy we receive from dating, which is all really wonderful, but we make that person the object who’s supposed to fulfill us with every little bit that we need for fulfillment, we are actually abusing them, because only God is infinite. He is an infinite source of love,” says Father Tangorra, who described God as a cake — the main part of the desert — and all other people as the cherries on top — the nice extras — accompanied by a photo of a cake.
Like a married couple, the two hosts even finish each other’s sentences on occasion as they did in the dating and relationships show, saying, “We need to find the right date to make a good mate.” Sister Brittney continued, saying, “The purpose of dating is to find someone that you can be with for the rest of your life” in marriage. Also, she warned young people against engaging in premarital sex that can bond them emotionally to the wrong people.
Appropriately, the episode about happiness kicks off with snippets from the video of the hit song “Happy” by Pharrell Williams. Sister Brittney declares that genuine happiness comes from “knowing who you are, what you are called to be and being at peace with that” — not from society’s interpretation: “never being bored, having lots of fun, being successful without too much work and basically getting whatever you want.”
“Each human being is the beloved child of God. If that relationship is built strongly at peace with God, then we will find peace in every other aspect of our lives,” Father Tangorra said.
The Faith on Fire producers taped the first 16 episodes during May and June at Mary Help’s TV studio and with mobile television equipment at the studio in CCM’s Prince of Peace Chapel in Haledon. Today, the shows are in various stages of post-production with many completed and released, while others are still undergoing editing of footage, inserting of video and graphics and mixing the sound, which includes music that Father Tangorra composed. The video series originated from an ongoing faith formation series, also titled Faith on Fire, that the priest started presenting at CCM this past Lent, he said.
Upcoming Faith on Fire episodes will include “Pornography: What’s the Big Deal?” and “Priest-Nun Stereotypes” on July 27, “Vocations: I Have No Idea What to Do with My Life” on Aug. 8, “Temptation: The Devil’s Favorite Game” and “Life Dreams, Finding Your Purpose” on Aug. 22, “Adoration: Not Just Staring at Bread” on Sept. 8, “Loneliness, the Universal Pain” on Sept. 15 and “Social Media: Don’t Post Without the Holy Ghost” on Sept. 26.
“Through Faith on Fire, I’ve learned that God will be by our side and that we are made in His image and likeness,” said Denisse Brito, a Mary Help senior, who said she often speaks to Father Tangorra and Sister Brittney about personal concerns during the school year. “When I’m home, it’s good to know that they are both a click away.”
[To subscribe to the Faith on Fire YouTube channel, go to YouTube.com and type Faith on Fire Catholic Youth Evangelization in the search box. Follow the ministry on Twitter @FaithOnFire411 and Instagram at faithonfire411.]