Brian Cox works as the youth ministry program coordinator at St. Paul in Ham Lake. He was raised as an atheist. To him, being an atheist meant he only believed in what he could physically see, touch and measure, Cox said.
Cox told “Practicing Catholic” producer Rachael McCallum in a program set to air at 9 p.m. Feb. 28 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM, “People would come up to me when I was younger in elementary school, middle school, and they would try and tell me about Jesus, tell me about things that they were learning at church. And I viewed it as an argument to be won. And I was a little bit of a smart aleck kid. I would gladly welcome these types of arguments, and in doing so, I was really trying to get people to question their own faith, and I pushed a lot of people away from myself during that time, to be honest.”
During his freshman year of high school, a good friend invited him to his youth group to play ultimate frisbee. Immediately, Cox was impressed with how welcoming and open everyone was.
“It didn’t matter to these people that I wasn’t Catholic or that I wasn’t Christian,” Cox said. “The only thing that mattered is I was Brian. And I really, really liked that.”
Cox frequented this youth group’s ultimate frisbee games, and before each game they would gather in a circle and pray the Hail Mary. After Cox had spent time memorizing the lines of the Haily Mary, the group suddenly changed the prayer to the Our Father. Cox was unprepared. After the prayer, Cox asked his friend why they changed the prayer, and the friend explained the meanings of the different prayers.
“He says, ‘Brian, you have those words memorized. Do you ever feel sad? Lonely? Like you just need someone there with you? Just say those words,’” Cox explained. “I’m just going through being a normal high schooler. If I ever had friction with my parents or struggling with homework or a test, something, I would say those words and what I thought I was doing was just using them as mental repetition to calm me down. … I would feel a little better after that, but I didn’t really think much of it other than just calming myself down.”
One day, Cox found himself feeling alone and in need of someone to be there with him. He said he reached out to all his friends, and they were busy or not responding. He then began praying the Haily Mary. He said that even though he’d said the words many times before, this was the first time he actually prayed them.
“And what happened next, I can only describe as being touched by the Holy Spirit,” Cox said. “Because for this brief moment, I just felt this overwhelming sense of peace and knowledge and strength with me. Just as soon as it had come over me, it was gone. … After that moment, I knew that there was a God out there and I knew that he had a plan for me in this life.”
This plan unfolded when Cox went to a Catholic church and explained his experience. He asked to know more. The people he spoke with informed him that the youth ministers he’d known were quitting, and the new minister they hired was a recent convert to the Catholic faith. Together they explored the Catholic faith as part of Cox’s process to enter the Church, in which he was too young to be in OCIA and too old to be in confirmation classes.
“(I am) Catholic for almost 14 years now,” Cox said. “Definitely the best decision I’ve ever made in my life is to become Catholic. And I would say that with my wife and my daughter standing right next to me too, it’s been quite the journey. God called me to be here. God calls us all in in very unique and different ways. I said yes when he called me.”
To hear more about Cox’s story of conversion, tune into “Practicing Catholic,” which repeats at 1 p.m. March 1 and 2 p.m. March 2.
As part of the program, Bishop Kevin Kenney encourages the faithful to bring their suffering to God. Also, WCCO meteorologist Katie Steiner talks about motherhood being a fulfilling full-time job.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, “Practicing Catholic” can be heard after it has aired at archspm.org/faith-and-discipleship/practicing-catholic or choose a streaming platform at Spotify for Podcasters.
