Blake Smith
What’s up?! My name is Blake Smith and I’m a 25-year-old cradle Catholic from Southeast Texas. I am the founder and director of a young adult ministry called Catholic Culture, and the host of a Catholic Podcast called The 3one Podcast. I am also a 4th degree Knight of Columbus, and work as a civil engineer.
I grew up in the Catholic Church, went to CCD, and received the sacraments of initiation at my local parish. Growing up, my family and I were regular mass attendees, but sometimes didn’t make it every Sunday. For me personally, church was just another thing that I was supposed to do. I didn’t really look at it as much more than an inconvenient obligation. Whenever I hit my freshman year of high school and started confirmation classes, I began to desire a stronger and more fruitful relationship with God and the Church, but still struggled to be wrapped up in school, sports, and the desire to “fit in”. I was fortunate enough to attend the Life Teen Leadership Conference when I was a sophomore or junior in high school, which sparked the fire for God even more. During the remainder of my high school years though, my faith was unfortunately stuck in a stagnant spot. I wanted more but didn’t want to put forth the effort.
After graduating high school, I began attending Lamar University to study Mechanical Engineering. I also started a job as an equipment manager and on-field assistant for the University’s football team. During one of my first days on campus, I visited the Lamar Catholic Student Center with a desire to get involved. Fr. Tino, the chaplain at the time, went out of his way to come meet and get to know me. After a brief conversation, I left the student center to go to work, and didn’t step foot in the student center again for close to three years. During the entirety of my first three years of college, I neglected my faith. I went to class, went to work, and went home. The next morning, I would wake up and repeat that same cycle.
It was during my junior year of college following the break-up with my high school girlfriend that I began to really indulge in the “college experience”. During this time in my life, a lot had started changing. I was single for the first time in close to seven years, began partying every weekend, and found myself leaning on friends and alcohol to make me feel better. Although we had a great time and did a lot of good for each other, we also fueled some things that weren’t healthy within each other. I would be so exhausted from the work week and going out on the weekends that I would sleep in on Sunday mornings and had almost stopped going to Mass altogether.
During all of this though, I found myself really desiring to “come back home” in a sense. It started with that feeling of “I need to care again” and became an itch to go back to Mass on Sundays. A friend of mine was a member of a local non-denominational church in my area, and this church had a phenomenal young adult ministry with weekly events, small groups, and just an overall growing community. I would be invited every week, and so I eventually started going. Our friendship grew stronger, and I made many friends along the way, one of which became one of my best friends, Alix. God was showing me what He desired for me – a deep love for Him and for those around me.
At the same time, some friends from the Catholic Student Center reached out about going on an upcoming college ACTS retreat. I was hesitant, but with some persuading I finally decided to sign up. I filled out the application and walked back into the Catholic Student Center for the first time in three years. This is when I knew that the Catholic Church was still my home and always would be. When I walked in, the only person there was Fr. Tino. It had been three years since I had spoken with him, but he remembered our conversation like we had it was yesterday. He even remembered my name! I felt wanted and at home, so when it came time for the retreat, I went all in. I let myself be vulnerable and made friendships that will last a lifetime. God was guiding me back home in such a powerful way.
Unfortunately, only a few weeks after I returned from my retreat, I fell into a dark place. Alix, the girl who had become my best friend, tragically passed away in a car accident. I was shattered, but even through this tragedy there was something for me to take from it. Like Simon of Cyrene, my Catholic community helped me carry my cross and sat with me as I prayed and mourned. I spent hours in the campus chapel over the next few months trying to heal and prayed for the souls that were involved in the accident. It was a dark place to be in, but God never left my side. I discovered novenas and had my first experience with a Saint interceding on my behalf, St. Therese of Lisieux. I began going to daily Mass, adoration, and praying in the chapel whenever possible, soaking in all the time I could with Jesus. My life was dark for a little while but was becoming a little brighter day by day.
In October of 2018, things really started changing. I joined the core team for Theology on Tap, along with the Knights of Columbus, and signed up for confirmation retreat team through the student center. I also met the beautiful Brittney Meaux during this time and have been together ever since. God was really working in my life, pouring into me, and placing a desire in my heart to share His love. While I knew my home was always the Catholic Church, I felt like we were not serving our young adult community, especially those that were not in college. The Catholic Student Center served young adults on campus, but the friends of mine that weren’t in college didn’t have a strong Catholic community, resulting in many young adults in our area leaving the faith. While working our diocese youth conference during the summer of 2019 with the Catholic Student Center, I decided to work on bringing something new to our diocese. Over the next few months, I began building a team along with the help of Brittney and Claire, who at the time was the youth minister of my home parish, Catholic Culture was brought to life. Catholic Culture’s mission has and always will be to walk with other young adults as they journey through these important stages of life. We emphasize building our community up with a strong prayerful foundation and bridging the gap between the traditional and evangelical spiritualities within our beautiful Church. We launched Catholic Culture in January of 2020, and from then on it has been an incredible blessing and ministered to many young adults throughout our Diocese. Since our launch a couple years ago, two more new young adult communities have sprouted. The young adult community is finally flourishing in our local area!
Along with being the director of Catholic Culture, a couple of friends (Zach & Josh) and I decided to launch a Catholic podcast. The idea sparked when we would stay up late talking about our faith over a glass of whiskey, and thought “hey, maybe we should do this exact thing but press record!” Thus, The 3one Podcast was born, and is titled after Proverbs 3:1 “My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart.” All three of us are synonymously the one that Jesus leaves the 99 for. Through listening and talking about our faith with others, it has helped us grow in our own. We are re-launching the podcast after a much needed break very soon!