It looks like yoga, but it isn’t. Instead of mantras, participants recite the rosary.

It’s called SoulCore.

“SoulCore is a movement that engages the whole person in the sacred experience of the rosary, pairing the prayers of the rosary with functional movement, stretching, and strengthening,” said Colleen Scariano, creator of SoulCore.

This Catholic fitness apostolate is all about uniting the mind, body, and soul, combining poses with prayer.

Scariano created this movement mission after suffering a tragic loss.

Her mother, father, and brother all died in the span of three months.

Soon after, she turned to the Blessed Mother.

“The rosary began to be an instrument of healing for my grief, and as a busy mom, I started pairing the rosary with running—just more for getting two for one at the same time,” Scariano said. “And during those times of movement paired with the rosary came the most beautiful and healing time of prayer for me.”

Now through SoulCore, she’s sharing her peace, leading others in praying the rosary to strengthen their souls while working out to strengthen their cores, making our prayer more powerful.

“We are created body and soul, and even the Catholic Church teaches us that to give the highest form of prayer possible to the Lord, we need to engage both body and soul. We need to engage the full person,” Scariano said.

Following the joyous celebration of its Eucharistic Revival in April, the Diocese of Brooklyn is preparing for the National Eucharistic Revival, which will take place on July 17 in Indianapolis.

Pilgrims are already en route to Indianapolis, with some making their way to New York and expected to reach the Diocese of Brooklyn over the Memorial Day Weekend.

Bishop Robert Brennan joins Currents News to discuss the national pilgrimage and faith movement.

Students from across the Diocese of Brooklyn have been learning the art of public speaking, and they put those skills to the test on Tuesday, May 22, at the 2nd Annual Oratorical Contest in Queens.

Fifth through eighth grade students selected a speech to present to judges, reciting the words of well-known speakers, like Martin Luther King Jr., in front of a packed crowd at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Academy in Forest Hills.

Each student’s performance was evaluated based on their delivery, interpretation, and ability to convey the original speaker’s intent. This comprehensive judging criteria ensured a fair and thorough assessment of their public speaking skills.

After two rounds, the group was narrowed down from 14 to just six finalists, and as the competition grew tighter, the students said they managed to keep their cool.

Seventh grader Francesca Viola from Good Shepherd Academy ultimately took first prize for her speech from Prince Ea called “Dear Future Generations,” which talks about environmental issues and how they go unrecognized.

By Jessica Easthope

He’s not playing dress-up anymore; these days Deacon Luis Marquez gets vested for real.

“Back then they would always call me little father, like Padrecito,” he said. “Like, okay, bye padrecito. It was funny.”

Soon, he will be the man he’s always dreamed of being, a priest of the people.

“Sometimes they need somebody to listen to them because in society today, there is no person that will sit down with you and listen to you,” Deacon Marquez said. “Because we are busy all the time, on our phones. As a priest, we should do that.”

His future has promise, but in his past, there was pain. As a kid, he grew up in Medellin, Colombia, during the height of notorious cartel leader Pablo Escobar’s reign of terror.

“Everybody knows Medellin, for good or for bad,” he said.

His childhood years were lived in fear.

“We couldn’t go to enjoy ice cream in the park or go to Mass, because there were terrible things happening in Medellin, like car bombs and everything,” he said. “And it was not a secure place to live at that time.”

Deacon Marquez’s father was a police officer, an enemy of the most powerful man in his country.

“He was sending people to kill the policemen,” Deacon Marquez said. “And we suffered a lot because every time he left home, we didn’t know if he was going to come back. It was terrible.”

In 2004, his family started a new life in the U.S. Deacon Marquez was met with a new set of challenges: language and cultural barriers, and a lack of faith propelled him back to his native Colombia, where he entered the seminary.

“I was not happy at all in America,” he said. “I couldn’t find the same feelings that I felt when I was in Medellin.”

He eventually realized home is where your family is, and was once again bound for America. His formation took a ten-year hiatus over that time. He graduated college and began teaching Spanish to children in New Jersey.
“It was a beautiful, beautiful experience to teach kids from 4 to 5 years old in pre-K,” Deacon Marquez said. “I learned many things from them. They are very humble. They have God in their hearts. And if you teach something good, they are going to get a good thing from you.”

It was among those kids that God called him again to fulfill the promise he made to his younger self. He got to relive his childhood through their eyes, experiencing the carefree life he missed out on.

“They get to go to the park, and they enjoy having ice cream,” Deacon Marquez said.

Today, Deacon Marquez said his inner child has healed. Padrecito is grateful, and now he’s ready to just be Padre.

“As a priest, you can bring Jesus to everybody like this,” he said. “This is like a sign that we are Jesus Christ for people.”

You can tune into Deacon Marquez’s big day at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph on June 1st.

Bishop Robert Brennan will be there to ordain him and three other deacons to the priesthood.

It all begins at 11 o’clock, right here on NET TV.

The National Eucharistic Pilgrimage is underway, and the pilgrims are headed to the Diocese of Brooklyn.

Currents News checked in with one of two dozen pilgrims who are walking the entire journey to Indianapolis for the National Eucharistic Revival.

Zoe Dongas works in the Office of Young Adult Outreach in the Archdiocese of New York and expected to spread her love of Christ along her journey.

However, she says she’s getting inspired by those who have joined her along the way.

The pilgrims will be making their way into the city on Memorial Day weekend.

Here’s how you can join the journey:

The easiest spot to meet up with the pilgrims in Manhattan is at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

They’ll be at the landmark cathedral at 10 AM on Sunday, May 26.

From there, they’ll eventually make their way to the Brooklyn Bridge, where the journey will be passed off into the Diocese of Brooklyn.

The procession will head to the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph for Adoration and Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.

Before another full day of stops throughout the diocese.

From Brooklyn, the pilgrimage will travel through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Ohio and eventually end up in Indianapolis for the National Congress.

Remember, this is just one of four routes traveling across the country to the congress.

Altogether, the pilgrims will be traveling 6,500 miles and passing through 65 dioceses.

To learn more about all things related to the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage and Congress, just go to eucharisticrevival.org.

New numbers out now are showing there are fewer priests who are spiritually serving men and women in the military.

The number of active-duty Catholic chaplains has dropped by half in the last 25 years, according to the archdiocese of military services.

There are currently 190 priests serving, but back in 2001, there were over 400 chaplains helping the military.

Currents news spoke to the vocations director for the Archdiocese of Military Service, Father Marcel Taillon, about the drop in chaplains.

He said one reason for the drop is a greater need than most dioceses.

Any priest who wants to become a military chaplain will have to apply through the Diocese of Brooklyn to do so.

Jagged heavy pieces of metal shot out of an improvised explosive device, designed to destroy is just some of the things David Santos has kept all these years.

“I was a driver, my team was hit with two huge mortar round explosives,” Santos said. “As military vehicles pass by they would detonate the explosives, and then shrapnel essentially would do the rest. That was their hope.”

The realities of doing intelligence for the 42nd Infantry Division of the United States Army during the height of the Iraq War made Santos think about what could be. When he got home he enlisted, this time, in a different type of service.

That was the first of a few close calls Father Santos had while deployed with his identical twin brother, and other men who became his brothers.

Today as the pastor of St. James the Apostle Church in Springfield, New Jersey, Father Santos said being a priest is harder than any mission he was on in Iraq.

“When it comes to the military, it’s high stress and usually you tend to hyper focus on one skill set, whereas the priesthood, you’re the shepherd, you’re the pastor, you’re the CEO, you’re the human resource director, you’re the facilities person,” Father Santos said. “And so and that’s one of the things that I really enjoy about the priesthood is how it’s just it’s so varied. It’s unpredictable. You know, it’s you start a day with one thing in mind, and then it ends and it’s totally opposite.”

What he learned in the military and in the seminary yielded similar results. He became a man built to serve. There are 1.8 million Catholics currently on active duty, according to the Archdiocese for the Military Services.

Today when he holds this piece of metal, he’s reminded that life is fragile.

“You know, when you’re in a situation where you’re being shot at or blown up, you just realize how short life is,” “And how even in that chaos, in situations of hatred and just, you know, obvious evil, how, how God is, is still there.”

As a soldier, he never lost sight of his faith, even in the fog of hatred. Now as a priest, his message to Catholics who feel forced to pick sides in today’s global wars comes straight from the Gospel.

“I think that’s the answer. I think it’s, it’s a peace that comes from God and a relationship with Jesus, helps us to see beyond ourselves, to see others the way that God sees them,” Santos said. “And we need a lot more of that.”

In a red beret and a priest’s collar, Father Santos leads with peace.

Both Father Santos and his twin brother went on to continue their lives of service, his brother now works in law enforcement.

by Katie Vasquez

Tom Hinchen and Lois Seelandt are adding some native plants and flowers outside the parish house of St. Andrew the Apostle Church. The pair belong to the Care for Creation Ministry at the Bay Ridge church, which follows Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si, in which the pontiff declares the Catholic cause for protecting the planet based on scripture.

“Laudato Si has many aspects,” Hinchen said. “So Pope Francis starts in what is the state of our common home, and it’s not good.”

“You know, you can just say that or give up on it,“ Seelandt said. “But you can say, no, there’s something I can do about it.”

The ministry took advantage of the space outside the parish house after an accident.

“We had a water main break here in this front yard,“ Hinchen said. “I had also gotten the idea even before about maybe we could do something with this area.”

This year, during Laudato Si week, the Brooklyn church will dedicate a Saint Kateri Habitat named in honor of the patron saint of the environment.

“Be kind to the earth and be kind to nature,“ Seelandt emphasized.

The habitat must fulfill certain requirements laid out by the Saint Kateri Conservation Center that blend ecology and religion.

“No use of chemicals, planting things that are beautiful for people to appreciate, flowers that will attract pollinators. And then they also expect you to have a religious element.”

The Care for Creation Ministry has plans to expand the habitat into this underutilized backyard space because, for this Brooklyn church, caring for the environment is a year-round endeavor.

“A couple of years down the road, there’ll be less grass and more flowers,“ Hinchen said.

“It’s important that we just don’t remember the earth one day, that we remember it all year through, that it becomes part of the fabric of our lives,“ Seelandt said.

Anyone can create a Saint Kateri Habitat in a yard, school, or parish. To find out how go to https://www.kateri.org/saint-kateri-habitat-2/