The 3 p.m. Podcast | A Humble Start

By Michael J. Arvizu

This is probably the hardest piece I’ve had to write for any newspaper.

I’ve had my share of difficult stories to write, but this one takes the cake.

Weeks ago, when I was asked by my editors to write a column for this space every week, I accepted it humbly and graciously, with the thought that I did not deserve to have a column yet in this stage of my career and that instead it should go to one of my esteemed veteran colleagues. What’s funny is, when I finally figured out what I was going to write about, I panicked over how I was going to write about it.

So I’ve mulled for days now how I am going approach this column, and several hours to go until deadline, I still don’t know.

My religious background is really simple. I volunteer in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles Office of Religious Education. My duties include coordinating various events and programs for the young adult ministry of the archdiocese’s San Fernando Region (the archdiocese is divided into five regions; my region covers an area from Lancaster to Pasadena. No pressure.) and overseeing the region’s young adult advisory board. I also sit on the advisory board for the archdiocesan young adult ministry, which is made up of young adult representatives from the individual five regions. (We define “young adult” as people between the ages of 18 and 39.)

My ministry began many years ago as the only kid brave enough to take it upon himself to pass out bulletins to people at the end of Mass at my home parish. I wasn’t asked to do it, I just did it. Later, I graduated to being a musician in my church’s choirs and serving as an acolyte. Later, as I met more people, I stepped off the church grounds and began playing a part in the young adult ministry, climbing the ranks, so to speak, to where I am today, and even doing a stint as a volunteer at the cathedral downtown for about a year. I guess I was influenced by my mom, who for most of my life has been involved in one way or another as a sacristan, lector and parish secretary at our church, and has deep roots there.

When I started working for the Valley Sun, I was assigned to curate the religion pages, updating them each week with various church happenings and writing stories of religious significance and the people involved with those stories, from Easter sunrise services to a story about a couple going on their first Muslim Hajj. Later, I took on the task of founding a new version of In Theory for what was then two Valley Suns. I continue to do that for the La Cañada Valley Sun, Glendale News-Press and Burbank Leader. The Valley Sun religion section is still my little baby, I feel.

As such, I feel particularly close to the religious component of this town, and I have found that writing about other religions allows me to learn more about my own religion. And I don’t fear that I will never truly learn everything there is to know about it.

So I will approach this column with a sense of humbleness and a realization that I don’t know everything there is to know about religion. I would even suspect that my respected In Theory writers would admit to not knowing everything there is to know about their respective religions. I feel that religion is one of the greatest mysteries in life. My job here is not to dispense advice or churn out religious doctrine left and right each week. I am here to observe and comment, based on my knowledge of the facts as a reporter, the advice and work from those much more qualified than I, and my background as a young adult serving in a church whose ultimate goal it is to spread the word of God in whatever it does.

Wow, I guess now I know, if that last paragraph is any indication.

God does work in mysterious ways!

MICHAEL J. ARVIZU is regional coordinator of the San Fernando Region Ministry With Young Adults. Reach him at (866) 304-0341, or e-mail michael.arvizu@sfmya.org.