Rob Marco – Formerly Unchurched

Rob Marco’s dad was Ukranian Catholic and his mom Episcopalian, but he wasn’t really raised in either tradition, although he had some experience of both. As a spiritual seeker in high school, he was attracted to the straight edge punk movement – a reaction to the promiscuity, drugs and alcohol of mainstream punk that defined itself by detachment from materialism and the denunciation of consumerism. The philosophy of the bands he was listening to caused him to look into Buddhism, but also began to open him to Christianity. A couple of experiences he had on backpacking trips helped him to get a sense of the mystery of grace and the power of the Holy Spirit, and by the time he went to college, he was ready to become Catholic, even considering a monastic vocation. As he began to mature in his newfound Catholic faith, he fell more in love with the Sacraments, the Blessed Mother, and even some of the Church’s hard teachings that he’d once rejected.