The holiday season can be a lonely time for singles seeking marriage, and Father Dave welcomes back speaker and author Emily Wilson Hussem to discuss her new Catholic dating app SacredSpark.
Emily describes how this app grew from her ministry on social media, specifically Instagram. “I wrote, ‘This is a matchmaking post. If you’re single, you can comment about yourself,’” she begins. “The first time I did it, there were over 6,500 entries in the first two days.”
She shares how that post and subsequent ones have now led to more than 20 marriages. “It’s been a huge joy to help people find one another,” Emily says. “My heart has just grown over the years to help single Catholics find and connect with one another to start these beautiful sacramental marriages. All 20 of those marriages have happened inside Catholic churches, and we’re trying to build up the Church one marriage at a time.”
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Emily turned this social media movement into an app with the help of her husband Daniel who has a background in technology. “We realized that there was a need to connect single Catholics with one another, but Instagram was not a long-term solution. There were so many issues, [such as] if you weren’t following someone, you couldn’t message them,” she says. “Many people said, ‘Will you organize this by age, by region, by this, by that?’ And I thought, we need to make something more intentional, and that’s why we created SacredSpark.”
She notes how one unique aspect of the app is that users have the option to add a matchmaker to their profile. “One of my friends has been on many dating apps, and she is tired of the whole thing, which I know is something a lot of people experience. What I can do as her ‘matchmaker’ is go in and view the men [who are potential matches],” Emily says. “I’ve known her for a very long time, I know what she’s looking for, I have a really good eye…It is such a fun thing, and it’s blending technology with the tradition of two people.”
Emily’s goal is to focus on each person’s humanity despite the digital platform. “We want our Catholic singles to feel supported and to feel seen. We want them to feel like people are alongside them on this journey of discernment. They don’t have to just go it alone,” she says.
“You also have the option to do an audio or video introduction. So many people feel dehumanized by apps,” Emily continues. “We are each the Imago Dei, the image and likeness of God, and there’s only so much you can do in the digital space to make people feel like a human. But you can do an audio introduction, like you’re introducing yourself at a party.”
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They discuss the difficulties that some singles have during the holiday season comparing themselves to others. “I know so many Catholic singles are in another Christmas where they think, I wish I had my own family. I wish I wasn’t going back to my family of origin. I want to start my own family to celebrate these traditions with,” Emily says. “Jesus Christ came as a child for you, in the stable, in a place where Mary probably could have been way more comfortable. In this time — maybe of discomfort, hope, or maybe despair — the child in the manger is for you.”
“What I’ve been encouraging singles to do is [practice] imaginative prayer, go into the stable in Bethlehem, and as you sit there, allow Mary to hand you baby Jesus. Just sit there with baby Jesus in the manger and realize that that baby is for you in all that you feel,” Emily concludes.
