Soldier for Christ

Barrett Gregory ’18 was an eyewitness to the chaos engulfing a generation in crisis - of identity, of purpose, of religious belief. Through the collateral damage accentuated by the COVID-19 pandemic, he endured his own measurable personal pain, yet emerged from the darkness as a prized college graduate primed to advance into an established and thriving family enterprise.

Gregory was armed with a degree in Industrial Distribution Engineering with a minor in Spanish. His plight wasn’t how to leverage his newly-learned skills to support best his future, his lifestyle, and eventually his family. He didn’t question, “Will I be successful?” But rather, “What will my impact be?”

Marketplace or missionary?

Gregory isn’t dramatic when he says that the verdict “until the final weekend was, ‘No, I am absolutely not going to be a missionary.’ I had gone to school my entire life to become an engineer and that’s what I was going to do. But within a 36-hour window while strongly considering the possibility, I completely flipped. My spiritual director asked, ‘What are you holding onto that is preventing you from making this commitment?’ Ultimately, I saw that the Lord was calling me despite everything I had dreamed of beforehand.”

Gregory paused his transition to a corporate position in a company his great-grandfather launched nearly 80 years ago. Instead, he accepted a two-and-a-half year commitment with the Denver-based Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), a Catholic outreach program founded at Benedictine College in 1998. Within weeks of his A&M graduation, Gregory was packing for the University of Arkansas where he’ll anchor an expansion campus and confidently share the Gospel living as an authentic missionary disciple.

Gregory’s gift is a charism, an internal zeal where he relishes “a desire for everyone I come across to know Christ and His love for them. That’s my driving force.”

Gregory is role modeling to others through actions, rather than words, to serve as an apostolic, walking with men and women and bringing about conversion. The choice required steep self-reflection to identify a path for spiritual exercise. Gregory’s faith is no longer what he was taught, but rather who he is and what he is doing through practice in the real world. Think of a boxer undergoing a crucible of physical and emotional training - practice and technique, repetition and discipline - molding confidence to become one with his or her weapon.

Gregory re-enters the front lines embracing a call to a new evangelization with the intent to change the culture for Christ.

“The number of college students suffering from depression is astounding,” Gregory says. “I was there. I’ve seen it. Individuals from all walks are without a solution aside from what the outside world is selling them.

The role for FOCUS and me is to begin building that community where one can feel loved and wanted through Church. And I’m on fire to help provide that for those men and women.”

The Catholic stronghold at Texas A&M where Gregory spent the last four and a half years remains largely invisible in plain sight. The St. Mary’s Catholic Center serves approximately 17,000 students, which represents roughly a quarter of the university’s enrollment. More than 300 students attend daily Mass and more than 5,000 on weekends. There are more than 15 student-led organizations and more than 30 retreats are hosted every academic year.

From this rich, fervent terroir, Gregory’s renewed Catholic beliefs took firm root. But only through diligence and endurance to persist through difficulty did he gain the clarity to focus on progress, not perfection. Gregory unabashedly admits that he “lost his faith for years, left the Church. I realized how empty and how much pain I was in during that time.”

During the fall of the 2020 pandemic year, Gregory was rescued with “a breakthrough, a certain understanding that whatever I was going through, good times and bad, I wasn’t doing it alone anymore. In those tough times when I felt the world was ending, I had someone to go to and lean on - Jesus Christ. And in the joyous moments, I knew He was the source of all goodness that would bring ultimate fulfillment.”

Gregory continued to explore practical ways to witness the Gospel. He joined bible study groups that evolved into his discipleship. He pursued deeper involvement, recognizing that Catholic doctrine is not read once and magically understood at the soul level. It’s a lifelong quest that requires dignity, candor, and most of all unflappable perseverance.

“I was going to Mass and hanging out with a great community of believers,” Gregory says. “Jesus was in a circle of my life but other priorities were still seated in the middle. I was challenged to make Christ the center with everything evolving around him. I began scheduling my life around my faith rather than filling in the leftover blanks with my faith.”

Gregory’s engagement was compatible with his four-year involvement with Aggie Men’s Club, a non-Greek social fraternity of Christian brotherhood that explores spiritual goals. Through that membership, Gregory participated in a mission trip to Guatemala in 2019.

In 2021, Gregory saw his resolve further strengthened by “a radical trust in the Lord.” He participated in a recruitment weekend for FOCUS and joined a missionary team during his final semester in College Station working 30 hours a week.

Gregory paved the groundwork last summer for his courageous undertaking with an internship of sorts in Ave Maria, Florida with roughly 450 of the more than 860 FOCUS missionaries. In January, he participated in a weeklong SEEK23 conference in St. Louis with nearly 19,000 in attendance. The immersion was more than prayer and inspiration - daily Mass, tutorial, networking, team tactical discussions and workshops, and track-specific sessions on evangelization. Gregory and his fellow FOCUS missionaries then continue training throughout the year.

The ground-breaking FOCUS team at Arkansas is led by director John Paul Hernandez, a Strake Jesuit graduate who recently served two years at Texas State University. Interestingly, Gregory discovered one of his group’s collaborators in Fayetteville is St. Thomas Aquinas University Parish. Each FOCUS missionary fundraises 100 percent of his or her salary, building a team of mission partners. Gregory brings a priceless depth of savvy understanding that any innovative start-up would desire for the ripe mix of success.

“I have the soft skills to embrace stepping into new situations and building meaningful relationships to be long-lasting,” Gregory says. “There are two concepts that I’m keeping in mind first and foremost (in making this move). One, the value of a single soul is infinite and incomprehensible. Second, I may not witness someone completing the journey, steps 1-10. I may only see steps one and two, or only one. But I have an ultimate trust and cooperation with God’s will that I may be an instrument in someone coming to know Christ. And that’s all I can do, all I am called to do.”

Barrett and his brothers Jeremy ’15 and Griffin ’21 followed their father’s educational legacy at St. Thomas. Doug Gregory ’87 is the president of Gregory-Edwards, Inc, a three-generational mechanical contractor company headquartered in Houston and founded in 1946 by his grandfather Kegham ”Greg” Gregory. He was succeeded by Doug’s father Bill who expanded the operation’s premier reputation for dedication to quality, service, and excellence.

For years, Doug and his wife Meryl have been steadfast advocates for the unique mission of St. Thomas and the Basilian Fathers - subtly, overtly, emphatically. They’re consistent contributors to the Round Up and Eagle Eye Sporting Clay efforts which raise significant funds benefiting St. Thomas scholarship programs. Meryl has been a driving force within the renowned St. Thomas Mothers’ Club, serving as president and impacting as an argent volunteer through countless causes, events, and initiatives.

Their sons reflect the Basilian ideals rooted in goodness, discipline, and knowledge. As a senior, Jeremy was the co-recipient of the St. Thomas Principal’s Service and Leadership Award. He then earned his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Arkansas and is currently a sales engineer at HTS Engineering in Houston. Griffin is studying at the Mays School of Business at A&M and will participate in a student exchange program this summer in Germany that includes his former St. Thomas classmate Luke McLane ’21.

While the three Gregory siblings all display the divine virtues that define a Good Man of St. Thomas, Doug and Meryl are particularly struck by Barrett’s “determination to do a good job for the Lord.”

Doug says that “when Barrett was making his decision, he came to us and asked, ‘What do you think I should do?’ We said, ‘You have to do you.’ And he did.”

Gregory embarks on his journey conveying an irrepressible joy that comes from intent, perspective, and gratitude. In a turbulent world, he humbly relishes contributing as a servant leader. Empathy over ego.

“There’s a void in the lives of thousands of students and they can’t determine what’s missing,” says Gregory. “I can find ways to relate to almost everyone I come across. I’ve experienced loss in my life by any definition - physical, emotional, monetary, a loved one. My perspective is not, ‘I’m Barrett. I’m a missionary and I have all the answers.’ It’s more like, ‘I know what stress or struggle or despair is like, and I want to walk with you through that.’”

In the constant 21st-century crossfire, many of society’s and the Church’s once-thought-to-be accepted tenets are under assault. Barrett Gregory discovered in the midst of the bedlam that his Catholic faith is a fulcrum to transform confusion and complexity into that which is clear and manageable. His focus is now fixed on the process. The task at hand. One action by action. Simply stated, never easy but certainly straightforward. One small gain by one small gain. Inspiring others. Driving impact. Selflessly leading by the Lord’s example.

DURING THE RECENT THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY SEASON, a select group of St. Thomas scholars was inspired with an appreciation for all the many blessings life has bestowed on them.

Instead of flooding stores and retail websites on America’s so-called Black Friday to grab never say die deals in the spirit of materialism, the senior students gave strong consideration to their new-found gratitude, and how to contribute to something bigger than themselves.

THE CATALYST FOR THE ST. THOMAS 14 -

Finnian Charnquist, Paul Dunn, Jackson Guyre, Rocco Hill, Cole Kelly, Nick King, Alex Lynn, Jack Mathis, Oni Mouton, Colton Ritchey, Harry Tardy, Harrison Watts, Aric Weeks, and Victor Zamora along with campus ministry director Andrew Quittenton and Dunn’s father Jason - was a four-day immersion into a crisis on the streetsthe homelessness in Los Angeles.

The venture was the passion of St. Thomas theology faculty member Danny Hernandez ’08 who organized and executed the student-driven participation in conjunction with his Social Justice curriculum. The sojourn through Skid Row, Homeboy Industries, the Los Angeles Mission, and the Ventura Correctional Facility provided riveting accounts of the raw reality evident every dayunsheltered people, often suffering from abandonment, mental illness, drug addiction, struggling to stay safe and stay alive. “Students can be presented with a high volume of facts and textbook examples of extreme hardship but what they experience firsthand is much more powerful,” Hernandez says. “I wanted that practical component outside the classroom.”

The Southern California contradiction is starkly illuminated. Within proximity of glittering beaches and glossy skyscrapers lit by perpetual sunshine, in the shadows of 28 Fortune 500 companies, is the contrast between vibrant wealth and acute misfortune. Perusing iconic locations such as the Hollywood Hills or the Santa Monica pier, visitors are confronted with malnourished bodies wrapped in old coats, the young and old begging for their next meal.

The St. Thomas contingent resided at the Dolores Mission School committed to serving low-income families in Boyle Heights in East Los Angeles. The first day’s four a.m. alarm signaled the start of preparing breakfast and serving through the Guadalupe Homeless Project.

The following day the St. Thomas group took an eye-opening tour of the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility. They walked the prison and heard the affirmation of a corrections officer affectionately known among the inmates as “Family.” His succinct message to Eagle students struck with sledgehammer effect: “First, decide if you’re a participant or merely a spectator. If you participate, be curious about those who are here but not judgemental. Their lives are often filled with despair and without hope. How do you treat those who have perhaps done horrendous things, those who are poor and vulnerable? Treat them with human dignity.”

Homeboy Industries was founded by Fr. Greg Boyle, a Jesuit priest with more than three decades of ministry to gang members in Los Angeles. The local saint of unconditional compassion stokes a mission of redemption and the largest gang intervention and re-entry program in the United States. His vision has morphed into a series of businesses including a restaurant, a bakery, a cafe, and farmers’ markets created to provide optimism, training, and support to previously incarcerated and gang-involved men and women.

Hernandez is driven by Fr. Boyle’s genuine concerns and actions to create lasting solutions to gang violence - people reinventing their lives in forward-thinking, social enterprise endeavors. His book Tattoos on the Heart honed on his work in the ghetto and a breathtaking series of parables galvanized by his faith is a staple in Hernandez’s Social Justice teachings.

During the 2021 academic year, the St. Thomas community engaged in Fr. Boyle’s compelling testimony and riveting example of dedication to God through service to others. He delivered a stirring talk, first to Eagle students, faculty, and staff, and later to St. Thomas parents and supporters. He hoped that the interaction and dialogue would invigorate and inspire the school’s collective spirit to provide relief wherever they may encounter deprivation.

“We are all asked to live as though the truth is true,” Hernandez says. “The real question is do we live our faith? We say forgive others but do we practice it? The messages throughout our stay were of dignity and that we all require forgiveness and reconciliation, to see Christ in those who are on the margins.”

Hernandez is for all practical accounts a lifelong Houstonian but Los Angeles and the West Coast are forever calling to his soul. It is where he and his brothers were born, where his parents met and married before relocating the family to Houston when Danny was five years old.

He laments the history of homelessness in Los Angeles that goes back nearly 150 years, to the late 19th Century. Skid Row’s proximity to the rail station meant the area was many transplants’ first point of contact with the city, and therefore where they settled.

Themes emerged throughout the subsequent decadeseconomic downturns, mass migrations, and a lack of affordable housing led to more and more homelessness - those on the streets, in makeshift shelters, living in tents and cars and RVs. The annual count rises by 14% per year like clockwork, presuming a 2022 total north of 80,000.

Weeks and his Eagle brothers moved in and around the Skid Row encampment, a district directly east of downtown Los Angeles that covers roughly three square miles and spans more than 50 blocks and contains the largest concentration of homeless people in the world.

“I came to Texas from Detroit when I was 14 and was familiar with lower-class housing. Skid Row was shocking,” Weeks says. “The sheer numbers are difficult to describe or comprehend.

“I’ve grown up getting up at 5:00 a.m. to work the soup kitchens for the homeless. The trip reinforced not to forget my roots, and what I was previously taught - look out for the underdog, give back to people, and remember that everyone is equal. We all bleed the same blood. Volunteerism is only a temporary solution. I hope to become successful as an adult and contribute to something more permanent, invest in the quality of life for others.”

At the same time as the immersion trip, St. Thomas faculty member and director of student activities Joe O’Brien spearheaded a Thanksgiving food drive for the Loaves & Fishes Soup Kitchen, a program run by Magnificat Houses, a Christian assistance ministry.

St. Thomas students raised more than $3,000 and generated more than 350 meals largely prepared by Hernandez’s father Jesus at his flagship Arandas Bakery. The remaining funds helped restock the kitchen’s pantry with non-perishable items. This latest interaction was consistent with the multi-tier goals of O’Brien and Hernandez - raising awareness through education and showing solidarity with those who are in dire distress. Affecting short-term relief may fuel continuing answers that address systemic causes.

Hernandez and St. Thomas Campus Ministry emphasize to students that social justice is not merely an opportunity but an obligation. It is a duty to help others. To serve others. To illustrate those virtues of courage and justice toward and for and through others. To assist people who are afflicted. To help alleviate someone’s worry and fear. And at times, that translates into putting food on their table.

Giving without seeking reward.

Hernandez’s pedagogy is built around the Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching - Life and Dignity of the Human Person; Call to Family, Community, and Participation; Rights and Responsibilities; Option for the Poor and Vulnerable; Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers; Solidarity; and Care of God’s Creation. He first established a connection with Fishes & Loaves during his sophomore year at St. Thomas. In recent years, Hernandez has collaborated with Eagle fathers Rafael Garcia and Ed Cordes in leading students to aid the under-served in Honduras. His participation is in the commitment that institutions of higher education have to better the human condition of all people.

In the book of Genesis, Abraham is told that he has been blessed, and thus must be a blessing to others. That’s one essence of Christianity - if given an undeserved gift (life, talent, success), then give freely in return.

“Initially, students often see service as a checkmark, an obligation,” Hernandez says. “And then many seek additional opportunities because the deeds make them feel good. Still not enough. Service is about how we help each other and mutual respect. It can’t be about a provider and a recipient. That causes a disconnect. There’s no equality.

I want our students to understand they are better people because of their participation and are being made better people because of whom they are engaging. The two sides make each other better and save each other.”

Hernandez is boldly continuing a St. Thomas legacy of service, appealing to his senior scholars through activism, volunteerism, and community-based learning.

Embracing a personal responsibility for each individual, based on talents and gifts, to contribute to the common good. And at the same time, promoting a culture of social justice that can flourish when society removes barriers so that each person can contribute fully to the betterment of that society.

Human dignity. A call to family.