B (8:48)

After 400 years of being closed to the public, you are some of the first people to be able to enter into these gardens in the way that the Popes have for the last 400 years. And welcome to the Pope's house, which is now your house.

A (9:02)

These gardens lie on the ruins of Emperor Domitian's summer palace in the Roman Empire, which dates back to the first century A.D. and though he never lived here during the summer, Pope Francis was really the first pope in history to open this property up to the public for the very first time. Only 15 popes throughout history have actually spent their summers here, and most spend several weeks at a time to escape the heat, escape the crowds, and have a chance to reconnect with nature in a very profound spiritual and divine way. This is such a powerful, special place, and you can just tell the holiness that is present as you're walking the grounds. They are currently working on turning it into something that's open to the public beyond just the private summer residence of the Pope. So people, ordinary families, will have a chance to come here and connect with nature from a spiritual and religious perspective, which I think is really powerful, and have a chance to engage in the Vatican outside of the Vatican City. I think most people don't realize Vatican City property as a nation state is not just within the walls of St. Peter's Square, essentially, but 55% of all of the property owned by the Vatican is actually here. And it's been incredibly important throughout history during World War II for example, Pope Pius XII opened up these gardens for Jewish families fleeing Nazi persecution to live here, and thousands of people ended up sheltering in these gardens, which immediately come across as very peaceful and calm. We are having a chance to walk the grounds ourselves and just engage quietly and reverently in this beautiful place. On the grounds of this garden, in of front particular, is where Pope Leo actually celebrated a gorgeous outdoor Mass right at the beginning of his papacy to reinstall the values of stewardship and sustainability and taking care of the environment from a Catholic perspective. And Pope Benedict actually made the decision to resign from the papacy in this garden at the feet of Our Lady. It's so easy to understand why they would want to spend so much time in a place like this versus inside the walls of a very crowded, loud, noisy city. And the perfect antidote to that is, of course, this gorgeous garden honoring Mary, the Mother of God, where all of us content creators had a chance to embrace a moment of quiet, to center ourselves in prayer, and to prepare for what's sure to be an insane experience over the next few days. What an absolutely incredible property. And I can't wait for this to be opened to the public so you and your family can have a chance to visit too. Before long, I linked up with my dad for a very late dinner, Roma style, with a perfect pasta carbonara that was truly chef's kiss. And since he's already jealous that I'm here, we of course had to play Michael Noll's yes or no game, the religion expansion pack. Duh. Another civil war will happen in the United States. True. That's not how you play the game. Sorry, we got the hang of it eventually and had an awesome conversation about our faith, the world and our family before turning in for the night for a very exciting day tomorrow. Today we are back in the heart of Rome in true Vatican City for the first official day of the Jubilee. Let's go check it out. The Jubilee of digital missionaries and Catholic influencers is truly the first event ever put on by the Church for content creators. So I wasn't quite sure what to expect. But between all 1100 of us from 75 countries, I was blown away. We kicked off the morning by hearing from cardinals and very senior leadership at the Vatican Communications Office about the power of social media, podcasts and technology in reaching people with a message of hope and truth in speeches. Live translated for us by people who work incredibly hard before transitioning into hearing from some of these digital missionaries themselves, including some very fun, familiar faces like Lila Rose, founder of Live action to encourage people to courageously stand for our faith, even when it's hard in the digital space. I linked up with my dad after that, who I had sent to the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums in the midst of a crazy rainstorm. So this morning, I was attending all of the sessions and I sent my dad on his very first tour of St. Peter's and the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. Immediate thoughts? Mind blown.

B (13:14)

It's hard to believe that humans could create something so beautiful.

A (13:18)

What was your favorite part?

B (13:21)

Well, the Sistine Chapel is obviously the highlight of the whole thing, but I think the catacombs may have been my favorite part, really. Just to see all the structure on top of structure and that that's really the purpose of the Vatican. Vatican means cemetery. So to see all of the former popes buried there is really kind of mind boggling and heart thinking at the same time.

A (13:46)

Just as quick as it came, the storm pretty quickly cleared out. So my dad and I hit the streets again to stretch our legs and refresh and rejuvenate with the most perfect cup of gelato I've ever had in my life. Before my dad headed back for a quick snooze. Clearly, I exhausted him and I had a chance to reflect. This trip to the Vatican completely reignited my love of prayer and made me obsessed all over again with my favorite app, Hallow. And this month, one of Hallow's most beloved prayer challenges has officially returned. Saints in seven Days. The point is very simple. Over the course of seven days, learn the story and the ins and outs of the life of one of the greatest Christians throughout history. The saints are not just distant figures who are on stained glass windows that we see in church on Sunday morning. They were real men and real women whose lives, with all of their struggles and triumphs, reveal the grace and glory of God. And in discovering and learning more about their stories, we may just begin to see how God is quietly at work in our own lives, too. Back on September 15, they started this round of Saints in Seven Days with the story of King David, brought to life by Michael Iskender of the series House of David. His story is one of the most dramatic and my favorite in scripture. Shepherd turned warrior turned poet turned king. Flawed, yes, but always returning to the Lord. His psalms still echo with raw honesty, repentance, and trust, which is why we still sing them today. This week, we started the story of Esther with Gwen Stefani, the young queen who risked everything, stood before power, and became God's instrument of salvation. For her people. Next week, we're walking through the story of one of my favorite saints, Saint Therese of Lisu, who shows us what holiness looks like in her little way of everyday love and trust. And then we'll wrap things up with Saint Oscar Romero this month, who teaches us what it means to stand for truth and justice, even to the point of martyrdom. Together, these witnesses remind us that holiness is not one size fits all. God writes his unique story in every single life, including yours. You can join anytime for saints in seven days, including all of the other previous saints that they've covered on the series, and get three months free of all of Hallow's thousands of prayers, guided meditations, devotionals, podcast episodes, and so much more@halloween.com Isabel kind of finally having a chance to come up for air. And honestly, I've just been blown away at the awareness of the need from the church for digital literacy and for engaging in content in technology in a way that the church really hasn't before. You guys have probably heard me say this a lot, lot. But having done a lot of work in politics and with the government over the last several years, there's kind of a general joke that the government does things very, very slowly. And so they're playing catch up now to incorporate new media and to try to work with creators, and it's almost like they're a few years too late. That general rule of thumb for everything is also way more exacerbated, but also true for the church. The church is very slow to change things and I actually have come to very strongly approach, appreciate that in my faith because it is the slow progression of the church that allows us to preserve sacred tradition and make sure that we honor things as they have stood for the last 2000 years. But to see such intimate awareness from some of the highest ranking cardinals and particular officials here running the communications office and people who have been appointed by the Pope to take on opportunities for leadership in this area, to hear those people say we have to be where culture is. We have to be engaging in conversations about Christ and the light of the Gospel on Instagram and on Tik Tok and on YouTube and on podcasts. This isn't something that we can ignore if we are serious about the Great Commission to go and make disciples of all nations. And they have a really interesting take on this that's sitting with me a lot over the past few days. That social media and the Internet and the digital technological space is not something that we can just randomly show up to. It is actually a place to dwell. It's a place to spend significant time and reveal your authentic self almost to live in. Which is ironic because I think you often hear from people in a very traditional and religious sense. Unplug, unplug, unplug, unplug. None of that's real. Well, when our society is engaging in commerce and culture building and relationships building, all in the digital space, that absolutely is an opportunity for a missionary spirit to dwell in that place, even if it's a metaphysical one, to be able to reach people exactly where they are. I found that so inspiring and such an interesting mission call. Just like the apostles were called to different parts of the earth depending on what their particular sensibilities were or how Christ could use that in a specific way. You watch now influencers and creators be called to TikTok or Instagram or the podcast space or YouTube, knowing that they have specific gifts that God can use to reach somebody, scrolling through an algorithm or happening to go through a podcast app, or randomly choosing things to listen to on Spotify so that people who desperately need to hear his message and need to hear the truth and light and love will find your content at exactly the right time. Our first day at the Jubilee ended with one of the most powerful experiences I think I've ever had in my journey as a Catholic. The Church incredibly generously opened their doors to St. Peter's Basilica after it is closed to the general public. So St Peter's Square and the entrance to the basilica itself was truly empty as we headed inside for a night of adoration, which you may have never heard of before, but is a practice in the Catholic Church where we engage in prayer and worship in front of a consecrated Host of the Eucharist, what we call the Blessed Sacrament, and we believe is truly the body of Jesus Christ in our presence. And tonight, on this beautifully calm, wonderful summer night in the Vatican, was the perfect time to just quiet our minds and spend time with Jesus. Though honestly, nothing could have prepared me for how special and sacred this experience truly was. Sam Sa during adoration tonight, the priests at our event also offered to confession to people who were seeking to repent of their sins and turn back towards God. And just to see the sheer number of people, mostly under the age of 35, who were so hungry to walk away from darkness and sin and to rejoin the light of Christ in a full submission to him was so unbelievably powerful. Especially because all I ever hear about young people around the Western world is that we are unbelievably depraved and we don't care about God yet. All I saw tonight was a beautiful, quiet submission to the Lord and his plans for humanity. And honestly, I don't really care what people say anymore because I really do feel that this generation is a holy generation and we are ready to transform the world for the better. That was so cool. It's, like, completely empty in here. All those empty chairs. So amazing. Going online without ExpressVPN is like not having a case for your phone. Most of the time you'll probably be fine, but all it takes is one drop and you'll wish that you spent those extra few dollars on a phone case. I literally just shattered my husband's phone the other day at an event here in D.C. he needed a better case. When you connect, when you're out and about to public wifi at cafes, hotels, or airports, you are essentially broadcasting all of your personal information to any anybody who happens to be in the vicinity. It is incredibly, surprisingly easy for hackers to intercept your data. Even someone with basic tech skills and a cheap equipment could access your passwords, your banking details, your credit card information, and so much more. What's worse is your stolen data could be worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars on illegal marketplaces. That's where VPN like ExpressVPN comes in. Creating an encrypted tunnel that keeps all of your information secure and unreadable to prying eyes, even on unsecured networks. This has made a huge difference in my life. As you know. Obviously, my family is very out and about. Our information is pretty out and about because we try to be as authentic with you guys as humanly possible on social media. And so we always think it's important to take that extra step of security to lock down the information that is secure and personal to our family. ExpressVPN makes staying secure incredibly straightforward. Just open an app and click one button to activate the encryption that would take hackers even with supercomputers over a billion years to crack. It works seamlessly across all of your devices, from your phones to your laptops to your tablets. So you're protected whether you're working from a coffee coffee shop or traveling abroad. You can secure your online data today by visiting expressvpn.com Isabel that's E X P R E S V P N.com Isabel to find out how you can get up to four extra months. Expressvpn.com Isabel and yet, somehow, the digital jubilee just kept getting better. Because if I thought yesterday was one of my favorite days in my walk of faith up to this point in my life, nothing could have prepared me for the events that transpired this morning. After a perfect night of adoration last night, we headed back into the Basilica for a special Mass presided over by Cardinal Tagl of the Philippines as he was joined by dozens of other priests from all over the world in a Mass that truly felt like heaven on earth and called upon us digital missionaries to embrace our calling to be influencers, not. Not for our own glory or ego, but to honor and glorify God.

C (24:20)

You are not only influencers, you are also missionaries.

A (24:27)

The music alone at this Mass was transcendent and immediately transported your soul into a divine setting where you could focus totally on God and His true presence in the Eucharist and marvel at how unbelievably intentional he is in bringing people together from all corners of the globe into one united Church. I am always so moved by the Eucharist as this place where people from every walk of life come together and bow before the living God that He lives within each and every one of us, no matter what we look like, where we come from, what language we speak. And found myself getting very choked up and crying during this moment because of how transcendently beautiful this moment was, especially with the sheer number of priests and spiritual leaders who humbled themselves before all of us to participate in this Mass. It was spectacular, but I didn't have that much time to be choked up because a very special surprise was about to take place. It became immediately apparent that someone very special was about to walk through St. Peter's Basilica and everyone immediately busted out the flag of their own home country awaiting the arrival of our new Holy Father, Pope Leo xiv. I don't know what I was expecting from this. I kind of half assumed they would bring him out of a room in the back, but no, no, that is not Pope Leo's style. He decided to walk through the entire Basilica and meet the public who was also standing behind us in the section not roped off for Mass, waving and shaking hands and greeting as many people as possible before taking the time to speak to as many of us individually and shake our hands as he could. You can see the excitement start to build in some of these clips with people dancing and cheering. But the roar of the crowd was deafening, even from the cardinals and priests and monsignors who participated in our Mass and were helping to organize the event. They too were giddy with excitement and everyone couldn't sit still as we awaited the arrival of of Pope Leo. As Pope Leo made his way up the center aisle. I got to deliver a message from here at home in the United States and shake the Holy Father's hand, which was earth shatteringly cool beyond my wildest dreams. From America. We love you, Pope Leo. Thank you. For me From Mexico. Yes, you are Mexico. We love you, Populo. We love you because of politics. I've spent quite a bit of time around high profile people like the President of the United States. But I have never seen this level of excitement because of one person, especially from people all over the world, united in one mission and one faith and one church. It gave me chills the entire time. And we were incredibly fortunate to have Pope Leo spend some time addressing our group on the responsibility we have to influence people for good.

C (27:48)

Today we find ourselves in a new culture, deeply characterized and formed by technology. It is up to us, it's up to each one of you to ensure that this culture remains human. Science and technology influence the way we live in the world, even affecting how we understand ourselves, how we relate to God, how we relate to one another. But nothing that comes from man and his creativity should be used to undermine the dignity of others. Our mission, your mission, is to nurture a culture of Christian humanism and to do so together. This is the beauty of the network.

A (28:41)

For all of us.

C (28:44)

We have a duty to work together, to develop a way of thinking, to develop a language of our time that gives voice to love. It is not simply a matter of generating content, but of creating an encounter of hearts.

A (29:03)

His words were truly inspiring in Italian, Spanish and English. And before long it was time to to bid Papa Leo farewell for now. But the excitement just continued to linger in the air, especially as he wandered through the rest of the crowd and took time to bless families, babies and just members of the public. Like could you imagine just randomly running into Pope Leo? I had a hard time processing like this. Genuinely felt like an out of body experience if we're being totally honest. So I just shook hands with the Pope. What is life? I have no idea what my life is right now. In the span of four months, having the opportunity to meet the President of the United States and the Vice President in the Oval Office. And now meeting our new American Pope, Pope Leo. Papa Leo in St. Peter's Basilica during Mass. What is happening? Had a chance to go back back to the hotel and refresh pump, hang out after Mass before we are headed to the Vatican Gardens this afternoon. Also had a chance to FaceTime with baby girl, Ms. Isla, who's doing fantastic at home in some ways, I think it's been easier than I expected to leave my baby for a few days. And in some ways it's been unbelievably more difficult than I expected to leave her for a few days. It's been a good reminder that even though every second of every day of my life has revolved around being a mom and what that entails and my body being there for her and being able to feed her and sustain her, and that is easily the most important thing about my life right now, is being Isla's mom. I am not only her mom, I'm also called to this other vocation of content creation and trying to tell the truth to a world that really needs it. And this has been a great kick in the butt postpartum to get out of the house to make sure I'm reminding myself of my obligation to my content and to the community that we've built together. And it's been a good refresh, I think, beyond just like sitting on the couch and working at my kitchen counter all day every day. I still can't quite wrap my head around the fact that the literal Pope, the first American Pope, took the time to meet with us after Mass with our group of about about a thousand content creators from around the world. That sounds like a lot of people, but when you put into perspective that there are 1.2 billion Catholics on the face of the planet, it is an unbelievable, humbling. I'm crying right now thinking about it. Earth shattering opportunity to represent the global church in the digital space and to have an opportunity to hear from the Holy Father about our responsibility to bring human dignity to technology, to connect with people in their loneliness and isolation and to bring them light and truth and love in a world that continues to threaten to pull us apart. It is such an awesome time to be a content creator. 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For a limited time you can get 20% off your first set of sheets plus free shipping at bull and branch.com isabelle that is bowl and branch B O L L a n d branch.com isabel to save 20% and unlock free shipping, some exclusions do apply it was so fun navigating the growing crowds as we headed to a side entrance near the Basilica to visit the coveted Vatican Gardens behind St. Peter's this is the true nation state of the Vatican, where the Pope actually lives, where people work every day, and once you step into behind the Basilica, it is eerie how quiet and serene and divine these gardens actually feel. It's no wonder to me that the Pope loves to spend so much time back here because it really is this retreat and enclave away from the insanity of the city. Very few people from the general public actually get to come back here, so this was a huge privilege and offered an opportunity to see the Vatican from a whole new perspective and vantage point beyond what you normally see from the front in St. Peter's Square. This whole week has just been insane. The amount that the Vatican really wants to show people inside the church in a really intimate and powerful way and to honor content creators in a really exciting, uplifting, rejuvenating sense to help people realize the need for new media and digital literacy. It this is crazy. After winding our way up a hill through the Vatican Gardens, we ended up at the Vatican's replica of the grotto from Lourdes in France, honoring Mary, the Mother of God, where we gathered together one last time as a big group of all 1100 of us to consecrate our journey as digital missionaries under the guidance and leadership of Mary, who many people were referring to this week as the first influencer commissioned by God to change the world forever. It was a serenely beautiful way to cap off our gift experience as digital missionaries gathered together in our home church here in Rome. And one thing's for sure. I will never ever forget every second of this experience and the amazing people that I was fortunate to meet along the way. This has changed me forever and totally redirected my mission as a creator to continue engaging in what is good and true and beautiful, not just for the sake of our immediate community, but for Internet culture at large, which immediately became even more important to me as we exited the Vatican Gardens and stumbled upon the kickoff to the World Youth Jubilee. Turns out my math from earlier was way off. This was not 100,000 people. This was closer to 1 million people, all of whom were gathered right in and around St. Peter's Square and were all teenagers, young adults, college students from every country in the world gathered together to celebrate our UN Universal Church in America. We've talked a lot over the last few years about how there's this massive Catholic revival. Like last year, within one calendar year there was a 6% jump in the number of people under the age of 35 identifying as Catholic. And maybe it's just how our media portrays things in the United States, but it often feels like Catholics are this tiny group of people who are not remotely the norm. But to see the sheer number of young Catholics with hearts on fire for their faith all gathered together in one location. This is a million people. Which relatively to the 1.2 billion Catholics on the planet, is nobody made you feel so intimately connected to people from all over the world. Even if you don't share the same nationality or language, you were united in the thing that mattered more than anything else in God. We weaved our way through these crazy crowds. Although no one was that impatient or rude, everyone was joyful and very respectful and kind to one another. And my dad and I headed a few blocks off the beaten path to sit down for a farewell dinner. Little did we know the Pope would soon be driving the Popemobile through this crowd of a million people. And even five, six blocks away, there were streams of crowds from countries all over the world running as fast as they could to watch it all unfold on a video monitor as this was all unfolding just a stone's throw away in St. Peter's Square. Leaving dinner, we walked by a live concert put on for the end of the digital Missionary Jubilee that was crashed by all of the World Youth attendees. And this honestly felt like what heaven is going to be with everyone rejoicing, dancing, laughing and singing in the full presence of God, unified together as one human race. Not in the annoying globalist coexist bumper style sticker sense, but proud of who you are, who you were intentionally created to be with your own heritage and customs and culture unified together as one humanity created in the image of God. I still have chills from this night. And I never want to hear again that religion is dying or the church is dead and not appealing to young people, or that the next generation doesn't care about God. Because the pure amount of joy I felt this evening will stay with me for the rest of my life. Finally having some time to decompress over the insanity of the last two days. It feels like it's been two months, but it's only been two days. And I just find myself so centered and grounded around why I make content, why I do what I do. And I think this was such a God thing. Knowing that this opportunity came about just a few weeks before the relaunch of my new show with Daily Wire, with constantly doing content all the time, again after I've taken a bit of a hiatus throughout my pregnancy and just after the postpartum experience and having my baby to ground myself and feel so mission driven on what I do and why I do it as a creator, to know that I have an opportunity and a responsibility with the audience that I have. Not just to entertain people and to educate people, but to lead them towards light and what's good and true and beautiful and to bring them to God and to know that God created us according to our own likeness, according to our own culture and our own background in his image. And we all can come together in the fullness of humanity united in Him. I mean, literally I was like sobbing all night long because it was a true image, a parallel image of heaven. This is what heaven is going to be like. Unadulterated joy, complete unity across all cultures and all humanity and the light of God living within each and every one of us. It made me so pumped, so pumped for World Youth Day in 2027. I've actually never been to World Youth Day. I didn't go last time and it's in Seoul, South Korea, which by the way is the most countries flags I saw all day was South Korea. So very cool. But more than anything, it made me so excited for the deep curiosity, the passion and the fervor young people from all over the world are having for God. Because nothing else has been to able able to fill that void. I 1000% would have gone on this adventure all over again. And I'm so glad that I did. It was very, very hard to leave my baby girl and still is very hard. I'm counting the minutes until I go home and get to snuggle her and be there for her as her mom. But I'm beyond, beyond grateful to the Holy See and the Vatican for hosting us as creators this week, for opening their doors to so many behind the scenes, very intimate experiences in private audiences, in St Peter's Basilica, in the Vatican Gardens, at Castel Gandolfo. To know that there is this deep desire for the Church to show the world through as big of platforms as possible all over the world and spread that as far as possible is really humbling and I think speaks to a new era of Catholicism. It speaks to a new era of Christianity and the role that digital media can play in bringing light to the world. I guess that's a wrap on all things aroma and I cannot wait to be home tomorrow.