Bárbara Bustamante. The “Adventures of God”.”

It is worth watching a podcast by Blanket and Faith (@MantitayFe on Instagram), and listen to Bárbara Bustamante with her interviewees. For example, the a guide for Eucharistic Adoration y the visit to the Blessed Sacrament. O the Catechesis at home, with Olatz (@Blessings.es), to teach the faith to children at home. Now he has launched another on the art that gives life, with Javier Viver. They all catch.

We spoke with Barbara about her evangelizing concern. She is on the phone, about to give birth to her third child, Santiago. The eldest is two years old and the second is in Heaven. 

"I come from a Catholic family, but not a practicing one, although there were times when I did. My parents baptized me, even without being fully aware of what the gift of Baptism meant. It was the greatest gift along with my sister”, she comments gratefully. “He made me a child of God from the beginning.”. When he began his faith journey, “let's say, out of conviction, in adolescence”The dialogue with their parents consisted of putting “a share of understanding between me and them".

“Uncomfortable questions...”

Then, the communicator explains that “God came into my life with uncomfortable, existential questions. We are four siblings, but I have a sister a year older than me; we loved each other, but when we fought, it was to the death. When this happened, I was left without my friend, without my sister. Me, who do I play with now?” 

“The experience of frustration I began to feel very strongly from very early on.”she acknowledges. First it was her sister's, and as she grew older, “why there are so many wars in the world, why politics does so much harm in the family, why do we have to aspire to something in life if in the end I am going to die, and nothing is going to happen... From frustration to disillusionment”. At 14 years of age, Barbara had with God “.“a very defensive attitude”, reveals, “a rather distant image of God, as if he did not take responsibility for the horrors experienced by humanity". 

This is how he came to find himself “face to face with God. And He, instead of answering me from reasoning, simply loved me.”, he assures. “And that is why I believe he revealed himself to me in the Eucharist. It was an encounter that had a total impact on me, and it made me lower my defenses, and I really wanted to know him.".

Professional vocation, lay, marriage

"I also asked myself, ‘How am I going to earn a salary preaching the Gospel?’ In the end I studied translation, a tool to be able to proclaim the Lord.”.

“The Lord came to meet me - another adventure of God - and unintentionally, with my sister, who was a journalist, I came into contact with the Aciprensa agency. Through that door, I entered to translate news for the Hispanic American audience in the United States. God wanted to make me an integral Catholic communicator.”, he says.

At the same time, his faith was consolidating, “and I saw clearly that my vocation was lay, marriage. And at the same time, not without difficulties, because in my parish there were cases of abuses of conscience, which caused many people to leave, but thanks to God I never lost my faith, and it was strengthened.".

At that moment, the Lord came back into his life. He was responsible for the coverage of Pope Francis in Chile, and correspondent at WYD in Panama, with Aciprensa. “But suddenly the Lord moved my heart to take care of the little ones, and I went as head of communications to a mostly rural diocese, Villarrica, with a large indigenous community.". 

A change. A mission experience that considers “beautiful”He accompanied the bishop with the Mapuches. In Villarrica, moreover, he met a Spanish missionary priest, and then a nephew of his, from Madrid. “And we fell in love with each other. We started a long-distance relationship, had a normal courtship, and got married in February 2022 in Madrid.” “I am in Spain because of my husband, basically.e,” he says. 

In the podcasts of Blanket and Faith, Bárbara Bustamante likes to “listening a lot”, “because it's really how the Lord speaks to me.”. People have liked what he calls the “theology of the home”, he explains, “how to make God present in my home”, y “consistent evangelization inside and outside the home".

You can click below to listen to one of the episodes of his podcast.