Evangelization

Michael Sliney: "Christ awaits us at the finish line with open arms".

From marathon to social media: Father Michael Sliney teaches how to live an authentic faith amidst the digital noise and fast pace of modern life.

Teresa Aguado Peña-October 21, 2025-Reading time: 5 minutes
Michael Sliney

Father Michael Sliney ©Courtesy of the Interviewee

Father Michael Sliney, a Legionary of Christ and chaplain of the Lumen Institute in Washington, D.C., combines his spiritual work with an active presence at social networks, where he shares daily reflections and messages of faith. A marathon runner and passionate about accompanying young people and families, he encourages to live an authentic faith in the midst of digital noise and the accelerated pace of modern life.

You have said that spiritual indifference is one of the great challenges of today. How can a Catholic “awaken” their faith amid the digital noise and daily rush? What message would you give today to parents who feel they are losing touch with their children?

-The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing" (Edmund Burke). There is a risk of becoming comfortable and complacent with your group of devout Catholic friends and your inner circle of the parish, and not feeling the need to share the richness of our faith with those around us. I encourage the souls I lead to discern who in their professional and social world needs to be approached and gently challenged to experience the beauty of our faith. We need to listen to the "whispers" of the Holy Spirit, who is the primary agent of evangelization, and this requires more silence and less social media and screen time.  

I feel that technology is creating a huge gap between parents and their children. Limits must be set on children's use of cell phones and technology. How many cars today are equipped with TV screens and how many conversations actually take place today over dinner? Car time and mealtimes are wonderful opportunities to create this dialogue and bonding, as well as special "one-on-one" experiences, such as golf outings, coffees, weekend trips, etc., with just one of your children. 

Your missions with young people in indigenous, rural, or impoverished communities show a Church that is reaching out. What have you learned from those places about faith, poverty, and Christian joy? What would you say to those who criticize missions to underdeveloped countries, arguing that we should first help our own people?

-Of course, we must help the poor in our own country, but this should not limit us from reaching out to even poorer people in other countries. It was a revelation for our children and parents to see children from El Salvador, Mexico and Colombia sleeping in shacks with no running water and subsisting on corn tortillas and beans. It was painful to see boys playing soccer on hard gravel without shoes, many of whom could not afford to attend the local school due to their lack of financial resources, and girls washing clothes in a dirty river with a herd of cows bathing upstream. This made us appreciate what we have here in the United States and also made us aware that we must reach out not only materially with food and clothing, but also with our hearts and our love. Pope Leo recently mentioned in his Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi Te"I often wonder, even though the teaching of Sacred Scripture is so clear about the poor, why many people continue to think that they can safely disregard the poor.”  

You insist on forming leaders with virtue. In times when leadership is often confused with power or influence, how do you define an “authentic Christian leader”?

-The Lumen Institute focuses on forming Christian leaders to illuminate society with the light of Christ. God has given these men and women platforms from which they can influence many people, and this begins, first and foremost, with their holiness and authenticity of life.  

You also live your apostolate on social media, a realm where the superficial and the sacred coexist. How do you maintain the balance between evangelizing and not getting absorbed by the logic of the algorithm?

-I am very active on many different social media platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, Linkedin, Truth Social and X, and I have my own platform at "Sliney.org”. I also am an avid marathon runner, so I love to post on various running pages on Facebook, combining my love for running (especially in the Boston Marathon) with some spiritual reflections. Thousands of people benefit from these posts, so I can see the value in producing simple but inspirational messages, but I am also aware of the risk of getting too absorbed by this virtual world.  

In your years of ministry, you have accompanied young people with deep wounds, broken families, and homeless people. What have you discovered about the face of Christ in human frailty?

-I love this quote from Pope Francis about the fractured world today: "What the Church needs most today is the ability to heal the wounds and warm the hearts of the faithful; she needs closeness, proximity. I see the Church as a field hospital after the battle. It is no use asking a seriously wounded person if he has high cholesterol and what his blood sugar level is! You have to treat his wounds. Then you can talk about everything else. Heal the wounds, heal the wounds... And you have to start from the beginning. Many children grow up in broken and dysfunctional families, very few have received the gift of the Catholic faith from faithful and devout parents, and many have been affected by the sting of pornography and the darker side of social networks. So my initial response is always more compassion and patience, and to try to help them understand how much Jesus loves them and only wants to help them recover.   

As chaplain of Lumen, you accompany leaders who live in high-performance, high- stress environments. How can one be a true disciple of Christ in the business world without diluting one's faith or falling into a rut?

-The business people I work with here in the Washington D. C. area have too much stress and too many responsibilities. I try to help them find a better work-life balance by creating space for more daily prayer, exercise and time with their wives and children. I remind them that their deepest identity is, in this order: child of God, husband, father... and then a working professional called to be an apostle of Christ.  

You speak of “Catholics who shine in the darkness.” What does that mean specifically in today's world, and how can a Christian recover that inner glow?

-They can bring the light of Christ to their workplace by, first and foremost, being authentic and caring Christians, "Catholics shining in the darkness" in a world that longs to see this light. It has been wonderful to see the gradual transformation of many of our Lumen members. Many of our kids attend daily Mass, daily adoration and regular confession, and all meet with me for monthly spiritual guidance. Some of the business people have found ways to do community service as a company, or to have discussions about virtue and even faith in some places outside the office. The idea is to find a way for the light and love of Christ to permeate and spread in their workplace.

If you could give a brief spiritual advice—like those “Gospel minutes” you share online—to someone who feels exhausted or aimless, what would you say?

-My priestly motto is: "Keep going... with joy... for the love of Christ. Sometimes, all we can do is keep going, keep striving and give the best of ourselves. In the words of St. Francis de Sales, we should strive to be like "birds singing in a hawthorn tree," carrying our crosses with a joyful heart, knowing how much this consoles the Sacred Heart of Christ. And all should be done as an expression of our deep love for our Lord. As a marathon runner, I remind myself that there is a finish line, and that Christ encourages us and waits for us with open arms, so that we may be with him forever in heaven. 

Father Michael Sliney running a marathon
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