Hello! In case you and I haven’t met, my name is Taylor Engel. 😊

I’m a super blessed husband and father of six children, and currently serve as the Director of Parish Faith Formation at my home parish of St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church in Yorba Linda, California.

My Story

If you would have told me while growing up that I would spend much of my life helping others understand and live the Catholic Faith, I would have laughed.

Though I was raised in the Catholic Church, by the time I was a teenager (like many), I didn’t see the relevance of the Catholic Faith in my actual life.

Even after receiving all three Sacraments of Initiation and going through all the formation to receive them (sort of – I did everything possible to miss class 😬), I did not understand the significance of Jesus Christ and the Church.

That all changed after I encountered a group of teenagers at my then home parish whose lives had been changed by an encounter with Jesus Christ and the Gospel.

I recognized something in them I knew I didn’t have. And I wanted it. Desperately.

That led me to attend a Steubenville Youth Conference with this group where, for the first time, I heard the proclamation of the Gospel and encountered Christ in the Sacraments in a way I never had before.

All of a sudden Jesus and the power of the Resurrection was real to me.

This all happened when I was 17 and changed the trajectory of my life forever.

Hoping to validate my spiritual experience, I began devouring anything that I thought could help me learn more about the Bible, Jesus, and the Catholic Church.

The more I read, the more everything began to fall into place. I began to see the beautiful mosaic that is the Catholic Faith. I began to see the richness of the Bible and discovered the fact that my life was part of a grander story.

This led me to eventually discern while in college (after changing my major 5 times) that the Lord was calling me to serve in some sort of catechetical ministry.

My Professional Journey

Upon graduating, I was offered to serve as the Director of Youth Ministry at a parish just down the street from the college I attended. I was blessed to serve in this role for about 4 years and learned so much about catechesis, evangelization, parish life, and accompanying young people.

Having a longing to spend most of my time teaching the Catholic Faith, I then accepted a Theology Teacher position at one of the Catholic high schools in my diocese.

What an honor it was to spend every day helping young people from all walks of life (Catholics, non-Catholic Christians, irreligious, even professed atheists) to understand the Gospel and the teachings of the Catholic Church.

I learned so much about articulating the Catholic Faith and proclaiming the Gospel in a way that meets people exactly where they’re at.

Today, I oversee all of the faith formation programs at my home parish. Leading a team of five staff members, we do everything we can to form each member of our parish community to live as missionary disciples of Jesus Christ in the world today.

If your curious about this work, I share a lot about what we are doing on my Linkedin page here.

My Work on this Website

Everything you find on my website here is an extension of both my own spiritual life and the work I do in the parish. Many of resources I use in my own parish and many of the talks/studies were first given at the parish.

I’d like to think that everything you find here is “real life Catholic proven”. Meaning, these resources are not theoretically helpful, but things I am already using or doing effectively in my own parish, and are helping real Catholics live their faith.

If you’ve read this far, thanks for being here and for taking an interest in my work.

If you’d like to connect or want to invite me to your community to speak, feel free to send me a message at taylor@taylorscottengel.com or fill out the form below. Peace be with you!