Welcome to Holy Family Institute

Holy Family Institute is part of the Pauline Family, dedicated to fostering spiritual growth and community through our apostolic missions and outreach programs.

Cartoon caricatures of E.B. and Opa, principals of Reach One Media.

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The Holy Family Institute (HFI)

Hello, friends. This is E.B. and Opa from Reach One Media. We’d like to introduce you to something very close to our hearts—the Holy Family Institute, also known as HFI.

For many of you, this might be the first time you’ve ever heard of HFI, and that’s okay. It’s a beautiful part of something much bigger—a spiritual family rooted in a prophetic vision that began more than a century ago in Italy.

What Is the Holy Family Institute?

The Holy Family Institute is one of ten institutes, congregations, and associations that make up the Pauline Family—a worldwide Catholic family of men and women dedicated to living and sharing the Gospel using modern forms of communication.

HFI is a community for married and widowed Catholics who are called to live out their faith in the spirit of the Holy Family of Nazareth—Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. But this isn’t about dressing in robes or pretending to live in the past. It’s about striving to bring the holiness, love, and unity of the Holy Family into everyday life today, in our own homes, neighborhoods, and workspaces.

It’s a journey of faith. A path of transformation. A commitment to following Christ more closely through the example of family life itself.

Our Pauline Roots

You can’t talk about HFI without introducing the broader Pauline Family, founded by Blessed Father James Alberione in the early 20th century. Fr. Alberione had a profound and prophetic vision: he saw that media would become one of the most powerful influences in the world—for both good and evil.

Inspired by St. Paul the Apostle, the great evangelizer and communicator of the early Church, Fr. Alberione believed the Church needed new apostles for the modern age—people who could use media and communication to spread the Gospel with clarity, creativity, and love.

Today, the Pauline Family spans continents and cultures. It includes priests, religious brothers and sisters, married couples, lay collaborators, and people of all ages who are inspired to share Christ with the world.

Who We Are

For the past eight years (more or less), E.B. and I (Rom Webster or just “Opa”) have been lay members of the Association of Pauline Cooperators (APC)—another branch of the Pauline Family. Through our journey, we discovered the Holy Family Institute and were drawn to its focus on sanctifying everyday life in the modern world through the love and witness of the Holy Family.

Earlier this year, we (E.B. and Opa) made a decision to begin discernment for entering into “consecrated life” as members of HFI. While we will continue to maintain our membership in the Cooperators (for now), we have begun the Postulancy associated with the Holy Family Institute. We covet your prayers while we make that journey together!

From Nazareth to Now: The Reach One Media Connection

Reach One Media (ROM) is our small but mighty media apostolate. That means we don’t just work in the Church—we take the Church into the world through storytelling, digital art, podcasts, cartoons, books, and other creative media.

Our mission is simple but bold:
Share the love of the Gospel with the world—one person at a time.

At Reach One Media, we focus on:

Faith – rooted in the Catholic tradition (one man, one woman, married for life).
Family – inspired by the Holy Family of Nazareth (Jesus, Mary, and Joseph).
Fun – because the Good News is joyful and joy is one of the best ways to preach the Good News

We believe media can be holy. We believe laughter can be sacred. And we believe families—flawed as they are, funny, and faithful families—can be the perfect place for God to work His most surprising miracles.

A Final Invitation

Whether you stumbled on this page by curiosity or clicked here on purpose, we’re glad you found us. The Holy Family Institute is just one door into a much bigger story—a story about transformation, evangelization, and rediscovering the joy of living and sharing the Gospel every day.

We’re still on that journey. If you’d like to walk a little of it with us, welcome aboard.