For millennia, the message of salvation has been spread by Gospels, epistles, and inspired preaching and teaching.
Now, thanks to an enterprising McLean Catholic, the Good News is available on audiobooks, too.
“(Audiobooks are) a way to plug in, whether you’re picking up the kids from soccer or (on) that mind-blowing commute to D.C.,” said Brenda Royden, founder of AudioTorches and a member of St. John the Beloved Church in McLean.
“I know that the Lord is using my small company to bring good spiritual reading to those who are commuting, traveling, cleaning the house, or just taking a walk,” she said.
Since starting AudioTorches nearly five years ago, Royden has built a small but growing catalog of inspirational titles. Under her direction, volunteer readers have recorded 12 books, with three more in production. Half of the books are biographies and the rest are designed to prompt self-examination or guide meditation.
In the first category are two of the site’s most popular recordings, “Thomas More: A Portrait of Courage by Gerard Wegemer” (1995) and “A Man Who Knew How to Forgive: Incidents from the Life of St. Josemaria Escriva” (2011). National Review praised the More biography’s balanced view of the man who was simultaneously a “citizen, scholar, husband, father and saint.” Royden read the print edition and was deeply moved. She worked to ensure that it was among the first books recorded by AudioTorches.
Works by Father Jacques Philippe, a member of the Community of the Beatitudes in France, and Alexandre Havard are in the second category, and also rate high in popularity. Havard’s “Coached By Joan of Arc, Lessons in Virtuous Leadership” takes the form of a dialogue between the 15th-century saint and the modern reader.
Nearing completion is the audiobook recording of “No Small Goals,” the biography of Guatemalan pediatrician Dr. Ernest Cofino, who lived from 1899 to 1991. Dr. Cofino, a Sorbonne trained specialist, returned from France to his native Guatemala City and treated a wide range of patients over a long career. He became a specialist in treating malnutrition and other diseases of the urban poor, including street children. Dr. Cofino was declared venerable Dec. 14, 2023, by Pope Francis, in recognition of his heroic and virtuous life. Venerable is the first of three steps to formal canonization.
Royden noted that Dr. Cofino was an outspoken advocate of the pursuit of “big goals.”
She quoted him saying, “Let’s not limit goals to some small achievement, (for) our ambitions should always be marked by greatness. Everything we undertake should be accomplished with enthusiasm, for high and noble ideals. Then God will grant us his help, and the possibilities will be opened up, based on the virtue of hope.”
AudioTorches seems like the kind of “big goal” the doctor had in mind.
Royden traces AudioTorches’ origins to the mid-1990s, when she lived in Bangkok while her husband worked for the U.S. government. While pursuing a master’s degree in communications at Bangkok University, she hosted Radio Thailand’s “Bookshelf’’ program. She found that she enjoyed interviewing newly published authors.
Some 25 years later, husband retired and children grown, Royden noticed the “dearth of good audiobook recordings available.” She learned of Scepter Publishers, a religious and spiritual publishing house founded in 1952, in part to further the mission of Opus Dei, the apostolate founded by the now canonized Father Josemaria Escriva. Scepter had a growing inventory of spiritual books and desire to expand into the audiobook space.
“I was the right woman at the right time,” she said modestly.
For Robert Singerline of Scepter Publishers, it was a match made, ahem, in heaven.
“Brenda has an apostolic drive to reach more people,” he said. “She found us when we needed her.”
Royden took it from there.
She hired an audio engineer to build a recording studio on the ground floor of her McLean home, then taught herself to use the instrument panel. Royden discovered that her home parish and nearby St. Luke Church in McLean had an abundance of volunteer narrators, including at least one part-time professional. Then came learning to match AudioTorches’ books with the technical specifications required by different audio book retailers. This gave AudioTorches maximum reach.
The audiobooks are now available on Audible, Apple Books, ScribD, GooglePlay and Chirp.
What’s next? In the spirit of Dr. Cofino, Royden has more “big goals” in mind.
“There are so many great books out there waiting to be produced in audiobook format,” she said.
Royden said the name, AudioTorches, follows St. Josemaria’s inspiration that, “The Lord uses us as torches, to make (his) light shine out.”
Singerline believes Royden’s example is the best form of advertising.
“She has a great passion for what she does,” Singerline said. “For Brenda, AudioTorches is a form of prayer.”
Willing is a freelancer in McLean.
