Fifty seconds.
That was the approximate duration of Jayden Remias’ video titled “Hey Mom.”
Remias said the video took roughly 36 hours to create. It paid off, however, when Remias received news last month that he was one of four winners chosen for Ascension’s “Truth and Beauty Awards.”
Ascension, a multimedia network and leader in Catholic faith formation and digital content, established the awards to celebrate excellence among individual Catholic content creators. The awards recognize Catholic video creators who share the transformative power of the Gospel online.
Remias, 24, a Westerville St. Paul the Apostle Church parishioner, left his job as a missionary about a year ago to pursue full-time Catholic content creation on social media. He and his wife and newborn son reside in Sunbury and attend daily Mass and Adoration at Sunbury St. John Neumann Church.
The video, “Hey Mom,” which is featured on his YouTube and Instagram pages @JaydenRemias, shows Remias getting out of a car, walking across a bridge and then kneeling in front of a statue of the Blessed Mother. The video is accompanied with instrumental music.
As a prize for the award-winning video, Remias will receive $500 to invest in media equipment, a commemorative plaque and have his YouTube channel honored in Ascension media coverage.
Remias said he wanted to catch the attention of individuals scrolling through photo and video feeds on Instagram or YouTube.
Before creating the video, Remias said he contemplated a good filming location. He decided to shoot in the Marian grotto outside St. John Neumann Church. The newly built grotto was dedicated last spring.
“I was just trying to think of places where I could film, where I wouldn’t be interrupted or I wouldn’t interrupt someone praying. I knew that that grotto exists – I go to Adoration here,” he said of the church – “and I was like, ‘That’s a beautiful spot.’”
In the video, Remias can be heard asking for Mary’s intercession, referring to her simply as “Mom.” Kneeling before a Marian statue in the grotto, he says, “Hey Mom, the past couple of days have been pretty hard, and I’m not sure what’s happening. I don’t know if it’s something in my head or something in my heart. Could you pass the message? Dear Jesus … ”
Remias was among thousands of applicants for the “Truth and Beauty Awards.” He recalled first hearing about the contest last October.
The awards mark Ascension reaching 1 million subscribers on the Ascension Presents YouTube channel. During the past 25 years, Ascension has reached more than 20 million Catholics through its books, podcasts, programs and media platforms.
Remias decided to enter his “Hey Mom” video in the contest.
“I just ultimately sent that one in because I felt like it was something that would resonate with people and was inspired of prayer and calling upon the intercession of Mary,” he said.
“I turned it into an internal prayer, and I was like, ‘God, I just want to display what it would be like if I was naturally talking to you,’ and that was my process of revealing to the world that prayer isn’t just like these words that we recite, it’s actually speaking from our heart.
“In this case, I was asking upon Mary’s intercession, and I was just speaking from the heart to her about how I felt at that moment. I felt like things were pretty hard, and I was like, ‘How can I actually turn this feeling into art?’”
With “Hey Mom,” Remias is not surprised the video won.
“I think it resonated with Ascension a lot … like, ‘Whoa, this guy is putting so much effort into a video,’” he said, “and not only that, he’s literally left everything behind to do this for a living, and someone’s willing to do that for the Church – give their life away to share their gifts with the world – and show that Jesus isn’t just a person in a building but someone that is alive and someone that is worth giving everything up for.”
When he received word last month that his video was selected as a winner, it came at a nearly perfect time. In January, Remias hit the one-year mark working as a social media content creator.
The anniversary marked a time for celebration, but it also presented uncertainty.
“By the time February rolled around, I just was like, ‘God, I’m doubting that this is what you’re calling me to,’” he recalled. “‘The work’s getting hard. I’m not seeing any fruit,’ and then, the next thing I know, I get an email from Ascension saying that I won the contest, and that was big confirmation for me of like, God wants me to keep doing this.”
As of mid-February, Remias shared that he had reached 1 million people on social media in the past 30 days. His Instagram boasts more than 26,000 followers plus nearly a thousand subscribers on YouTube.
Remias works to point millions of Catholic and secular-world social media users to Christ’s Church.
“You can’t just tell them, ‘Come into this building,’” he said of a Catholic church. “We have to have evangelists go out and tell them, ‘This is why it’s so good.’”
As a social media content creator, Remias said his weekly and monthly work schedule revolves around sharing the “Good News,” which is the meaning of the word “Gospel.” He attempts to share a dose of truth, beauty and goodness with those on social media.
Remias said he wants to create content that resonates with people. He also desires to create videos that are unique and not simply “another video on someone’s screen.”
He shared hopes that his work will prevent social media users from “mindlessly scrolling” through meaningless content online. He desires that his videos strike a chord in the viewer, making them pause and reflect, unlike “other videos that don’t produce fruit or meaning,” he explained.
As with any type of work, there can be difficulties.
He acknowledged that, while his work is different from a typical 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. job, it comes with struggles behind the scenes that do not always meet the eye of the social media user.
“People see the need to do God’s work, but they don’t know that there’s a cost to doing that,” Remias shared. “I saw the need, and the Lord showed me the cost, but just like how Jesus gave His life up on the cross, if I can give my life in that same way – just so that people would know His name and somehow have a conversion or reversion back to Him – I did my duty.”