7 Minute Stories w/ Aaron Calafato
Aug 20, 2026 · 9 min · 5 segments
Aaron looks back on the Episcopal church of his childhood, an unforgettable pastor named Jess, and the day he was told he might grow up to become a minister. Years later, he realizes the prediction…
[upbeat music] There's an old church with a big red door, St. Paul's, the Episcopal Church of my youth, and inside of that church, inside of those red doors, weren't just foundational memories of my life, but also potentially an answer to the question of whether I would grow up and become a minister.
[upbeat music] I remember being three years old, pulling up into the driveway next to the church with the red door, and it was a building that was adjacent to the church itself, and there was like a walkway that attached them.
So technically it was one building, but two separate buildings, if that makes sense.
And on one side of the building is where I went every single day, not to church, but to preschool.
And it was a preschool called Hobby Horse Preschool, and I never understood if it was like r- part of the church or if there was some association or if they're just kinda sharing the building and making it work.
But I did think about these things in terms of whether God had a more clear insight to what happened at the preschool.
See, one of my best buddies, Anthony, who you've heard on this show before, Anthony and I have known each other for 37 years.
We both went to preschool together at the age of three, and one of our favorite activities was to ransack and knock over the blocks that this kid Phil would build.
He'd spend like the whole playtime building this castle for himself made out of blocks, and then here we come.
You know what I'm saying? But maybe it, it helped that I went to church every Sunday, and I did.
My mom would take me every single Sunday, my brother and I, and there were things I liked about the church, and there were things I didn't.
You know, during the coffee hour after the service, I kinda felt bad because my mom was divorced, and a lot of the times the people in the coffee hour were kind of condescending, and they-- I could tell they judged her.
[upbeat music] There's an old church with a big red door, St. Paul's, the Episcopal Church of my youth, and inside of that church, inside of those red doors, weren't just foundational memories of my life, but also potentially an answer to the question of whether I would grow up and become a minister.
[upbeat music] I remember being three years old, pulling up into the driveway next to the church with the red door, and it was a building that was adjacent to the church itself, and there was like a walkway that attached them.
So technically it was one building, but two separate buildings, if that makes sense.
And on one side of the building is where I went every single day, not to church, but to preschool.
And it was a preschool called Hobby Horse Preschool, and I never understood if it was like r- part of the church or if there was some association or if they're just kinda sharing the building and making it work.
But I did think about these things in terms of whether God had a more clear insight to what happened at the preschool.
See, one of my best buddies, Anthony, who you've heard on this show before, Anthony and I have known each other for 37 years.
We both went to preschool together at the age of three, and one of our favorite activities was to ransack and knock over the blocks that this kid Phil would build.
He'd spend like the whole playtime building this castle for himself made out of blocks, and then here we come.
You know what I'm saying? But maybe it, it helped that I went to church every Sunday, and I did.
My mom would take me every single Sunday, my brother and I, and there were things I liked about the church, and there were things I didn't.
You know, during the coffee hour after the service, I kinda felt bad because my mom was divorced, and a lot of the times the people in the coffee hour were kind of condescending, and they-- I could tell they judged her.
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