Zac Johnson · April 22, 2026
Jake's dad gave him five words of advice when he was young, broke, and trying to figure out how to build a life.
"Go to Mass every day."
He was working long hours, trying to save enough to get married, carrying the weight of a future he couldn't quite see. But he took his father's advice. And eventually, something changed. Clarity came. He felt a steadiness he didn't have before.
That steadiness carried him through a decade-long career in secular tech, until it led him to leave it all behind, start Truthly, and bring me along with him.
Jake's dad wasn't the first father to give that advice.
J.R.R. Tolkien, who wrote The Lord of the Rings and lived through two World Wars, a pandemic, and the Great Depression, made daily Mass the first act of his day. When his son Michael was struggling, Tolkien didn't give him a list of strategies. He wrote him a letter:
Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament... There you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves on earth.
Two fathers. Two sons. The same instinct: when life is hard and the way forward is unclear, go to Mass, every day.
That's why we built the newest feature in the Truthly app: Mass Finder.
It's an interactive map that shows you Mass, confession, and adoration times near you, using data from our friends at MassTimes.org. You'll find it in the Daily section: tap the grid in the top-right corner, and it's the second item down.
Because the advice is only as good as your ability to act on it.