Father Scott-Vincent Borba, co-founder of e.l.f. Cosmetics and former Hollywood beauty mogul turned Catholic priest, recounts his conversion after a mystical vision of Saint Michael the Archangel, his decision to give away his multi-million-dollar fortune to charity, and his path through seminary to ordination.
An excerpt, starting at about the 26-minute mark (interviewer’s questions are in italics; entire video is below):
“So here’s a quote from you: ‘I was vapid. I had a perverse life. My soul was in hell.’ When did you realize that?”
“Okay. Every human, as we’re all God’s Creation, has received different gifts. Especially, I can say this upon my Baptism, I knew that I was a little different because at a very young age—at age five—was the first time that I was able to see a little bit of the mystical gift that God had given me.
“When I was at my height, at my Hollywood Hills home that I had just renovated, I was partying and I looked around and noticed that I had everything. It was beautiful—the objects in the house, the curtains, the floors, and the people. I looked around and thought, ‘Why am I not happy? Why don’t I feel fulfilled? Why don’t I feel loved even though I was loved all the time?’ It was because I had given myself away. I had given my heart away to the world versus to my Creator, and I just intuitively knew it.
“So I knew enough at that moment to speak to God the Father in the silence of my heart. I looked up to the ceiling and said, ‘God, if You created me just to be successful, make money, be a hedonist, and repeat, why did You create me? Why did You create the human race? Because a lot of us do this. Why did You do this? Because I’m not happy and I don’t know how to be happy, but I do know that I want to become the man that You created me to be, and I can’t do it without Your help.’ That was my prayer. It was so sincere.
“While people were milling around drinking and talking, in a mystical way, the entire roof—the entire ceiling of my house—kind of disappeared. It kind of evaporated, and what I saw was eternity meeting eternity. Then, coming into my peripheral view, I saw Saint Michael the Archangel.
“Two weeks before that, he was standing guard outside of my office window at my house. He’s about two stories tall—the most beautiful creature you could ever put your eyes on.”
“You were aware of him prior to this?”
“I was aware of him, but I thought I was exhausted. I thought I was hallucinating a little bit because I was working so hard and partying so hard, pushing myself on both ends. At one point in the office, I looked out the window at him and said, ‘Who are you?’ He looked at me and nodded, but then he looked right at me and went straight up, looking back to God, right up to the heavens.”
“A lot of people were taught that they should pray. Far fewer people were taught how. And that’s obviously an important distinction. Imagine telling someone they should work out, but never showing them what exercises to do, or telling someone that they should learn another language, but never teaching them a single word of the language. Prayer can feel like that. We know we’re supposed to do it, but we’re not always sure what to do once we sit or kneel down.
“And that’s one reason I recommend Hallow. If you’re brand new to prayer, there are guided sessions that walk you through everything step by step. And if you’ve been Catholic your whole life, you’ll find rosaries, Lectio Divina, examinations of conscience, saint reflections, and so much more. Wherever you’re starting from, Hallow helps you actually begin. Because prayer isn’t about performing for God; it’s about spending time with Him, communing with Him. If you’d like to grow deeper in your relationship with God, visit hallow.com/mattfrad and get three months free. That’s hallow.com/mattfrad.
We talk a lot on this show about living with integrity. Integrity means more than believing the right things. It means bringing our actions into alignment with our beliefs. And that’s not always easy, but sometimes it’s surprisingly simple…”
[resources: books about afterlife]
[Footnote from ChurchPop:
The encounter did not end with the vision of hell. Borba said St. Michael then acted to cleanse the spiritual atmosphere around him.
“He then took his wings, then raised them out, which for a two story tall angel, his wingspan was the size of a football field,” he told Fradd.
With minimal movement, Borba said, the archangel’s wings drove out demonic forces from his home.
“When he used the tips of his wings, he just barely moved them. It exorcized the entire house,” Borba recalled. “All the amount of demons, just like a tornado came in and just went out and up and the whole place, I could sense and feel its light and peace return.”]