Adult Theology Courses

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Beth grew up in a loving Catholic/Episcopalian family. Her father is Catholic, and her mother was Episcopalian until 2015, when she entered the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil. Beth attended Catholic School from Kindergarten through 8th grade, and the public high school as there was no local Catholic High School. She joined the high school youth group (CYO) at a local parish and became involved on a retreat team that put on the Confirmation retreat for the local teens. She attended Texas A&M University and became involved with the college ministry at St. Mary’s in College Station as a lector and in Aggie Awakening. While at Texas A&M she met Kristofer. They were married three months after she graduated.

Beth worked as a full- and part-time science and math teacher in public, private, and parochial schools for several years before entering ministry fulltime in 2010 at St. Anthony Catholic Church in Bryan, Texas. She was hired as the Coordinator of Elementary Religious Education (CRE) and promoted to DRE, and also served a two-year stint as the high school youth minister from 2012 to 2014. While the parish’s only fulltime professional Faith Formation minister, Beth trained scores of catechists, taught Sacramental Preparation classes to hundreds of parish families, led the RCIA Adapted for Children, and coordinated countless retreats and multigenerational programs, events, rites and gatherings for the Faith Formation programs. For eight years she was the deanery representative for the DREs to the Diocese of Austin, and for much of her tenure she taught diocesan sponsored classes and mentored parish catechetical leaders both informally and formally. Beth is an authorized presenter for the Austin Diocese.

Beth has written and produced six original Vacation Bible School curricula, a middle school retreat entitled FAR OUT: Faith and Reason Outdoor Unity Tour, and thousands of articles and other material to assist catechists and parents reach their full potential as “echoers” of the faith and the first educators of the Faith in their families.

Professor Cowles earned her Master of Arts in Catechetics and Evangelization (MACE) in December 2019 from Franciscan University of Steubenville while working full-time. She works with the Catechetical Institute at Franciscan as a mentor and task-writer for their online workshops. In Summer 2020, she was named an Adjunct Professor of Theology for Franciscan University.

Beth was “downsized” in March of 2020 from her work at the parish, and on Palm Sunday two weeks later she and Kristofer launched Holy Owned and Operated, a project they had been working on for a year, to better serve the needs of families seeking to know The Lord better through quality Catholic faith formation, in support of the domestic church and in full communion with the Holy See and Magisterium.

Kristofer and Beth have been married since 1996 and have home schooled their children (The Boyz) for twenty-one years.