Hi!
Recently, I had the opportunity to speak at this annual event we host at one of our parishes, Advent by Candlelight.
It’s an event just for women and the premise is that there’s table hostesses who decorate their tables, provide dessert and things and they invite their friends, family, etc. to their table. Everyone has lots of candles at their tables as well because the whole gym (where the event is held) is dark, except for those candles- and this year they also had a couple big strings of lights winding overhead. I’ve been to the last two of them now. There’s fellowship and talking and then it launches into the speakers and then a song and a few things at the end. The night is meant to be an inspiring experience and opportunity for women to grow in Advent. Last year one of our friends was the speaker. This year, the leader of the event, with the theme of adoring Jesus, decided to have five ladies from different ages to share about how they adore Jesus, with a bit of reflection and instrumental music in between. At the end there was a guy who sang, “Ave Maria”. He was so talented! He had a very good voice and it was beautiful!
Our friend, who’s a couple of years younger than me, was hosting her own table for the first time this year! I was at her’s which was really fun! It was her, my sister and I, and then another friend. She did an amazing job decorating, it was so beautiful! We had some good treats, a fun time talking and it was a nice night! My mom and her friends had their own table too. Everyone does an amazing job decorating the tables- they are so gorgeous!
So I was invited to share my witness as the youngest of the five ladies!
My talk really came together, I’m very happy with it! A lot of it came from the book, “Three Gifts of Therese of Lisieux”, by Patrick Ahern. Lately, Therese has been popping up so much in my life! It’s crazy! I’m so blessed that she has been reaching out and wants to be my friend!
There were some challenges with the microphone and I probably just didn’t talk loud enough so it was a challenge for some of the people to hear me. But several people came up to me afterward and I think it really impacted some people. And I had a lot of cool connections with my mom’s friends.
Below, I’ll be sharing some more about everything.
What’s something you liked about it (and why)? I really love how the talk came together. It just felt really good, there were some lines and sections, partly that God gave me and partly from the St. Therese book (which God still gave to me) that I really liked and was excited about sharing. It was totally God who wrote my talk, not me. I was reading the St. Therese book around the time that I was starting to think about what to say and I was getting a lot out of the book myself. Maybe I was kind of forcing it to be what I talked about but it all really worked out. There were certain sections I wanted to include so I wrote those down. A couple of months later I needed to start working on it so I brought it to Adoration and a lot came from that. Then I started to type it up, and when I was putting everything in it’s place and as an actual story- it came together so easily and well! I was so excited! It was totally the Lord. For the most part, writing the talk was pretty easy, thanks to God! Of course, there were struggles too and times where I wasn’t sure if I should add certain parts or if the writings from St. Therese were super accurate. But I mainly kept it how it was- maybe I was holding on to it too much because I liked it, but I do think Jesus wrote a lot of it.
I also loved all the cool connections that came from it, because I felt super loved and supported and it was nice to make those connections with people that I haven’t really had that kind with in the past! That night, after the talk, a lot of people came up to me and were so kind. A lot of my mom’s friends, most of whom were there that night, had sent lots of sweet messages and were praying for me beforehand. They were all very supportive afterward too, and I was able to text a lot of them and thank them. I just really appreciated all of the kind words, prayers and support that I received, before and after the talk. It all felt so nice. I also had a lot of fun talking to one of my friends that night, she came with her mom to the event- their family are friends of ours. It was fun to connect with her!
What’s something you disliked about it (and why)? Unfortunately, the microphone wasn’t working that well and almost everyone who spoke had to deal with some issues. I had started talking and just little while into it someone shouted out, “We can’t hear you!”. I was thinking that the microphone wasn’t on so I tried turning it off and then on again, I heard someone say that I just needed to talk louder- which the leader of the event did tell me to speak louder than I would in a regular conversation and I probably was speaking too softly. I tested it a few times, asking if it was better, it was hard to tell if it was on or not, I ended up moving it closer to my mouth. I went back into the talk and it was fine. The microphone did make this super loud humming noise at one point, so that was annoying and distracting. Also, apparently someone’s phone was going off forever while I was talking and people were getting pretty mad about it. I don’t think I even heard it! So that was good.
Anyway, I know I should have talked louder, I may have been choosing not to in the moment. I regret not doing that because I wish everyone would have been able to hear me, I know some couldn’t. There were lots of challenges. It was embarrassing and distracting. But I think it was fitting to be talking about St. Therese and about being weak and struggling, I think the Holy Spirit and St. Therese wanted to keep me humble and for me learn from my own advice!
What was your biggest takeaway or lesson? Some of my biggest takeaways were things God revealed to me when writing the talk! Especially in Adoration one day, I really needed to start working on the talk but I was unsure about some of what else to say. I brought it to Him and then started writing. The main thing for me was the realization that I keep coming back. Right now, that’s how I adore Jesus. I keep sinning and struggling which has really been on my heart recently, but I literally and figuratively keep coming back- I have been since I was probably eight or so. And I just had this deep feeling, in that time of Adoration, that I love Him so much and I desire this all so much. I desire our faith and the Catholic Church and I desire Him. I just had this deep feeling of love and desire. The Lord gave me this beautiful line… “I adore Jesus. He adores me. And He adores you. So much.” And it came while I was there, looking at Him in the Eucharist and I had this deep feeling of burning love… adoring Him. While He was adoring me. It was such a beautiful time in Adoration. Another lesson with this is that I should ask for His help more! I think He keeps trying to teach me this lesson. If I show up and ask, He will help me.
What is something you’re curious to learn more about as a result of this experience? This may not be just from this experience but I’ve been wanting to learn more about the kinds of jobs you could do at Catholic Churches. Especially the job that the leader of this event has. She’s the Director of Adult Faith Formation at our three parishes. I would love to help people grow in faith and put on events that help with that!
If you’d like to read my talk from Advent by Candlelight, I posted it here on the website. You can check it out right here!
Thank you for reading!
Lucy
