Thursday, September 02, 2010

Sharing my Story

Tonight I gave the "witness" at a monthly meeting of my area Cursillo group. Cursillo is a lay movement within the Catholic Church. This monthly gathering is something we call Ultreya and it's a chance for the local Cursillo community to get together and share how our walk with Christ is going. In addition to small group sharing we hear a witness from one member. Tonight was my witness.

I spoke for about 20 minutes about my most recent struggles with pregnancy loss and how that has effected my faith journey. I was a bit nervous about sharing this story and how it would be received. My prayer for the past several weeks as I have prepared for this talk has been that God use me to say what He knows the people there needed to hear. I hope that's what happened.

As part of my talk I also shared some pictures and other momentos I have from each pregnancy. These included the certificate I got from the church in New York where I registered Casey's name in their "Book of Life;" the picture I have of Zachary from the day he was born; the certificate I received from the hospital that has Zachary's footprints on it; and two pictures I took of Brigit's box.

I was really amazed at the comments I received from everyone during the "echo" following my witness. It meant so much to me to hear those comments. It's also amazing how people can listen to your story and then tell you something about yourself that you never thought of before. There were many beautiful moments tonight.

I honestly think I probably got more out of this experience than those who I was speaking to. Between my time of reflection on my experiences, preparing the talk, praying about it, hearing the echo and Father's summary, I was truly blessed to be given this opportunity.

Thank you to everyone who prayed for me as I was preparing for this. For your offerings of Masses and your times in the Adoration Chapel, for fasting and singing prayers, and so much more!! What an amazing community of people you all are!

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