Public Speaking

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This weekend, I had the dubious pleasure of giving membership drive presentations at three of the four Sunday masses, on behalf of our Catholic Women’s League council. I’m a Lector, and have gone through a year of Toastmasters, so I am not entirely without some skills in the area. However, I have to admit the last day and half were a little gut wrenching at times.

I tried to give a little bit of a personal spin to it, and I think it all worked, but man - I was nervous! Hard to catch my breathe, and my stomach was churning terribly.

I tried to get a bit more help to cover some of the masses, but most people are simply terrified of public speaking. So, I hoofed it through and I’m glad I did. The benefit for doing a CWL drive like this is that I got to go to masses I don’t normally go to. We’re fairly regular (98% of the time) at the 8:00 am mass. If we are taking a Sunday drive somewhere, we’ll go Saturday evening, but that’s pretty unusual. I got to experience the 5:00 Saturday, my regular 8:00 am and then the noon. The most interesting was the noon - it was very packed, and I had a number of ladies approach me afterwards to inquire about our meetings. 8:00 am was good too, but subdued - pretty normal for that mass. 5:00 yesterday was not bad, but people really looked like they wanted to get out of there and get on with their weekend plans.

The other benefit was hearing three homilies; yesterday it was our Assistant Pastor, Fr. Yeung, and I am happy to report that his new priesthood is settling in. His homilies are getting better and he looks more comfortable in his skin up there. I think he is a deeply devotional person, and I am sure we will be hearing lots of great things from him. My favorite part was when he was explaining the rules of fasting and abstinence for Ash Wednesday and the Lenten season, and he threw in a little joke about “even abstinence from ice cream”, which I know to be his favorite dessert. Fr. James was the celebrant at 8:00 am and at noon, and it was interesting to see how his homily was the same yet different. The youth choir did the music at noon, and they did a great job. I felt like I went to three different churches this weekend - how amazing is the Body of Christ?

The next few weeks are going to be interesting. I’m going to go hear Immaculee Ilibagiza speak on February 27th at our local Catholic high school. She is survivor of the Rwandan genocide and has written a book called “Left to Tell” - I have the book here now (just arrived on Friday) and am hoping to read it and have her autograph it. She has an amazing story of survival to tell. Also coming up on March 3rd, Fr. Tom Rosica from Salt + Light TV will be coming to our parish to give a Lenten reflection, something to do with media I believe. Definitely going to that - what a great opportunity.

Speaking of Salt + Light, Fr. Rosica has a great interview with Rocco Palmo of Whispers in the Loggia. Definitely worth a look - I can’t believe how young Rocco is. And I have to admit, I’m jealous of the number of hits he gets. However, he works 16-18 hours a day so I’m not that jealous : )

Lent is coming quickly; one of my favorite seasons in the liturgical calendar. Either I’m a glutton for punishment or I’m just reveling in the newness of this refining opportunity. Maybe when I’m 20 years into being a Catholic, the novelty will wear off. In any case, I am excited about this year, and walking these 40 days with Jesus before entering the Easter season. What are you doing to prepare yourself for Lent, and in essence, Easter?

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