T.G.I.F.....

Ok... so Friday.....

Friday evening started off for me in a nerveracking sort of way. I had to give my talk that night and I am not gonna lie, I was actually more nervous than I've ever been over giving this talk. I think it is because I knew that to give this talk in an effective way I was going to have to open up and talk about some emotional stories that would be hard for me to talk about, especially since I never really talked about these stories to anyone else before.... I knew what I needed to do and I wasn't quite ready to do it.
After awhile though that feeling kind of lightened up and so I did enjoy most of that evening. The first talk came around and was given by a friend of mine. I never heard her "story" before, and I have to say there is something special about retreats. You learn so much more about a person because it is a safe place and you know no one is there to judge you, just to learn something from you. Anyway she told us how she had gotten in a huge car crash when she was in high school, and it is a miracle she even made it out alive. The main thing I took from her talk is something that I have heard before, but kind of not really paid much attention to it....she said, "Every morning you wake up it is because God has a purpose for you to fulfill. If He didn't have a purpose for you then He wouldn't have need for you to be alive." That is so true, and so easily overlooked. I have to pay more attention to what my mission is for that day... maybe it's something simple, but it's of significant importance to God otherwise why am I here????
After her talk we had small groups and the interesting thing this year is that everyone that came to this particular retreat last year and was in my group last year happened to be placed in my group again this year. It was nice because it was much easier to open up to this group of people sense we already knew a lot about eachother from last year. We were able to go into the next level of opening up. It's one experience I have never gotten to have before, and it was something special.
We immediately went into my talk afterwords, which I mentioned in the post below, so I won't go much into that, but I do want to say thank-you to those who did pray for me. I appreciate it very much!!!
We had adoration that night, and I was pleasently surprised by how they did it this year. At this particular parish they are not so great when it comes to protocol for adoration, but this year not only did we have an exposition (which we have never done, but I fought hard for it), and a reposition (which again I fought for). That was one of my favorite parts of the week-end... after that we had free-time and then time for bed! It was a great way to start off the week-end!