How different would our lives look if we truly believed that we matter and our stories can impact nations?

How different would the world look today if we, as the young generation of the Church, stepped into our roles as disciples of Christ and testified to the many great things He has done?

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Christ gave us a beautiful gift, a gift to experience Him and to let Him impact our story. That story is with purpose, and it is one of the most powerful tools of evangelization we have. When someone chooses to step forward in faith and courage and share how they encountered God in their life, they are giving testimony. Testimonies are powerful because they are personal, they relate human struggles and supernatural victories. No one can deny or debate someone’s story. They can ignore it, but it will always plant a seed of truth and hope. When someone shares their testimony, it invites the Holy Spirit to move and work through them to move the heart of the person in front of them. That is the purpose of one’s testimony, the reason we have been given a story to tell. Something that many of us don’t realize is that, as Christians, giving testimony is something that we all must do in some way or form. It is a way of stewarding an encounter with God and the many blessings He has bestowed upon us.

Remember, giving your testimony is a means through which the Holy Spirit can work; it is a tool of evangelization that ministers to the hearts of those around you. You are partnering with the Holy Spirit, as Mother Teresa often said: you are but a pencil in God’s hand. When testifying you must give credit where credit is due, and the truth is that we are nothing without God, all credit belongs to Him and Him alone. The point of your testimony is not to make yourself feel good or to become popular at your youth group, but to give witness and glory to what God has done/is doing in your life.

“Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me ‘you must not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus’” (Rev 19:10) .

I want to challenge you, a disciple of Christ, to uphold your duty and give testimony to what the Lord has done in your life to at least one person. Below are some helpful tips, or steps, on how to give a testimony. Know that there are many ways you could do this, but these steps offer a practical and easy approach.

1. Before you even speak, invite the Holy Spirit to come into you and speak through you.
2. First explain what your life was like before encountering the Lord. Be sure to avoid glorifying sin. (Ex: 1. I was impatient with my parents. 2. I was depressed and fell away from the Church.)
3. Next, describe the encounter. It doesn’t have to be extravagant. Be careful to always give glory to God! (Ex: 1.The Lord showed me how he sees my parents, and showed me that I can see them the same way. 2. I encountered the Lord in adoration and then in the sacrament of confession, experiencing God’s radical love for me through the priest.)
4. How your life looked (or how you want it to look) different after that encounter. (Ex: 1. I am going to spend intentional time with my parents before I go to bed, asking them about their day, or what they are going to do tomorrow. 2. Now I am a daily communicant and am able to live my life with hope and a purpose)

**Just a quick note, it’s okay if you feel like you don’t have a “climax” to your relationship with God. It’s okay if your story just looks like a lot of little steps bringing you closer to the Lord. Think, for example, of St. Therese of Lisieux, who found “the little way” to heaven.

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Granted, this can seem daunting! Especially when you think of what giving your testimony will practically look like in a conversation. However, here are some tips on how to normalize this in conversation (Remember though, as Christians we are called to stand out, which will sometimes mean being uncomfortable!):

• Always bring the conversation back to the Lord! Remember, it’s not about you. People can see right through pride, but if you’re speaking and acting out of a place of humility and vulnerability it disarms anyone listening and allows the Holy Spirit to work in them.
• Make sure you don’t come across as overpowering or as you’re trying to “preach” to the person in front of you.
• Always invite. Your job is to say “come and see”, and the Lord will provide the rest.
• Make sure you give them something to do in the future or before that conversation is over (this often looks like simply affirming what the Lord is doing in their life or something they are doing well, but you can always go one step deeper and invite them to a bible study/the sacraments/worship night or something like that or you can just pray with them right there).

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Glad you’re still with me! I hope you feel inspired and encouraged to live out your faith a step further by holding to the testimony of Jesus in your own life. Below I have written out a shortened version of my own testimony.

I was raised Catholic by an amazing, supportive family, so I knew early on that a relationship with Jesus was my first priority in life. It came very naturally as a child, but as I got older I started struggling with sin more (namely doubt and despair). I can vividly remember crying myself to sleep and screaming in my head all day long “God where are you? Why aren’t you helping me?” I think I expected God to respond to those prayers (more like demands) by magically making all the problems in my life disappear, so when that didn’t happen I victimized myself in my mind, thinking that God just didn’t care, when, in reality, I just didn’t want God’s help. I was internalizing all my fears and struggles instead of processing them with my parents or bringing them to the Father. Eventually my faith just died and I became numb to sin and the sacraments. In short, I was miserable. Early in the year of 2022, I was in adoration feeling particularly ashamed and disheartened. I looked up into the monstrance and heard God’s voice telling me to close my eyes and trust Him. The second I shut my eyes I saw Jesus vividly on the cross. The scene was so alive and real but His face was the only thing in focus. He locked eyes with me and whispered, “It is finished” and the life went out of His face. Everything went silent as the significance of what Christ did for me sunk in. I have never again experienced the same breathtaking silence of that moment. God’s grace just flooded me with understanding and peace, and all the numbness and doubt I had been experiencing just left. I realized that Christ was speaking those powerful words over my life, over every doubt and lie I had believed. I realized that He had been with me every step of my journey just waiting for me to ask for His help. I like to think that I walked away a new person, even though there was no immediate, external change. But I had a new peace of heart and commitment to not sin that accompanied me. I continued (continue) to make mistake after mistake. However, the Lord loves me so much that He died so that I could be healed and that He will heal me every time I come to Him with a shattered heart. That gives me a new hope that I didn’t have and allows me to strive for holiness in a way I didn’t dare to. A huge part of my story was hearing a young man, who struggled with very similar sins and struggles to the ones that I had, testify to how the Lord brought him out of that darkness and set him on fire for mission. That testimony impacted me in a way that I never could have guessed. We all have been given a story, so let us share that story with others, we never know who will be listening and how it will impact them so just trust in the Lord.