HASTINGS (SNR) – Ashley Stevens was the speaker for the Dec. 4 “Advent by Candlelight” event organized by the Court William McDonald Catholic Daughters of the Americas in Hastings.
Stevens is a devout Catholic convert, collegiate athlete, wife, and mother of three girls, whose survival of a 2008 crash while working as a FOCUS missionary in Lincoln, led her to write and speak to encourage those whose lives aren’t going according to plan.
More than 180 women came to her talk, “Striving for a Mary Advent in a busy Martha world.”
Stevens centered on the four Advent candles signifying peace, hope, faith, and joy. In addition to her real-life examples of struggles, she quoted Scripture such as Luke 20:41-42, “the Lord said to her in reply, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.’”
The talk encouraged participants to ask themselves if they were in a hard or easy season this Advent, and what helps them carve time for silence; also how their families can participate in Advent and to what “neighbor” they can be Christ this Advent.
Table hostesses treated guests to dessert, wine, and a treat of their choosing. The evening included music by vocalist Sherri Hollister and pianist Cathy Krebsbach.
Free-will donations were collected. Participants were so generous that ABC chairmen Joan Nienaber and Marie Butler, and CDA Regent Peg Welch were able to shop for food for 22 families on the “Good Angel” trees at St. Michael and St. Cecilia churches in Hastings.
The Catholic Daughters of the Americas was founded in 1903 in New York by the Knights of Columbus. In 1908, the first court in the Lincoln Diocese was established in Falls City. Seven more courts were subsequently established in Lincoln, David City, Plattsmouth, York, Hastings, Nebraska City, and Wahoo. There are currently 35 courts and 2,800 members throughout the state of Nebraska; the largest group of organized Catholic women in the United States.
