Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope.
1 Peter 3:15

At Ultreya on July 30th we were priveledged to hear Jeremy present the fundamentals of testimony to us. Testimony is our personal response to the challenge of St. Peter to give an explanation for our hope - "the virtue by which we desire the kingdom of Heaven and eternal life as our happiness" (CCC 1817).

Formulating our own testimony reminds us that our faith as Christians is not purposeless, nor just an accident of our circumstances. Rather, our faith has a reason, and that reason can be communicated to others.

Moreover, testimony reinforces the personal nature of our faith. God's love for us is personal, in that He loves us individually and His love for us breaks into the mundane details of our lives - communicated through our testimony.

Since testimony is intimately personal, it follows that not all testimony is the same. Yes, some of us may see "a light from the sky ... fall to the ground and hear a voice" (Acts 9:3-4), but others will just quitely confess that "[Jesus is] the Messiah, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16).