Catholic Speaker Month--Matthew Kelly

When I heard that Matthew Warner over at Fallible Blogma wanted to create a "Catholic Speaker Month" movement to feature Catholic speakers across the blogosphere, I jumped on it. I thought it was a fantastic idea to get the word out about all of the wonderful Catholic speakers that our country has to offer. And if you are a regular reader of my blog, you can probably guess who I picked (since I quote him often)--Matthew Kelly.

As a note of disclosure--I haven't heard Matthew Kelly speak...yet, but I'm working on it. However that wasn't a requirement to feature a Catholic speaker. The whole idea is to get the word out about them. I am familiar with him, though, having read his book Rediscovering Catholicism. This is a fantastic book about the Catholic faith, and if you haven't read it yet, I suggest picking up a copy of it. This is such a great book that I am using it as a part of my high school youth ministry curriculum.

But this is not a post about featuring the best Catholic authors (maybe Matthew Warner could do that next), it's a post about the best Catholic speakers. First a little bio, taken from www.matthewkelly.org,

Matthew Kelly was born in Sydney, Australia, on July 12, 1973. Over the past ten years more than three million people in fifty countries have attended his talks, seminars, and retreats. Against the backdrop of his travel to fifty countries, millions more have been touched by his writings and appearances on radio and television programs.

Both as a speaker and as an author, Kelly possesses a powerful ability to combine the ageless tool of storytelling with a profound understanding of today's culture and the common yearnings of the human heart. As a result he captures our imaginations and helps us to see the challenges and opportunities of our everyday lives in a new light. With a keen sense of humor and heartwarming charm, Kelly seems to effortlessly elevate and energize people to pursue the highest values of the human spirit and become "the-best-version-of-themselves."

I know several people who have seen Matthew Kelly speak, and every one of them say that he is a wonderful speaker and full of life. He is passionate about his mission and delivers his message in a way that draws people in and gets them as excited and passionate as he is.

Matthew Kelly speaks on a range of topics but most often he centers on the idea of encouraging people to"become the best-version-of-themselves". When I first heard him talk about this idea in Rediscovering Catholicism, I thought that it was a little "self-helpish". (I have no respect for the self-help industry, as it seems to be trying to convince people that they can improve themselves without the help of anyone else--including the grace of God) However, after reading further, I discovered that Matthew Kelly believes (and I agree!) that the way that we all can become the best version of ourselves is through our faith in Christ, and that the Catholic Church holds the Love and the Truths that allow us to become the best version of ourselves.

Matthew Kelly is a wonderful and passionate speaker and author. If you have the opportunity to hear him speak, either live or on CD, or read one of his books, I strongly encourage you to do so.

By the way....If you are a Catholic blogger yourself, there are still speakers available. Head on over to fallibleblogma.com today and pick one out, even if you don't know any of them! The whole idea behind this is to get the word out about Catholic speakers.