(LifeSiteNews) — Two very grateful attendees were among the hundreds gathered recently for a traditional Catholic women’s conference about living the faith in a broken modern world. And while participants were encouraged in their roles as authentic women, the faith demonstrated by the ladies behind the conference has had an impact greater than the two-day event.

A Return to Tradition Catholic Women’s Conference was held at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in Littleton, Colorado, in late August. Some 270 women came from at least 10 U.S. states and Canada to attend, and many more from around the world took part via livestream.

Mei and her twin sister Melanie were among those who traveled from out of state for the conference. The young women came with a friend from California to attend and assist with the event.

The idea of restoring tradition was a draw for Mei and Melanie, as were the speakers and the opportunity to learn how to live a virtuous life. But they were also happy to rejoin the women, examples of prayer and faith, who had accompanied them through a friend’s death.

“They were huge prayer warriors for us,” Melanie said.

Mei’s friend Tina lived in the area and had become ill with cancer, prompting Melanie to look up the Latin Mass community closest to the Colorado hospital where Tina was receiving treatment, as they planned to visit.

“And that’s how we came here,” Mei said of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

After the sisters’ visit, Mei remained in Colorado to be with Tina.

Once when Mei stayed after Mass for Confession, one of the women from the Our Lady of Sorrows prayer group approached her and asked if she would like to join.

“It was at a time when I was really lonely, [and] I really needed someone to turn to,” said Mei.

Still, joining any sort of a group was not what Mei had in mind at the time, given all that was going on.

Nonetheless, she said, “I needed fellowship.”

When she first joined the weekly prayer group the other women told her they wanted to visit Tina in the hospital.

“I was really touched by that because we were really lonely up there,” Mei recalled

The women of the prayer group took Mei under their wings. That’s how she met Return to Tradition conference founder and lead organizer Jane Brennan and the rest of the conference’s core group.

“They’ve been like second moms to me,” Mei said. “I’ve never met a group of women who were so genuine, so smart and funny, charitable, and kind.”

She is confident that the relationship came about through Divine Providence.

“God knew that I needed people, like a sisterhood,” said Mei. “They really came through.”

The women walked her through prayer novenas, sharing a book they developed called Running to Christ.

They arranged for a priest say the Last Rites for Tina, and they began to visit her more often at the hospital.

“They brought a lot of consolation, and brought a lot of sacramentals too,” Mei recalled.

She said it was hard for her friend to understand that her life was drawing to a close, but the women from Our Lady of Mount Carmel came through there as well.

“They really knew how to talk to her, guide her through it,” said Mei.

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The ladies continued to come to the hospital and sent more people to pray with Mei and Tina.

The week they found out Tina was dying, they came by twos and prayed with them, invoking Our Lady in various representations, Mei said.

“They had over 90 people praying for her,” she recalled. “They did so much to help […] her to have a holy death.”

Tina passed away in February following months of continued prayer and sacramental support from Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

“It was beautiful but hard,” Mei said. “But they were there. They knew how to accompany without intruding; they were really good at that.”

Mei said she was grateful for how the women supported both Tina and her.

“I don’t even know why [they did it]; they’re just very loving,” she said.

It was something so powerful that she struggles to describe it.

“It was tremendous mercy that I felt so unworthy to receive,” said Mei. “It’s like they were instruments of God’s will.”

She said they also helped her to suffer well for Tina’s soul.

“It was humbling. I just love them very much,” Mei said.

The ladies still have Mei and her sister Melanie, who returned to Littleton later, under their wings.

After Tina’s death, and before the sisters left for home, the women wrote letters to them saying goodbye and inviting them back to their conference.

Mei and Melanie initially didn’t think they could make it back for the meeting, and Mei said she planned to pray from home for its success. But women from Our Lady of Mount Carmel assisted with arrangements for them to come to the conference, and a member of the core team hosted the sisters at her home.

“I’m so thankful,” Mei said. “They make me not give up.”

Mei had been considering religious life, but more recently she had struggled and had been falling away from the faith. The ladies stepped in on time.

“[God’s] overwhelming love made me want to give Him everything,” said Mei. “He really showed that [love] through them.”

“They don’t tell me I’m not enough,” she added.

Mei likened the ladies’ generosity to that of Christ with His Church, and said they were imitations of the Good Shepherd, going back for that one stray sheep.

“They give their all to everything they do, they love with everything they’ve got,” she said. “I don’t know how to explain it, but they’re really women of God. They care so much for one person.”

“They do everything they can to bring more people to God.”

This year’s conference was third organized by the lay women at the FSSP (Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter) parish, conducted by a core group of 10 with the help of dozens of parish volunteers and the backing of parish leadership.

The annual event offers speakers, demonstrations, vendors, fellowship, Mass, the Rosary, Confession, and a Marian procession. It invites women to return to traditional Catholic culture and embrace God’s plan for man and woman amid the world’s chaos and confusion.

The approach to the conference is simple and forthright: in a word, Catholicism. This year’s theme was beauty.

The beauty of the conference is carried to a new level by the ladies who put on the event and their prayer group in bringing Christ to others.

Plans are in progress for next year’s Return to Tradition conference, with the dates August 22-23, 2025. The event’s growth has driven in-person registration to sell out well in advance. Registration information is available HERE.

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