Date: January 20, 2022 Diocesan Past-President Communiqué #2
From: Christa Grillmair, Past-President
Dear Sisters-in-Christ and Father Alfredo:
The members of The Catholic Women’s League of Canada have a passion for the League and a spirit of generosity. We welcome and genuinely care for each other. We live our faith and express it with our ministries of service and social justice. We are on a journey to be the best version of ourselves that we can be.
Last Sunday’s second reading from I Corinthians 12:4-11 talks about the various gifts that we have been given by God for the common good. This does not require perfection but a willingness to use those talents. As members of the CWL, we do what it takes to get the job done.
For the past two years, we have worked very hard to keep our ship afloat. When we couldn’t meet in person, we started to Zoom. We picked up the phone more often and called our sisters. We found ways to connect in a world that told us to isolate.
Councils at the parish and diocesan levels need members to step forward and accept leadership responsibilities. The diocesan council has a very important role – it is the conduit of information from the other levels/channels of the League and the mentor to the parish councils. The parish council’s role is to ensure members are well informed, motivated, and supported.
Our national sisterhood can only thrive if we all take on an active role by embracing our national theme, Catholic and Living It!. Our provincial theme, Embracing Christ in Everyone, and our diocesan theme, Sow Love Generously both urge us to actively spread the Good News.
Even though few of us are meeting as a whole council due to the restrictions of the pandemic, parishes are celebrating Mass. Use this opportunity to ask your pastor or spiritual advisor to speak about the CWL from his perspective. As a president or past president offer to speak about the CWL from a member perspective. Or ask a new member to share why she chose to join the CWL. Parishes are still producing bulletins in paper or electronic format – use them to keep talking about what our CWL is doing nationally. Just go on to the cwl.ca website and check out In the News – you’ll find so many interesting things to share. Even while we are isolating, there are still many opportunities to keep the spirit of the CWL alive.
Archive Guidelines
I have been asked by some of you for archive guidelines. You can find the document on the national website under To organize, Resources 600 series: Manuals, item 601. Item 601b is a brochure that clearly summarizes the guidelines.
Voting on Zoom
Another question I am getting is ‘how can we possibly handle elections and the instructed vote when we’re not meeting in person’. We do the best we can do, given the circumstances we’re in. Zoom has a polling function. Another idea is to assign a person to manage the chat and use that function to send votes to the assigned person. Some are mailing out ballots. Members of the CWL continue to find creative solutions.
Orientation Program, Welcome Program
There are many programs and workshops on the national website. In your communication with members, you may want to send a link so that they can review the programs. For example, the #828 executive orientation program under series 800: Workshops has many of the workshops as self-study. This means members can view them whenever they have time.
Prayer
I’d like to leave you with this simple prayer that I have next to my computer to help me when things get overwhelmingly difficult:
“Lord, help to remember that nothing is going to happen to me today that you and I together can’t handle.”
And please remember, I am also here for you.
Blessings,
Christa