Making
Council of Catholic Women part of your new year!
by Joanne Pohland
As we begin a new year, we
may wish to pause to "look ahead" at how this year can be different
for us. How can I be a better person;
the person God truly wants me to be, at the end of 2006? And, perhaps more
importantly, what can I do to reach that goal?
Peter Kreeft
in his book "Back to Virtue" challenges us to become a Christ, that
is, to take on the nature of Christ. And the beatitudes point us to Christ.
"Christ does not merely give us the beatitudes; the beatitudes lead us to
Christ"(p.147).
Through the Council of
Catholic Women (CCW), we have the means to live out the beatitudes. The
commission and committee system, through which the mission of CCW is carried
out, provides the structure for understanding the beatitudes. When we reinforce
faith, support and enhance family life, address the needs and concerns of
individual communities, promote responsibility for the world community,
encourage legislative advocacy, provide organization development, recognize and
protect all life, and provide opportunities for further education, we are well
on the way to developing the virtues of humility, mercy, mourning, meekness and
peacemaking, a hunger and thirst for righteousness, purity of heart, and the
bearing of persecution. In developing these virtues in our lives, we are
following the road map Jesus gave us for our lives.
I encourage you to
"check out" your parish CCW this year and see what they are doing to
help you on your journey to becoming the person God truly wants you to be. And
if your affiliate is struggling, perhaps you are the one to help get it
"back on track." Perhaps your energy is what is needed to make a
difference in your parish.
I also invite you to mark
Joanne Pohland is from