Women of the Bible...

I was recently presenting my books and gift items at a conference of the Catholic Women's League, which is an organization of Canadian Catholic Women.

Over the past three years, I've had the pleasure of presenting my wares at three other conferences for the CWL, representing various districts.

I've been around CWL women most of my life. My mother belonged, even though she was not Catholic (they have associate memberships), as did my future mother-in-law, and many of the adult women I remember from my childhood were also members.

My mother always seemed to enjoy the company of these women although I do not recall, as a child, really knowing why they met.

Over the years, I joined a couple of times. My experiences with the local groups I connected with were not always positive and with time I got the idea that the CWL was really wandering away from what I thought should be their mandate of being Godly women.

I think that, gradually, I am beginning to see that there are many Godly women within the CWL and that they belong there. The speakers I had the pleasure of overhearing (I was not actually inside the meeting room) were very strong in their faith and very encouraging to the women to keep strong in the Faith.

This is consistant with what I have seen at the other conferences.

I do my best to sell only books and materials which support Church teaching. Where there have been other displays present with me, they seem to be in this mind-set as well.

What I sell and am asked about often leaves me in awe of these women.

Celebrating Mass when there is a CWL conference in town is a joy, as the women SING! This time, the Bishop was present. His homily exhorted the women to continue in their mission. He told them they were "engaged". I guess the homily might have been a little long. As the Bishop said "engaged" I happened to look up at the priests. They were not engaged. They appeared to be dozing. Well...it was getting late in the evening!

Keep up the good work, all bible-believing Catholic women out there!