Shari Guinta, National President, December 6, 2023
FOR: Presidents at All Levels
“Mark the season of Advent by loving and serving others with God’s own love and concern” (Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta).
Do you not love Advent? The whole season of beautiful readings as Christians learn of the imminent coming of the Saviour through the birth of the Christ child. And then Christmas! Christmas—a time of prayer and giving and the magic of music, lights and decoration.
The League’s various committees will take a bit of a break for the Advent season. In sitting in on the working group meetings, they are all well on target and will finish their work next year. The committee plans to give a final report at the 2024 national convention in Saskatoon.
The next national executive/board meeting will be in Toronto in February. The national executive members always look forward to these meetings as they gather from across Canada to discuss, review and plan. The fall meeting in November was very fruitful, with lots of good discussion and decisions. A governance session held by tng went very well and was appreciated by the executive. There will be more follow-up on this exercise.
The board has task forces in place that are working on the data received through the Unity Outreach. So many members and councils have said what a positive experience this was. Now, there is more work to do! All of the information and comments received are being reviewed and used to plan for a future mission.
The new theme, Here I am Lord, send me, rolls out in January 2024 and through an intense exercise with the national executive, mental health was chosen as the theme’s focus. However, there will be many ideas and projects not only through mental health awareness but also through the many issues that come to members as Catholic women.
A prayer card will be inserted into The Canadian League in the winter edition so all will be able to see the image and the prayer that will be used for the next two years (2024 and 2025).
May God bless you in your work “For God and Canada!”
Shari Guinta
National President