5 Reasons to Attend the 2020 Columbus Catholic Women's Conference

Written by Lori Crock, and reposted with permission, from the Columbus Catholic Women’s Conference blog.

It’s that time of year again! It’s time to register for the Columbus Catholic Women’s Conference!

The mission of the Columbus Catholic Women’s Conference is to provide opportunities for women to deepen their relationship with Jesus Christ, to grow in their realization of their dignity as Catholic women and to strengthen their commitment to be disciples of Christ.

Registration is open and we invite you to prayerfully consider joining us for the 13th year of women coming together to celebrate our Catholic faith on Sat., Feb. 15, 2020, from 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. at the Ohio Expo Center. Here is why we love sharing the Columbus Catholic Women’s Conference with you …

1. The Sacraments

The annual Catholic Women’s Conference opens with Holy Mass celebrated by the Bishop Robert E. Brennan. It is awe-inspiring to celebrate the Holy Eucharist with 3,000+ women from all over the Columbus diocese and beyond! The Sacrament of Reconciliation is available throughout the day with more than 40 priests in attendance. Every year so many women tell us that the Sacraments are a highlight of their day.

2. Inspiration

The nationally-recognized speakers and the variety of vendors add a dimension of learning and spiritual growth opportunities. This year we are pleased to welcome these speakers whose varied messages and backgrounds will hopefully move our hearts in new ways:

• Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC

• Fr. Ubald Rugirangoga

• Heidi Hess Saxton

• Sr. Miriam James Heidland, S.O.L.T.

• Emily Jaminet and Michele Faehnle

• Anna Mitchell, Master of Ceremonies

More than 100 vendors grace the halls to share their ministry and mission and to sell faith-inspired merchandise. Many religious communities attend and it is such a blessing to meet the sisters, to see their joy, and to learn more about their mission and charisms.

3. Devotions

We pray the Holy Rosary before Mass in the early morning. Adoration is available throughout the day in the Adoration chapel and we adore Our Lord in the main hall as a community during the afternoon; this is a powerful time of prayer and thanksgiving in the presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

4. Friendships

The Conference is the perfect time to join with fellow parishioners and family members for a life-changing day of prayer, faith-sharing, laughter, food and fellowship as we experience God’s amazing grace together.

It is beautiful to see the joy in a day of celebrating our faith on a mini retreat with friends and family. Invite a friend from your parish, reconnect with friends from around the diocese or from out of town, invite your mom, sister, daughter, aunt, niece, grandmother. Reignite your faith and be inspired by the events and surprises of the day and by each other!

5. Music

Each year we are blessed to host a special musical guest who shares their talent with us in the morning and during the community Holy Hour. This year, Lancaster native Sarah Hart will be with us. You can hear her story and music here.

Dear Sisters in Christ, we look forward to seeing you at the Columbus Catholic Women’s Conference on Feb. 15, 2020! May God’s peace be with you this Advent and Christmas Season!!

Our Lady of Good Help National Shrine - A Place of Hope and Healing

Lori originally wrote this post for the Columbus Catholic Women’s Conference blog, January, 2019.

I was very excited to recently learn about the National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help located in Champion, Wisconsin, 17 miles north of Green Bay.

This is the site where our Our Holy Mother appeared to a young Belgian-born woman, Sister Adele Brise, 160 years ago in 1859. The apparition was formally approved on December 8, 2010, by Bishop David Ricken, becoming the first Marian apparition approved by the Catholic Church in the United States. In 2016, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) officially designated these grounds as a National Shrine.

The National Shrine is open every day of the year, and welcomed 160,000 visitors last year, and continues to welcome pilgrims from around the world, including Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Much like the apparition sites of Lourdes, Fatima and Guadalupe, the National Shrine is the site of numerous miracles and graces to this day.

National Shrine Marketing and Development Director Corrie Campbell said that when people visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help, they experience an “overwhelming peace, healing grace and a heaven-like feeling that can often be quite emotional. Many carry this in their hearts for their entire lifetime. Many young people come and experience the joy of hope and healing in this holy place which is so needed in our times.”

Adele Brise

The story of Our Lady of Good Help began in the Fall of 1859 when Our Holy Mother appeared three times to Sister Adele Brise and asked her to teach the children in the area about their Catholic faith.

Our Holy Mother had already appeared twice to Adele between two trees – one a maple, the other hemlock – along a rural trail. When she appeared for the third and final time, young Adele asked, “What more can I do, dear Lady?” Mary’s direction was simple: “Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation.”

“But how shall I teach them who know so little myself?” Adele asked.

Mary replied, “Teach them their catechism, how to sign themselves with the sign of the Cross, and how to approach the sacraments; that is what I wish you to do. Go and fear nothing. I will help you.” Adele devoted the rest of her life to spreading Mary’s good news.

The Great Fire

In 1871, there was a great fire in the area and the families that Adele visited gathered at the site of Our Holy Mother’s visits to pray the Rosary for the safety of their community. The fire raged and burned everything around them, but the fire stopped exactly at the line of Shrine location.

The National Shrine Today

Today the National Shrine enjoys the help of 200 volunteers—most of whom had their lives touched by Our Lady of Good Help in some way as many are the great grandchildren of those who experienced Our Holy Mother’s intercession during the great fire.

The National Shrine offers Masses and the Sacrament of Reconciliation and hosts many special events during the year. They recently opened a new prayer and event center. In remembrance of Our Holy Mother’s care during the fire, they host an overnight rosary event on October 8 and 9 with a procession and an an all-night prayer vigil in which the Rosary is prayed every hour, on the hour.

From October 1-9, we are all encouraged to pray the National Novena to Our Lady of Good Help for her intercession. The National Shrine also sponsors a 21-mile walking pilgrimage in the area. Please visit their event calendar for more information.

May we all prayerfully consider making a pilgrimage to this holy and wooded location in Wisconsin to grow closer to Jesus through Our Holy Mother. Our Lady of Good Help, pray for us!

Holy Friendships

This Scripture passage really hit home recently, from Matthew 12:47-49, “Someone told him, “your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wishing to speak with you.” But he said in reply to the one who told him, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? And stretching out his hand toward his disciples he said, “Here are my mother and brothers.”

This Scripture can be a confusing because we love our mother and our brothers. However, recently I gained new clarity when I had the opportunity to visit St. Louis to meet new people, speak and lead SoulCore Rosary prayer and exercise at a parish.

A sister in Christ read a blog post that I’d written for soulcore.com and she contacted me to see if I could speak at her parish. The Holy Spirit worked out the details, and I had a wonderful visit to share, learn and grow with some marvelously faithful sisters in Christ.

Studies show that they key to a long and happy life, well into our senior years, is strong connections with others. When you love Jesus, and are united to him in Baptism, and you have that in common with someone, I have found that friendship comes easy. You have a bond that is not of this world, and God willing, can help prepare our hearts for the next. That is what I experienced with my new friends in St. Louis.

It is both holy and healthy to build authentic and loving connections with our brothers and sisters in Christ. While we are called to love and serve all of God’s children, but those who are on the journey with us can play a special role as they challenge, support and intercede for us.

Holy friendships can inspire us to be more faithful to the Sacraments, to nurture an active prayer life, study Scripture and to become more bold about sharing our faith with others.

The disciples traveled in pairs and small groups—and for good reason; we need each other! We are called to love God and love neighbor and we can get all caught up in ourselves if we try to do it alone. God works through each of us differently, and in many cases, speaks to us through those friends with which we have a spiritual connection.

When I have a life challenge, I have no qualms about asking a friend to pray for me for strength. Intercessory prayer is powerful!

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori said, “How pleasing to Him it will be if you sometimes forget yourself and speak to Him of His own glory, of the miseries of others, especially those who mourn in sorrow; of the souls in purgatory, His spouses, who long to behold Him in Heaven; and of poor sinners who live deprived of His grace.”

When people express concern about having a personal relationship with the Blessed Mother, I explain that seeking Our Lady’s intercession is just like asking a friend to pray for you. Our Lady loves each of us and wants nothing more than to grow in friendship with us to continually move us closer to her Son and his will for us.

We have to make some effort to foster holy friendships. When you ask the Holy Spirit to bring holy friends into your life, you might be surprised what happens next. That was my prayer a few months ago and I see the Lord placing new people in my life who are striving to grow in holiness and who desire to be a saint—and they inspire me.

May these words from St. John Vianney challenge us to persevere in our quest to build holy and healthy friendships: “O my dear parishioners, let us endeavor to get to heaven! There we shall see God! How happy we will feel! If the parish is converted we shall go in procession with the parish priest at the head … we must get to heaven!”

We're All in Marketing

Before I moved into the field of fitness, I had a small marketing communications company that allowed me to help small businesses and entrepreneurs develop their messaging and branding.

I discovered that one of the biggest frustrations for business owners was marketing. They were experts at their field, whether they provided a product or a service, but marketing often overwhelmed them. They felt unsure about how to talk about their business to others in a compelling manner.

That’s where I came in. I enjoyed writing and helping them zero in on what made them different. I helped them write and share their compelling story in the marketplace.

Often I would say, “we are all in Marketing”—every person, every minute, as everything we say and do impacts how people see and evaluate our brand, our mission, our product or service.

Marketing, at its essence, is the sharing of information, experiences, and stories, in a way that attracts people—whether it’s supporting the mission of a non-profit, or buying a product or service.

I found myself recently saying to a friend that Marketing applies to Jesus as well. What I meant was that those of us who love Jesus, and desire to grow in our relationship with him, inevitably want to share our love and our faith with others. This could be called Marketing, but as Catholics, we more commonly refer to this as Evangelization. We are all called to evangelize—each in our own way—loving God and neighbor, and by example, bringing people to the good news of Jesus Christ.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1913, states, “Thus, every person through these gifts given to him, is at once the witness and the living instrument of the mission of the Church itself, ‘according to the measure of Christ’s bestowal.’”

When I think of Sts. Peter and Paul, two extraordinary disciples, we could say they were masterful at Marketing. I think about their travels, their speaking, teaching, writing, caring, healing and performing miracles to bring people of all cultures and backgrounds to the truth of Jesus Christ. It feels odd to call that Marketing, but in a way it is because they were communicating Christ’s love with a desire to attract others to to him.

"Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." Mt 28: 19-2

In the wise words of St. Augustine, “Truth is not private property.” May we also answer the call to be marketers of Christ’s mission by courageously sharing our faith and love for Jesus, each in our unique way, relying on the gifts and talents God has bestowed on us.