Reflections from the National Black Catholic Congress XIII

My Call to The National Black Catholic Congress XIII: “Write the Vision-A Prophetic Call to Thrive”

Cathy Woodson
VCRJ Leadership Council Member
Member of Saint Elizabeth Catholic Church

At the end of a sweltering week, over three thousand Catholics, from eighty dioceses around the country, gathered in National Harbor Maryland to share our diverse heritages, celebrate our hopes and dreams, learn together, and to value our Catholic faith through diverse celebrations.

We were witnesses to others and ourselves as we embraced the universality of Catholicism. Our gathering embraced and valued a visionary call to thrive as Catholic brothers and sisters. Not as people of white or people of color, but to thrive as people of God. We were from the west, south, east, and north, we arrived by bus, train, plane, and car. We greeted one another as though we have known each other for a lifetime because as brothers and sisters in Christ, we are one. We brought with us our love of God, our desire to serve and to stand as one in a hurting world, to be Eucharistic peoples and belong to one another.

Our dream is to be one by reading the word, knowing the word, and becoming the word and becoming the highest form of ourselves. I am home now, and I have an opportunity to work at this appointed time.