A Short Introduction to the CWL My name is Father Michael Coyne and I was ordained to the Priesthood on Sept 8th, 2020 by Bishop Guy Desrochers, and subsequently appointed to be the Pembroke Diocesan Spiritual Advisor to the Catholic Women’s League on the 17th of November 2020. I was born in North Bay in 1973. My parents were both Catholic, and I was baptised shortly after my birth, as was the Catholic tradition at the time. When I was six years old my family moved to Carleton Place and this is where I spent most of my formative early years growing up. My family eventually moved one final time back to Renfrew when my aunt, who lived in Renfrew, moved into the Quail Creek residence and we moved into my father’s ancestorial home on Barr Street. At this point in my life journey I began the discernment between two unique but complementary pursuits, the profession of teaching and the passion of missionary outreach. I started my spiritual journey by exploring the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, which is a missionary religious congregation in the Catholic Church. It was founded on January 25, 1816, by Saint Eugène de Mazenod, a French priest born in Aix-en- Provence in the south of France on August 1, 1782. The congregation was given recognition by Pope Leo XII on February 17, 1826. The congregation is composed of priests and brothers usually living in community. Oblate means a person dedicated to God or God’s service. As a young man, I joined what they would call their Novitiate year to discern a calling to this missionary faith community. During this evolving faith relationship, I was offered the opportunity to live in Ghana which is a country along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean, in the subregion of West Africa. The Oblates at the time ran a compound which taught the local shepherd boys basic math and English. It was in my years at Ghana that I caught the teacher’s bug. Towards the end of my placement in Ghana, my sister who at the time was teaching English in Taiwan, invited me to continue there as a teacher so she could return to Canada and keep her ongoing contract open with her school. At the time this seemed like providence as I had decided subsequently that the Oblates although an amazing faith community where not ultimately how I envisioned my priestly vocation in its lived expression. This began my experiences overseas in numerous countries, teaching conversational English, although at this point, I must clarify, that I had not actually acquired my teaching credentials. When I returned to Canada at the end of my travels, I felt that I needed to spend time in a faith community to clarify my vocational calling to the priesthood. I went to the spiritual crucible that is Madonna House in Combermere, as a guest worker. Madonna House Apostolate is a Catholic community of men, women and priests, dedicated to loving and serving Jesus Christ in all aspects of everyday life. Madonna House was founded in 1947, by Catherine & Eddie Doherty. This faith community at Combermere challenged me to live in an immersive ongoing liturgical faith experience, literally a Ora et Labora existence, centered around prayer and physical work, shared in a vibrant faith community. This period of my life, I felt, helped bring me back full circle, into communion with God and into a clarified active discernment to priesthood. At this point in my short introduction I will explain my CWL influences within the context of my faith development. If I had to put it in a one-word explanation it would be the Rosary, specifically, the memories of saying the Rosary as a family on Sunday night. There was the word broken open as well, with my dad reading from the bible and everybody sharing what they thought, but it was the kneeling, the voices together saying the rosary in our family faith community that most resonates in my mind as I grew up. I truly believe that this memory, this experience, was founded primarily through the CWL’s influence and my mother’s enforcement of it, in ensuring its ongoing spiritual habit as a practicing Catholic family. I believe, at least from my perspective regarding these memories, although I will make an addendum here acknowledging that our memories as children are subjectively biased in many ways, that my mother was the principle force directing my Catholic influence in my early formative years. I feel the CWL organization of which she had been a member for many years influenced her in her strong devotion to Mother Mary, Our Lady of Good Counsel, and her commitment to saying the Rosary daily as a family. This influence, her devotion to Mother Mary, helped in many ways shape my priestly vocation in its charism and ultimately its lived experience. Her commitment to the CWL organization also inspired me to reciprocate in my own faith fraternal commitment when as a young man I joined the Knights of Columbus. The Knights of Columbus (K of C) is a global Catholic fraternal service order. Membership is composed of (and limited to) practicing Catholic men. I hope this document is helpful as an introduction and explanation of my personal CWL influences in my faith journey. .