When Mary Glosson of Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Aurora speaks of her extensive volunteer work with the Council of Catholic Women, she points to what she sees as most important: that it has “enhanced my spirituality.” 

 

It all began when as a young woman she joined the women’s organization at her parish. 

 

“That is how I got involved and more interested in the Church,” Glosson says, describing some of the work the women did, such as raising funds to buy books for the parish. “I wanted to be with Catholic women and enhance my Catholic faith.”

 

“God gave me the grace to fulfill the leadership positions. He gave the graces. And God always gives the right people to help me.” —Mary Glosson

But she felt the need to step back as she raised her five children. “I was always a member and paid dues,” she says, “but I didn’t participate.” 

 

Once her youngest child was in high school, Glosson recalls wanting “to be more actively involved in doing something for the Church and meeting with Catholic women.” She again became active in the parish group and was asked to serve as its president.

 

In that role, she attended Aurora Deanery Council of Catholic Women meetings. “I always felt the Women of Inspiration was a community-building event,” she says, speculating that the year 2006 was when she and then-deanery president Sherry Spinelli worked together as co-chairs and renewed the Aurora Deanery banquet. 

 

“It’s joyful to see the parishes get together and the people interact,” Glosson says of the annual event.

She began attending the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women (DCCW) board meetings in 2005 with Spinelli. Later, Glosson became president of the Aurora Deanery council, and she agreed to be the spirituality chair for the DCCW, planning opening and closing prayers for the meetings, providing reflections when asked and organizing a diocesan-wide Living Rosary.

 

“We try to go by what the National CCW mission statement asks of members: to support, empower and educate all Catholic women,” Glosson says, pointing to the hope to “respond with Gospel values to the needs of the Church … We just try to do what the bishops ask of the national council — brought down to diocesan, deanery and parish levels.”

 

Over time, Glosson has served at the diocesan level as treasurer, secretary, and president. 

 

As diocesan president, she attended meetings of the Chicago CCW Province, which is composed of all six dioceses in the state — Chicago, Rockford, Joliet, Peoria, Springfield and Belleville. The most recent three women from the Rockford Diocese to serve as province directors are Rosemary Pinchott, Jody Watermann and Mary Glosson.

 

“I served as Province Director from August of 2016-2018, and I served on the (province) spirituality commission until 2019,” Glosson says. 

 

Glosson attended National Council of Catholic Women board meetings when she was province director and continued attending and serving at that national level beyond that two-year term. Information, she says, feeds from the NCCW to the province directors to the diocesan level to the deanery and parish levels.

 

“I was elected to the NCCW nominating committee and served in that position from 2019-2021,” she says. “In 2021, I began serving on the NCCW spirituality commission, and my term ends in August of 2023.” 

 

The NCCW spirituality commission in conjunction with the Eucharistic Revival, she says, has come up with an adoration prayer, posted on the NCCW website. The national council also wants diocesan councils to send representatives to the Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis next year, and Glosson says she hopes to attend.

 

Besides the spirituality commission for the NCCW, Glosson continues to serve as president of the Aurora Deanery (since 2017) and as spirituality chair for the DCCW.

 

All of this sounds like being in leadership was second nature to Glosson, but that’s not exactly accurate.

“I feel like I was called to serve in the council,” she says, “but a lot of times, including when I was asked to be diocesan president and providence director, I felt unworthy; I never felt qualified to serve. I always looked up to the leaders.

 

“But God gave me the grace to fulfill the leadership positions. He gave the graces. And God always gives the right people to help me. They could do things that I don’t have the gift to do. There were always people who were willing to serve under me.”

 

Glosson appreciates all the benefits that have come her way. She notes that she “always liked going to different parishes and see the different churches and meet people.”

 

“I’ve made lots of friends through the process,” she says. “I love being with Catholic women and hearing what they are doing in provinces and parishes.”

 

The NCCW board meetings are always held at a retreat center in Washington D.C., and Glosson loves being able to walk over to the “outstanding” Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. One year the NCCW participated in the March for Life — also a new experience for her.

“Just meeting people and going to different dioceses and meeting those women was very exciting to me,” Glosson says of her time with the National CCW. “Many of us are still friends.”

 

Personal spiritual growth has come to her as well. Glosson says her Council of Catholic Women ties have her “taking more time to pray every day, attending Mass a couple days a week, going to the sacrament of reconciliation more often than when I was a younger person, and reading more spirituality books.” 

 

Her CCW service, she adds, “has given me more opportunities for spiritual growth than just at the parish level. I find it very satisfying to know if I need prayers, people will pray for my intentions.”

 

An unexpected and different perk came along in 1979. 

 

“It was through my group at Holy Angels that they asked me to be a receptionist at Holy Angels — that’s how I started working for the Church,” Glosson says, laughing. Currently, she is business manager at, and a member of, Annunciation BVM Parish.

 

“My plan is to keep going,” she says, “including to stay on the diocesan council. I still serve at my parish in a Bible study, and if Father (Patrick Gillmeyer, pastor) needs something, I try to get things together for him. It has certainly been a privilege to be with so many knowledgeable people. 

 

“I feel like I belong.”