St. John the Baptist Church celebrates Cecily Langellier as CCW Woman of the Year for 2016
Cecily Langellier, the CCW Woman of the Year for 2016, has been a member of Winfield's St. John the Baptist Catholic parish for 44 years. She and her husband, Larry have been married for 48 years and have 3 grown children with 5 grandsons. Cecily began her involvement at St. John's when her children were in grade school enrolled in the Religious Education program. She taught RE on Saturday mornings for 8 years. Then in 1977 she began teaching math and reading at St. John's grade school to small groups of first, second and third graders, helping the classroom teachers meet the needs of their students.
Cecily is someone many in the parish came in contact with when they became a Catholic. She was the RCIA coordinator from 1990 when St. John's launched RCIA until 1999. A few years later she rejoined the RCIA team as a catechist, and just retired from that ministry last spring. Parishioners often see her as the Lector at mass and she considers proclaiming God's Word at mass a special privilege.
With the Council of Catholic Women's group, Cecily joined around 2010 a few years after she retired from the school. She wasn't just a registered member, she was the Recording Secretary from 2011-2013, has been a co-vice president for the past 3 years and will continue in that role next year too. As a co-VP, she is very involved in coordinating fund-raising events which have continued to be a success under her leadership.
Currently Cecily also volunteers with our parish PADS group; often working on the clean-up crew or cooking a few dozen scrambled eggs for the breakfast shift.
As you can see, St. John's has been a focal point for Cecily (and her family) through many years. She lives out her Catholic Faith daily, is caring and gets along well with people. She is a great listener and always tries to be helpful in her concern for others.
Cecily was recognized along with women throughout the Joliet Diocese, at the annual Women of the Year Mass at the Cathedral of St. Raymond in Joliet on April 16. Bishop Joseph Siegel was the presider and Fr. Matt Pratscher, pastor at St. John the Baptist in Winfield, concelebrated the Mass along with many priests from the diocese.
Cecily will be crowning the Blessed Mother at the May Crowning after the 8:30 a.m. Mass at St. John's on Saturday, May 7.