By Maria Huemmer, Communication Director, Texas Catholic Conference

Happy New Year!

Depending on your circumstances, this declaration can be interpreted multiple ways.

Is it 2011 already? Half of the school year is over! What’s my New Year’s resolution? Have I kept it or have I already slipped up?

Whether you have a resolution already or not, I’d like to offer one additional goal for your New Year. Participate in this year’s Texas Catholic Conference Advocacy Day - Catholic Faith in Action: Promoting Life, Justice, and Peace - which is set for April 6, 2011 at the Texas Capitol.

The Catholic Faith in Action Advocacy Day is an opportunity to voice your support for the legislative priorities of the Texas Bishops – priorities that promote the respect and dignity of human life and protect the poor and most vulnerable among us. Already scheduled to attend are Cardinal DiNardo, Archbishop García-Siller, and Bishops Flores, Mulvey, Vann, and Vásquez.

There are many ways to participate. Everyone can pray for the success of the day and for the legislators and advocates who work tirelessly for the good of all. If you are unable to come for the Advocacy Day, you can call your legislators on April 5, the day before Advocacy Day, and let them know that as a constituent you support the group of Catholics who will be visiting their office the next day.

You can also come to the Capitol and participate in the Day. To get involved, contact your diocesan coordinator, listed on the Advocacy Day web site at www.TXcatholic.org/AdvocacyDay.asp.

As part of a year-round Faithful Citizenship promotion, TCC offers free personal training for the Advocacy Day. To keep the focus on you, we provide a free email newsletter, the Texas Catholic Voice, that we use to provide news updates and action alerts straight to your inbox. You can sign up by clicking the “Get Involved” banner at www.TXcatholic.org or by texting your email address to 512-537-9882. You can also find us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/TXcatholic) and on Twitter (www.twitter.com/TXcatholic).

To help you stretch your heart and soul as you warm-up for being an advocate, we are producing a new email supplement to the Voice - Faith in Action - to provide you with spiritual “pep talks” throughout the legislative session. To sign up, simply check the box next to this subscription when you sign up for the Texas Catholic Voice on our web site, or you can update your account settings once subscribed.

On our web site, you can “bulk up” on the “meat” of the Advocacy Day – our legislative issues, by reading the Bishops’ Legislative Agenda, policy papers, and bill reports.

And finally, we provide you with opportunities to “test run” your advocacy skills via our email action alerts on state and federal issues prior to the Advocacy Day.

As the New Year begins, we hear the following words from the Psalmist: “I announced your justice in the vast assembly; I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know (Ps 40:10).”

Our response is: “Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will (Ps 40: 8a and 9a).”

Make it your goal to do God’s will by announcing God’s justice to your legislators in the Texas assembly. We pray that achieving this goal will be only a stepping stone for you in a life of advocacy and unrestrained lips on behalf of all God’s children.