Michelle is a typical suburban wife and mother. She takes care of her children and husband. She drives carpools, packs lunches and likes nice things for herself and her home. She has changed, however, from who she was a few years ago, a change she attributes to an experience called JustFaith.

Michelle first heard of JustFaith when, as a member of her parish Justice and Peace committee, she was looking for information on the death penalty and came across an article by the founder of JustFaith, Jack Jezreel. In the article, Jezreel explained how he set about to take a parish from lukewarm to "on fire" for justice and peace issues. Intrigued, Michelle set about bringing JustFaith to her parish.

The 30-week justice education program was advertised at Michelle's parish and, after gathering 15 participants, the program was launched. The group met once a week. They prayed, read books, viewed videos, discussed everything they read and saw, made retreats together and immersed themselves in hands-on experiences that raised their awareness about society's poor and vulnerable.

Michelle recounts her JustFaith education and formation with such passion that you want to sign up on the spot. She recalls her difficulty getting through the first book the group read, "Doing Faith Justice" by Fred Kammer. The author, according to Michelle, repeated again and again that without the doing of justice, God remains forever unknown.

This made a deep impression, one that Michelle says was revolutionary for her and will never be forgotten.

The books read by the initial JustFaith group at Michelle's parish caused her and the others in the group to alter their thinking about almost everything. "I once thought that giving my time and money was enough," one woman wrote, "but now I realize that my voice will make a far greater difference and that will require an enormous change on my part. Changing myself is as big a challenge as changing the world, but I know it is where I have to begin." The woman credits JustFaith with giving her the courage to make the change.

Making changes, of course, isn't easy. Michelle knows she cannot just pick up and become a missionary; she has a family she loves and that needs her. So she works to balance her family and her community with what she learns through JustFaith.

She recently signed up to join Network, the Catholic social justice lobbying group that works to change systems that affect the poor, homeless, hungry and voiceless. After careful reflection, she voted this month with a JustFaith conscience instead of a "just me" conscience, and she remains active in working to stop the use of capital punishment and fostering a greater awareness of detention ministry.

There is much more she could do, Michelle admits, but for now she is living with a change in attitude and a new awareness. She says that we can pray, read the Bible and go to Mass. But only when we reach out to others, she says, do we know God.

Her hope is that more people will participate in JustFaith. She knows that it will be easier to make changes if more people understand the responsibility we have for the poor and that with more people working together more profound changes will occur.

Conversations with Michelle are exciting and energizing. However, they can also be uncomfortable because they point up the need for personal change. I keep the books and the video she has given me close by where they can be seen but have not ventured into them in great depth. What they reveal will change everything and that kind of change takes courage.

A workshop on how to bring JustFaith to your parish will be offered in Camarillo on Jan. 22, 2005 and in Los Angles on Jan. 23, 2005. For further information call Joan Harper at the Office of Justice and Peace, (213) 637-7560.

Anne Hansen is a parent education consultant and a parishioner at Blessed Junípero Serra Church, Camarillo. Her e-mail address is familymail@aol.com.