“But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God…He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1 Cor 1:24, 30).

Christ fulfills the Old Testament tradition of the primordial Wisdom of the Lord, and St. John used the concept when he identified Christ as the Divine Word or Logos of God (John 1:1-13). When depicted as Wisdom Incarnate, Christ is often shown seated on the lap of His Blessed Mother. Mary is the throne from which Christ rules the universe.

Our Lady is also referred to as the seat of wisdom because she is thought to be the human fulfillment of “Lady Wisdom” as presented in the Wisdom books. In his treatise, True Devotion to Mary, the great Marian saint, St. Louis de Montfort, lists sixty explicit references to Mary in the Old Testament with more than three-fourths coming from the Wisdom books and the Psalms. Most of his wisdom references come from Sirach 24 and Proverbs 8, both prominent texts of “Lady Wisdom.”

Various Popes have also referred to her as the Seat of Wisdom, such as Blessed Pius IX’s 1854 papal bull Innefabilis Deus (which solemnly defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception) in which he cited wisdom literature when he wrote: “The fathers and writers of the Church, well-versed in the heavenly scriptures,…celebrated the august Virgin as the spotless dove, as the holy Jerusalem, as the exalted throne of God, as the ark and house of holiness which Eternal Wisdom built…”

The Catechism recognizes the “Seat of Wisdom” title of the Blessed Mother as well as the application of wisdom literature to Our Lady by saying in paragraph 721:

“Mary, the all-holy ever-virgin Mother of God, is the masterwork of the mission of the Son and the Spirit in the fullness of time. For the first time in the plan of salvation and because his Spirit had prepared her, the Father found the dwelling place where his Son and his Spirit could dwell among men. In this sense the Church’s Tradition has often read the most beautiful texts on wisdom in relation to Mary. Mary is acclaimed and represented in the liturgy as the ‘Seat of Wisdom.’ In her, the ‘wonder of God’ that the Spirit was to fulfill in Christ and the Church began to be manifested.”

For Reflection: 

Mary – “ark and house of holiness which Eternal Wisdom built.” Mary – “the masterwork of the mission of the Son and the Spirit in the fullness of time.” Along with any other statements made in today’s GraceLine, what do these words communicate to you about Our Lady? How do they increase your understanding of this one also called “fullness of grace?” How do you seek to emulate her?

Emanuela Orlandi

The Associated Press is reporting that forensic police and medical experts responded to new clues in the case of Emanuela Orlandi, 15, who disappeared on June 22, 1983 shortly after attending a music lesson at school. The daughter of a lay employee of the Holy See, she was last seen getting into a dark BMW and was never heard from again.

There have been many clues and intrigues surrounding the case in the last few decades with none of them leading to the girl.

The first is said to have come shortly after the kidnapping when the Vatican is said to have received an anonymous call asking for release of Mehmet Ali Agca, the gunman who shot Pope John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square in 1981, in exchange for Orlandi. There have also been numerous sightings of the adult Emanuela in Italy and Turkey. None of the leads panned out and the case remains unsolved.

New clues surfaced when the girlfriend of a deceased Roman mobster named Enrico DePedis, who was killed in 1990, told investigators that De Pedis had kidnapped Orlandi.  In 2005, the tip was corroborated by an anonymous caller who phoned into a television show about the case and said that a clue to Orlandi’s disappearance would be found in the tomb of De Pedis.

The matter came up again in 2008 when De Pedi’s ex-girlfriend told prosecutors that Orlandi had been kidnapped by Rome’s Magliana gang, allegedly on the orders of Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, the late U.S. prelated who headed the Vatican bank during the 1980′s banking scandal. Marcinkus claimed to be innocent of the charges, saying the allegations had “extremely doubtful value.”

Last month, Vatican authorities gave permission to open De Pedis’ tomb in the Sant’Apollinare basilica,  which is located near the Piazza Navona in Rome’s historic center.

Reverend Federico Lombardi, spokesman for the Vatican, said the inspection of De Pedis’ tomb was “certainly a positive fact” aimed at carrying out “all possible steps so the investigation could be completed.”

“The prosecutors’ office can continue to count on the full collaboration of the church authorities,” Lombardi said in comments to reporters.

During the disinterment, authorities took samples from De Pedis’ remains and found almost 200 containers of bones near De Pedis’ tomb as part of an investigation into whether or not Orlandi was buried near the mobster.

While there was some speculation that Orlandi was actually buried in the same grave as De Pedis, only one set of bones was found in his casket.

Officials say they will now carry out tests found on the bones in the ancient crypt to see if any of them belong to the missing Emanuela.

 “The hope of the family is that the remains won’t be found,” said Massimo Krogh, a lawyer for the Orlandi family. “Obviously, as long as they don’t find anything, they can hope she is still alive.”

© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace®  http://www.womenofgrace.com

A controversial program by a non-profit group dedicated to fighting drug addiction is causing outrage by offering cash to drug-addicted women to enable them to either be sterilized or to get long-term birth control.

The Harris family with 4 of their 10 children

According to the New York Daily News, Project Prevention, a North Carolina based company founded by a woman after she adopted six infants from a crack-addicted woman, pays drug abusers $300 to get a tubal ligation or vasectomy, or long-term birth control such as an IUD, Implanon or Depro-Provera shots.

The group finds willing takers by advertising in clinics and homeless shelters with posters that say, “Don’t let a pregnancy ruin your drug habit” or “She has her daddy’s eyes . . . and her mommy’s heroin addiction.”

Thus far, they have paid 4,097 people to get sterilized, all but 72 of them female.

The founder of the program, Barbara Harris, says she started the program after she adopted four children from a crack-addicted mother in Los Angeles. 

“I witnessed firsthand how these innocent babies suffer after spending months in the womb on a steady diet of crack, alcohol, whatever their [birth mom] decides to try,” she said.

Harris would eventually adopt two more children from the same mother. After the last adoption, she decided to do something about it and started Project Prevention in 1996.

“I think it’s really important for people to understand that the majority of women we sterilize are women who have had multiple children and don’t want anymore,” she told the Daily News. “It’s their decision.”

“And to say, ‘Let’s go ahead and let them keep having babies because one day they might decide to clean up and keep one?’ It’s just not fair,” she said. “And it’s preventable.”

The says the last 20 women she paid to get sterilized had been pregnant 121 times.

“Thirty were either aborted, stillborn or died after being born,” she said. “Seventy-eight are in foster care.”

While Harris’ heart is in the right place, many are outraged by the way she goes about “helping” crack-addicted mothers.

One of them is Betsy Hartmann, director of the Population and Development Program and professor of Development Studies at Massachusetts’ Hampshire College.

“Project Prevention mainly targets women of color,” Hartmann wrote on philanthropist George Soros’ Open Society Foundation’s blog, accusing the program of “thinly disguised” racism.

“Essentially, while it targets specific vulnerable populations, it is trying to build support for eugenic and population control measures,” she added.

Others accuse the group of violating civil and human rights.

“Anything that involves permanent sterilization for money is a bad idea,” said Bioethicist Arthur L. Caplan, who takes over as head of the medical ethics program at New York University in June, to the Daily News.

“The women are too young, too impressionable to make that kind of irreversible choice,” he said. “I think it should be taken off the table completely. The solution to having babies when you’re not ready is not to make more bad decisions.”

He suggested enrolling women in sex education and/or addiction programs as better solutions.

“Pregnancy and addiction are terrible problems,” he said. “But they’re not going to get solved by throwing a Band-Aid of $300 incentives to the poorest women with these problems.”

Even though Harris insists the majority of the women she helps choose long-term birth control rather than sterilization, Caplan still feels the program is “ethically bizarre.”

The whole scenario brings to mind the warnings issued by Pope Paul VI in his landmark encyclical, Humanae Vitae.

“Unless we are willing that the responsibility of procreating life should be left to the arbitrary decision of men, we must accept that there are certain limits, beyond which it is wrong to go, to the power of man over his own body and its natural functions – limits, let it be said which no one, whether as a private individual or as a public authority, can lawfully exceed . . . .”

Evidence of this hubris is everywhere. From biotechnology that has replaced human reproduction with in vitro fertilization, to cloning and creating hybrid organisms in a laboratory.

And to coercing vulnerable individuals into actions that only violate their human dignity all the more.

© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace®  http://www.womenofgrace.com

A new New York Times/CBS News poll has found that Americans aren’t buying the spin about either the “war on women” or the idea that President Obama’s flip-flop on same-sex marriage was motivated by principle rather than politics.

The New York Times is reporting that, according to their new poll, the “war on women” doesn’t seem to be working anymore. GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is now beating Obama in this key demographic with 46 percent of female respondents saying they favor Romney and only 44 percent siding with the president. This is a marked shift in support from less than a month ago when the president was leading among women 49 percent to Romney’s 43 percent.

Women do not appear to be impressed with the president’s overt politics. His commencement speech at the all-female Barnard College, while presented as brilliant by his adoring press, actually won him a great deal of criticism for his obvious “pandering” to the women vote.

Ayelet Pearl, a student at Barnard, published a stinging editorial in the Columbia Political Review, saying that even though president’s words were “beautiful,” his use of the college as a political prop left her feeling “stereotyped, simplified, and used.”

But that wasn’t the only bad news in the new poll. The same survey found that 67 percent of respondents said they believe Obama reversed his position on same-sex marriage “mostly for political reasons” with only 24 percent saying it was “mostly because he thinks it is right.”

Independent voters were the most likely to say the move was political, but half of the Democrats surveyed also felt the move was calculated rather than principled.

The results only added to the concerns of the White House where aids were worried that the events leading up to the announcement, such as Vice President Joe Biden’s allegedly impromptu endorsement of gay marriage on a Sunday talk show, would come across as planned rather than off-the-cuff.

According to the new poll, it apparently has. 

The Times spoke with Holly Wright, 67, an independent from Smithfield, Virginia, who said she believes Obama decided to change his position because he believed American approval of same-sex marriage was increasing.

“He believes it will help him win the election,” she said. “In other words, say what the majority of the people want to hear.”

The Obama campaign reacted with scorn to the new poll, accusing pollsters of bias. 

Stephanie Cutter, the president’s campaign deputy manager, dismissed the poll during an appearance on MSNBC yesterday morning, claiming it had methodological problems.

Host Chuck Todd asked her to address the results anyway. “Put those caveats aside,” he said. “That’s a lot of people saying that he did this for political reasons.”

“We can’t put the methodology of that poll aside, because the methodology was significantly biased.” Cutter insisted.

However, when pressed, she refused to get specific about the methodology, saying only that pollsters used a bias sample in the call-back poll, “so they re-biased the same sample.”

© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace®  http://www.womenofgrace.com

I have bad news for your friends. ALL ionized and magnetized water machine products are scams.

There are so many of them out there it would be impossible to address them all in one blog. There’s structured water, magnetized water, energized water, oxygenated water, structured water, Kangen water, water clusters and even water awareness which is based on the preposterous notion that water is conscious and can respond to stimuli such as music, prayer, words, or emotions. And all of these products can be found on flashy websites that contain no indication of serious scientific testing, only the usual testimonials from people who swear the water cured their aching back or healed their cancer. Equally suspicious is the fact that none of these products or machines contain the required disclaimer that their claims are not supported by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

For some idea of how extensive this problem is, click here for a list of water scams that was compiled by Stephen Lower, a retired professor of the Department of Chemistry from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada.

I hope you have a lot of time because this list is incredibly long!

Send your New Age question to newage@womenofgrace.com

She was standing outside the Church with St. Joseph to her right and St. John the Evangelist dressed as a Bishop to her left. Wearing a long white cloak and a crown on her head, she stood with her hands apart and extended upward, similar to the way a priest holds his hands while praying at Mass. Her eyes were firmly fixed on heaven. Behind the figures was an altar with a large cross in front of a young lamb, which stood with its face to the west. An extraordinarily brilliant light surrounded the scene and even though it was pouring rain, the site where the figures stood remained dry.

This apparition is said to have lasted about one hour and was seen by 18 people.

Many people believe the central message of this silent apparition is a call to the Eucharist. The altar was at the center of the scene and at a higher level than the figures with the lamb above the altar but not resting upon it. Our Lady’s pose, with her hands so similar to those of a priest, seemed to be pointing to the importance and significance of the Mass. Her deliberate silence is believed by many to signify her desire for the witnesses to look beyond her to the altar of the Lamb of God.

Because four witnesses said Mary appeared to be praying, and she was wearing a crown, some theologians say she was acting in the role of a Queen who intercedes for her people; therefore, many believe she appeared at Knock as the Mediatrix of All Graces.

For Reflection:             

Holy Mother Church teaches that the graces we receive from the Sacrament of the Eucharist are impacted by the fervency we bring to our reception of it. In what ways can you increase your openness of heart and the holy desire with which you receive the Body and Blood of Our Lord?

The statement, which appeared in the Catholic Standard, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Washington DC, was bold and unequivocal in its questioning of Georgetown’s co-called “Catholic” identity.

The full statement follows:

Late last Friday, Georgetown University announced that U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius is the featured speaker for an awards ceremony at the University’s Public Policy Institute. This news is a disappointment but not a surprise.

As is well known, Secretary Sebelius is the architect of the “HHS mandate”, now federal law, which requires all employers — including religious institutions — to provide health insurance coverage of abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization and contraceptives for its employees and redefines religious ministry to exclude Catholic social services, hospitals and universities if they serve or employ non-Catholics. Given her position, it is disappointing that she would be the person that Georgetown University would choose to honor.

Founded in 1789 by John Carroll, a Jesuit priest, Georgetown University has, historically speaking, religious roots. So, too, do Harvard, Princeton and Brown. Over time, though, as has happened with these Ivy League institutions, Georgetown has undergone a secularization, due in no small part to the fact that much of its leadership and faculty find their inspiration in sources other than the Gospel and Catholic teaching. Many are quite clear that they reflect the values of the secular culture of our age. Thus the selection of Secretary Sebelius for special recognition, while disappointing, is not surprising.

Blessed John Paul II, in his 1990 apostolic constitution on Catholic Universities, Ex Corde Ecclesiae, invites Catholic universities into a relationship of faith and excellence. He calls them to share in the Church’s task of bringing the Gospel and Christian values into the culture of our day.

He reminds us that a Catholic university is “a living institutional witness to Christ and his message, so vitally important in cultures marked by secularism… Moreover, all the basic academic activities of a Catholic University are connected with and in harmony with the evangelizing mission of the Church,” among them, “dialogue with culture that makes the faith better understood” (ECE I: B.4.49).

One can only wonder how the selection of Secretary Sebelius for such a prominent role as a featured speaker can be reconciled with the stated Catholic mission and identity of Georgetown University. Secretary Sebelius’ vision on what constitutes faith-based institutions presents the most direct challenge to religious freedom in recent history.

On the same weekend that the Georgetown announcement was made, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of the importance of Catholic education and the intellectual and cultural challenges of the New Evangelization in the context of contemporary American society. The Holy Father recalled that during his pastoral visit to America in April 2008, in his homily at the Mass at Nationals Stadium, he called on the Church in America to cultivate “a mindset, an intellectual culture which is genuinely Catholic”. Last weekend he reiterated the need for American Catholic institutions of higher learning to commit to “building a society ever more solidly grounded in an authentic humanism inspired by the Gospel and faithful to the highest values of America’s civic and cultural heritage”.

With all of the people struggling so hard to preserve freedom of religion, and with all that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has said in defense of this important value, Georgetown’s choice of the architect of the radical challenge of such freedom for special recognition can only be seen as a statement of where the university stands – certainly not with the Catholic bishops.

Georgetown University’s response to the commencement speaker decision is disappointing, but not surprising. When the vision guiding university choices does not clearly reflect the light of the Gospel and authentic Catholic teaching, there are, of course, disappointing results.

As Monsignor Charles Pope notes on the Archdiocesan blog, the editorial is unsigned. ” . . .(T) the Catholic Standard is the official paper of the Archdiocese of Washington. As such it is a recognized voice of the Archdiocese and editorials like this are not published without review by the Cardinal’s senior staff.”

Msgr. Pope noted that many people are calling for universities like Georgetown to be stripped of their Catholic status, but this isn’t as easy as it sounds and involves extensive and careful canonical procedures.

At the present time, “I have no knowledge that any such actions are underway or have ever been tried in the past,” he says, adding that “I think we ought to allow the bishops their rightful prudential judgments in these sorts of matters and not be too hypercritical of them.”

© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace®  http://www.womenofgrace.com

Fox News is reporting that researchers from the city of Sendai say there are now just 16.6 million children under the age of 14 living in Japan, with that number shrinking at an alarming rate of one ever 100 seconds. With the birth rate expected to hit 1.35 children per woman within 50 years, Japan’s future looks grim.

What is behind the lack of children in Japan?

It does not appear to be the widespread use of the pill, or government programs encouraging birth control. According to the Japan Times, almost 80 percent of married women in Japan prefer condoms to regulate births. As of 2009, only 2.2 percent of Japanese women were taking the pill, mostly because the idea that birth control is a woman’s issue is not widespread in Japan.

Abortions are also relatively low compared to the rest of the developed world. In 2007, there were about 9.3 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 49, compared to the U.S. where the number is 19.4 abortions per 1,000 women of the same age group, and 18.2 per 1,000 women in England and Wales.

Then why is it that the Japanese aren’t producing children?

Researchers believe the answer lies in several reasons.

The first reason is cost. Japan is one of the most expensive countries in the world to live in and putting a child through college can cost a family everything it owns.

Another reason is an increase in the number of “Herbivores” or effeminate men who are either not interested in sex, or who women don’t find masculine enough.

Others believe technology has produced a new generation of Japanese young adults who prefer “virtual” friends or robots, suggesting that the national fascination with comics – known as manga – has become the preferred “relationship” among youth.

At any rate, it seems clear that young Japanese are just not all that interested in sex.

According to Fox, a study released earlier this year by the National Institute of Population and Social Security found that one in four unmarried men and women in Japan in their 30′s has never had sex. Sixty percent of unmarried young men didn’t have a girlfriend, and 50 percent of women weren’t dating with the majority saying they preferred being single.

Another survey, by the Japan Family Planning Association, found that 36 percent of men between the ages of 16 and 19 said they have “no interest” in sex.

This all adds up to a population dearth so gaping that by the end of the millennium, there will no longer be any children in Japan.

As a result, academics have created a “population clock” to highlight the crisis and try to encourage public debate on the issue of children.

“By indicating it in figures, I want people to think about the problem of the falling birthrate with a sense of urgency,” Professor Hiroshi Yoshida, who led the research team, told the Japan Times.

The clock will be kept up-to-date by adding the latest population data each year.

“If the rate of decline continues, we will be able to celebrate the Children’s Day public holiday on May 5, 3011 as there will be one child,” said Hiroshi Yoshida, an economics professor at Tohoku University to the AFP.

“But 100 seconds later there will be no children left,’ he said, adding: ‘The overall trend is towards extinction, which started in 1975 when Japan’s fertility rate fell below two.”

© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace®  http://www.womenofgrace.com

WHO TV.com is reporting the bizarre story of Deb and Kevin McCrea who resorted to fertility treatments to have two of their three children – Hunter and Carter. They went on to have a daughter, Kerynn, through IVF, a procedure which resulted in 18 spare embryos. The couple was given three options – use the embryos themselves, donate them to a clinic, or give them away for stem cell research.

“We went in to give life and just because the doctor chose the two that we got doesn’t mean the other 18 shouldn’t have a chance at life also,” said Deb McCrea.

Deb was given a form to sign to donate them to the clinic but said something just didn’t feel right.

“When my daughter was born, I went months and months just thinking I just don`t want to sign, I`m just not ready to sign them yet,” Deb explained, “I don`t want to give up that right to see pictures of that child and compare that child to ours, and see what they would have looked like and if they`re healthy and happy, so I always kind of pushed them [the papers] to the side on the counter.”

One day, while looking on Craigslist, she found a discussion forum and thought she’d join in to see if there were any couples who might be interested in adopting her unused embryos. Her dream would be to offer an open adoption that would allow she and her husband to receive regular updates and pictures of the child, and even be able to visit from time to time.

Much to her surprise, within hours Deb received a response from a woman in San Francisco. From there, the interest kept growing.

“I think one thing that surprised me was how many people that there really are out there that are looking for something like this. So it really surprised me the response she got after she posted that,” said Kevin McCrea.

The McCrea’s drew up paperwork detailing how this “open adoption” would work, hopefully, allowing her and her husband to visit and eventually let the children know who they were. However, if the couple wanted their privacy, the McCrea’s would honor it and expect nothing more than a update and picture once a year.

“I think they have a  right to privacy if that`s what they end up choosing is right for them as long as we still get the picture and the update,” Deb said, adding that “we`re still getting a whole lot more than we would if we would had just anonymously donated or given them to medical research.”

The McCrea’s found two couples who are willing to adopt the embryos and are planning to give them nine embryos a piece. The Florida couple is planning a pregnancy try on May 10th and another couple from Chicago is looking to try for a pregnancy in June.

“In a way it`s almost like adopting out your own child, but in a way it`s not. We look at it as we gave them their looks and they`re giving them their life. It`s still going to be the women who are creating that life and without them our embryos would be nothing,” said Deb.

Dealing with precious human life in such a bizarre way has caused many to wonder where this is all headed. 

“Imagine knowing that your biological parents made way too many offspring in a lab, didn’t want you themselves and so found some adoptive parents for you on Craigslist,” writes Rebecca Taylor on the Creative Minority Report blog.

“And it’s Catholics who have crazy ideas about procreation?”

© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace®  http://www.womenofgrace.com

The life of St. Catherine of Genoa confirms that spiritual renewal, virtue, holy reflection, and spiritual direction lead to wisdom and discernment. Born into an illustrious Italian family that was connected to two popes, Catherine was known as a quiet and pious child, being both prayerful and obedient. She expressed an interest in the convent at the age of thirteen but she was turned away because she was too young.

At the age of sixteen she married Julian Adorno, a nobleman of her parents’ choosing. Unfortunately, Adorno proved to be weak in character. He was a spendthrift, violent-tempered and unfaithful. His financial imprudence eventually bankrupted the family while his ill temper robbed his wife of her élan. For the first five years of their marriage, Catherine attempted to obey Adorno, and then for the next five years she turned to the world and the company of frivolous women to console her. The strain of her unhappy marriage coupled with a spiritual life turning lukewarm sent Catherine into a deep depression. Realizing her miserable condition, she prayed for her previous spiritual fervor to be restored and asked the intercession of St. Benedict.

Catherine’s turning point came in the year 1473. At the urging of her sister who was a nun, she went to confession to a holy priest. As soon as she knelt down in the confessional, she was overcome both with the wretchedness of her own sin and the immense love and mercy of God. The revelation was so overwhelming that she swooned in an ecstasy. For days, her only utterances were sighs of contrition and sighs of love. Catherine’s miraculous restoration of faith took place on the feast of the saint whose intercession she sought, St. Benedict.

The impact of Catherine’s experience was profound. Her desire for Holy Communion was an unquenchable thirst; she tended to her home duties with diligence and love and yet spent six hours a day in prayer; she began to devote herself to the poor and sick and cared for them without regard for her own health or well being. Soon, her husband Julian was brought to conversion and then to an active faith, ultimately becoming a member of the third order of St. Francis. Now living as brother and sister, the couple moved near the Hospital of Genoa and devoted themselves to tending the sick. When Julian died in 1497, Catherine provided for his illegitimate daughter, named her in her will, and forgave her husband’s mistress. For several years after, Catherine acted in the capacity of administrator and treasurer of the hospital and died in 1510 from an undiagnosed illness. Some say she died of exhaustion of body and soul, consumed by the fires of divine love burning within her. 

“We should not wish for anything but what comes to us from moment to moment exercising ourselves nonetheless for good.” – Saint Catherine of Genoa

Faith in Action:

      Wisdom is the gift to see all aspects of our life through the eyes of God. St. Catherine of Genoa came to see that even her struggles with her husband could bring great spiritual benefit when surrendered to God. Difficult trials and difficult people are often the “instruments” the Lord uses to bring us to true holiness of life. Where am I currently struggling in my life? What trial is now facing me?  What may God be saying to me in the midst of it?

This is an excerpt from the Women of Grace® Foundational Study Guide, “Full of Grace: Women and the Abundant Life”