Happy February to you and your family, the month when we celebrate love, marriage, and the Holy Family!
Thank you for your continued partnership in our mission to transform the world one woman at a time. I'm so grateful for you!
Blessings in the New Year to you and your family!
Because of your generous prayers and financial support, Women of Grace came very close to achieving its year-end financial goal. We will begin 2022 in a position of strength.
In my reliquary, I have a first class relic of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first native-born American to be canonized. I find it appropriate that a woman was the first of our land to be lifted to the altar of Christ by Holy Mother Church. After all, our country and all of North America is dedicated to the woman: the Blessed Virgin Mary under her title of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Our special patroness is also the Blessed Mother under her name, Immaculate Conception.
May the peace and love of Our Risen Lord Jesus Christ be yours today and always!
Thank you for your support of our mission to transform the world through our outreach and formation programs for women. If ever there was a time when forward movement was of the utmost importance, it is this time. With courage, vigor, constancy, and hope, we must rise up to meet the challenges of the day, always remembering that though they may be great, God’s grace is greater. The evil one would wrap us in chains of fear, panic, discouragement, and despair. But God wants to liberate us through His mercy, love, peace, and joy.
May the peace and love of Our Risen Lord Jesus Christ be yours today and always!
Here we are closing in on the end of July and Fall is fast approaching! We are excited about what is on the horizon for these coming three months, and I am confident much will be attained for the glory of God with your continued partnership. In addition to a virtual online retreat we are planning for October, our first IN PERSON retreat since the Pandemic is happening in September, and I’m delighted to give you the inside scoop! This will be an event planned, sponsored, and executed by Women of Grace for YOU!
Johnnette Williams, Joanne Kane, and Isabelle LiberatoreMay the peace and love of Our Risen Lord Jesus Christ be yours today and always!
Recently, I had the wonderful blessing to speak to a room filled with women for the St. Timothy Catholic Women's Retreat at the Bethany Center in Lutz, Florida. It was a joy to be back in our home diocese of St. Petersburg and to be reunited with so many beautiful, familiar faces and many new ones. This is one of our largest "live" events since Covid began. It was pure joy!!! If you were not in attendance, I wish you had been there with us!
It is natural to express thanksgiving for being released from difficult trials and circumstances. But who would be grateful for those who cause such difficult trials or circumstances? This is the stuff of saints — the very stuff of which Saint Josephine Bakhita was made.
One of my favorite books for Lectio-Divina (see Week One of the Advent Study) is Divine Intimacy, by Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene.
St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (St. Edith Stein) wrote, "On the question of relation to our fellow men -- our neighbor's spiritual need transcends every commandment. Everything else we do is a means to an end. But love is an end already, since God is love."
These words express a great truth and they should be at the heart of every action we perform for another, especially as we seek to enter more deeply into the very heart of God given to us through His Son, Jesus Christ.
