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Dear Friends,

It is with great joy and zeal that Women of Grace® presents its new groundbreaking website (www.womenofgrace.com) to the women of the world today, on the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.  We hope that you will help us to share the good news about this exciting new extension of the Women of Grace® apostolate.

The new website uses various aspects of electronic communications to complement our mission to transform the world, one woman at a time, by affirming women in their dignity and vocation as daughters of God and in their gift of authentic femininity. Through on-line video and audio presentations, podcasts, document libraries, blogs, and dozens of other resources, Catholic women will find the information and the inspiration they need to live out their feminine genius in their marriages and families, professions and careers, and in the world at large.

One of the most exciting features of this groundbreaking new website is GracePlace, a social communications network that unites women from around the world in a virtual community setting. Women of Grace® is one of the first Catholic women's outreach to use this high-powered social network platform. It marks a significant moment in the history of the apostolate and its ability to achieve its mission.

In GracePlace, women can network with other sisters in Christ as near as their own parish communities or with women who live half a world away. Discussion groups, a shared resources library, leadership development, training tips, and events calendars provide just a glimpse of how faithful daughters of the Church can come together for encouragement, inspiration, instruction, information, and restoration. Simply stated, we are confident that all Catholic women will find a home at GracePlace.

Updated daily, there is always something new at the Women of Grace website.  I hope you will visit us often!

I faithfully remain, your sister in Christ,

Johnnette Benkovic

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450 women gathered at Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church in Indialantic, FL the weekend of September 23-25 for the Women of Grace 11th National Conference. It was a time of prayer, healing, hope, and inspiration. The Conference theme was "Healed for Holiness: Mending the Wounds of the Heart." Johnnette Benkovic (president and founder), Father Edmund Sylvia, C.S.C. (chaplain and theological adviser), Father Philip Scott, F.J. (conference speaker), and Mary Jo Anderson (Catholic journalist and commentator) gave poignant talks and testimonies concerning the transformative power of God the Father's love, the gift of the Blessed Virgin Mary's spiritual beatitude, and today's culture's urgent need for the feminine genius to be lived and expressedin families, institutions, and the public square.

Brenda Dooley of Lafayette, LA summed up her conference experience by stating, "In a profound and spiritual revelation I realized that God heals the child in me in order to mature my womanhood/motherhood and in turn how He can touch a small insignificant life like mine and use it to heal the world beginning with one person, one family, one community, one country."

Women in attendance represented three continents (North America, Africa, and Europe) and four countries (the US, Canada, Ghana, and Ireland) and, though geographically diverse, all of the women were united in the common bond to imitate Our Lady by giving their "fiat" to God's will for them.

"This conference has changed my way of thinking and feeling about a lot of things. It has inspired me to be a better mother, wife, sister...to be a woman of Grace!" said Monica Gonzalez of Florida.

The conference was preceded by the Benedicta Leadership Institute for Women conducted by Johnnette Benkovic. A maximum group of 80 women attended the Institute. The theme was "The Building Blocks of Catholic Women's Leadership." Based on the virtues, attributes and guiding influence of the Blessed Virgin Mary, this foundational offering of the Institute helps women find a truly Catholic response to the issues, circumstances, and challenges they face in today's world both personally and corporately. The Institute's dynamic utilizes a variety of modes of communication. Part lecture, part discussion, part workshop, and part participant presentation, women attendees discover a Catholic lens through which to view the gift of their authentic femininity and the influece it can have to "aid humanity in not falling."

And the effect is contagious. Women of Grace co-facilitator. Michaelyn Hein of the Diocese of Metuchen, received a dose of holy zeal from her mother's attendance at the Benedicta Leadership Institute. She comments in GracePlace, "My mom just came home from the leadership institute in Florida so invigorated and inspired, and I'm getting fed again off her enthusiasm and passion. It's exciting me for the kickoff of another year's Full of Grace study in our parish as I help her facilitate."

The first nine regional coordinators of Women of Grace were installed at the Conference's opening liturgy. A tenth regional coordinator was installed the following weekend in Buffalo, Wyoming. The Women of Grace movement is growing and expanding throughout the United States and beyond.

For more information about the Conference including pictures taken by conference attendees, go to GracePlace and log-in. [gallery]

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Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary "Say the Rosary every day. Pray, pray a lot and offer sacrifices for sinners. I'm Our Lady of the Rosary. Only I will be able to help you. In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph." Our Lady of Fatima For Reflection: To what extent am I personally heeding Our Blessed Mother's plea? In what one way can I be more diligent?

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"Airplanes must have runways before they can fly. What the runway is to the airplane, the Rosary beads are to prayer - the physical start to gain spiritual altitude." Fulton J. Sheen For Reflection: To what extent has the Rosary been a runway to spiritual altitude for me in my life? How has it led me into a deeper understanding of God's presence in my life?

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"After Holy Mass [the Rosary] is one of the most beautiful and efficacious forms of prayer, on condition of understanding it and living it." Grarrigou-Lagrange For Reflection: What do I think it means to understand and to live the Rosary? To what extent do I do this in my everyday life? Is there a strategy I can employ to help me do so more faithfully?

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"The second fault commonly committed in saying the Rosary is to have no intention other than that of getting it over with as quickly as possible." St. Louis de Montfort For Reflection: How often I have fallen into this fault! Today, I will begin again to treasure this great prayer that is my privilege to pray.

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"Take great care to avoid the two pitfalls that most people fall into during the Rosary. The first is the danger of not asking for any graces at all. So, whenever you say your Rosary, be sure to ask for some special grace or virtue, or strength to overcome some sin." (See tomorrow's Grace Line for the second pitfall.) St. Louis de Montfort For Reflection: What special grace or virtue will I ask to obtain when I say my Rosary today? Is there a sin I need the strength to overcome? What is it? I will tuck this intention into my prayer as well.

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"From my youthful years this prayer has held an important place in my spiritual life. The Rosary has accompanied me in moments of joy and in moments of difficulty. To it I have entrusted any number of concerns: in it I have always found comfort." Pope John Paul II For Reflection: What position does the Rosary hold in my spiritual life? Am I in a moment of joy or difficulty? Am I willing to entrust this moment to this prayer?

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Queen of the Holy Rosary Queen of the Holy Rosary! Thee as our Queen we greet, And lay our lowly, loving prayers Like roses at thy feet. Would that these blossoms of our souls Were far more fair and sweet. Queen of the Joyful Mysteries! Glad news God's envoy bore. The Baptist's mother thou didst tend; Angels thy Babe adore, Whom with two doves thou ransomest; Lost, He is found once more. Queen of the Dolorous Mysteries! Christ 'mid the olives bled, Scourged at the pillar, crowned with thorns, Beneath His Cross He sped Up the steep hill; and there once more Thine arms embraced Him--dead! Queen of the Glorious Mysteries! Christ from the tomb has flown, Has mounted to the highest heaven And sent His Spirit down And soon He raises thee on high To wear thy heavenly crown. Queen of the Holy Rosary! We, too, have joys and woes. May they, like thine, to triumph lead! May labor earn repose, And may life's sorrows and life's joys In heavenly glory close. Cyril Robert For Reflection: As I contemplate this poem, how have I seen the mysteries of Christ's life reflected in my own?

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"Deign, O Immaculate Virgin, Mother most pure, to accept the loving cry of praise which we send up to thee from the depths of our hearts. Though they can but add little to thy glory, O Queen of Angels, thou dost not despise, in thy love, the praises of the humble and the poor.

Cast down upon us a glance of mercy, O most glorious Queen: graciously receive our petitions. Through thy immaculate purity of body and mind, which rendered thee so pleasing to God, inspire us with a love of innocence and purity.

Teach us to guard carefully the gifts of grace, striving ever after sanctity, so that, being made like unto the image of thy beauty, we may be worthy to become the sharers of thy eternal happiness. Amen." St. Paschasius

For Reflection: Dear Mother, I make this prayer with heartfelt sincerity. Please bring everything in me into conformity with your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

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