Six years ago, I had a heart attack due to stress, not blockage.  Though my recovery was complete, I felt brokenness within my heart. Looking back, I can see God's hand during my recovery. His tenderness was felt in the eyes of my husband, Ken.  His strength was experienced in the hands of the cardiac rehab staff. While recuperating, I became an EWTN junkie.  I watched The Abundant Life and later began watching the Women of Grace® TV programs and learned much from Johnnette, Fr. Ed and their guests.  Johnnette's enthusiasm made me yearn for peace and purpose. One day, after prayer, I asked myself, "Could I become a woman of grace?" At daily Mass, a hunger for Scripture began to grow in my heart.  I signed up for my first bible study at St. Timothy's Church, on Revelation, and realized that I had jumped into deep waters.  My table leader encouraged me to be persistent and watch the Holy Spirit work through the study.  A few months into the study, Scripture began to come alive for me.  The following year, I was asked to be a table leader.  Though I had my doubts, prayer once again opened my heart and I gave a reluctant "yes." Immersing myself in the lessons, I sensed that God wanted me to have a more active faith.  I began volunteering at St. Joseph's Hospital and there I met a pastoral care volunteer who had a deep Marian devotion and an interior radiance.  "Now there's a woman of grace," I thought.  Little did I know, that only a few short years later, I would volunteer as a Eucharistic Minister at the same hospital where I went through cardiac rehab. Last year, a bible study facilitator gave me a flier for the Women of Grace® study series at St. Lawrence Church in Tampa.  I wasn't sure what was involved, but knew I needed to attend.  Once again, God was calling my name.  The facilitators, Isabelle and Amy, modeled a spirit of receptivity, trust, and surrender.  Through the study, I began to pray more before the Blessed Sacrament, to say the rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet.  As a result, I experienced Our Lady as my spiritual mother and a deeper sense of peace and healing in my heart.  It seemed that the Women of Grace study ended too soon but I knew it was time for me to leave the upper room and become an "apostle" for Jesus and Mary. Spiritually transformed and energized, I was inspired to serve God as a Women of Grace facilitator.  In May, I co-facilitated a small group in my home.  At times it felt like I was on training wheels, yet the Holy Spirit worked through my imperfections and it was a blessing to bond with my spiritual sisters.  In June, I co-facilitated a larger group at St. Mark the Evangelist.  The scripture passage "And Jesus said to His disciples, 'Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life....Instead, seek His kingdom...for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.'" As a former corporate trainer, I learned that facilitating a spiritual study, like Women of Grace, is propelled by the Holy Spirit.  When I surrender to God's love, He does the rest. I am grateful to Our Lady for the gift of a holy boldness.  God truly qualifies the unqualified.  How blessed I feel to play a small part in the anointed work of Women of Grace®.

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Just got home from a very busy two weeks. Father Edmund Sylvia, C.S.C., Tom Sullivan, and I myself were in production at EWTN for the next several weeks of programming for Women of Grace®. And those seven days of production put a big smile on my face. What a wonderful array of guests and topics! You will not want to miss them. They are (not in airing order):    

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Here at Women of Grace® we L-O-V-E Our Lady.  She is the model whom we look to as THE woman of grace.  In fact Mary is at the core of our Foundational Study Full of Grace: Women and the Abundant Life.  What is it about Our Mother Mary that makes her the exemplar of what it means to be a disciple AND a woman of grace?  Today's Feast of the Annunciation highlights her greatest attribute, her complete and total "Yes" to God.  A passage from the book Full of Grace briefly summarizes the greatness of Mary's fiat and how we as women are to follow her example:

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“Those who sow in sorrow, will reap with shouts of joy.” Psalm 126:5 1997, 1998, 1999—three years that broke my heart. The loss of my loved ones during that time devastated me. Looking for answers to the ultimate questions, I found my heart turning back to God in re-conversion. I sought Him through a women’s group at my church. My steps were tentative but see now that God was with me. The women’s group reconnected me to Jesus yet there was a disturbance in my spirit. The group was gracious and spiritual but I longed for something more authentic and in alignment with the teaching of the Catholic Church. The Holy Spirit prompted me—actually gently pushed me—into the way I should go. Through His inspiration and the words of a friend I began a group called FIAT which sought to be truly Catholic and Marian. I searched for resources that were in alignment with Catholic teaching—Bible studies, inspirational books, lives of the saints, encyclicals. These works were inspired and beautiful but our little group lacked direction and a consistent vision.

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During the first session of the Women of Grace study, I tell the women that my mother named me appropriately, Martha because I’m “a doer!”  But one day I heard a voice in the inner recesses of my heart say, “Martha, Martha, Come and sit with Mary at my feet.” The next thing I knew, I found myself participating in a Women of Grace study at a nearby parish!!

 

I fell in love with the study and realized I had a long, long way to go on my spiritual journey. The rain of graces from the study poured, not only upon my self, but upon my family as well.  My husband and I began praying the rosary together and the following Fall, Tony was right beside me as a daily communicant!!  My burning desire, my mission, was to create an opportunity for women from all walks of life to embark upon this journey of discovery and transformation.

 

The week that I was to begin facilitating my first Women of Grace group at my parish, negative thoughts plagued me like, “What are you doing?  You can’t facilitate this program! You don’t know enough! What if you are asked a question, and you do not know the answer?!”  I held my ground and didn’t allow the evil one to discourage me.

 

Throughout the bible we see how the Lord “qualifies the unqualified.” That was me but through my fiat, my “yes”, three Women of Grace studies were implemented at my parish; one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening.  At one point, we had five studies running at various times throughout the week.  Over three hundred women have had the opportunity to go through this life-changing program and it is now being offered in five other surrounding parishes.

 

Our Lady impregnated my soul with a holy zeal for Women of Grace.  As a facilitator, a profound gift is given!!  The Holy Spirit allows me to witness His abundant fruit sprouting in the hearts of the women he has entrusted to me.  Just one example was when I saw a woman’s face transformed after she returned to the Sacrament of Reconciliation after forty years!!

 

For those considering becoming a facilitator, I can not express the importance of spending time in prayer.  It is prayer which allows the Holy Spirit to work in and through you.

 

As this New Year unfolds, may Our Lady and her spouse, the Holy Spirit, prepare your hearts with a double portion of fortitude to birth Jesus to the world!

 

 

 

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The countdown to the New Year is fast approaching.  Will you be making resolutions?  For most of us, the answer is yes.   If you are a regular reader of this blog then you know that last year, I wrote a blog using the acronym R-E-S-O-L-V-E-D to help us focus our resolutions on the things that really matter.  The "L" in the acronym stood for "Listening" in which I encouraged the cultivation of a listening spirit so that we could hear the voice of God in our everyday circumstances.  In addition to prayer of the Holy Rosary, Eucharistic Adoration, and Lectio Divina, one of my favorite ways to practice "listening" is spiritual reading.  I've compiled the list below which features some of my all time favorite books for spiritual reflection, prayer, meditation and direction.  I hope that you will incorporate one or several of them into your Catholic library because I know that you too will see much fruit in your relationship with God as a result.  They are in no particular order.  

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Our guest presenter for the retreat was Dr. Edward Sri, Provost of the Augustine Institute in the Archdiocese of Denver. Father Edmund Sylvia, C.S.C. and myself were the retreat directors. The theme was “The Mysteries of Mary: Hope, Healing, and New Life.” We have copies of the retreat talks available for you on CD. I was personally inspired by Dr. Sri’s discussion of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta and his enlightening discussion of the marriage feast of Cana.  In both instances, I felt convicted by the Holy Spirit to enter more deeply into the call and mission God has entrusted to me and to surrender more fully to His Holy Will.  I am confident you, too, will experience the power of the Holy Spirit as you listen to Dr. Sri’s presentations. The Scripture passages we were led to consider throughout the retreat, in the order they were given, are the following: Jeremiah 1: 5-10 2 Chronicles 7:14 Jeremiah 7:3-11 Ezekiel 22:30 Like most retreats, the end came too soon and we had to leave our mountaintop experience and return to the realities of everyday living.  I am certain that we have all been refueled for the certain challenges which lie ahead.  I hope that you too will consider joining us next year for this beautiful retreat experience!  Our next event is the Women of Grace National "Healed for Holiness" Conference , Hyatt Regency Hotel, Sacramento California, September 17-19, preceded by the Leadership Institute September 16 -17 (mid-afternoon).  You won't want to miss this faith-filled opportunity! Enjoy a few pictures from the retreat.  If you'd like to see them all, visit my Facebook  page.

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I am so pleased to personally invite you to attend our 4th Women of Grace Retreat to be held at Malvern Retreat Center, Malvern PA the weekend of July 31st. A flyer is available via download on our website under "Conferences." Not only will this weekend be inspiring, butI know  it will also be a time to be blessed.

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On Saturday, October 25, Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Clermont, Florida presented a Women of Grace One-Day Conference in conjunction with Living His Life Abundantly' outreach for women. It was a remarkable day in the Lord as more than 250 women gathered at the parish to hear about the great gift of authentic femininity and God's mission for them in this 21st century.

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Women of Grace Outreach Coordinator, Joanne Kane, just couldn't throw away the names of the Kalispell, Montana women even though she needed to reuse their lanyards for the participants of the upcoming Women Of Grace National Conference in Sacramento, CA September 19-21. They had attended the Women of Grace One-Day Conference  August 2 sponsored by St. Matthew's Catholic Church in Kalispell. "I just couldn't throw those names away," Joanne said. "They represented the beautiful women, our sisters in the Lord, that we met there." So, heeding an internal nudge, she put the Kalispell names in the lanyards along with the names of the women who would be attending the WOG National Conference. At the event, Joanne explained her decision to the conference attendees and suggested they pray for the Kalispell woman whose name had been entrusted to her. Thus began "Ribbon of Grace," a new prayer ministry of Women of Grace which "ties" WOGs together in a special bond of prayer and intercession. This past weekend, the Ribbon of Grace was wrapped around the women attending the Women of Grace One-Day Conference sponsored by the Diocese of Fort Wayne/South Bend, Office of Spiritual Development and Evangelization. There, WOG attendees received the names of the Sacramento Conference participants, many of whom wrote special prayer requests on the back of their name cards. The idea was met with a standing ovation expressing the women's enthusiastic response. While all of the women seemed delighted with the idea, for one conference attendee the Ribbon of Grace was particularly poignant. She had unexpectedly received her daughter's name who had attended the Sacramento Conference the weekend before. This delightful surprise amazed Joanne Kane who had given no attention to the Sacramento names she was slipping into the lanyards for the Indiana attendees. "This must be of the Holy Spirit," said Joanne, "I couldn't have come up with this!" Participants coming to the Women of Grace One-Day Conference in Clermont on October 25th will receive the names of the ladies who attended the Indiana conference. And thus, the Ribbon of Grace will continue to unite Woggers nationally. In '09 those ties will become international ones. A Ribbon of Grace tying the women of the world together in prayer and intercession for each other. What a concept! 

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