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As we journey through the final days of the Easter season together toward Pentecost, I want to express my gratitude for all of the good that you make possible through your support and prayers for our mission.

I’m reminded of my favorite passage in Sacred Scripture. If you’ve been to one of our Women of Grace events, then you’ve heard me proclaim it. The passage is Ephesians 1:3-4: “Praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has bestowed on us in Christ every spiritual blessing in the heavens. God chose us in Him before the world began to be holy and blameless in His sight, to be full of love.”

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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!

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May 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!

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I'm re-posting this blog which was written several years ago.  It contains a four point plan to help you make this a good Lent and some wisdom from my granddaughter Julia.  At the bottom, I've shared the podcast from yesterday's Women of Grace Live radio program as well as my Lenten themed e-book.  During the program we talked about this blog and had a lively, thought-provoking discussion about it.  Please read, listen and share.

May God bless you abundantly this Lent.  

This morning, my somewhat precocious six year old granddaughter and I had a conversation over breakfast:

“Grandma,” she said gazing out of the kitchen window in our Florida home.

“Yes, Julia?” said I.

“Pretty soon Easter will be here because it is Spring outside.”

“Yes, you are right. Ash Wednesday is this week and that begins the season of Lent.”

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Jack and I landed in Paris in the early morning today from Lourdes and drove into the city with our tour through 206 Tours. We visited Sacre Coeur and it was a graced experience. This Friday, Good Friday, we were to have visited the Cathedral of Notre Dame.

I have never been to Notre Dame and like fellow Catholics from all over the world, I could not wait to experience her glory. Our visit will be tragically different now, like so many others who came here to see this magnificent witness to our Catholic Faith. But I know it will be no less poignant. To experience Notre Dame on Good Friday — battered and bruised as she is — will easily remind us of the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Our Savior, and the salvation He offers to each of us if we choose to accept Him.

Just as the Crown of Thorns was spared from the inferno, so too does the passion, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ spare us from the furnace of flames known as Hell.

In the end, Notre Dame is just a structure, albeit a stunning structure and sign in our fractured and broken world. And most likely she will be rebuilt. But, she is limited and can only reside in one city and in one country.

However, Our Lord’s promise of eternal life, breathed from the altar of Notre Dame for hundreds of years, is omnipresent, and can live in each one of us. And though the sorrowful reality of this loss cuts deeply, the miracle of Easter is alive in this earthly devastation, reminding us that all is made new in the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Easter Sunday message , as well as the message of Notre Dame’s horrible fire, is this: “Look forward and have hope! ”

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I find it a bit spiritually amusing that I am replying to a blog about women covering their heads in Church since I only recently have taken up the custom again.

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