Bethany shares how Young Women of Grace impacted her during high school and beyond and helped her find supportive and loving Catholic mentors to help her stay strong in her faith.
Bethany shares how Young Women of Grace impacted her during high school and beyond and helped her find supportive and loving Catholic mentors to help her stay strong in her faith.
(Johnnette with the volunteer team at Holy Name of Jesus Parish)
by Kate Mathis
What a blessing it was to come together with our Sacred Sisters in Harrisburg Pennsylvania! Johnnette led us through faith-filled presentations and unpacked how to live out authentic femininity in the midst of suffering and uncertainty. After so much time apart, you could feel the relief and joy in the room to be with sisters in Christ once again! Together we were emboldened to stand firm on the teachings of the Church and forge ahead in trust-filled hope.
Maria Middleton was a young teen when she participated in the Young Women of Grace program at her school and learned what it meant to be authentically feminine and to claim the dignity that was hers by virtue of being a daughter of God. Her life was like any other young teens until that fateful day in January 2019, when she was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor on her brain stem. From that moment on, everything changed.
What better way to complete the Young Women of Grace: Embrace Your Femininity Study than by celebrating the gift of spiritual motherhood? The 13 young women from Christ the King parish in Chicago who took the course this year decided there was no better way to spend their last meeting together than by exercising this all-important feminine gift.
Miley Cyrus is up to her old tricks, kicking off a fundraising campaign for Planned Parenthood on social media by behaving badly. This time, it was posting a photo of herself licking a birthday cake that declared "Abortion IS Healthcare" along with a message laced with vulgar expletives which was sent to her millions of teen followers. Is this really who we want our teen girls to admire? Don’t we have a better role model for our daughters that might guide them toward a healthier lifestyle?
"When I first started Young Women of Grace, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Fortunately, I was lucky enough to be in a group of girls that I was somewhat familiar with, but it helped us get a little closer because we were eager to grow more in our faith, especially as young women living in this generation. Probably the neatest thing about the program was the fact that inserted in the book were stories of real female saints that overcame incredible hardships. Personally this is striking because it shows how powerful women can be especially with the help of God."
It all started on October 9, 2015, in Irondale, Alabama, the home of the Eternal Word Television Network. I was at the Network with the co-developers of the Young Women of Grace Facilitator/Teacher Guide, Mary Dillenback and Susan Jacobsen for a few days to tape shows about our new program. On the final day of our visit, we were getting ready to do a “live” show which meant that the audience would be able to call in and ask questions about Young Women of Grace.