Category Archives: Johnnette’s Blog

Visit Johnnette’s Blog to be informed, inspired, and encouraged in your daily walk with Our Lord. With candid and open-handed appeal, Johnnette shares her personal thoughts, prayers, insights and reflections regarding a variety of issues and spiritual topics. In addition, she offers you practical helps and tips for your everyday life, keeps you updated on what is new at Women of Grace, and gives you the inside scoop about conferences and retreats.

Advent Week Two: A Time for Reconciliation, A Time for Forgiveness, Part II

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Yesterday, our Advent post introduced us to seven of the most common misconceptions regarding forgiveness. It presented to us that forgiveness does not mean that we condone the hurtful behavior nor does it mean that our pain doesn’t matter. It doesn’t mean that once we extend it, everything is magically “okay” and it doesn’t mean that we allow ill will toward us to continue. It doesn’t mean that we stay in an abusive or harmful situation nor does it mean that a just resolution to our situation is unnecessary. And, it does not mean that we feel forgiveness. Read the rest…

Advent Week Two: A Time for Reconciliation, A Time for Forgiveness, Part I

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“For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

The whole purpose of Christmas is reconciliation. Through the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, His passion, death, and resurrection, God’s mercy flowed into the world, the breach of original sin was mended, and fellowship between God and man was restored. Each Christmas commemorates again this wondrous gift of reconciliation and love. Read the rest…

Advent Week One: A Time of Preparation, A Time of Prayer, Part IV

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I have often been amazed at how God answers a particular question, responds to a petition, or gives me guidance on a specific issue through Sacred Scripture. The reality of this points to a great truth — God is always seeking to reveal Himself and His will to us. In fact, one spiritual writer tells us that God already had us in mind when He inspired the evangelists in their writings. Consider this as you pray the Scriptures using Lectio-Divina. Read the rest…

Advent Week One: A Time of Preparation, A Time of Prayer, Part III

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Hopefully, your experience of praying Holy Scripture using the Lectio-Divina form of prayer was a good one. However, it can take a bit of perseverance if this is new to you. Do not be discouraged, but continue to call upon the assistance of the Holy Spirit. Read the rest…

Advent Week One: A Time of Preparation, A Time of Prayer, Part II

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The ancient prayer form called Lectio-Divina is a perfect way for us to enter into an ever deepening relationship with God, and the season of Advent provides us with the perfect opportunity to use it. The following six steps lead us in this beautiful method of prayer: Read the rest…

Advent Week One: A Time of Preparation, A Time of Prayer, Part I

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The following blog is being reposted from the teaching series that I gave previously.  I hope that you enjoy it!

Great events are marked by great preparation. A wedding, the coming of a new baby, graduations, special anniversaries, significant birthdays, and celebrations of all sorts are often months in the planning. Read the rest…

Encouragement in Light of Today’s Political Situation

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Dear Friends,
Today I received the graphic below from a friend. It speaks a word of encouragement and exhortation to us in light of today’s political situation. I read it on the air during our radio broadcast, Women of Grace Live, heard at 11AM ET VIA EWTN. A caller asked me to post it, so here it is. May these words bolster your faith in our God for Whom nothing is impossible,
Blessings and joy in Jesus,
Johnnette

Women of Grace: St. Teresa of Avila (1515 – 1582)

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St. Teresa of Avila shows us it is never too late to get serious about our prayer life. Born Dona Teresa Sanchez Cepeda Davila y Ahumada, Teresa was an active child with a big imagination and great sensitivity of heart. Little Teresa and her brother Roderigo were intrigued by the lives of the saints and the martyrs, and often sought to imitate their holy example. Read the rest…

Behold your mother

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Thank you for your ongoing support of Women of Grace/Living His Life Abundantly. You truly are helping to transform the world by partnering in our mission and I am abundantly grateful.

Recently, we celebrated the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows. This title of the Blessed Mother is particularly meaningful for me and holds much significance. As many of you know, Our Lady was my constant spiritual companion as I sojourned through the pilgrimage of pain I experienced when my son, Simon, was killed in a vehicular accident and then, when my late husband, Anthony, journeyed through the cross of terminal brain cancer.

Read the rest…

The “Monica” Method: How to Evangelize Your Loved One

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The next two days mark the feasts of two great saints of the Church, a mother and a son, whose lives give testimony to a sure-fire method of evangelizing those we love.

St. Monica (August 27) is the mother of St. Augustine (August 28), though Augustine was no saint when Monica began her earnest intercession. At that time he was a pagan and a member of the heretical Manichean sect. He was known to be a carouser who lived with a woman to whom he had fathered a child. A brilliant mind, he was “devoted” to his views and his lifestyle, and had no intention of converting to the Catholic faith.

St. Monica was distraught about her son’s dissolute ways and decided to do something about it. She prayed. And in the end, her prayers won the soul of her son.

What was it that made St. Monica’s prayers so effective? I think five strategies are primarily responsible. Perhaps you can implement them as you seek to evangelize those you love.

Read the rest…