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

Posted on December 8, 2020 by Johnnette Benkovic Williams

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

Posted on December 7, 2020 by Johnnette Benkovic Williams

“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

Posted on December 4, 2020 by Johnnette Benkovic Williams

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

Posted on December 2, 2020 by Johnnette Benkovic Williams

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…

St. Monica: Carrying the Family Cross

Posted on August 27, 2020 by Guest

The canonized women who are mothers add to our altars a special kind of incense – a two-fold fragrance of motherhood, both natural and spiritual. The very definition of their sainthood reveals that the life of the soul was sacrosanct to them and that while they nurtured the physical life of their children, it was eternal life which they desired to impart above all. Read the rest…

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

Posted on August 27, 2020 by Johnnette Benkovic Williams

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.

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A future good

Posted on August 27, 2020 by Women of Grace Staff

August 27

“An inspiration urging us to give up some true good we

already possess in order to pursue a future good is suspect.”

~St. Francis de Sales

For Reflection:

Sometimes the evil one keeps us in the pursuit of what seems to be a better or a greater good. This is only to keep us from completing that which God has intended for us. Have I fallen victim to this ploy of Satan in the past? Am I being tempted to fall ploy to it now? (See tomorrow’s Grace Line for another tactic the evil one uses to keep us from fulfilling God’s will for us.)

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When God sends his inspirations

Posted on August 25, 2020 by Women of Grace Staff

August 25

“When God sends his inspirations into a man’s heart, the first one

He gives is that of obedience.”

~St. Francis de Sales

For Reflection:

The first sign if something is not of God is that it is disobedient to His laws or the laws of His Church. Is there something out of order in my life? Have I rationalized it so that I think it is God’s will? Ask for the grace to be set free from the delusion.

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I worship Thee

Posted on August 21, 2020 by Women of Grace Staff

August 21

I worship Thee, sweet will of God!

And all Thy ways adore,

And every day I live I seem

To love Thee more and more.

Thou wert the end, the blessed rule

Of Jesu’s toils and tears;

Thou wert the passion of His heart

Those three and thirty years.

~Father Faber

For Reflection:

Is the will of God “the passion” of my heart?

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A broken heart

Posted on August 20, 2020 by Women of Grace Staff

August 20

“A broken heart and God’s will done would be better than that
God’s will should be avoided.”

~R. H. Benson

For Reflection:

If I truly believe that nothing happens outside of the providence of God, and that even in the sorrows and trials of life God is working out a great good, then how can hope and confident assurance in God escape me? What sweet and holy joy can be found in the midst of pain and suffering? (See tomorrow’s Grace Line for a poetic expression of this sentiment.)

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