ENDOW Study Groups educate and encourage women to live more virtuous lives. At the end of each year, ENDOW sends out a special packet to each Facilitator. This packet contains a “Virtue Card” for each member of the ENDOW Study. We are directed to read the following prayer together:
“Come Holy Spirit, we entrust to you the work of furthering the holiness in the souls of each woman here today. Please guide our hands as we choose the virtue you desire us to work on diligently this coming year. We abandon ourselves to your guidance and welcome the light and assistance you offer to us in this New Year.”
After praying together, each member of the study reaches into the bag and choose a Virtue Card. This year I chose the Virtue “Courage.”
Here is a bit I found in a CNA article on Fortitude (courage)....
“Or: The Determination to Become Happy
In our lives many situations arise in which it becomes difficult to do the right thing, even when we know what it is. There may be all sorts of reasons for why it is disagreeable to act according to what we know is best. In order to stay strong, to do what is good, we need the third cardinal virtue, known alternately as fortitude, courage, or bravery. This is the virtue by which we do the right thing, even in the midst of hardship.
Fortitude helps us to overcome any dangers, obstacles, and fears; it enables a person to withstand whatever difficulties may block him from attaining his true goal.”
Read the full CNA article on Fortitude here.
Come Holy Spirit!
I pray that all the women of ENDOW receive the virtues God desires to make manifest in them!
JOY to the world!
Let earth receive her King!
Christ the Savior is born!
Come let us adore him, alleluia!
Praying for all to be filled with the love and light of Christ Jesus!
Merry Christmas to ALL!
Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, the 76-year old Capuchin friar who is the official preacher of the Papal Household, recently spoke of the call to re-evanglize our world which is experiencing these three obstacles of accepting the Christian message: atheistic scientism, secularism and relativism. Fr. Cantalamessa encourages us with the words of Jesus in the Gospel of John which say “Take courage: I have conquered the world." Read full CNA article here.
How do we bring the light of Christ to our world which needs true light? Let us ask in prayer as we ready ourselves to more fully receive Jesus into our hearts this Christmas. One way to equip ourselves is to facilitate and ENDOW study. Our late Pope John Paul II taught about this time of the New Evangelization. One of my favorite ENDOW studies (I must admit, I have loved them all!) is Lumen Gentium (Light of the Nations). Pope John Paul II encourages all the faithful to continue to grow in understanding of the Church with these words from a 1979 homily: "The Pope expects a noble and generous effort on your part to always know better your Church. The Second Vatican Council wanted to be a council about the Church. Take the documents of the Second Vatican Council, especially Lumen Gentium, and study them with loving attention."
Set out to BE the light of Christ we are called to be....read more here about ENDOW’s Lumen Gentium Study.
Christ be our light!
Come Lord Jesus!
If you haven’t facilitated an ENDOW study....might this be the call to give this gift to the women of your parish? Please prayerfully consider facilitating....it is a blessing which cannot be fully described! Please check out the available ENDOW studies here and start planning a new study group. Bringing women together to discover their God given dignity...and to grow in the love of Christ and his Body the Church! .....YES! God loves a cheerful giver!
On the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, Pope Benedict XVI visited the image of the Immaculate Conception in Piazza Di Spagna in Rome. His address was titled "Her 'Message' Is None Other Than Jesus, Who Is Her Whole Life.” He spoke of “Immaculate Mary” who, with a “look of hope and compassion,” looks upon each of us with the “very love of the Father and blesses us....She behaves as our advocate and knows fully the power of Divine Grace. Our Mother knows “nothing is impossible for God.”
Let us thank Our Blessed Mother for always being with us and let us ask her to interceded for us to live in the joy of being loved by God and by being blessed by Him as His beloved children. (full Zenit article here)
Blessed Mother, please intercede for us that the gift of your son, our Lord Jesus, comes to dwell within our hearts! Prepare all hearts to humbly and fully receive your Son, Our Lord.
During this second week of Advent.......let is keep preparing our hearts.....Stop into a church to pray...... Attend mass during the week..... Say a rosary for those who need special graces this season.......offer up frustrations for graces for others.........let your heart sing JOY TO THE WORLD by giving of self to God and others as we wait in joyful hope!
JOY!
Be expectant!
How blessed are we to live in the certainty that we are loved by God and are protected by His perfect Providence? Pope Benedict XVI continues to highlight women saints in his weekly audiences. He says that St. Julian speaks about God’s love as being like maternal love: tender, sweet and full of goodness. Pope Benedict says “Only when we open ourselves totally to this love, only when we allow it to become the one guide to our existence, does everything become transfigured and do we find true peace and joy which we can pass on to others.” Read more about St. Julian of Norwich in a recent CNA article here.
Open the biggest gift of all today! Invite and expect Infinite Love Himself!
Let us open our hearts to fully receive the gift of God who is Love.
Come Holy Spirit! Fill the hearts of your faithful, enkindle in them the fire of YOUR LOVE!
Come Lord Jesus!
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 523-524) “ St. John the Baptist is the Lord’s immediate precursor or forerunner, sent to prepare his way. ‘Prophet of the Most High,’ John surpasses all the prophets, of whom he is the last. He inaugurates the Gospel, already from his mother’s womb welcomes the coming of Christ, and rejoices in being ‘the friend of the bridegroom,’
whom he points out as ‘the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.’ Going before Jesus ‘in the spirit and power of Elijah,’ John bears witness to Christ in his preaching, by his Baptism of conversion and through his martyrdom.
When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior’s first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming. By celebrating the precursor’s birth and martyrdom, the Church unites herself to his desire: ‘He must increase, but I must decrease.’”
Let us be aware during this holy season of preparation that we too must decrease and that Christ within us must increase. Let us take the time to slow our minds and to sit quietly in prayer to prepare our hearts and souls for the coming of our Lord Jesus. Let us open our hearts to prepare to receive Our Lord more fully. St. John the Baptist, please intercede for all who are involved with ENDOW and all faithful souls may receive grace to actively set ourselves aside in pointing others to Jesus. May we become a full gift of self during this Advent season and until our Lord Jesus comes again in glory.
What is a “living image?” St. Teresia Benedicta a Cruce, (St. Edith Stein) describes what she called “living images” as ordinary people who by their small daily actions revealed their deep love for Jesus Christ. St. Edith/Sr. Teresia once encountered one of these ordinary people when she entered a church to look at artwork and noticed a woman who was in the church praying. There was something very different in this as St. Edith was struck that she seemed to be in prayerful conversation with a person. This lady’s attention and prayer in front of the tabernacle in a Catholic Church struck Edith Stein to her core and increased her desire to her search for the truth which ended in a person...the Person of Jesus Christ. (more on ENDOW's St. Edith Stein study here).
In an article by ZENIT news organization recently, Pope Benedict XVI expressed his joy at a “Eucharistic Springtime” within the Church. The Pops says it is “manifested in the numerous people who pause before the tabernacle to enjoy a ‘conversation of love’ with Jesus.” (full article here).
We never know when we might be an influential “living image” when we visit Jesus in the tabernacle or in Eucharistic Adoration. What blessing we receive when we draw near to Christ in love and faith to experience his promise: “And lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Matthew 28:20)
During this bustling time of year spend time with Our Lord to have a conversation of love. This is certain to show our love to Jesus in a very special way while we increase our faith and make reparation for offenses to the Most Holy Sacrament.
I’m praying for safe travel for you all during this Thanksgiving week. COME HOLY SPIRIT!
Bishop Gerald M. Barbarito says in a recent CNA article ....“The attitude of gratitude is one that is part of God’s very nature. Gratitude is an expression of love. God is love and for all eternity gives himself away and literally sacrifices himself. It is that love which is his life as a community of persons — Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In their eternal expression of love for each other, the persons of the Trinity also express gratitude to each other. That gratitude was so often reflected in the life of the Incarnate Son, Jesus Christ, who always prayed to his Father in a stance of thanksgiving.”(full article here).
Let us pray that all who are part of ENDOW celebrate this wonderful time of year with heartfelt thanksgiving and step forward in actively living our lives with greater attention to gratitude! We thank God for all of the abundant blessings received through ENDOW studies!
Have you ever spoken with an adult who said “Oh, I learned all about my faith in grade school and high school.”....YIKES! Can you imagine if the level of education in other areas of our lives was left at that level? If we assumed that we “learned it all” from the perspective of that young age? Would that be adequate to live life to the fullest? Absolutely not. We have an immense personal responsibility to learn our faith anew, in a deeper and deeper way, on a regular basis as we grow in age and maturity. I have always loved pondering the way Jesus, the divine Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, had to grow in wisdom in his human nature. Luke 2:52 tells us “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man.”
How do we take personal responsibility for our growth in wisdom and stature, and increase in favor with God and man?
First and foremost, we grow through receiving grace and blessing in the Living Body of Christ, the Eucharist. As we encounter Jesus, our Living God in His Word and in Sacrament we grow in holiness and wisdom. In reflection of the very Trinity, as we so fully receive, we must pour forth all we receive back to God and to our neighbor. In a recent article from the Vatican Information Service titled “The Family Has Special Responsibility For Education,” Pope Benedict XVI is quoted as saying “St. Francis' evangelical life and his vocation to follow the path of the crucified Christ arose from his participation in Mass and his devoted reception of Holy Communion.......the sacred nature of the Eucharist means that it must be celebrated and adored with an awareness of the greatness, importance and effectiveness it has for Christian life...... Yet it also requires purity, coherence and sanctity of life from each one of us, that we may become living witnesses of Christ's unique sacrifice of love".
How can we be most cooperative in being the instruments in our Lord’s hands? How can we best become the living witnesses of Christ’s unique sacrifice of love? The “how” is to obey Our Father, to receive his Son in the Eucharist and to be open to learn more so that can more love our Beloved and draw others to the love we have for Him. ENDOW offers many classes which help women come to know the beauty and graces of this very holy calling, the calling for each and every soul. Here is a very nice summary of the studies offered by ENDOW.....say your YES to God’s invitation to grow in wisdom and stature, be drawn......come, be educated in a dynamic and blessed way through ENDOW studies.
Let us pray for grace for all souls to have this desire and to take responsibility to receive the Eucharist with “an awareness of the greatness, importance and effectiveness it has for Christian life” and to be educated so that we may live responsibly in providing what is most needed for our selves, our families and for building the Culture of Life.
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful!
ENDOW pilgrims show solidarity with Christians in the Holy Land.
The recent Mideast synod had as a main goal to strengthen the presence of Christians in the region, and one important way to do that is to promote pilgrimages to the Holy Land. Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke of Eichstätt, Germany said, “The target of the synod was to strengthen the presence of Christians in the Middle East, and it is still a target of particular importance! This target has been looked at from different angles. One way to reach this target is to go on pilgrimage to the Holy Places, where Jesus lived.
For example, one can go on pilgrimage to Nazareth in Galilee, where the Basilica of Annunciation is built (to remember the annunciation of Archangel Gabriel, upon having visited the Virgin Mary), or to Bethlehem, in Palestine, to the Grotto of the Nativity, the birthplace of Jesus, and to Shepherds' Fields.
Also, one can visit Jerusalem, the city of the Lord, which Jesus visited regularly according to Jewish rite of pilgrimage for prayer and to participate in the Jewish feasts. Jerusalem is also where Jesus overcame death for all humanity, for our redemption, and where he rose from death, and showed himself as the risen Son of God in front of his disciples on Easter day. A deeper view into the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord can be obtained when the pilgrim is visiting the Church of Holy Sepulcher.
Popes in the history of the Church have always encouraged pilgrimages to the ‘House of the Lord,’ and it is also important for Benedict XVI, who joined with the fathers of the synod in the hope that the spiritual impetus might be reactivated today.
To go on a pilgrimage signifies in the proper meaning of the word ‘to start on one's way’ to the Holy Places of the Bible. Every praying pilgrim can receive the grace of strengthening of faith once more in order to enrich his life in faith with God in a deeper and more fruitful sense.
The fathers of the synod would highly appreciate to see the faithful anew going on a pilgrimage to the Holy Places, which leads them further in the footsteps of the holy Apostles also to Syria, Cyprus and Turkey. This would also be a highly esteemed expression showing our solidarity toward the Christians living in these countries....” Read full article from Zenit: HOLY LAND IS IN NEED OF PILGRIMS.
Please check out the footsteps of our ENDOW pilgrims at this site Pilgrim Center of Hope. You can see where they have been by viewing a slide show.
Please pray for our ENDOW pilgrims as they travel home on November 10.
Autumn is a wonderful time to reflect upon the changing seasons and the fact that all of life, including our own, comes to an end. This can arouse fear within many of us in considering the unknowns which lie ahead of us. My study group in Boulder is presently concluding the ENDOW Study Discover Your Dignity, A Woman’s Journey Through Life, Part II. This study has been a tremendous blessing as it has given us a glimpse into the beauty and wonder of the final “season” of earthly life and to our ultimate destination, our entrance into eternal life. Have you ever considered the fact that God keeps on giving us unique and special gifts and missions right through our dying day? In learning and knowing a bit more about the very special years of growing older...and wiser, there has been much relief and even joy in anticipating these years. This study has facilitated some of the very best discussions within our group as women have shared loving stories of personal experience in these years as well as the joys of sharing these special years with Mothers, Grandmothers and elderly beloved. What a treasure box to explore, appreciate and anticipate! I highly recommend this beautiful study!
Here are a few quotes from the Study Guide....
“Family prayer has for its very own object family life itself, which in all its varying circumstances is seen as a call from God and lived as a filial response to His call. Joys and sorrows, hopes and disappointments, births and birthday celebrations, wedding anniversaries of the parents, departures, separations and homecomings, important and far-reaching decisions, the death of those who are dear, etc. -all of these mark God’s loving intervention in the family’s history.” Pope John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, 59
“When you are lonely, go and visit somebody who is still lonelier than you! .....In this you are going to find strength and consolation.” Pope John Paul II, You are a Treasure for the Church!
“Love begins by taking care of the closest ones-the ones at home. Let us ask ourselves if we are aware that maybe our husband, our wife, our children, or our parents live isolated from others, do not feel loved enough, even though they may live with us. Do we realize this? Where are the older people today? They are in nursing homes (if there are any). Why? Because they are not wanted, because they are too much trouble, because.....” Mother [Blessed] Teresa, In My Own Words
Treat yourself to learning more about the special plan God has for us all during the second half of life in this study. The plan of God revealed within this study have both relieved fear of our own elderly years and has increased our compassion and desire to accompany our beloved elderly on this sacred journey into eternal life.
Embrace this beautiful season.......and each year and season of our lives! May we all pray for our elderly and show them the love, respect and care that brings joy to God and to us all.
Check out more about this ENDOW study here.
Yesterday we celebrated All Saints’ Day.... a Solemnity which was instituted to honor all the saints, known and unknown, and, according to Urban IV, to supply any deficiencies in the celebration of saints' feasts during the year.” Praise be to God for all of his saints!
Today we celebrate All Souls’ Day. Take a moment or two to soak deep within the blessing of being surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses! Let us become deeply aware of the saints who assist us and the souls who need our offerings. The saints are praying for all souls and we can join them in our offerings for the dear departed souls who are being purified to stand before God. We are all intricately linked to one another as members of the Body of Christ. Let us intently help one another by our prayers and good works and we offer our joys and sufferings for another’s sake. When we do for others, we demonstrate our “yes” to living our commitment to ever increasing gift-of-self.
Take in the joy and strength of our loving interdependence. We are instructed.... “But the souls of the just are in the hand of God and no torment of death will touch them. In the eyes of the foolish, they seemed to die, and their departure was considered an affliction, and their going away from us, a banishment. Yet they are in peace. And though, in the sight of men, they suffered torments, their hope is full of immortality. Troubled in few things, in many things they will be well compensated, because God has tested them and found them worthy of himself. Like gold in the furnace, he has proved them, and as a holocaust victim, he has received them, and in the time of their visitation they will shine, and they will dash about like sparks among stubble. They will judge the nations and they will rule over the people, and their Lord will reign forever. Those who trust in him, will understand the truth, and those who are faithful in love will rest in him, because grace and peace is for his elect.” (Wis 3:1-9)
Sharing in ENDOW studies increases our knowledge and trust in the loving plan of Our Father. ENDOW is helping so many women, their friends and families shine forth as faithful souls on our journey together! Enjoy this blessed Solemnity of All Souls!
(This article was published in the Denver Catholic Register on October 27, 2010)
Holiness: The perfection of love
By Jeanette DeMelo
Holiness and perfection seem so out of reach in my daily life. That stuff is for the saints and I’m no saint.
I stood challenged recently when Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles reminded a roomful of women that we are all called to be saints—holy and perfect.
Holiness is the perfection of love, he said. He explained this call to love in just such a way that I came away thinking it might actually be possible. Possible, that is, only by God’s overabundant grace.
Archbishop Gomez spoke to 180 women at the fifth annual ENDOW (Educating on the Nature and Dignity of Women) Catholic Women’s Conference, held at St. Thomas More Church Oct. 15 and 16. The theme was “Called to Be Saints: Living in the World but not of the World.” The conference explored the lives of Servant of God Dorothy Day, St. Catherine of Siena and St. Edith Stein.
In his keynote address, the archbishop spoke of St. Frances Cabrini who, together with her nuns, gathered stones and formed a simple image of the Sacred Heart on a mountain. The stone heart remains today at Mother Cabrini Shrine in Golden, Colo.
By this example, Archbishop Gomez encouraged us to “gather stones into the heart of Jesus” and to “turn every corner of the world into a reflection of the Sacred Heart.”
Cautioning us not to lose heart when we don’t always see results, he said: “We live in a result-driven world. But the kingdom of heaven isn’t that way. It grows by little acts of faith…”
“The age of the saints is not past,” he continued. “In every age the Lord is calling out saints. In our day he is calling you … He calls us to have the courage to love, like Mother Cabrini, with the love that transforms hearts of stone into hearts of flesh.”
All of the conference speakers were keenly aware of the tendency to think of saints as drastically unlike “normal” people. Their stories made the saints real and showed that each saint’s life was a journey. They weren’t born saints.
Dorothy Day, whose life was presented by professor Terrance Wright, was seemingly the most un-saintly. Born in the late 19th century to a non-religious family, she was baptized Episcopal as a young girl but lost her faith during college.
Before she was 30, she got pregnant out of wedlock twice. Regrettably she aborted her first child.
God’s call was greater than her life’s chaos. Day kept her second child. She baptized her Catholic and became Catholic herself, believing “it was the greatest thing” she could do for her child.
Day eventually helped to found the Catholic Worker Movement, which spread Catholic social teaching. She opened houses of hospitality where the homeless and volunteers lived together in community.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux, who Day called “the Saint of the Responsible,” became her guide for living the little moments of each day with love. Day reminded those who worked with her that the little boy in the Gospel gave Jesus all he had, five loaves and two fish, and Jesus did the rest. Giving all daily was Day’s little way, and she reminds us that we too need to give Jesus all that we have and allow him to do the rest.
The other conference speakers presented on saints a little more commonly recognized for holiness.
Calling St. Catherine of Siena one of her best friends, Dominican Sister Catherine Joseph Droste presented on the life of the 14th-century lay Dominican mystic.
While there were many aspects of St. Catherine’s life that set her apart from the average 21st-century woman, Sister Droste suggested it was Catherine’s radical love for the human person that makes her so relevant today. St. Catherine knew that only by knowing God’s infinite love could we know ourselves and recognize who God calls us to be.
In studying the life of Edith Stein, author Elizabeth Mitchell said she found a soul sister. Mitchell presented on the 20th-century philosopher who converted to Catholicism after several encounters with “living images” of faith. For Stein, these living images were ordinary people who by their small daily actions revealed their deep love for Jesus Christ and their faith in God’s great love for them. Stein became a Carmelite nun and her life ended in martyrdom at the hand of the Nazis. Stein wrote extensively on the vocation of women and her writings offer both deep intellectual truths but also simple tips for keeping in the presence of God daily.
The 2010 ENDOW conference with its saintly theme came at a perfect time—a couple weeks before All Saints’ Day. Because of it, I won’t be so tempted to dismiss that day as a celebration for those who are so different from me. Rather, this year I will celebrate the saints as friends, soul sisters and prayer partners in a journey that we are all called to live. I hope you are encouraged to do the same.
Jeanette DeMelo is a founding board member of ENDOW. The 2010 ENDOW Conference talk CDs can be ordered at www.ENDOWonline.com.
These words speak for themselves...I gathered them from a recent letter from an ENDOW participant to Executive Director Terry Polakovic:
“I felt a strong urge to write this letter........I have just started my first Endow class, “Pope John Paul II’s Letter to Women.” Even though I have only finished the first chapter and Appendix 1, I had to express my wonderment at what I have read thus far...........Just reading these few pages.......have caused me to stand in much more appreciation of the Catholic Church than I ever have before..........Because of this study I have become aware of how the Church has fought and defended the rights and dignity of women throughout the world. For years I was ignorant of this, but my eyes have finally been opened, leading to a much greater appreciation of the Church that has been a part of me all my life.......I thank the Holy Spirit for guiding me to this class.......I am looking forward with great anticipation to continue on with this course, and I would encourage every woman to take the opportunity to attend the Endow classes.”
This is the story of ENDOW. Here is “Love the learning. Build the friendships. Live the Faith” in living action. Praise be to God for the apostolate of ENDOW which helps bring women into knowing the fullness of their dignity and their role in humanizing and transforming society into a culture of life. Thank God for this living example of yet another heart converted to deeper understanding through an ENDOW study...and this is only after the first chapter of her first study!
“Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.” Jn 7:38 Come Holy Spirit!
Autumn is a time of beauty and awe...the changing of seasons..the brilliant colors singing out to be heard with the eyes of our hearts. In ENDOW study guides there are little tidbits of information under the heading “Did You Know?” I was recently pondering the beauty of the aspen trees which are abundant here in Colorado and started linking some of the attributes of the aspens with the blessings I’ve received in my ENDOW study group. Here are some attributes of the aspens (tidbits I gathered from Wikipedia)... “their nearly round leaf shape on mature trees cause the leaves to twist and flutter in slight breezes...known for its leaves turning spectacular tints of red and yellow in the autumn....typically grows in large colonies derived from a single seedling and spreading by means of a large root system......the root system is long-lived.....sometimes for thousands of years.....sending up new trunks as the older trunks die off above ground......the aspen colonies become very large with time....they are able to survive forest fires since the roots are below the heat of the fire.....with new sprouts growing after the fire burns out...fire indirectly benefits aspen trees, since it allows the saplings to flourish in open sunlight in the burned landscape..... don’t do well in the shade...”
Now...for the DID YOU KNOW? What do ENDOW study groups do? ENDOW is an educational program that brings women together to discover their God-given dignity and to understand their role in humanizing and transforming society. We come together to “Love the Learning, Build the Friendships and to Live the Faith.” These teachings are trustworthy and true. The roots of the Catholic Church run deep, and have held together in Christ for 1,000’s of years....The women of ENDOW seek to soak our hearts and minds into these teachings and we pray to be docile to the “slight breezes” of the Holy Spirit working within and around us. Those who open their hearts do come to show forth the beautiful and individual brilliance of our Creator with each “yes” to Him..the “spectacular tints” of each woman come forward to be seen, experienced and to transform those she encounters....and it is truly AWEsome to experience.
Let us pray that we all receive grace to open the eyes of hearts to all the beauty of creation, especially in seeing the unique, unrepeatable beauty of each life created by God.
If you haven’t joined an ENDOW study group yet, what are you waiting for? Come! You will be in AWE. Be strengthened and joined even deeper into the blessed and strong root system of our Catholic faith through the beauty and blessing of ENDOW study groups. Click here for information.
Ps 19:14 “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in the sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Come Holy Spirit, set us ablaze!
