It is time to REFLECT.........women of ENDOW, reflect!

What a beautiful and SPARKLY SEASON we are enjoying....

.....candles...light....shiny things reflecting and sparkling LIGHT during the darkest days of the year......Look around....SEE.....be alert......watch! So many beautiful and SHINY reminders of reflecting....what does “reflect” mean? Reflect on the meaning of reflection.....

“to give back or exhibit as an image, likeness...” Are we preparing to best and fully REFLECT being created in God’s image and likeness? Called to reflect........called to BE the LIGHT of CHRIST to all.......take inspiration from all the shiny things of the season....silver balls.....sparkly snow....Christmas lights........make a “glance” to God.......reflect and GIVE THANKS........ask him to BE reflected in us......as the moon so beautifully reflects the sun....May we be shiny reflections of God’s love....let us make manifest JOY this week! Let us reflect on our call to reflect and SHINE and to be God’s light to those around us! SPARKLES........and bouncing light.......dancing.....JOYOUS.......enjoy each REFLECTION! .....I thank God for the many reflections of God’s light and love in the women of ENDOW! What a sparkly group of hearts set on fire!

LET US REFLECT!

50 Year Anniversary of the Pill

Detroit, Mich., May 7, 2010 / 07:55 am (CNA/EWTN News).-

Responding to a recent Agence France Presse (AFP) article that criticized Catholic teaching on contraception, well-known professor, Dr. Janet Smith, said that in her opinion, the poorly researched piece “was inaccurate and slanted from the beginning.”

In light of the recent 50th anniversary of the Pill being released to U.S. markets, the AFP reported on Thursday that in spite of Church teaching, the majority of Catholic women today use contraception.

“Catholics use the pill the same way everyone else does ... Priests don't even preach against it any more,” Jon O'Brien, president of the dissident group Catholics for Choice, told the AFP on Wednesday.

AFP also made reference in the article to a commission of bishops and lay people who recommended in 1968 that the Church should change its position on contraception. The AFP article argued that Pope Paul VI “ignored” the commission in his writing of “Humanae Vitae” and “banned” Catholics from using the Pill.

The article also mentioned that less than five percent of Catholics use the “rhythm method,” which it called the one of the “birth control methods allowed by the Church.”

During a phone interview with CNA on Thursday, Dr. Smith, a professor at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, said that it was obvious the writer of the AFP article did “minimal research.”

Not only did the writer mention the “rhythm method,” a term that Smith said “no one is using,” but the commission surrounding Pope Paul VI was “simply an advisory panel.” The Pope, said Smith, did not “ignore” anyone by opposing contraception, but rather, upheld the tenets of the faith on the belief that birth control would have devastating societal consequences.

The AFP article, she summarized, “was inaccurate and slanted from beginning to end.”

Defending the Church's teaching that contraception affects society in negative ways and is immoral, Smith noted that “more than one out of three babies in the United States are born to a single mother, one out of four pregnancies are aborted,” and that “more than one out of two marriages end in divorce.”

“If people were living by the Church's teaching on sexuality, those things wouldn't be happening, and those things are a path to misery,” she underscored.

“People born out of wedlock have a very hard life, as do their children. People who get divorced have a very hard life as do their children, and their friends and their family,” Smith asserted, adding that on the other hand, “people who don't get divorced and stay married and raise their children, generally have very good lives.”

“Couples who use natural family planning almost never divorce,” she pointed out. “The divorce rate at tops, we think is around 4%.”

In light of these facts,“who looks foolish?” she asked. “The Church for not changing a teaching that almost guarantees happiness or a culture that is pushing an agenda that almost guarantees misery?”

Also, “it is really, patently absurd for women to be putting chemicals in their body to correct a condition that is not a defect.

“Fertility is a perfectly healthy condition,” Smith emphasized.

While it is true, said Smith, that many Catholics do not follow Church teaching on contraception, many Catholics “also don't abide by the Church's teaching about not having sex before marriage and not getting divorced and even, I'm sorry to say, having abortions.”

Smith even referenced areas outside the realm of sexuality that Catholics “are at odds with their Church,” such as, resistance to Church teaching on receptivity towards immigrants.

Contraception is “not an isolated teaching that's being ignored.”

On the reasons why many Catholics today are disconnected from Church teaching, the noted professor offered two explanations. “One, is that the influence of the culture is just overwhelming – the prominence of the media and the slant of the media on everything. Catholics are going to Church at most, once on Sunday but they're watching TV and reading the media hours and hours and hours of every week.”

“So what's going to have more influence on them?” she asked. “Their Church or their culture?”

The second reason for the modern disconnect between Catholics and Church teaching is “the dissent that happened in the 1960s against 'Humanae Vitae,'” Smith explained.

“A lot of priests were actually taught in the seminaries that the Church was going to change its position on contraception and therefore they shouldn't really bother to teach the Catholic faithful about it,” she said. This confusion over Church teaching on human sexuality is why “John Paul II made it one of his flagship items of his pontificate.”

One of Pope John Paul II's seminal works, the “Theology of the Body,” has “taken off like wildfire around the United States,” Smith told CNA. One the main purposes of the writings, she explained, “was to defend the Church's teaching of contraception.”

According to Smith, the U.S. is responding. “Young people all over the place come to huge conferences” on the theology of the body “and certainly, the training in the seminary is very different now – seminarians are learning the Church's teaching.”

Smith herself has had “over a million” copies of her talks on the Church's teaching regarding human sexuality distributed in recent years.

Reflection: The Catholic Church, and Those who Love Her, Are Best Understood in Christ Crucified

God has given his children an indescribable and indispensable treasure in the fullness of truth that is contained in the Catholic Church alone. When a man, woman or child finds this truth and adheres to it, there is a wonderful, radiant security that rests in their heart.

DENVER, CO (Catholic Online) - When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified True God and True Man, cruelly fixing his sacred Humanity upon a Roman Cross. As they looked upon the Crucified Son, the rulers "sneered" at Jesus and said, "He saved others, let him save himself if he is the chosen one, the Messiah of God." The soldiers, too, "jeered" at him, calling out, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself." (see Lk. 23:33-38).

It appears that the soldiers who mocked Jesus did not understand who he truly is. We could say that they failed to distinguish or recognize reality as it is; for it is reality that the Man they nailed to the cross was-is-the Son of God. In their misunderstanding, they jeered at him. "If you are who you say you are," said they, "save yourself." The soldiers had in mind that the Messiah of God should act differently than he indeed willed to act; they could not understand why he would not use his power in a way that they imagined it ought be used.

We see this same type of jeering and mocking continue on this very day in the way the Catholic Church, which Christ himself founded a short time before he hung on the cross, is persecuted. There are those today, in effect, who exclaim of the Church: "If you are who you say you are, then act as I imagine you would." But what type of Church is it that they imagine God would install in the midst of the world? One inhabited by sinless men completely removed from a fallen humankind who inhabit a fallen world? One that is not truly Mother Church but, rather, a distant and unknown stepmother?

It is unnecessary to go into detail concerning the scandals of abuse which periodically surface within the Church. Suffice it to say that every devout Catholic who sees the Church correctly and in the light of reality as it is, is saddened and disappointed and even angered at these tragic, sinful events. Yet precisely because these Catholics recognize the Catholic Church for what she is, they remain ever-faithfully in love with her; obedient to her words of truth, thirsting for her sacraments of life-especially the highest of all sacraments: the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ in Eucharist.

Read the rest of this article at catholic.org, the site of first publication.

Nun Sense: Women in the Catholic Church

This article by Kathryn Jean Lopez first published on National Review Online, interviews Sister Prudence.
________________________________________________
A Habited Women Speaks
In his New York Times column this month, Nicholas Kristof wrote about “A Church Mary Can Love.” If you didn’t read the column, you might not be shocked to learn its contents: He’s not that into the Vatican, and he doesn’t think the Blessed Virgin would be either. He’s more into a priest who reportedly told him that he “would build a condom factory in the Vatican to save lives.” However, Kristof also wrote something sensible: “I’ve come to believe that the very coolest people in the world today may be nuns.” Amen. And in the following interview with Sister Mary Prudence Allen, I think you’ll begin to see why. Sister Prudence is with the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Mich., an order with a special focus on health care.

Sister Prudence is also a philosophy professor and a published author, having written the two-volume The Concept of Woman and contributed to The Foundations of Religious Life: Revisiting the Vision (a compilation from the other “nuns” in the health-care debate, the ones who stood by the bishops conference’s objection to the abortion provisions in the legislation — and by Catholic doctrine on the most innocent human life).

Read the interview here.

Introducing ENDOW Intensives

On a recent morning in one of our staff meetings, someone brought up again how the real mission of ENDOW is educating women, and we wondered how well we were hitting that goal. It is always of concern to us that we may be missing a significant portion of the female population – those women who are simply too busy and unable to commit to an eight week study. How can we reach them? Would they be interested if we could think of a way to fit ENDOW into their schedule? We tossed around ideas of how to make ENDOW accessible to these women and we landed upon the idea of ENDOW Intensives.
The idea was to offer a “turbo-charged” class – one that would condense an 8-week study into a 7-hour day. It would mean that we would have to distill each chapter down to its essence, highlighting key points, being selective about which passages to read aloud, and spending less time lingering on the discussion questions. But the trade-off seemed a good one. While not exactly a precise replica of an ENDOW class, the Intensive would introduce the concepts and the content of an ENDOW topic in a fast-paced and, we hoped, inspiring way. The benefits were obvious – women would be able to immerse themselves in a study and walk away filled up with new information and refreshed and energized about their Catholic faith.
We are happy to report that we debuted ENDOW Intensives earlier this month. Eileen Love taught Letter to Women to a group in the scenic mountain town of Edwards. At the same time these women were in class, ENDOW’s Brigid Sweeney taught Girl Genius to their daughters, the 8th graders at St. Claire of Assisi. The fire of ENDOW was lit and the message of New Feminism is spreading. The young girls had a great day and the women were excited by what they heard and many expressed a desire to continue studying. Then, these past two Saturdays, Intensives on Letter to Women and Edith Stein: Seeker of Truth were offered at the John Paul II Center.
From the feedback we are receiving, we are pronouncing ENDOW Intensives a success. The next one we are presenting is slated for late June in Houston. We’d love to see as many of our Texas sisters as possible! And we will be putting more on the calendar, so watch this space for information and tell your friends!

My Route to ENDOW – A Witness Story

By Judi Piccone

If we believe that God desires us to know the truth then we must be open to seeking it. I am reminded of this when I think of the journey He has brought me on to encounter His Truth and faithfulness through ENDOW. His love for me placed my spiritual voyage on a path to ENDOW and although it has not been easy, I am certain it was purposeful.

My story begins many years ago when I became interested in an international ecumenical Bible study. It had many thriving Colorado locations to choose from and it seemed perfect. It welcomed women of different Christian denominations to gather and study Scripture. In my mind it was noble, even productive to the cause of uniting Christians and its message of being “ecumenical” drew me in. I was encouraged that there were other Catholic women involved, who like me, were searching for more. We wanted to be fed but it needed to accommodate the diapers and daily duties of life. With Catholic Biblical School being too daunting, MOPS (Mothers of Pre-Schoolers - a Christian mom and tot group) not enough and no other suitable Catholic program available, this seemed perfect. I became deeply involved.
Although I was a very active and faithful Catholic, I know now I was subtly being led away from my religious roots. Thankfully, God brought me down the path of truth and I am grateful that I knew to listen. After five very involved years in the program, it had been revealed to me by an insider that they were not ecumenical at all, but that the leadership was trained to welcome Catholics only to convert them. NO! This could not be true! At that point I realized I needed the truth and with God’s grace I found the courage to contact the National Director, a woman I did not know, and I asked if this was a fact. After some discussion and some beating around the bush, she finally said, “Yes, we only welcome Catholics to convert them.” While I was grateful for her honesty, I was devastated because I was entrenched in the program and I realized then that I had to cut the dead limb, close the door, and walk away.

Where was I to find Him now? He had brought me to this realization but what purpose did it have if there was nothing similar in the Catholic Church to fill that void? It was a painful process but God is abundantly generous and faithful. Thanks to a group of faithful women who chose to listen to Him, ENDOW was started. It was exactly what I needed and has filled that void in such an amazing way. There have been many truths revealed - like how I am special and unique as a woman of God (Letter to Women), how God gave me Mary to be my companion (Redemptoris Mater) and the joy in uniting myself to His suffering (Salvifici Doloris). These and many other studies have shown me His faithfulness as they have strengthened and fortified me. Through ENDOW, Christ has shown me how deeply He loves me and I am profoundly humbled.

Arleen Mack, ENDOW facilitator, Colorado

Lenten means a time that I, as a busy mother and wife, force myself to make time to work on my own spirituality. It seems that there is never a "right" time to make time for me, but because the well runs dry, I make time in Lent. The way I find that time is to give my faith life a higher priority in my time allocation. I stay away from unneeded shopping, lunches and coffee dates and instead attend two Endow sessions and parish soup suppers to keep up with my women friends. I also minimize my reading to only my spiritual selections. I work hard to find "quiet time" and stay away from the busyness of life. For the Lenten Season I really try to practice good discipline in time, treasure and talent, hoping some of the behavior change may become habits!

Eileen Hierholz, ENDOW facilitator, Colorado

Eileen Hierholz, ENDOW facilitator, Colorado
I have come to find that the things we choose to "fast from" are really the things in this life that we have made into our own "little gods" for various reasons to various degrees. We are so blessed to have the wisdom of the church that gives us this special time to reflect on those things which keep us farther from Our Lord and closer to our attachments, which also keep us from giving of ourselves to His service and others in need. Of course, there is so much more, such as a deepening of awareness of the mercy of God. I look forward to a spiritually renewing and holy Lent.

Two Reflections today

Megan Rogers, ENDOW facilitator, New Mexico:
My husband and I recently moved to a new military base and it is in a rural area in the desert. Lent to me is just this, a merciful act by God to call me to a place remote and without the many comforts and convenience of a city, to be with Him. Lent is embracing change, learning to depend on God (once more) and to be courageous in following His will, even if it means barren deserts and wrestling winds; a reflection of my soul at times.

Julie Wong, friend of ENDOW, Ohio:
This Lent, the Lord has led me to focus on several different themes. The first is to strive to become poor before Christ, as He has made Himself so poor on the Cross before each one of us. It's so easy to let my heart become entangled and chained down by various distractions and desires...He is gently calling me to let Him strip and cleanse my heart of everything but Him. When I let Him do this, so much freedom and peace is found!

The second theme is learning to embrace my littleness and weakness. St. Therese of Lisieux's "Little Way" is becoming more and more beautiful to me as I daily realize my radical need for God. Instead of trying to become "perfect" and then feeling perpetually frustrated and discouraged, Jesus is calling me to become still and peaceful within His arms. He wants me to trust that if I simply surrender myself to Him with all of my faults, He can do great things in me! His Sacred Heart will do EVERYTHING for us if we only LET HIM!

Judith Watson, ENDOW facilitator, Indiana

For me, Lent is a time to bring more silence into my life, in order to hear the Holy Spirit speak to me. I am a news-aholic and I tend to have a TV on all of the time so that I can keep abreast of all of those "news alerts." During Lent, I strive to keep the house quiet, do more spiritual reading, and spend time pondering where I have been spiritually and where I need to go. And I clean! Thanks to my daughter Jill, I discovered an excellent way to detach from things, in a 40 Bags for 40 Days exercise of cleaning closets and drawers, getting rid and giving away those items that can be of use to someone else, or that just need to be tossed out. Manual labor is a good time for pondering what is important in life. At the end of Lent, I hope to have a clean house, both physically and spiritually! I also hope that at the end of Lent I have developed a good spiritual habit that I will keep with me even when Lent is over. My Lenten exercise becomes an Easter gift for my soul.

Monica Harden, ENDOW facilitator, Colorado

Lent is a time dedicated to bringing us closer to Christ. These are a few of the changes that I am attempting this year.

Sacrifice: Christ gave his life for us. Our little sacrifices of luxuries and non necessities are a tiny price to pay.

Reading: Scripture, Lives of the Saints, Articles, new find; Beatitudes by Raniero, Cantalamessa. Then contemplating on how these readings work in our lives

Giving: I have so very, very much. Give a lagniappe (a little something extra) where ever I can. This can be done in kind words, little gifts and extra prayers.

Michaelene Hearn, ENDOW facilitator, Michigan

Lent is a beautiful time to hide intimately in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is a time of total surrender; to fall in love with Jesus or renew love with Him, through prayer, fasting, mortifications and sacrifice. It is a time to listen closely, be open to the Holy Spirit and experience God's love.
Strip me, cleanse me, forgive me and help me to love you, Lord Jesus, more than ever before. The passion and death of Jesus Christ, testifies to the immense love and forgiveness He has for mankind. The institution of the Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper, is the greatest gift he gave us before his death. The sorrowful heart of The Blessed Mother, Mary, compassionately teaches faith, trust, courage, perseverance and hope. Lent is growing in conformity to God's Will, that we may experience fully the joy of His Resurrection and awesome caress of His Divine Mercy, forever in eternity. I love you, Jesus! Thank you for your loving me! Amen.

Kathy Middleton, ENDOW facilitator, Colorado

Lent is a time for me to get a sense for what God is doing in me in each year. It is a time of spiritual "spring cleaning". I often find that my efforts to find things to do or give up for Lent pale in comparison to what God reveals to me during this time. Hidden cobwebs, dust bunnies, dark corners, all become exposed and it is surprisingly humbling when I see the dirt that has accumulated in my soul! But it doesn't defeat me, because Lent is like God coming in with his 'sweeping' grace, his cleansing mercy, his startling "shaking out" of all that needs to be purged. hopefully, when I cooperate and allow Him to do His work, I can be more free to proclaim Him in my life as the year continues and as spring and Easter bring us new hope, warm winds, and flowers, hopefully, we also bring these gifts to a hurting world.

Lora Ostach, ENDOW facilitator, Michigan

Lent is a very special time of year. It’s all about Baptism. Yes it’s a solemn, pensive and sacrificial time, “time in the dessert. But for me, Lent is an exciting time, filled with anticipation and awe. It’s the time when I recall my baptismal promise. It's the time I relive the special events in my life leading up to baptism day. You see, I was baptized as an adult at our Easter Vigil in 2006. I was there, in the presence of God, openly participating, basking in His Grace and reveling in His Glory, taking in every moment of those forty days of Lent leading to that most special day.
I remember like it was yesterday the Rite of Election on that First Sunday of Lent. It was my commitment to the Catholic Church as I signed my name in the BOOK of the ELECT and was blessed by the Bishop of our Archdiocese. I remember the three weeks of Scrutinies and how I reflected on my own life and my sins and allowed God to scrutinize me and heal me. The traditions of praying, fasting and almsgiving began to take hold in my heart and gave me the help I needed to prepare my soul for Christ and His gift of Eternal Life that He was about to give to me. The parishioners, my catholic mentors were reflective, solemn, sincere. Palm Sunday was like no other Sunday and Holy week was almost too much to bear. My heart was bursting with love and pain. I remember it like it was yesterday; I celebrate Lent like it was my first Lent.
Not everyone is lucky enough to remember their baptism and the events leading up to it. Lent is the chance to imagine all that it was, all that it is and all that it stands for and prepare for that glorious moment. Jesus wants us to remember.

Andrea Maciejewski, ENDOW facilitator, Michigan

Lent is a very precious season for me. Since I was very young, I have relished the opportunity to "even now, turn back to Me with all your heart." I always find that the small sacrifices I try to make, small works of mercy I offer to Christ, and increased prayer has immediate consequences in my soul, as well as my day to day!

It is a great privilege and honor to be able to enter into the intimate Passion of our Lord. It is there that I truly find myself, and as I mourn my sins which crucified my Lord, He lets me know very clearly how much He loves me and makes me whole again. "For by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world."

It is when I die in Him fully that I will one day rise with Him. Lent prepares me for this glory to come, in reflecting on His Dolorous Passion, and living the Resurrection!

Christina Kruis, ENDOW Facilitator, Calgary, Canada

Lent is a time for me to really understand and think about what Jesus did for me. I have to question what He wants me to do to show my love for Him? Lent is a time to remember that Doing What Jesus Would Do is always right but not always easy. Easter is a huge celebration proving how much Jesus loves me.

Jo Ann Wilson, ENDOW facilitator, Ohio

I have a "Love, Dread " relationship to this time in our Church season. Lent is a time of my own personal "dying and rising". It is a time I strip the house of many accessories and holiday decorations to remind myself of the call inside to shed those attachments, habits and even relationships that draw me away from God. To allow Him to come into my Heart in a new way inviting Him to "have His way with me" that I so often compromise.

I "treat" myself to reading spiritual books in the afternoon. I find cooking less draining as I make simpler meals and still feel "good about it". I reach out to those relationships I have neglected, and I take the time to truly allow the gift of husband and family to cause a welling up of thankfulness in my heart in a new way.

I love the new life renewal that comes during this time, but the shedding part and even the initial "quietly facing myself" part is often painful. Only God's love and knowing He is with me every step as I struggle to be with Him makes the dreading part even part of the loving part!

Terelyn Santos, ENDOW facilitator, Texas

Lent is an invitation from the One I love to spend intimate time with him. It's a time to take a deeper look within myself under his loving and merciful gaze. It's a time to walk in the "desert" of purification with Someone who doesn't want to judge me, but help me become "white than snow", truly "pure of heart". It's a time of transformation that occurs by letting go and accepting grace. It's a time to experience the fullness of God's love for me and give thanks!

Brief Thoughts...

a.Shar Messaros, ENDOW facilitator, Colorado: To me Lent means….really paying attention to the sacrifice Christ made for me and spending more time with him in prayer

b.Ann Kelm, ENDOW facilitator, Colorado: Lent is Spring Training for Christians!!!

c.Valerie Staples, ENDOW facilitator, California: Lent is a time for us to reflect on the love and sacrifices of God and what we can do to perfect our souls so that we might love and sacrifice like He did. I love it for that reason

d. Michele Schmidt, ENDOW Facilitator, Michigan: To me, Lent means..... Psalm 51:12" “A clean heart create for me, God; renew in me a steadfast spirit.” A time of renewing my spirit and opening my heart to the magnificence of God.

e.Pat Nash, ENDOW facilitator, Colorado: Lent means daily Mass, additional Adoration time, and growing closer to God in my journey with the Lord.

f.Cindy Simmons, ENDOW facilitator, Colorado: Lent is a time to "live" the passion of Christ with what He brings to me today. It's completely about my "Yes" to the shadow of death and trusting He will resurrect it.

Sharon van der Sloot, ENDOW Author and Advisory Board Member, Calgary, Alberta (Canada)

As a convert to Catholicism, it took me a while to figure out what this ‘Lent thing’ was all about. At first, I thought it was just about me, so I gave up meat on Fridays and stopped eating dessert and potato chips. I felt very holy. It took me a while to realize that the practice of Lent isn’t just a Church sanctioned diet plan! Thank goodness God is so patient and loving with us, because it took me some time before I came to see that Lent is not so much a ‘turning away’ from things as it is a ‘turning toward’ Christ.

I now see Lent as a time to examine my life in God’s presence, to recognize those things which prevent me from drawing closer to Him, and to see what areas of my life need to be transformed in order to be more like Him. It is a time for change! A few weeks ago, our parish priest upped the bar when he pointed out that our Lenten penitential practices are not meant to be something that we do for 6 weeks and then forget about; they are meant to be the beginning of a true conversion of heart that will continue throughout the entire year. So this Lent, I haven’t made any grand plans for major ‘spiritual surgery’. Instead, I have tried to pick small ways that I can be more Christ-like, ways in which I hope to be able to persevere despite my human weakness: things like praying with greater attention and love, giving of myself and of my material resources to others with greater generosity and love, and fasting not because of any self-imposed diet plan, but to strengthen my will and to grow in my love for Christ. And in the end, perhaps Lent is just about that, about love – because God is love. It is doing everything out of love, not for me, but for God and for His greater glory.