Remember the 60’s? Remember watching women on television burning their bras (or burning one yourself)? Remember the generation gap between mothers who would never have considered birth control and their daughters (you?) who considered it a right?
Do you remember starting to wonder if maybe abortion wasn’t so bad, if maybe having babies wasn’t a way for men to keep you in your place? Remember how the culture of death really began? EWTN television and radio host Johnnette Benkovic remembers — and she has been led to do something about it. She has begun a new apostolate for women called Women of Grace™.
The seeds of this new endeavor on behalf of women began in 1995. Benkovic was being asked to speak to women’s groups across the United States. As she toured the country, she encountered more and more women in pain — pain that seemed to come from some confusion about their role and purpose in life. Benkovic was unsure what to do about this so she took it to Jesus.
“I began to see the Lord leading me to various resources to study the issue of woman and to see who she is in His eyes and who He intends for her to be,” she said. In addition to Sacred Scripture, Benkovic was strongly led to the writings of Edith Stein, now known Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. “She was born at the turn of the century when feminism was beginning to blossom,” Benkovic said. “She began to evaluate all that in the light of the culture of the day. So much of what she has to say is specifically pertinent to women of the 21st Century. I consider her a prophet for women. She helped me to see that God has a great call and a great mission for every woman.”
Benkovic’s research also led her to the writings of Pope Paul VI. In 1965, Pope Paul VI made a plea to women, a plea that most women never heard. At the close of Vatican II, the Holy Father spoke specifically to women saying: “The hour is coming, in fact has come … in which woman acquires in the world an influence, an effect and a power never hitherto achieved. That is why, at this moment when the human race is undergoing so deep a transformation, women impregnated with the spirit of the Gospel can do so much to aid mankind in not falling.”
He followed these prophetic words with this amazing instruction: “Reconcile men with life and above all, we beseech you, watch carefully over the future of our race. Hold back the hand of man who, in a moment of folly, might attempt to destroy human civilization … Women of the entire universe, whether Christian or non-believing, you to whom life is entrusted at this grave moment in history, it is for you to save the peace of the world.”
More recently, Pope John Paul II has written extensively on the dignity, nature, and role of women in the plan of God. By developing the gift of authentic femininity, the Pope says women can experience personal fulfillment, initiate cultural change, instill true peace in interpersonal relationships, and promote justice and freedom, truth and love in the world and the culture of the day. The Pope says, “the time has come to move from words to deeds.” All of this information had a profound impact on Benkovic.
It took nine years, but in February 2003, Benkovic began to knit together the vision the Lord had placed in her heart. “Every woman is called to spiritual maternity by virtue of her femininity. How we live that out may depend on our state of life — consecrated, single, married, mom, grandmom, widow. But we’re always supposed to be impregnated with the spirit of the Gospel, to bring Jesus everywhere we go.” Bit by bit, Benkovic saw more of God’s plan for her new apostolate.
“The Lord showed me that the first step He wanted us to take was to have a women’s conference. I knew we would need financial assistance so I applied for a grant. As I sat down to fill out that application, the entire vision and mission spilled out onto the page. The Lord showed me that the conferences were a very important outreach in and of themselves, but when joined [with other outreach efforts] they would form a beautiful program for women.”
Next, the women attending the conference would be invited to join study groups. These study groups would help them achieve spiritual growth, healing, and transformation. Curricula for Women of Grace™, to become available next year, would be based on the writings of Pope John Paul II and Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Benkovic also was given to know that someday there would be a radio program for women and a magazine. “It was so interesting,” she says in something of an understatement, “by the end of March, we had the radio program and Canticle magazine was given to me by its founder and editor, Genevieve Kineke!”
Benkovic also realized that because God created woman with a keen sensitivity for interpersonal relationships, women should be given a membership opportunity within Women of Grace ™ “so a real sisterhood could grow and develop among them.” A bimonthly newsletter called Gracemail and a website, www.womenofgrace.com rounded out Benkovic’s vision. These offerings are available for women to take advantage of any one or all of them.
“The whole mission of Women of Grace™ is to encourage and affirm women in their dignity as daughters of God and in their gift of authentic femininity,” she said. “We discover this by looking at our model and exemplar, the Blessed Virgin Mary, especially as given to us under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe. She is our patron. “Our Lady of Guadalupe appears to Juan Diego pregnant with child. It reminds us of the fact that she is always bearing Christ to the world. That is what we are called to do as women, to be always pregnant with the life of Jesus Christ.
“In addition, through our Blessed Lady and her ‘yes’ to God, she crushed the head of the serpent. When she came to Juan Diego, she crushed the head of the stone serpent to whom the Aztec Indians had made bloody sacrifice. The call God has given to women today is the same. By being impregnated with the spirit of the Gospel and Christ bearers in the world, women today will crush the heads of all the stone serpents in our midst.”
How is this possible? Benkovic makes what amounts to a call to arms: “Only when woman understands who she truly is can she wage a mighty war against the culture of the day and fulfill her mission to bring life, in all its manifestations, to the world. She needs to rediscover the truth about herself as woman. The journey for women from brokenness to healing and from deception to truth must begin now.”
Don’t miss the inaugural Women of Grace® Conference, October 3-5, 2003, at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown PA Featured Speakers are: Rosalind Moss, Johnnette Benkovic, Mary Jo Anderson, Dale O'Leary, Genevieve Kineke, Dr. Martha Garza, Dr. Ronda Chervin, Suzanne Fowler, and Suzanne Baars. Click here for Conference info and registration.
Michelle Laque Johnson is editor of The Catholic Standard & Times.
Adapted from an article appearing in The Catholic Standard & Times and used with permission. To subscribe, please call 1.215.587.3667.
