327. Support a Catholic Speaker Month
Brandon Vogt continues with an initiative began by Matt Warner of Fallible Blogma back in 2009. I am therefore honoured to present Johnnette Benkovic in “Support a Catholic Speaker Month 2012”
“Today the world needs “new saints and “new evangelizers”
The above quote is taken from the Preface of Johnnette Benkovic’s book Experience Grace in Abundance and epitomizes what Catholics who are on the forefront of communications have come to realize since Vatican II and confirmed by the widespread use of communication through internet and the social media.
A number of saints from the past were made so because of their heroic choice to remain in the grace of God which often meant martyrdom and great sacrifice, when they could easily have gone another way. Although in some countries as Pakistan, Africa, Syria, where they burn Christians or Iraq, Afghanistan, China where Christians are freely tortured, the character of a modern saint has changed. The modern saint works quietly behind the scenes which applies to all but especially women. And the evangelization of women, whether they be married or not, young or old is what Johnnette Benkovic mission is mainly about.
The importance of woman in today’s society has been particularly emphasized by Vatican II. Women, because of their maternal nature, are those who pass on the faith to children in the first instance. Often when such children become adults they abandon their faith but if they have been nurtured with it when young, more often than not they return to it. Such was the case of Johnnette Benkovic who for some years had stopped being a practicing Catholic, but the seed had been planted and she returned to the faith, and with greater abundance than ever before.
If saints have changed their mode of becoming saints the “new evangelizers” have also changed their means of touching the consciousness of people. The words that have to penetrate through the human mind to the soul have to take on meaning anew. And Johnnette’s words impregnated, not only, by her own experience of suffering, having tragically lost a son in the prime of his youth, and her husband through brain cancer, but also by the awareness of the wonder of God, bring with them this meaning anew- that the world so unwittingly longs for.
Experience Grace in Abundance
After years of being a non-practicing Catholic, Johnnette Benkovic experienced a deep conversion back to her Catholic faith in 1981 and discerned a call to share the Gospel message through the media. She has been a consistent presence in Catholic radio since 1987 and in Catholic television since 1988.
Johnnette is Executive Producer of The Abundant Life (seen internationally on EWTN), a television program that discusses contemporary issues from a Catholic perspective. She is also host of Women of Grace® Live, a one hour call-in radio talk show that airs live five times a week. She is heard nationally on AM/FM stations and internationally via short wave radio.
Johnnette is also Founder and President of Living His Life Abundantly® International, Inc., a Catholic evangelization apostolate with outreaches in television, radio, print, and internet communications. She is also Founder of Women of Grace®, a Catholic apostolate for Christian women that features a number of outreaches including conferences, curricula, study groups and more.
In addition, Johnnette is a popular conference speaker, retreat conductor, and seminar presenter, and has been published in major Catholic magazines. She is the author of several books including Full of Grace: Women and the Abundant Life, Grace-Filled Moments, Living Life Abundantly: Stories of People Who Have Encountered God, Experience Grace in Abundance: Strategies For Your Spiritual Life and The New Age Counterfeit. She also developed the Women of Grace® Study Series which has reached thousands of women worldwide with the healing love of Jesus Christ.
Johnnette lost her son Simon in a tragic accident and then her husband of more than thirty years, Anthony, to terminal brain cancer. Through these tragedies, she was strengthened by her faith, family, friends, and the prayers of the many wonderful supporters of Living His Life Abundantly® and Women of Grace®. She enjoys time with her daughters, grandchildren, extended family and friends.
