“Let yourself be loved,” Elizabeth Leon urged a room of women at St. Theresa Church in Ashburn. More than 20 women attended Leon’s “Made for More” workshop, which she began to help women heal from trauma and grow in their relationship with Christ.
Since the birth and death of her newborn son John Paul Rafael in 2022, Leon said she has been on her own journey of healing that ultimately became her vocation. She initially felt the call to speak after she published her book “Let Yourself Be Loved: Big Lessons from a Little Life” on her grieving and healing journey. It won the “Best Memoir” award at the Catholic Media Conference in Baltimore June 9. Since last year, she has hosted four workshops and has given talks in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Five days after John Paul’s death, Leon and her husband, Ralph, were at their usual holy hour at St. Theresa’s when Leon felt a call in her heart to speak in ministry. It was at that time she heard the words, “Let yourself be loved,” in the silence of her heart. After meditating upon that phrase, Leon felt a desire to share this sentiment with other women through her speaking ministry.
During the workshop, Leon gave her own example of grief and healing, which came even before the death of her son. In 2010, Leon went through a difficult divorce. Just before her divorce, she said, she was stuck in perfectionism to maintain a perfect family image. Yet, after a later annulment and her marriage to Ralph, she said that God invited her on a journey of healing, which coincided with her grief of losing John Paul.
Following her story, Leon presented five guideposts for women on what she described as the “Journey of the Beloved,” or a journey with Christ. Together, the five guideposts gave direction to women on experiencing God’s love, realizing the influence of the enemy in their lives, recognizing their own worth and dignity, and processing traumatic events through a relationship with Christ.
Through recognizing the lies we tell about ourselves as women, she said, we can reject these lies by recalling God’s deep love for us and allowing him to heal us. While this healing does not happen all at once, Leon added, frequent reception of the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist and prayer in Eucharistic adoration can help the healing process.
“I feel passionate about reaching that woman in the pew who feels like the goodness of God is not for her, and helping her realize that there is no obstacle that the Lord does not want to move for her,” Leon said. “Hopefully women walk away with a sense of ‘Oh, healing is not only possible, it is possible for me.’ ”
Leon hopes to grow her ministry and plans to develop a series of talks on healing for college-aged and young adult women.
Graduate student and St. Theresa parishioner Morgan Mabery said that the workshop gave her new insights on navigating difficult seasons of life.
“Life is not just about slogging through earth to make it to the glory of heaven. Of course, that is our ultimate destination, but through the journey we can find heaven on earth and experience glory and redemption now,” Mabery said.
Find Out More:
Learn more at elizabethleon.org.
