The Face of Grace Project

There but for the Grace of God go I. This is an old saying from my childhood that our American culture lost long ago. Perhaps it is time to bring these sayings back, as they situate us within our spiritual reality. Do we go through our day recognizing the Sacred among us?

If we each made a renewed effort to go through the day recognizing God who is already present to us, how might the world change?

I choose with my free will to go through my day looking at God looking at me, permitting Him to show me the Sacred around me. I much prefer His perspective. 😊

Our upcoming elections have caused the greatest turmoil in our country in decades. We have become a society for whom interpersonal relations center in taking part in riots (or cheering from the sidelines). No longer valuing our beauty and identity as human persons caused by the legalization of abortion, people have become disposable. Relationships are disposable. The void is filled with ideologies to numb the hidden pain. We have transitioned from an ideal of self-preservation to one of self-gratification.

Within that context we have the upcoming elections. These have caused great angst for many people, grasping for answers, seeking to control in an out-of-control world. Change will happen, but first it must happen within us.

Satan and his fellow fallen angels were left to prowl the earth seeking souls to steal. Until placed specifically under Christ’s dominion, we remain under Satan’s and so baptism is keenly important. With age, however, comes increased responsibility to live out our baptismal covenant. Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is an ancient tradition in the Church that aids us in this. In these troubled times, personal consecration to Jesus becomes more urgent than ever.

Our time here on earth is our probation for entrance to Heaven, and that path to Heaven is hoed only by sincere mercy. It makes sense, then, that forgiveness is a process not an act. Yet how to take that first step can be confusing and even fearful. Each situation, each act, creates knots in our heart and our life. The process of forgiveness is one of untying those knots.

For other nations, the year 2020 may be remembered by the pandemic. For America, it will be remembered as one of the greatest wars we have fought for our soul and sovereignty. The many battlefields are both in front of our very eyes as well as within our very hearts, seen with the eyes of the soul. It is a war fought in the fields of perception, memory, imagination, pride, words.

Autumn is the perfect season for change: a transition from warmth to cold, from sunny days to clouds. A solitary leaf dances effortlessly when it falls from the tree. And our attention is placed upon the color and grace of the changing leaves, the eye-catching beauty. But once shed of all its finery, why do we ignore the tree? When stripped down to their trunks and limbs, we can see the tree’s true shape. Each is a unique shape too, a personality of sorts. There is a type of beauty in the barrenness found nowhere else in creation.

I pray that, as the leaves turn from green to gold and the trees fall barren, that I too will change my colors, let go of whatever inhibits me from following God, and be barren.

When I go to prayer with my agenda, it is like an orchestra that is simply a collection of noisy instruments wanting to be heard. When God works in the soul, it is like a conductor bringing together beautiful music, having already cleaned the instruments and tweaked their tuning. He brings them into one voice: His.

So, when I begin to pray I ask myself…who is setting the agenda?