The Face of Grace Project

On any summer day, the boulevard drive along our waterfront is edged in masses of wildflowers. A variety of sizes, shapes, species, and colors are represented. As nature sows these, the plants are mixed together seemingly without any scheme or design. Yet in God’s design they collectively harmonize as a floral carpet adorning the roadway.

At least that is one way to see it. Others, however, may see these as a mess of weeds.

Perhaps, after the resurrection, Jesus appeared to a woman first simply because she was there, and the men weren’t. She made herself available to Him. And so should we.

In St. Benedict’s rule for living monastic life, one finds many pearls of wisdom for living in our domestic church.

God has designed complementarity across personalities and purposes that serve to bring order and harmony in the cosmos. All of this is His plan for Divine Providence, His infinite wisdom of His Divine Mind exhibited only in us who are created in His image.

Thus, if you did not exist, there would something of the wisdom of God that the world would never know, hidden from the entire cosmos. Every life matters, including yours.

Summertime brings summer reading, and the Catholic saints of the underground English Church give us a model for struggling with joy today in our own lives. Mary Ward is a saint for our times.

For the Christian seeking to grow closer to God, the difficulty in decision making isn’t in choosing something good. It is in making the right choice, the better-good choice. Part of the discernment process should be a test to find where love is in your heart vs. where focus is on yourself and your needs…

It is said that a mother is only as happy as her least-happy child. But no mother sorrows alone; Mary suffers with us. The sword that pierced your heart also pierces hers. And when Mary holds your child, she holds Jesus in your child’s heart. Just as nothing can separate her heart from His, neither can her heart be separated from your child.