by The Face of Grace Project | Feb 9, 2021 | Life, Work and the World
Twenty-five years ago, a Catholic parish in Arizona had a conundrum serving its mostly immigrant farm-working community. As the immigrants travel the circuit, their children are not in place long enough to be properly educated, including religious education. Two nuns asked a local farmer for permission to use his barn to give religion class to the children while their parents worked, to which he agreed. It eventually morphed to nuns coming back in the evenings to catechize the adults as well. This is the way of proper Catholic action, people helping one another. We have lost sight of this as our vision is distracted by a polarized mentality fueled by the media. It is a heritage and a freedom we risk losing altogether.
It is important that we take part in public discourse promoting the intrinsic value of life at all stages and ages from conception to natural death. However, that discourse needs to be the outcome of a lived faith. A lived faith is one that changes us, the believers.
by The Face of Grace Project | Feb 7, 2021 | Presence
Lent is less than two weeks away…yikes! Many of us are taking to heart how we can let this special season be a catapult to change in our life. Maybe I’ll finally become holy?
Sometimes, however, the path to holiness looks more like the child’s game Candyland than it does the Yellow Brick Road from the Wizard of Oz fame! Filled with peppermint sticks, gumdrops and Grandma Nutt’s peanut brittle (all God’s grace), we forge ahead. But alas, we take an easier choice and land in the cherry pitfall for a while. With God’s grace, however, we persevere straight through the Ice Cream Floats and can see King Kandy’s Castle ahead, only to get stuck in the Molasses Swamp. That one takes a real purging of ourselves to ‘lighten the load’ of our souls.
The purpose of Lent is to prepare us for Easter, the Resurrection. If we let God have His way, it can become His resurrection in us, bringing us new life. Let’s build a Lenten plan that cleans the junk out of the soul so that God can move in. 😊
by The Face of Grace Project | Feb 3, 2021 | Presence
I have been thoroughly enjoying Fr. Mike Schmitz’s daily “read the bible in a year” program at Ascension Press. While doing mindless tasks like laundry, my mind is filled listening to the scriptures being read out loud, followed by a prayer and a few minutes of his thoughts. Whether it is Leah’s woundedness feeling least loved by Jacob, or Esau so lacking control over his own passions that he sold his birthright for porridge (because he was famished), each day we are given a tidbit that later can be taken to God in our mental prayer.
by The Face of Grace Project | Jan 31, 2021 | Presence
I often sit in awe of God in the Holy Family while taken aback by realizing what a weakling St. Joseph was. His wife was perfect, and his son was God. Yet he was head of household, the decision maker. That had to be intimidating! Honestly reflecting upon this experience of awe in God begins the humbling experience of realizing your so-called ‘discerned’ and ‘holy’ choices weren’t so holy or discerned after all. But don’t beat yourself up over it. St. Joseph did the same thing when deciding to divorce Mary quietly, and God had to send him an angel to set him straight. May God do so for us too!
There are many lessons to be learned from Candlemas.
by The Face of Grace Project | Jan 27, 2021 | Presence
Consistently in the lives of the saints, two practices are found: (1) mental prayer, and (2) a practice of reviewing one’s day in dialogue with God. St. Ignatius of Loyola captured this daily review in the examen prayer. For some reason, when I first learned the examen, I just couldn’t wrap my brain around it because my way of thinking didn’t seem to fit into that prayer. After several months, I finally could remember the steps, use my calendar to help me remember my day, and found a time to pray it when I could stay awake. My life wasn’t exciting enough to keep me from dozing off…but the truth was I didn’t yet have the zeal for the spiritual life to uncover God’s presence in every moment.
I eventually realized that if there was something so different about God’s way of thinking from my own, then there was something very wrong with my way of thinking!
