by The Face of Grace Project | Sep 6, 2020 | Across the Ages
The world demands ambition and teaches that greed is good. Ambition is a vice leading to greed and other sins. Pope Francis says “Careerism is leprosy!” The saints teach us to focus on God in the smallest of tasks for it is His glory that makes them good. Through this, even the lowest of work is honorable and dignifies us, the walking-talking temples of His Holy Spirit.
Words of wisdom from St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Josemaria Escriva, Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, Pope Francis, Servant of God John Arintero OP, St. John Paul II, and St. Walter of Pontoise (Patron of those suffering work-related stress)
by The Face of Grace Project | Sep 2, 2020 | Presence
“The same word in Hebrew (‘abad) means work, service and worship. For the chosen people these three activities constituted a worship of God that was one and the same.” (Thierry Maertens OSB)
How can I transform my work into worship?
by The Face of Grace Project | Aug 30, 2020 | Presence
The reason the early Christians were known by their love is because they were vessels of His love. Jesus is counter cultural, and to be His Christian we must be too. We must be Love.
by The Face of Grace Project | Aug 26, 2020 | Presence
As a young adult I began hearing people talk about the family of choice—our friends. The notion is that we get to choose our friends and they become our family. The implication is that we don’t get to choose our real families and so we are ‘stuck’ with them. An assumption is that we can cease being part of the birth family when we replace it with enough friends. This, of course, is false. While harm is never God’s will, belonging to our family is His design for our salvation—it is our family of Gift. He also would not place us into circumstances without the grace needed to thrive in holiness.
Faith is the gate through which grace enters. We must personally decide whether to be a grace vessel or a grace blocker. There is no partiality in God. He can only give of Himself 100%. The reason we do not receive the effects of that 100% is in us, not Him. I cannot change the past but I can change me today, asking God that I may truly desire they (and I) bask in His glory in Heaven.
by The Face of Grace Project | Aug 23, 2020 | Presence
Our soul is like the face of a cliff face. Our wounds are the crevices that give the fingertip space to the enemy to hold onto us. And that’s all he needs. Sometimes the smaller crevices run the deepest too. That is why the answer to any distress or conflict, whether spiritual or non-spiritual, is always our relationship with God. The pain of love far surpasses the pain we cling to in our hearts. This letting go, per St. Francis de Sales, is how we become “the instrument of our martyrdom”.
