Recipe For Holiness: 6 Parts MERCY

Perhaps I speak too much about grace.
Every subject, problem, or prayer brings me back to this same place. The amazing grace of God.

I’ll never forget the first time I contemplated the meaning of this word – grace. I was standing before 25 or so women. It was my very first time leading a group in faith sharing/bible study. The PANIC I felt in my heart when I realized I HAD absolutely NO words to express what grace meant to me. Stumped, I threw the question back to the crowd – like I planned it all along to have. The wonderful teaching technique Jesus perfected – returning questions with a question. Let me look like I meant for them discover the meaning of grace through discussion; but really was just deflecting.

A woman in her late 70s, full of faith and wisdom, shared to her it was God breathing within her spirit. It was how he communicated to her heart – and guided her way. Beautiful.

A few additional elements about the grace of God revealed over the years; which I have add to that initial incredibly insightful and inspiring definition of grace:

It is UNMERITED. I can do NOTHING to earn it.
It is FREELY given. It is GIFT! The surprise squirrel in the mail – kind of gift!
It is a part of God – his HOLY SPIRIT – now living in me!
If I SEEK it – then I will FIND it;
It can be FOUND in abundance with time spent in Prayer, Sacrament & Scripture;
There is an ABUNDANCE all waiting for the asking; and I do not wish to leave any grace unused.

My holiness panela (*Portuguese for pan) will soon be overflowing with the great many ingredients we’ve been highlighting in this #Recipe4Holiness series, as taught to us by Pope Francis. Just recently someone reported to me a YouTube video they discovered that taught “the path to sainthood”. It instructed watchers to pray the Rosary 3 x a day; that once a day was for children. Whoa. Then guess what, I am taking the little kid way to Heaven. As even with my best intentions to pray the rosary daily; there are many days that it does to make it into my ‘to do’ list. Prayer always does; but not always the formulaic prayers of the faith that I cherish but can not always attend to. Dishes, work and well sleep, sometimes get in my way!

Yet grace … abounds. Gratefully, God is beyond our formulas. I imagine he is more than happy to shower me in grace, even when I am having one of those days where I can utter only a barely audible:
“Abba, Father, I could use a little help down here.“