“Everything is grace!” said St. Therese of Lisieux, and I believe it! I stray today from my “camino lessons” to talk about something that’s been on my brain for the past two weeks. Yes, you guessed it: EVERYTHING IS GRACE! Before I realized that these words were attributed to St. Therese, they came to me one day as I recognized I was not being my best self. Here’s how it went down:

uncentered mornings

I laid in bed before a doctor’s appointment, I rose with not enough time, I drove behind what I perceived to be a “slow poke”, I grew frustrated at the slow poke, I made a wrong turn, extended my drive 10 minutes, arrived at the wrong facility 20 minutes late (although they accommodated me) and thus continued my day. As I sat in front of the TV in the evening, I found myself mocking the personality and woke up to my conviction: “what is wrong with you? You have not been your best self today!”

Immediately upon my self-conviction, I realized I had not started my day with prayer. I had not taken the time that morning to sit and contemplate Jesus, my faith and my blessings. I started my day frazzled and it continued that way! It was then that it hit me – EVERYTHING IS GRACE! I cannot do this thing called life all alone.

grace, THE THEME!

All good things come from God! Everything is grace. My peace, my courage, my strength, my patience. It all comes from Him and so everyday I must beg for grace because I can acquire none of it on my own. EVERYTHING is grace! It’s a gift freely given to me, as undeserved as I am. All I have to do is ask and it will be given.

As is so often the case with all things God – the “theme” continued for me everywhere I turned as the week progressed. First in my contemplative group and then in everything I read, including the Liturgy of the Hours.

SAVING GRACE

As I prayed the Liturgy of the Hours, the Hymn for the morning included these words: Eternal Father, through your Word, you gave new life to Adam’s race, transformed them into sons of light new creature by your saving grace! Saving grace – the unmerited love of God!

In my contemplative group we discussed the book Ocean of Light, by Martin Laird. On page xiii he writes: “Love plumbs depths that our thinking mind cannot and so must take love’s word for it.”

Of course, how can we comprehend the love God has for us. A love we do not merit and yet, it overflows. We do well to simply accept it, beg for it and take His word for it. We ARE most certainly worthy of that love because He created us and because He said so!

WHAT’S YOUR INTENTION?

The theme continued one Friday evening. I sat in Adoration that evening contemplating my intention. Why was I there? Was I there because I thought I could merit something? Was I there because I thought it was the right thing to do? Was I there because I wanted others to see me? Was I there because I wanted to seem holy? As I ran through all the possibilities, I was moved by the fact that none of the above were true for me. I was there because I LOVED HIM!

Of course, my analytical brain would not stop there. I then wondered WHY I loved Him? Was it because someone told me to? Was it because I didn’t know any better? After all, I’ve never seen Him. I continued to contemplate. Here’s what I came up with:

WHYYYYYY?

We contemplate not to merit anything from God but because we want to be in His Presence. We want to be in His Presence because we love Him – simply because we love Him. Most importantly, we love Him because He loved us first!

What’s your intention? Remember, everything is grace. It all comes from Him first! Your faith, your strength, your courage, your patience, your love, your peace! Remember to beg for it at the start of your day! God bless you!

Yesterday was the first day of the St. Therese Novena! If you’re interested, you can find it here.