Grace, Grace, and More Grace

 The concept of Grace is a very abstract one to a child.  Our catechism taught us that Grace is "the unmerited favor of God," but the words "unmerited" and "favor" had absolutely no concrete reference to me beyond their dictionary definition.  A child does not think about "meriting" the "favor" of his/her parents.  Rather, she takes for granted that her parents love her, and will do the best for her, merited or not.  (I realize that I was a very fortunate child.)

To complicate things even further, there were illustrations in our book supposed to represent Grace.  Three milk bottles were pictured (this was in the days of milkmen and milk deliveries). One of the bottles was black, signifying the soul without Grace; one of them was pure white, showing the soul "full of grace," and one bottle was white with black spots, showing both grace and sin in the soul.  Of course, I wanted to be full of grace, but other than Mass and Communion, I wasn't sure how to do that.  And worse, I puzzled over exactly what this grace was that could fill the soul completely.

In high school religion classes, we learned about "actual grace," "sanctifying grace," "prevenient grace," and maybe some other kinds of grace I have now forgotten.  We learned the words, but not the practical examples that would help us understand grace.  

In Your Life in the Holy Spirit, Alan Schreck points out that "it is important to distinguish between the natural capacity of the mind to comprehend things and the gift of the Holy Spirit that enables a person to grasp the real meaning and implications of their faith and of other truths" (p.69).....and "We should think that God desires the truths of the faith to be matters of deep personal conviction and knowledge, which is a work of the Holy Spirit.  In short, God desires the truths we believe as Christians to come alive and assume real meaning for our lives through the Holy Spirit" (p. 70).

With the ministry of the Holy Spirit in my life to reveal Truth, I have come to understand, see, and love "ordinary grace," my own term which probably covers all the officially named graces in the catechism.  Ordinary grace -- the grace of God's loving-kindness and unmerited favor going ahead of all my daily needs, covering my carelessness and inattention, and guiding me through troublesome days and nights.

Every day is a day of "grace," giving me songs of joy.  St. John of the Cross said this: "The soul of one who loves God always swims in joy, always keeps holiday, and is always in the mood for singing."  Now that's a definition of grace that I can sink my teeth into!  Those spots in the milk bottle --- that's where we have limited or blocked God's favor and kindness towards us, where we have chosen our own way and refused to allow Him to favor and guide us.

We are preparing to downsize and move to a smaller house.  I had no idea of how difficult it would be to let go of all the things we have been collecting for 50 years.  (St. Francis had the right idea!)  We are moving to a house where the rooms are small, and where there is absolutely no storage space, so in preparation, I have ordered a few storage cabinets for the laundry room.  But that means the cabinets will have to be assembled, in addition to all the other projects and cleaning involved in a move of this magnitude.  Yesterday afternoon, the high school kid down the block appeared on my doorstep.  He needs service hours now and next semester for school and wanted to know if I had anything he could do.  I was stunned by "actual grace," "sanctifying grace," and "prevenient grace"  --- or "ordinary grace," the unmerited favor of God.  Even before the first cabinet had arrived, God has made provision for my need!  I know this young man, as he and his father appeared as an answer to prayer after the last hurricane with chain saws to clean up our property.  He is a hard-working, trustworthy person who has a great work ethic.  I can trust him to do the job right.  I told him that I had a project for both him and a friend if they wanted to put together my storage cabinets --- surely worth more hours than needed by just one of them. 

Grace, grace, and more grace!  Grace for every day's most quiet need, in the words of Elizabeth Barret Browning's poem, "How Do I Love Thee?"  Ordinary grace -- that is, the favor of God that anticipates our most simple needs and that will not fail us: 

 "Give us this day our daily bread," and someone to lend a helping hand when we need it!