April 16, 2007

All is Grace

Allow me to share with you one of my very favorite quotations:

“Everything is a grace.... Everything is the direct effect of our Father’s love... difficulties, contradictions, humiliations, all the soul’s miseries, her burdens, her needs, Everything, because through them, she learns humility, realizes her weakness. Everything is a grace, because Everything is God’s gift. Whatever be the character of life or its unexpected events - to the heart that loves, all is well.”

- Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus

Saint Thérèse was not canonized and proclaimed a Doctor of the Church without good reason. I believe that it was her childlike humility and love that propelled her to such a height of sanctity.

The Little Flower is right: everything is God’s gift to us! Forget about proving to God that you deserve to be loved. All is grace. Yes, even illnesses, crosses, and sufferings can be—or at least conceal (as a mysterious vessel)—tremendous gifts from our Loving Father. While we are loving God and others, all is well!

This is true humility: the realization of Who God Is and who we are in relation to Him, resulting in our utter dependence on Him like a little child (which is the only appropriate response). God Is All, and we are nothing but what God makes us by the free gift of His Life-giving Love and our free response to His Gift.

God is not cheap. When He gives, He gives most generously, not holding back even the tiniest bit. And He gives the most precious gift, the Only Gift: He gives the Gift of Himself!

Lord God, grant me the grace to give myself totally to You, Who first gave Yourself totally to me. Amen.

Br. Philip Maria Allen, CFR

Most Blessed Sacrament Friary, Newark, NJ

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