Praying Grace
Connected by grace
I was 8 or 9 one Sunday at Bea and Papaw’s for dinner. Everyone was at the table and Papaw said, “Tim, you say grace.”
My mind jumped to the then-popular George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. I bowed my head and whispered, “Goodnight, Gracie. Amen.” Fortunately, before anyone was upset, Dad added, “Amen!” and we dug into dinner.
That may have been the beginning of my effort to understand grace: what it is, what it means, why it’s referred to in so many ways. I’m thinking it must be grace that now, 60 years from that blessing, I’m finding clarity.
Before some meals, we said the blessing. Sometimes we said grace. I understood that we were blessing our food. I wasn’t as clear about grace. For both we said the same thing. Easy to understand now that I know it comes from the Latin gratus which means pleasing, thankful. “Thank you, God, for the food we are about to….”
More thoughts started coming together. We say grace. We can have it. We can receive it. We can know it. We can share it. If grace is God’s favor to us, the favor of being, then surely it is something we have, we receive it continually. The two big efforts are to know it and to share it. Maybe I shouldn’t put those out as efforts for anyone except me. For me, it does take effort to keep in my heart that I know God’s grace, so that I may share it.
Recently, I’ve rediscovered Richard Rohr and his Center for Action and Contemplation. At various points in his meditations over the past few years, he’s referred to “oriented spirituality”, “inner God experience”, “union with God”. But the very best of all is this……
“Basically, grace is God’s first name, and probably last too. Grace is what God does to keep all things God has made in love and alive—forever. Grace is God’s official job description.” (Richard Rohr, 2/1/2016)
Praying Grace
Good Friend Grace,
Thank you for the favor of being:
your being you, your creating the being me.
Thank you for the grace that glues us
seamlessly together as One.
Thank you for the power we have
to recognize our gratitude and know
it’s from and for your grace,
that you fill and wrap us with,
that you give us the freedom
to recover, whether early or late,
the freedom to discover
we are
we have
we know
we share
your grace.
And so it is. And so we let it be. Amen.
Love and blessings,
27 May 2017
In: God, Grace, Gratitude, Inner Peace, Joy, Love, Peace, Prayer · Tagged with: Energy, Grace, Joy, Love, Peace, Prayer
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