Grace

 

 

 

I want to give you a deeper understanding of grace.

 

For starters, grace is God’s delight, God’s favor.

 

I remember 7th grade. I was overweight, pimply, nerdish. Most of the girls had their noses high in the air. But there was a seventh grade girl – one, whose name was Christine – who would smile at me. She would talk with me, and be kind to me – and her favor would carry me for days. God’s favor is called grace – and grace can carry us forever.

 

St Augustine says seven key things about grace.

 

1st Grace is the inner gift of God - the inner power of eternal beauty, where God reveals himself in our inner self, so we can delight in God, enjoy God, love God, and please God.

 

2nd Grace is an inner connection to Christ. Our souls are either gravitating toward Adam and his sin, or to the Church, which is Christ’s body.

 

3rd Grace is the power to love God, enjoy God, and do what God wants, because it is easy to do what's your loved one wants.

 

4th Grace heals. It heals our will and our sin-corrupted self.

 

5th Grace strengthens us to see more and more how God helps us day by day.

 

6th Grace gives us the power to do what we must do, to love as we must love, to see as we must see, so we can do individual acts of love.

 

7th Grace is the loveliness of God, getting into our hearts and changing our hearts, so we make the right choices - to love God and our neighbors. WOW. Grace is God’s favor, connecting us to Christ, giving us the power to love God, heal, strengthen, and, act – the loveliness of God moving us to do the right thing.