An Excerpt from The Sacraments of Love" A Prayer Journal by Andrew M. Greeley
Andrew M. Greeley shares with his prayer journal that is salty, enlightening and straight from the heart. Here is an excerpt on grace.
"My Love,
"It's a bitter cold morning, but the sun is out. However, back in Chicago the winds are forty miles an hour; there's a blizzard going on and four inches of snow. I thank You this morning for the gift of this Arizona assignment during the last thirteen years (can it have been that long?) which has protected me from that kind of winter. Brr! Mind you, I never planned a place like this and would not mind terribly if I had to return to Chicago winters because I like Chicago so much. On the other hand, it's nice to return to a place You love and the gift of coming here is a surprise, a gift indeed, a grace.
"Lawrence Kasdan's film Grand Canyon, which I saw last night, is about grace. He observes both grace and random violence in Los Angeles and wonders which makes sense — miracles or "shit." The answer is the Grand Canyon, which stands for timelessness and beauty and majesty and is in the film (as well as in reality) a symbol, a metaphor, a sacrament of You. A somewhat hesitant sacrament because Kasdan is not sure about You (but then who is as sure as a catechism teacher?), but a sacrament nonetheless.
" 'Sometimes,' the Kevin Kline character says, 'things work out.' Sometimes they don't, but grace abounds in the story nonetheless, even if some of the characters turn their backs on it and other characters' conversion to grace is uncertain. But then that's the way the world is.
"The film's merit is that it is about the mystery of grace. It confronts head-on the mystery of evil with the mystery of grace. How is it that both exist? What can one do in a world where 'grace' and 'shit' co-exist? One can be sensitive to grace and seize all the opportunities it represents — that's Kasdan's answer and it is not a bad one.
"O Lady of Wisdom, Mother of Grace, Mother of Mercy, help me to open to Your Spirit wherever You blow and to respond quickly and 'gracefully' to the opportunities for goodness and love which You offer to me in my life. I ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord. Amen."
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