To be replenished is to be reminded of what is true, of the values that tether us. This is not just someone saying, “You’ll be OK.” To be replenished is to know, at our core, that we are home and we are safe. Now we have something to draw on. Which means we have something to give. This sanctuary is not just for solace, but also indispensable as a deterrent. In other words, we build immunity: to not be as easily susceptible to fear, or at the mercy of every threat. We can do this because there are two gentle hands of grace that hold us, no matter what. Let us honor that capacity (inner core), fueled by sufficiency and not scarcity. We need to honor our capacity for mindfulness. To embrace now and the sacrament of the present moment.
—from the book Stand Still: Finding Balance When the World Turns Upside Down, by Terry Hershey, page 32
Mary knew who she was to the very depth of her being. She said yes to God and because of that, the world was turned upside down, or perhaps was finally righted. Mary’s is her testimony to the way God intended the world to be from the beginning. Because she said yes, a new creation would be revealed to the world. This woman at the heart of the Advent season is a remarkable role model for us. We might not realize it, but we, too, are filled with God’s grace, even if that grace is clouded and obscured by sin. Mary may have been born knowing who she was, but we are given many opportunities to learn the marvelous truth that we are sons and daughters of God. At times, we mistake humility for inferiority, but in truth humility means knowing who we are, with all our strengths and weaknesses, gifts and gaps. Our job is to clear away those things that keep us from saying yes to God. If we focus only on what’s missing, we miss the beauty that’s already there. As we become more and more clear, we better reflect and magnify the Lord who has given us all that we have, made us all that we are (and can be). And here, too, we can learn from Mary. Again and again, the Gospels tell us that she treasured everything in her heart, pondering the meaning of the angel’s words—and later those of her precocious child. She must have spent long days and even sleepless nights wondering where his adult path would lead him. But through all of ponderings, she knew in her heart that she could trust the God to whom she had said yes. How do you show forth the glory of God to those around you? Pray these words with Mary: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. (Luke 1:46–47) We’ll never be asked to do what Mary did. Her role in salvation history was unique. But God asks us to have her openness to those things that we are called to do. Take some time even in this hectic week to reflect on your life—past, present, and future—and listen for how God is asking you to make things right in your little corner of the world.
God loves to share his grace through great moments like First Reconciliation. Ben reminds us that God also gives you grace so you can thrive each and every day.
Through a puppet show, Sarah and her friends remind you that God loves you and wants to show you the best way to live. That’s why he sent his only son, Jesus.
The call to enter into the world of “the other” contains a costly component. Moving from accepted bias, taboos, and prejudices is not an easy step.
Often such taboos are reinforced by laws of both Church and state. They are firmly implanted in a culture or society’s conscious and unconscious mindset. While a person can “study” his or her way to a new understanding of “the other,” often it requires more than intellectual acceptance of a new position. The movement from understanding to action and advocacy is a movement of grace.
—Sister Margaret Carney, “The Franciscan Embrace of ‘The Other’” St. Anthony Messenger, June/July 2022 issue
We are birthed into life in the empowering grace of our creative God, and our collaborative responsibility with that God is to birth anew the nature that has birthed us. In this co-creative process, there is no room for patriarchal power or manipulation. It is our sense of belonging that defines our true nature and our God-given identity. That to which we belong defines the very essence of our adult selves. Therefore, God’s will for humans—and for all creation—is to exercise an agency of co-creation: to bring about on earth a greater fullness, the evolutionary complexity I described in chapter one. We are meant to be an engaged and involved species, adult people serving an adult God, in the ever-evolving enterprise of our magnificent universe. Seeking to escape to a life hereafter makes no evolutionary sense anymore; in fact, it never did for our ancient ancestors.
