Your Grace Is Enough

When I was teaching my third graders on Sunday, I asked them what the greatest gift they had ever received was. I was very impressed with their genuine answers such as family, friends, and life (what wonderful students I have!) Then I told them what the greatest gift I had ever received was: God’s grace.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines grace as “God’s free, loving gift to us…God devotes himself entirely to us and communicates himself to us in grace. Grace is everything God grants us, without our deserving it in the least” (CCC 1996-1998,2005,2021). Wow, just wow! God loves us so much that He gives us grace, a beautiful gift we don’t even deserve! Grace is so beautiful, and is so visible in our lives. As Pope Benedict XVI describes it, “Grace is being looked upon by God, our being touched by His love”.  I have definitely seen this in my own life, as well as others. Back in high school, I was a member of the peer ministry team. We had a phrase we used to describe when we saw God’s grace very visibly working in a situation: GRACE BOMB. That describes it perfectly. Sometimes, I feel so inundated with God’s grace that I could explode with joy. I experience this often after receiving the sacraments, such as confession or the Eucharist. The joy I experience is a grace from God, a grace known as sacramental grace that comes from the sacraments. There is other forms of grace, such as actual and habitual, which I highly encourage all of you to delve into and study! I recommend the YouCat as a great starting point!

                While I am joyful most of the time, there have been really dark times of trial in my life. We all go through these times, but that does not mean God is not with us! (Different blog post on this with a great cartoons here). God is always with us, and will get us through anything. I recently experienced His carrying power during a half marathon I recently ran on a collapsing arch. I went to the race knowing I had a foot injury, but was confident I could get through it. By mile two, my foot was in more pain than it had ever been before. During miles two through four, I was very unhappy and very negative. That negativity did not help at all though. Around mile five, it finally dawned on me that I should start praying, so I did. As I prayed, many memories came into my mind of various trials that I had been through that God had carried me through. Those trials had seemed impossible at the time, but God got me through each and every one of them. The thing about these trials is that they were also harder than running a half marathon on a messed up foot. Upon finishing, I was quite dazed and hobbled over to the aid station. It was quickly revealed that my foot was purple, and thus very swollen. The EMTs could hardly believe I had been able to run 13.1 miles on that foot. As the saying goes, I was only able to do that by the grace of God. That is more than just a saying to me though, it is a reality. Nothing I have ever accomplished has been done without God’s grace. I could never have had ran that race on my own, nor could I have ever gotten through any of the other trials in my life. While those trials were more emotional and this one was more physical, all the same I could not have done it without God’s grace. God’s grace is so beautiful and awesome, and despite my valiant efforts, there is no words that can describe it. Matt Maher, a Catholic singer, has a very famous song about grace, which is one of my go-to happy songs. I saw him perform at a Steubenville Youth Conference, and he said he had actually written this song during a hard time in his life. The song, as many of you may have guessed, is called “Your Grace Is Enough”, and there are a few lines at the end that I particularly enjoy:

"Your grace is enough
Heaven reaches out to us
Your grace is enough for me
God I see Your grace is enough
I'm covered in Your love
Your grace is enough for me, for me
It's enough for me"

God’s grace is enough to get us through any trial. As Jesus told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Grace will always get you through, no matter what you may be struggling with. It is always enough. In fact, it is so much more; it is the greatest gift we have ever received. I pray that you all will cherish this gift and live in this gift. If there ever was a “saving grace” is the grace given to us by God.

Keep finding strength in His grace!

Your Sister In Christ,

Dani