Power of God/Power of Grace
The power of God is present at all places, even in the tiniest tree leaf. Do you think God is sleeping on a pillow in heaven? . . . God is wholly present in all creation, in every corner, behind you and before you. Martin Luther
Gregg’s Reflection
We usually see the power of God in the destruction, like the image of the aftermath of a tsunami shows above. Sitting at 9000 feet in the Rocky Mountains above Boulder, we see the beauty and force of nature on a daily basis. Every morning is a new sunrise.
The sky above is a constantly changing thing of beauty.
The vista from our front porch is incredible.
The wind blows so hard you can hardly stand up at times. We have seen huge blowdown in the forests around us.
And the snow drifts so deep we cannot get out for days
Then, with spring, the wildflowers abound.
And, in the fall, the Aspens are beautiful.
Living at the wildland interface brings us into contact with many different animals. Moose, Elk and Mule Deer roam the land. Coyote, Fox and Mountain Lion hunt the property. Eagles, Hawks and Owls soar over the land. Black Bears show up several times a year. Each of these invokes awe and wonder.
And finally, the risk of wildfire led us to spend 15 years doing thinning and limbing every summer. Fire has burned within a quarter mile of our land.
And we see all this without ever leaving the property. When you are immersed in nature, you see the power of God everywhere. Awe and wonder move us from the mind to the heart, where we connect with soul. And in our inner depths, the flow of grace abounds, if we let it. Richard Rohr quotes Catherine of Genoa:
“My deepest me is God!” St. Catherine of Genoa shouted as she ran through the streets of town, just as Colossians had already shouted to both Jews and pagans, “The mystery is Christ within you—your hope of Glory!” (1:27).
Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self
But, how do we find our own depths, our soul, the Divine Indwelling of God? To do that, we must move past toxic images of a God to be feared and allow ourselves to be loved by God. We can only love as we have been loved. This image describes the flow of Grace.
Read on and discover the flow of grace that is everywhere, all the time. Blessings.
Journaling Prompts
Where have you seen the Power of Grace at work? Where have you seen God at work in the world this week? To become more aware of God‘s presence in your daily life, try the Daily Examen of Consciousness: Reflect on moments in the last day when you were aware of God’s presence, and moments when you were distracted. A Jesuit Practice.
Scripture
The Lord is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise hum, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
Exodus 15:2
The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?
Psalm 27:1
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
Isaiah 40:29
Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.
Jeremiah 32:17
Prayer is the means by which the power that filled Jesus is transmitted to his followers. The energetic growth of the church derived from constant openness in prayer to the Power who raised Jesus from the dead.
RENOVARE Bible notes on Acts, NT p. 200
Peter and John’s authority and eloquence come from Jesus. “Uneducated and ordinary,” they were vehicles of enormous power.
RENOVARE Bible notes on Acts 4:13, NT p. 206
The power of God among us is limited only according to our degree of openness to it.
RENOVARE Bible Notes on Acts 28:8-9
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
Romans 1:20
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
2 Corinthians 12:9
I can do all things through him who gives me strength.
Philippians 4:13
For the Spirit of God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self discipline.
2 Timothy 1:7
Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Hebrews 4:16
Ancient Writings
,What grace is meant to do is to help good people, not to escape their sufferings, but to bear them with a stout heart, with a fortitude that finds its strength in faith.
St. Augustine, City of God, Book 22, Chapter 22
All Sacred Scripture is but one book, and that one book is Christ, because all divine Scripture speaks of Christ, and all divine Scripture is fulfilled in Christ.
Hugh of St. Victor, De Arca Noe Morali (On the Moral Ark), Book 2, Chapter 8
My Deepest me is God.
Catherine of Genoa, Spiritual Dialogues, Dialogue I
Just as our contrariness here on earth brings us pain, shame and sorrow, so grace brings us surpassing comfort, glory, and bliss in heaven … And that shall be a property of blessed love, that we shall know in God, which we might never have known without first experiencing woe.
Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, Chapter 39
The power of God is present at all places, even in the tiniest tree leaf. Do you think God is sleeping on a pillow in heaven? . . . God is wholly present in all creation, in every corner, behind you and before you.
Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 37: Word and Sacrament III, page 57
Modern Writings
God's high freedom in Jesus Christ is His freedom for LOVE. The divine capacity which operates and exhibits itself in that superiority and subordination is manifestly also God's capacity to bend downwards, to attach Himself to another and this other to Himself, to be together with him. This takes place in that irreversible sequence, but in it is completely real. In that sequence there arises and continues in Jesus Christ the highest communion of God with man.
God's deity is thus no prison in which He can exist only in and for Himself. It is rather His freedom to be in and for Himself but also with and for us, to assert but also to sacrifice Himself, to be wholly exalted but also completely humble, not only almighty but also almighty mercy, not only Lord but also servant, not only judge but also Himself the judged, not only man's eternal king but also his brother in time. And all that without in the slightest forfeiting His deity! All that, rather, in the highest proof and proclamation of His deity! He who DOES and manifestly CAN do all that, He and no other is the living God.
Karl Barth, The Humanity of God, pp. 62–64
A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.
C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, Chapter 3
To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything He has given us - and He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from Him.
Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude, Part II, Chapter 2
When the presence of God emerges from our inmost being into our faculties, whether we walk down the street or drink a cup of soup, divine life is pouring into the world.
Thomas Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart: The Contemplative Dimension of the Gospel, p. 112
Power Through Powerlessness. As fearful, anxious, insecure, and wounded people we are tempted constantly to grab a little bit of power that the world around us offers, left and right, here and there, now and then. These bits of power make us little puppets jerked up and down on strings until we are dead.
The movement from power through strength to power through powerlessness is our call. As we dare to be baptized in powerlessness, always moving toward the poor who do not have such power, we are plunged right into the heart of God’s endless mercy.
We reenter our world with the same divine power with which Jesus came, and are able to walk in the valley of darkness and tears, unceasingly in communion with God, with our heads erect, confidently standing under the cross of our life. It is this power that enables us to be not only gentle as doves, but also as clever as serpents in our dealings with governments and agencies.
It is this power that enables us to talk straight and without hesitation about sharing money with those who have no financial resources, to call men and women to radical service, to challenge people to make long-term commitments in the world of human services, and to keep announcing the good news everywhere at all times. It is this divine power that makes us saints fearless who can make all things new.
Henri Nouwen, Nouwen Society Daily Devotion, 10/7/20
I believe that divine love, incarnate and indwelling in the world, summons the world always toward wholeness, which ultimately is reconciliation and atonement with God.
Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays, p. 321
And I recognize the power of his might from the way vices were banished and how carnal desires were repressed. I was in awe at his profound wisdom by the way he uncovered and refuted my hidden sins, and I experienced the goodness of his mercy by even the very slight way he improved my way of life. I perceived his beauty from the recasting and renewal of the mind’s spirit, that is, the interior self; and from the sight of all these things at one time I was in great fear of his manifold greatness.
Bernard McGinn, Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism, p. 224
Authentic power is the ability to act from the fullness of who I am, the capacity to establish and maintain a relationship with people and things, and the freedom to give myself away. Sounds like pure gospel to me.
Richard Rohr, Mending the Breach: Love and Power, Center for Action and Contemplation Audio Teaching, 2006
God offers us, instead, the grace to “weep” over our sins more than to ever perfectly overcome them, to humbly recognize our littleness. (St. Thérèse of Lisieux brought this Gospel message home in our time.) The spiritual journey is a kind of weeping and a kind of wandering that keeps us both askew and thus awake at the same time. Thérèse called it her “little way.”
Richard Rohr, Radical Grace: Daily Meditations, p. 364
Grace is just the natural loving flow of things when we allow it, instead of resisting it. Sin is any cutting or limiting of that circuit.
Richard Rohr, The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See
Grace, like water, flows to the lowest place, and there it pools.
Richard Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life, p. 134
Jesus’s life is a sacrament: a mystery that draws us deeply into itself and, when rightly approached, conveys an actual spiritual energy empowering us to follow the path that his teachings have laid out.
Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Jesus p. 91
The minute you think you're good enough for God, God says, 'I'm not interested in people who are good enough for me.' And the minute you think you're too bad for God, God says, 'It's you I've come for.’
N.T. Wright, For All God's Worth: True Worship and the Calling of the Church