10a | JULY 9-22, 2006 JULY 9-22, 2006 | 11a Deacon Abrom Salley, house director of Zaccheus House, Maryknoll Father Bill Donnelly a residence for homeless men I’ve worked 30 years in Guatemala. One of the great I see Christ in the people we serve pleasures was serving the people there in the mission, everyday. I see the transformation the Mayan Indians and the Ladinos. Most of the time I in the men. The same men who worked there it was a country at war—civil war. Being have always been receiving, with the people in those hard times, I thank God for panhandling, stealing, through that. While I was there they killed 17 priests and a Zaccheus House they are able to bishop and hundreds of catechists, sisters and brothers. find God’s grace. To empower Those people giving their lives was a great inspiration. these men, to me, that is seeing God’s grace. Sometimes the simplest words are the hardest to define. This seems to be the case with the word “grace.” As can be seen in Anne Marie Tirpak, vicariate stewardship coordinator service and social justice We are bathed in God’s grace. I experience grace always in nature, Deacon Christopher Virruso, the following pages, God’s grace takes on many different forms. often times in people and the arts and in the early morning and the late night. went to New Orleans with a group of It’s during the quiet and stillness of the early morning and the late night that I Glenmary Father John Rausch, The premise of this special section was simple, talk to people Chicago Deacons through Project Hope am aware that I am not by myself; I am feeling something greater than myself. Director of the Catholic Committee of throughout the archdiocese—parishioners, bishops, priests, I think God’s graces are thrown into the air Appalachia and columnist everyday to all of us. It is up to us to We have a terrible time here with mountaintop religious, deacons, lay ministers—and ask where in their lives they recognize them. I saw God’s grace in the removal (a kind of mining). It destroys not only appreciation of the people we helped—the find God’s grace. But the answers varied widely. Some gave lay leaders the mountains, but also the communities. I Carmelite sisters and the girls whose school was up on one of these mountains with a Graziano Marcheschi, was rehabbed. We saw how grateful they group of people—about 60—and it was just a simple, concise answers. Others provided more theological Sally Mews, director of Lay Ministry Formation were to have help come to them from an lunar landscape. At the end of the prayer founder/director answers. Others had trouble sticking to the prescribed word limit. Programs for the archdiocese unexpected source. service, I gave each of them a handful of “Catholics Returning Home” My work as a formation director is one of wildflower seeds, and they walked around this Some looked to church services to find grace, others to I find God’s grace in my family, the great sources of grace in my life. large area, planting one or two here and and with Catholics Returning community, others to nature and still others to the service of Having to be focused on the spiritual there. I went back up on that mountain a year Home, helping people reclaim growth of others forces me always to and a half later, and they had just their faith, helping them find others. The responses to the question show the diversity of look inward and ask how I'm doing. hydroseeded it, so there was like a peach fuzz peace with themselves. believers in the archdiocese. This section also includes reflections When I offer input on formation days I of grass, but all over the place, clumps of find myself "preaching" as much to shasta daisies. … There can be a renewal of from businesses, organizations, schools, publishers, religious myself as to the participants. I hear my life in the midst of death, and we can replace words and hear in them the call to ugliness with beauty. Those are the moments communities and others about how they share God’s grace. recommit myself to living them. Helping of inspiration and grace I find. Hopefully, this special section devoted to grace provides an others recognize the importance of prayer, spiritual direction and balance in opportunity for reflection about where God’s grace can be their lives constantly reminds me of the need for those disciplines in my own life. found in your life. It seems from the various thoughts on grace in My formation ministry has become a these pages that grace is all around us, but, as a few great and constant cycle of grace Joanne Walczynski, Coordinator of Youth Ministry/Vicariate I shared and grace received. I look inside of my own heart to be reminded of the peace and love that is offered to respondents pointed out, it is up to us to find that grace. me everyday from many different God sources. In the midst of hectic schedules and harried lifestyles, it is sometimes difficult to trust that I don’t have to and really should Caroline Rodriguez, Megan Flaherty, not approach life and tasks as if I was in charge. It seems especially freeing to be going-to-be sixth-grader, restful with the Lord’s movement in my life. The peace that this acceptance of God’s soon-to-be third grader, Queen of Martyrs School special grace is for me always a prayer and a blessing. Helping our youth/teens in an St. Andrew School I find God’s grace when I’m outreach youth ministry believe that God has created each one of them with particular Animals. But not bugs. Patrick T. Reardon, author of “Love Never Fails: Spiritual Reflections for Dads of All Ages” kids in church and just about and unique qualities as well as opportunities to develop those qualities is a challenge. I see God best out of the corner of my eye—in the single chicken pox scar at my daughter’s everywhere else. Adults are called to be models (for our youth) of trust, peace and acceptance as they temple, in the particular action of my son’s shoulder blades as he runs, in my wife’s whoop of joy walk with and affirm teens as they grow and develop their faith. at the end of our wedding (and at virtually every other point in our life together). Each of these is evocative of a wealth of experience. Each hints at the pain and jubilation that we’ve shared. Each is a glimpse, when seen from just the right angle, into the face of God. Ryan Shirilla, member of Jesuit Volunteer Corp Magis, graduate student at Loyola University Passionist Father Robin Ryan, and teacher at Chicago Jesuit Academy associate professor, Catholic Theological Capuchin Franciscan writers and artists In small ways I see God’s grace. Just showing up Union; director, Catholics on Call Father Randy Knauf here [at Holy Name Cathedral], something As a theologian, I think of grace as first and Father Andrew Greeley associate chaplain at Northwestern inspired me to come here during the day for Mass. foremost God’s loving self-communication priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, University Sheil Catholic Center to us. God’s offer of self is always there for Joseph Malham, iconographer and artist-in-residence, writer, novelist and sociologist I see God’s grace most in the us, even when we are not thinking about St. Gregory the Great Parish I find grace in stories and examples of forgiveness. interactions of people with other God at all. There are times in our lives As an artist my first reaction is to say that I find grace in the work We don’t forgive others to earn God’s forgiveness. people and with the world. I work young adults when God’s self-communication is God has allowed me to create to honor and lend beauty to our That’s a reality which is pure gift. However, we forgive primarily with medical students and mediated to us with particular intensity: in faith and liturgy. As this can all change in an instant the grace Junior at Dominican University, River Forest to reveal, disclose, manifest, and celebrate God’s law students (at the Chicago Erika Corona, the sacraments, when God’s self-gift in must rest on somewhat more solid ground. I would therefore say I find God’s grace in the gift of service that I believe God has given me, forgiveness. campus), and these students are all Christ becomes real to us at key moments that God’s grace is manifested to me in the community or about trying to better the world. and as the recipient of this beautiful gift I try and practice it by serving my in our lives; in our encounter with the poor, communities (parish, family, friends) in which I find myself at any faith community and the communities that are in need of social justice. who mediate the face of the crucified given moment. God's grace is most alive in the present moment, Christ to us; in the marvelous experience of and it is there that I must strive to live completely. Kate DeVries, Young Adult Ministry, Archdiocese of Chicago deep friendship, in which love through I recognize God's grace whenever my heart is moved with emotion. Often it is within a situation that is joyful or thick and thin mirrors the fidelity of God; in exciting, but sometimes it is around a happening that is sad or upsetting.