There is a very simple, yet very profound and beautiful quote by St. Thérèse of Lisieux: “Everything is grace.” Everything is indeed grace. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines grace like this: “Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to His call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and eternal life. Grace is a participation in the life of God.” (CCC #1996-1997)
However, we currently live in a culture where people tell themselves they deserve to have anything they want, whenever they want, simply because they want it or think they have earned it in some way. So, to hear that God is giving us a free and undeserved gift might sound rather shocking to the modern ear. Nonetheless, quite counter-culturally, by offering us this “undeserved gift of grace,” God is demonstrating His unconditional love for us and His deep desire for us to return that love to Him.
Perhaps we can now see better what St. Thérèse meant by “Everything is grace.” For practical purposes, though, we may want to add the word opportunity – everything is an opportunity for grace – because we need to be open to it to receive the gift in its fullness. If we willfully choose spiritual blindness and refuse to see the work God is doing in our lives, then any grace we might receive (in any situation) will be limited by our own lack of vision or stubbornness. Therefore, every moment of every day – good or bad – is an opportunity for God to fill us with His grace and allow us to be drawn into His life with our entire selves. What a gift!
