Undeserved Grace: Mercy and Advent

Check out Sr. M. Xavier's reflections on Mercy and Advent!

It is often said that God’s greatest attribute is mercy. In paragraph 277, The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “God shows forth his almighty power by converting us from our sins and restoring us to his friendship by grace.” God’s readiness to forgive, even our greatest sins, was best displayed on the cross when Jesus cried out “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). The Christian is one long journey of learning to receive the mercy God is constantly offering us. But what happens when your life seems too messy for His mercy to handle? That is when we can turn to the Saints for their help.

A beautiful gift of God’s mercy is that when He brought you into relationship with Himself through baptism and made you a partaker of the Divine Nature, He gave you friends to help you on your journey to Christian maturity. Not only does He give you people in this life to help you respond to grace in your life, but He has surrounded you with a cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1). This cloud of saints, all of whom are constantly asking God to help you, is made up of ordinary people like you and me. Some were doctors and lawyers, others business men, some kings and queens, shepherds and farmers, others stay at home moms, heroic soldiers, some educated and some who couldn’t read or write. Because of the vast diversity of Saints you can almost always find one who has been through the struggles that you are going through right now. In God’s mercy He allows the Saints to comfort you and lead you to Him. They do this not only by the life that they lived on earth but through their prayers for you right now! Your job is simply, you just have to seek out a relationship with them.

Comments

Unknown said…

I feel it really must be said: that this is a person with very polished and fluid presentation skills. Good voice too! Gets your attention.

If Sr. M. Xavier does not already, then she really ought to consider teaching professionally. Or at least: to be in some area of communication.

Friday, December 29, 2017

Welcome to our Family, Postulants!!!

Today, on the Feast of the Birth of Mary, our new postulants entered the postulancy of our American Province of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George! We thank God for the gift of these vocations. Pictured above - on their very first full day in the convent - are (from left) Ashley Vola, Samantha Goodson, Miranda Edgar, Jennifer Clark and Erin Leis. Welcome, Postulants! We Sisters are grateful that you have accepted Christ's invitation to belong totally to Him in our Franciscan community, and we support you wholeheartedly with our prayers and help! If you would like to send a word of welcome and encouragement to these new postulants, we will pass the greetings along to them. Just leave them as a "comment"!

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