I’m so excited for you guys to get to know Grace. Over the summer, Katelyn and I had the opportunity to get to know her before she moved all the way from Pennsylvania to Pensacola, Florida. Grace's family has been friends with both of our families for years, and she is a dear, dear friend to our younger sisters.
Grace has a deep understanding of the Catholic faith. She honestly has more knowledge of theology than most college students and young adults. She reads the Bible and Aquinas’s Summa (for fun!! I think I skimmed a tiny section of it once for a theology paper lol), and she is constantly searching for truth, beauty, and goodness.
Grace is a cradle Catholic, and the way she describes her journey in faith is beautifully put. “I never had a thunderbolt moment where Jesus broke into my life, but rather, I have had a prolonged desire to fall more deeply in love with the God who loves me so much that He was willing to die on the cross for my sins.”
What better way to fall deeper in love with Christ than by trying to imitate the woman who knew Him best, His mother? “Whenever I am tempted to pride and arrogance, or on the contrary to insecurities in myself, I must remember both my littleness before God's greatness and yet, my infinite worth because of His Love,” she told us.
“Mary understands, more perfectly than any creature in creation, God's infinite goodness. This leads her to spend all her life humbly reflecting His perfect Love.”
Guys. This 12th grader found the secret to life. Mary is the perfect model of how to live as a Christian, and if she humbled herself her whole life, then we need to humble ourselves before God and remember who He is! The God of the universe who created the stars and the seas and you and me. We are significant to Him because He made us significant.
The difficulties of the last several months have weighed on Grace, as they have for many of us, but she perseveres in her relationship with Jesus in spite of these difficulties. “When we turn to Jesus, we must allow Him to perfect our hearts through suffering,” she said. “As Catholics, we are promised the perfect joy of Heaven after living a cruciform life.
“We are not called to attain this joy after death though, but rather to bring the joy of Heaven to the present moment. My soul is often clouded and I turn into my own self pity, but joy is not there. Christ is not there, but He is in my brokenness. There He waits for me to join Him on the cross.”
“As St. Augustine beautifully says, ‘In my deepest wound I saw Your glory and it dazzled me.’ My 'Yes!' to God is striving to see Him in the broken wounds of my soul, and finding Christ there, finding His joy there, bringing Him to the world.”
Read 👏🏻 that 👏🏻 again 👏🏻
This is sooo good! This girl just pulled St. Augustine into all of our lives and I know I at least needed that. I don’t know about you, but I need to go back and reflect if my life is living like I am embracing Christ on the Cross.
I asked Grace what she would say to young Catholics today. “I think there is a general fear that the Church is dwindling, especially among young people, but though this may be true in some cases, I believe there is great hope for the young. The world is in desperate need of the beauty which only the Catholic Church can offer. We, as Catholics, must go bravely into the world speaking truth and spreading joy and, in this manner, set souls on fire with love for Christ!”
Amen, sister! We are called to be courageous for Christ. How are you living the call to embrace the cross? How are you preparing yourself to go and speak about the Truth and beauty of the Catholic Church? How are you being like Christ?
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