God always leads me to what I need to read during a certain period in my life.  I have never doubted this.  When He wants to speak to me, the right book or scripture passage will present itself.

These past few weeks I have frequently picked up Everything is a Grace by Fr. Anastatius of the Holy Rosary OCD.  I read just what I needed to hear: “…to accept with faith our concrete life means to banish from it all envy which robs us of our tranquility and which is born of wasting time in uselessly comparing our life with that of our neighbor…”

“What we have just said of comparisons and envy is likewise applicable to nostalgic daydreams which sap our spirit of abandonment, and consequently our acceptance of Providence.”

Would I then turn away from God and desire something against His Divine Providence?  If I place all my trust in our Heavenly Father and His plans for my sanctity, can I doubt that “within the rhythm of Providence, nothing that happens to us can help be but an occasion of grace lovingly offered and ordered to eternal life.”

Instead of accepting trials and sufferings as the “weight of the cross” we can accept them as  the “burden of love” and learn to accompany the act of acceptance with a “smile of recognition.”

“Everything is a grace,” states St. Therese.

If everything is a grace on God’s part, then everything has to be faithfulness on ours.  We have to accept unconditionally every offer of grace with all the love of which we are capable.

{Theresa lives out her vocation as wife, mother to four (and two in Heaven), Classical homeschooler, Secular Carmelite, and part-time ultrasonographer in Pennsylvania.  She shares her fumbling writings at my desert heart when the Spirit nudges her.}