Seek Grace For The Smallest Things: There are no small things
“Seek grace for the smallest things and you will also find grace to accomplish, to believe in and to hope for the greatest things.”
St. Peter Faber, SJ
All things being in and of, with and through God
actually
there can be no small things.
The 14th Century English mystic St. Julian of Norwich writes of her experience in ‘conversation with Jesus’ in her Revelations of Divine Love. One of Julian’s revelations is that of a hazelnut.
Holding the hazelnut in her hand, Julian asks Jesus, “What can this be?” Jesus replies, “It is all that is made.” Upon reflection Julian comes to understand, God made, loves and cares even for this tiny hazelnut. Grace is meant for the least of things.
Seven centuries later in his book, Belonging to God: Spirituality, Science and a Universal Path of Divine Love, the author, William Keeping, PhD quotes the physicist David Bohm. “‘The cosmos is a single, unbroken wholeness in flowing movement,’ in which each part of the flow contains the entire flow.” (p139)
“‘As above, so below.’ The (mathematical) fractal is a modern scientific discovery of this ancient mystical principle which can also be stated, As within, so without. The key insight is that deeply embedded within universal structures are miniature replicas of the whole on vastly smaller scale. The microcosm replicates the macrocosm.” (p145)
There are no small things.
Grace operates in every space and speck
of emerging creation
making all things whole, holy
and excellent
St. Peter Faber, SJ quote above is found in An Ignatian Book of Days by Jim Manney, a series of daily reflections from the Spiritual Wisdom of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Throughout the book we hear the voices of St. Ignatius as well as many great thinkers and writers, long gone and present day, each uniquely revealing the way of finding God in all things. And that is my intention; to find God/Divine Presence/Ultimate Reality in whatever presents itself to me each day in 2024.
Each day I read, reflect and write on the selection, hoping to articulate the ways in which I come to know God/Divine Presence/Ultimate Reality via personal experience, impelled by the leading of my inner life.
INVITATION
Would you like to join me? The book is accessible on Amazon. Let me know in the comments to this post and sign up to get an email whenever I post. I would love to read your reflections too, public or private messages welcome!
If you find this post meaningful please clap and leave a comment. If you have not yet, please subscribe. Thank you!
Learn more about me at
https://www.debraasis.org
All words are generated by grace and the grit of a real human being,
Debra Asis
