Infusions of Grace

The first time I read the words was back in the year 2000.

I had never heard of Thomas Merton. A friend handed the already opened book to me and asked me to read a few lines.

Those lines read,

“EVERY moment and every event of every man’s life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of winged seeds, so each moment brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of men. Most of these unnumbered seeds perish and are lost, because men are not prepared to receive them: for such seeds as these cannot spring up anywhere except in the good soil of freedom, spontaneity, and love.”[1]

Winged seeds and germs of spiritual vitality?

Merton is writing about much more than judicial grace – that grace which saves us when it is applied to our lives. Judicial grace is certainly a need that we have. The eternal consequences of rejecting the saving judicial grace of Christ is not worth its cost, whether now or in eternity.

He is writing about daily infusions of grace, the reality that drops of grace are raining down upon us every moment, in every event of our lives, and that recognizing and receiving these many drops of grace depends upon our personal preparation to receive them.

One of the many beautiful things about the Catholic Church is the care that she takes to ensure that all of us have everything we need to cultivate the soil of our hearts so that we are prepared to receive these winged seeds and germs of spiritual vitality.

The Seven Rites of the Church[2], though many outside the Catholic Church see these Rites as binding religious legalism, are given to us by Christ through His Church to create freedom in the Holy Spirit, spontaneity in our worship and praise of God, and love for God and one another in the lives of God’s children - representations of multiplied graces, received from the Giver of Grace, and lived in our moment by moment lives.

Monastic communities also have a Rule that they live by. 

Ours, in the Benedictine tradition, is the Rule of Saint Benedict.[3] A Rule is called a rule because it creates parameters that assist in regulating life – not only community life but personal life as well. A Rule is a way of life that can also be seen as a collection of guiding life-principles. The life-principles contained in the Rule of Saint Benedict apply not only to the cloistered monk, but also to Oblates. They not only apply to monks and Oblates, but also to every Christian.

Benedict did not introduce something new to the Church in the Sixth Century. Monastic life - both for men and women - was, during the early centuries of Church history, a very normal and accepted expression of Christian faith. Nor did Benedict dream up what became known as the Rule of Saint Benedict. Benedict relied upon and constructed this Rule from the monastic models that preceded him.

Then, as now, those entering into the monastic expression of Christian faith, are men and women simply surrendering their lives to Christ and seeking God in an intense, personal, and directed way.

Life in the 21^st Century is complicated. The complications and challenges, as the Century progresses, will not become less complicated. They will, if anything, become more complicated as society continues its downward spiral into godlessness and immorality.

Great and wonderful are your deeds,

O Lord God the Almighty!

Just and true are your ways,

O King of the ages!

Who shall not fear and glorify your name, O Lord?

For you alone are Holy.

All nations shall come and worship you,

For your judgments have been revealed.[4]

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[1] Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation, © 1961 by the Abbey of Gethsemani, Inc. p. 14

[2] Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, Matrimony

[3] Benedict (c. 480 – 547) is affectionately considered the Father of Western Monasticism.

[4] Revelation 15:3-4