The Power of Divine Grace

The moment I knelt in the confessional at the start of this past Lent, I knew it would be a breakthrough in my spiritual life. Incense from Eucharistic Adoration seeped through the reconciliation room, just as Christ did into my heart as soon as I knelt down. Steadily and unfailing. I was ready to admit the sins I’ve committed against the most High. Acknowledging that I attempted to follow my earthly will for myself, I silently took a breath and began to repeat the ill actions of my heart to the Father. While confessing my imperfection, it was almost as if God cradled my soul in that moment. He told me that I was His. All of me, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 5:20-21).

As I entered into the depths of my soul during my confession, I pondered my earthly and ill ways.

Your beauty drew me to You, but soon I was dragged away from You by my own weight and dismay I plunged again into the things of this world. The weight I carried was the habit of the flesh (Augustine 151).

As I was acknowledging my earthly ways, I felt His eternal peace cast over me. I felt Christ’s presence and forgiveness flush through me. “All who know the truth know this Light, and all who know this Light know eternity (Augustine 147).

I’ve come to the realization that when man clings to the vanity of this world outside of God, it only clings to sorrow. Nothing on earth can fulfill the human soul sufficiently as Jesus can.

I lived in misery, like every man whose soul is tethered by the love of things that cannot last and then is agonized to lose them (Augustine 77).

It was revealed to me that deep inside my heart, Christ’s name remained. Despite knowing this fact, I still struggled to completely surrender my will to the Lord. I refused to renounce my earthly ways and continued to choose what I thought was best for my life. I was acting as my own god instead of wholeheartedly offering it up to Christ. So being fully aware of where I was and where Christ wanted me to be, I immersed myself in prayer. I deeply prayed for the intercession of the Blessed Mother during this time as I fell deeper in love with the Lord.

In the following weeks, my heart began to shift from material things of this world to the consideration of my soul. I continued to fall back into my old ways at times, but I held the memory of something that I continue to live and long for, which is the Lord. His outpouring of grace is what carries me through any feeling of guilt or uncertainty. I continued to pray for the conversion of my heart and relentlessly offered it up to Him. I also offered my loved ones’ hearts up to the Lord, praying for their first encounters and/or conversions to Christ. Even if I didn’t know where their hearts were at with God, I still offered up masses and rosaries for them. This type of prayer life drew me closer to Christ and continues to do so today.

Jesus wants your heart, reader. He is obsessed with our hearts and wants them for eternity. We need only let Him. The more we allow His eternal love to dominate our hearts, the more grace we will be gifted and receive in return. It is almost as if we experience a touch of heaven here on earth.

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26).

Behold, I make all things new (Rv 21:5).

God’s mercy is always remarkably new. Life was made new through shameful death. This declaration of Jesus is the hope that one day we will be free from death and evil. This truth motivates us to seek Him and become more like Him. This allows us to grow in hope and changes our way of living as we wait for Jesus to make all things new. We must remind ourselves that Christ has the ability to transform us from the inside out.

References Augustine, and R. S. Pine-Coffin. Confessions Saint Augustine ; Translated with an Introduction by R. S. Pine-Coffin. Penguin (Firm), 1961.

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard. Zondervan, 2022.