Encounters of Grace

Grace in ministry: the encounter with women seemingly forgotten by the world.
Grace in the classroom. 
Grace in the Dominican Family.
Grace with companion pilgrims in the InterCommunity Novitiate.
Grace in communal prayer, private prayer, reflection days, retreat.
Grace in preaching and postils.
Grace in the park, the gardens.

Missouri Botanical Gardens

Forest Park

Grace in community.
We listened, spoke truth, laughed, shed tears.

Grace from home: our congregations, family, friends.
They did not forget us.Rather, they carried us in prayer.
In my own prayer, I petitioned, almost daily, for openness to grace in its many forms.

June is here, but it isn’t finished: not the work of openness, not the discovery, and—blessedly—not the supply of grace. 
We make a lifelong journey, a pilgrimage.

You, Beloved Giver of grace…
You call us further along the path of discovery.
You heal us.

You draw us deeper into Your light, Your love.
You bid us preach Your love—every one of us.
We must scatter the seed. Sometimes—indeed, often—the soil will be rocky.
But You will be there.

You have been here, too, in many ways, in many faces.
Now we go, and You go with us.
We praise You.
We bless You, Your creation, Your people.
We preach You.

We thank You. And we thank our companion pilgrims and all who have made this year possible!