Everything is grace.

If you have ever read Georges Bernanos' classic novel The Diary of a Country Priest, you almost certainly remember the dying words of the priest-protagonist: Tout est grâce. The English translation of the novel renders these words inexactly as "Grace is everywhere," but they could be most directly translated as "everything is grace." Bernanos borrowed these words from the Last Conversations of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, a transcription of the various utterances that the young Carmelite made as she lay dying. The idea that "everything is grace" may have an intuitive appeal to Jesuits, given that our spirituality encourages us to find God in all things and to consciously reflect on the ways in which God has been present to us in all the areas of our life. For me, remembering that everything is grace has been a source of great consolation not merely in times of joy - times when "it's easy to say 'thanks,'" as a Jesuit friend once put it - but also in times of considerable difficulty and struggle.

The last week has been a fairly stressful one for me, but it has also been a time of great grace. On Monday, I stepped into the university classroom for the first time as a teacher. As some readers know well from their own experience, the work that goes into teaching college courses is considerable, especially when one is teaching for the first time and has to prepare syllabi, lecture notes and other materials from scratch. For each hour that I teach, I spend several hours preparing for the next class. Though I've found myself exhausted at the end of each day and frustrated by the way in which my life seems to be fully consumed by work, I've also found tremendous consolation and happiness in simply being in the classroom as a teacher. This is a wonderful ministry, one that I feel very blessed to be a part of. Despite all the time I spend on course prep and all the assorted administrative tasks that occupy my working days, I have found abundant grace in my first days teaching at Saint Joseph's University.

Though I have found joy in my first week of teaching, I have also found sorrow these last few days following the loss of my grandmother, Victoria Davis. After several months of ill health, Gramma died early Wednesday at the age of 85. I feel fortunate that I was able to travel to Massachusetts for a couple of days last week to pay her a final visit. Though this is a time of great sadness for my family, I am grateful that my grandmother ended her earthly pilgrimage in her own home, peacefully and without suffering, as she would have wished. I am also grateful for the many expressions of support and sympathy that I have received in the past couple of days from Jesuits in my own community and elsewhere; I hope that my family can take comfort in knowing that many in the Society of Jesus have been praying for them.

For reasons that I can scarcely claim to understand, I have often felt most aware of God's loving care and presence in moments of great difficulty. I have found abundant evidence of God's presence during the past week, both in my first days of teaching and in the days following my grandmother's death. The ability to find God in difficult circumstances is a grace that I am grateful to have received. As I pray for the repose of the soul of my grandmother and for the consolation of my family, I pray also in renewed gratitude for the gift of God's presence. I pray, too, that we may all become more aware of the gifts that God bestows upon us and that we may realize more fully that everything is grace. AMDG.