It got cold in Small Town, USA. So cold that my HVAC unit froze and sounded like it wanted to take flight every time it kicked in trying to heat up tiny apartment. Which makes it difficult to sleep, in case you didn't know that. I took a gamble and switched my thermostat over to Emergency Heat last night, and said HVAC quieted down and I slept in peace. (And when I checked when I quickly stopped in at home to make lunch, HVAC was no longer frozen. Yay.)
But then I was almost late for Daily Mass this morning. Apparently you shouldn't set your alarm for 7AM, turn it off after it blares "Hakuna Matata" at you for a few seconds, and turn the TV on to watch Boy Meets World (with Cory and Topanga - the greatest love story we'll ever know, children of the 90s) -- because you might fall back asleep. God smiled on me though, because I made every light through Small Town's Uptown area and got into the Church before the sacristy door creaked open, cuing the start of Mass at 8:30. Yay.
On my way to pick up my morning coffee and blueberry scone, I was on the phone with my Dad for the second time (ever since I got back to Small Town, he's been much more chatty on the phone - me thinks someone misses me! Aww Miss you too Daddy!) and some kind stranger offered me 50 cents for the parking meter. What a nice act of kindness! I mean, I know it's only 50 cents, but that's a whole hour on the meter. And I really only needed like 10 minutes to run in and out of Small Town Coffee Shop that I love so dearly. It made me reflect on this season of Advent - showing others, even complete strangers that you'll never, ever see again and don't have to impress because of that -- random acts of kindness and compassion. It's good stuff. I like it. Yay.
Oh. So my last post - Pumpkin Pie and Prevenient Grace - I realize, ha, I never explained what prevenient grace is or why I randomly threw a BIG CRAZY THEOLOGY term in the middle of a post primarily about whipped cream and pumpkin pie. So here goes:
Simply put, prevenient grace is the grace that our Blessed Mother received from God at her conception. With the celebration of the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception yesterday and with the new translation of the Mass, you may have heard the term plopped down in the middle of an offertory prayer that the priest offers just before the preparation rite. When I heard it at the Vigil Wednesday evening, my ears perked up at the sound of a cool new word - a word that I had no CLUE about what it truly meant. And I meant to make a mental note to ask Priest-Friend about it later, but then I had a long meeting about Soup and Snack (and some other Churchy things) so... I kind of forgot about it. Plus, who remembers words like prevenient when you only hear it once, unexpectedly?
Well... God smiled again, because out of the blue Priest-Friend brought it up in conversation and I got to learn! (Learning is fun.) After learning more about the COOL BIG THEOLOGICAL TERM, I had fun telling other people about my new-found knowledge, including my Dad. Now, Dad has quite the sense of humor, and he's also more in-tune with some of the pop culture lingo than I'm necessarily comfortable with. So... in explaining that "prevenient grace is the grace that God granted to Mary at her Immaculate Conception because He saw the future merits of her bringing Christ into the world for our salvation" to him via text message, he responded: "Like Gaga said: She was born that way.
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| She scares me. Alot. |
Yeah.. I was at a loss for words too.
