Grace power
From today’s Scripture: “Stephen, filled with grace and power, was working great wonders….”—Acts 6:8
I love the U2 song “Grace.” One line haunts me: “Grace makes beauty/ Out of ugly things.” Isn’t that what happens in this dramatic scene from Acts? What gives St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, courage to face persecution and, later, the ugliness of death by stoning? Grace. “God power.” That’s the heart of this story. St. Stephen displays “the face of an angel” (Acts 6:15): God’s grace is real. Here and now, grace is making beauty out of ugly things.
Let us pray: Lord, help me to radically depend on your grace to work wonders through me.
Today’s author is Polly Duncan Collum, one-time parish-lay-missioner and now director of the Glenmary’s Commission for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation. This week’s reflections are also in Spanish, available by email.
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