Grace (Like in Sap)

June 6, 2015 by Joseph Hollcraft

I still remember the opening tune to the popular Saturday morning show Land of the Lost. My favorite subject matter in grade school was the dinosaur age. I would often pass the time as a kid playing with my

little dinosaur figurines. We had a pond in our backyard with tadpoles, and I used to have the inanimate dinosaurs battle the live tadpoles in a game of surrender (the dinosaurs usually won). Imagine my excitement when, as a junior in high school, I saw the trailer for a movie that would bring the extinct creatures that preoccupied my childhood back to life.

After my initial excitement of seeing dinosaurs on the big screen waned, I had a lingering question in my mind: how would they bring the dinosaurs to life? The movie wasted no time in answering that question. Mosquitoes bit

dinosaurs, then flew and landed on sap trees. The tree sap encased the mosquitoes and the dinosaur blood within them. Archaeologists found the fossilized mosquitoes, extracted the dinosaur DNA, mixed it with frog DNA to fill in the genetic gaps, and bingo–“Dino DNA” (Jurassic Park).

After watching the movie a handful of times, I found myself almost as fascinated with sap as I was with dinosaurs. I even recall going to a library and reading up on sap before research was so immediate on the Internet.

Later in college, the image of sap again grabbed my attention. One of my Dominican professors correlated sap with grace. He said, “The gifts we receive at baptism are like sap.” He continued, “Grace itself contains within it this idea of a sticky like substance.” In other words, grace, unmerited, sticks to our soul. This Dominican professor offered up for me a palpable image to better understand grace.

I left the classroom that day mindful of another truth as it relates to sap and grace.

Sap contains within it, nutrients, water, and even hormones. Sap, then, carries within it, life-giving properties and the identity of its source–the tree. Even more so, grace carries within its substance life-giving properties and the identity of its source–God’s love. It is to say, the grace that envelops us in the life of the Church is the very life-giving substance that is the love of God. In grace, we receive God’s spiritual DNA.

This life-giving substance protrudes from God and the life of the Church in two forms:

* Sanctifying Grace: This grace, which is a gift from God, truly makes us holy—like God—we truly share in His very life.

* Actual Grace: This grace helps us to become like God in specific circumstances in our life. As all grace, it is the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond fully to His call (For a further distinction between these wonderful gifts of God to us, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC], paragraphs 1996-2001).

We are to draw from the nutrients of grace in a life of constant prayer that we might bear its fruit—joy! The word for joy, chara, is derived from the same Greek root that belongs to grace, charis. Joy is the fragrance of God’s very substance of grace. To tease out further, the word enthusiasm comes from the Greek en-theos, “that bears a god within”. Enthusiastic joy is not some self-created happiness, but the sweet fragrance of God bursting forth.

We are to submerge ourselves in God’s grace (like in sap), allowing it to nourish us and give us life, bring us joy, and effect all that we touch in our journey of faith.

Catholic Culture

Daily Readings for:June 06, 2015
(Readings on USCCB website)

Collect: O God, who made the Bishop Saint Norbert a servant of your Church outstanding in his prayer and pastoral zeal, grant, we ask, that by the help of his intercession, the flock of the faithful may always find shepherds after your own heart and be fed in the pastures of salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

RECIPES

o Sour Beef

ACTIVITIES

o Considerations for Parents of Small Families

o What Your Child Needs

PRAYERS

o The Golden Sequence

o Means of Spiritual Renewal in the Family

o Novena to the Sacred Heart

LIBRARY

o Canons Regular Of Premontre (Norbertines: Premonstratensians: O. Praem.) | Helen Walker Homan

· Ordinary Time: June 6th

· Optional Memorial of St. Norbert, bishop

Old Calendar: St. Norbert

St. Norbert was born at Xanten near Cologne about the year 1080. As a young cleric he resided at the court of the Archbishop of Cologne and then at that of the emperor where he allowed himself to be influenced by the spirit of the world. But he was won back by grace; caught by a storm during a journey on horseback he made up his mind to take his clerical obligations seriously. After ordination to the priesthood he devoted himself to itinerant preaching.

In 1120, on the advice of the bishop of Laon, he settled in the forest of Voix, not far from Soissons at a place called Premontre, in order to found a community of regular Canons. In 1126 he was sent to what was then one of the outposts of Christendom for he was appointed archbishop of Magdeburg. He died in 1134.

St. Norbert
Although a cleric, Norbert led a very worldly life for a number of years. The decisive change took place suddenly in 1115. While riding one day, he was overtaken by a thunderstorm. A flash of lightning struck the ground before him, the horse threw him, and he seemed to hear a voice upbraiding him for his conduct.

As in the case of St. Paul, the experience wrought a complete transformation. Norbert decided to give away his property and income rights, and to lead a life of abnegation, devoting himself particularly to preaching. In 1120 he founded the Order of Premonstratensians (the first monastery was at Premontre) according to the rule of St. Augustine; approval came from Pope Honorius II in 1126.

In 1125, he was named archbishop of Magdeburg. On July 13, 1126, Norbert entered the city and came barefoot to the cathedral. About to enter the archepiscopal palace, he was refused admission by the porter, who failed to recognize a bishop so poorly dressed. "You know me better and see me with clearer eyes than those who are forcing me to this palace. Poor and wretched man that I am, I should never have been assigned to this place," Norbert answered when the porter later sought his pardon.

Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch

Patron: Bohemia, peace.

Things to Do:

Read the life of St. Norbert written by his first disciple, Hugh, who succeded him in the government of his order.
St. Norbert was called the “Apostle of the Blessed Sacrament”. Try making a holy hour today and pray to St. Norbert to help us to have a great love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, too.
For those interested in liturgical music you can read about Norbertine Gregorian Chant. The order has its "own" chant.
Read this brief history and overview of the Norbertine Order.
Here is an excellent link to even more information about St. Norbert.
The Norbertine order has been around for 900 years. The Canons Regular of Prémontré, otherwise known as the Premonstratensians or the Norbertines, run the parish of Our Lady of England, Storrington. Learn more about their charism here.