Grace is an elusive thing. We know when we see it, but we don't always have the words to describe it. For fifteen years, that's what Cathleen Falsani has done for us: given grace words. Falsani returned to Chicago tonight (4/29/10) to talk about grace at "Consider This...Public Dialogue for the Spiritually Curious" held at St. James Cathedral. Falsani used "thin places" as a metaphor to see where grace is happening in our lives. In Celtic belief thin places are where the material world and the spiritual world come closer together. Falsani suggested we see the veil between the two worlds as a blanket, and the thin places as worn spots where we could catch glimpses of the other side.
Falsani's second book: Sin Boldly: A Field Guide for Grace was about looking for grace in our everyday lives. She started with finding grace in her own life then making "intentional journeys" to look for grace and talk to people about where they found grace in their lives. The irony is that Falsani found the biggest grace in her life on an unplanned trip she won in a raffle to support The Global Alliance for Africa, a Chicago NGO. Falsani won a fully paid trip for two to East Africa. She and her husband, Maurice Possley, set off. In a side trip to Malawi to see the work of GAA, they met Vasco. Vasco was born with a hole in his heart.
Unable to get help for him in Malawi, Falsani returned home wondering what she could do to help him. She did the thing she had been doing for years: she wrote a story in her God Beat column for the Sun-Times. The response was immediate as her readers stepped up to the challenge. In two days three hospitals had offered to perform Vasco's surgery and care for free. Falsani asked for donations to bring him to the States, and they rolled in. 18 months later Vasco came to Chicago for the surgery, and is now a happy and healthy boy. Falsani and Possley are in the process of adopting him. Falsani considers her first meeting with Vasco as a thin place, and the largest act of grace in her life.
Falsani believes that grace is all around us all the time and is for everyone. All we need to do is look for it and tell our stories.
Comments