Mtr Taylor Devine

Buenos días!

I am in Nogales, Mexico for just a few days for a language immersion. I am writing from my host family’s kitchen, where I’ve been the recipient of hospitality and grace for just a short time. There have been little graces that have made me laugh-my host sisters are in middle and high school and like to play card games, dance around and to color those adult coloring books. The older sister was obliging in teaching me some finer points of syllabification when I asked her how they would teach this in elementary school, I need the basics! My host mom and the daughters interact in similar ways as my own mom, sister and I do, and my host father reminds me a bit of my own dad. That is one of those lovely things that happens when you are on the receiving end of hospitality, you have room to think about and feel how this all fits in your experience and to be stretched toward new ways of understanding. I feel lucky to be here, and have officially learned how much I have to learn! For this reason and for others Grace has been on my mind, la gracia de Dios, and the grace we receive from other people that shows us signs of God in our lives.

In the Gospel of John, Nathanael is assured by Jesus that he will see greater things than these! Greater than Jesus recognizing Nathanael, greater than the incredible moments of grace we experience from time to time in our lives, he is reassured that he will see greater things than these! It’s hard to believe, but that promise is greater than the grace of forgiveness between friends, greater than beaming pride, greater than the love we know. On our most graced days, when we encounter Jesus, we are invited along with Nathanael to follow him and to believe in even greater things than these by God’s Grace.

Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. (John 1:51)

Dios de bendiga!
Taylor