Guide us with your grace

Father Bill opened his Easter homily with a 2011 video of Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion singing “the Prayer” at Central Park.

It was an unusual move for a priest who loves words so much he regularly writes his own poetry and prayers. On this holiest of Sundays, though, Father Bill let that beautiful song lead us to a place and, for a full five minutes, we all sat quietly and listened.

He gave his usual stellar homily then, followed by a prayer he’d written. All day, though, I kept coming back to those lyrics.

“I pray you’ll be our eyes, and watch us where we go
And help us to be wise in times when we don’t know
Let this be our prayer, when we lose our way
Lead us to a place, guide us with your grace
To a place where we’ll be safe.”

It’s a perfect message for these troubled times as we all struggle to be wise and occasionally lose our way.

God’s grace is there, though, everywhere you look.

I saw it yesterday at our family’s Easter meal. My in-laws Steve and Cary host holidays with the kind of take-all-comers grace that allows everyone to feel welcome in their home. They designed their whole house with their giant families and large group of friends in mind, and they make serving these complicated meals look easy. Everyone brings a little something, sure, but Steve and Cary are the ones roasting the meat, making the appetizers, serving the drinks, setting up the buffet, clearing the table, washing the dishes and, the whole time, smiling and chatting with a contagious ease.

Grace made its way around the table they set, and showed up in all sorts of ways — in the young nephews who cheerfully held their own among a roomful of adults; in the sisters who share April birthdays and a lifelong dedication to family; in the young man who doesn’t love social gatherings but does love to be around family so he does the best he can; in the dad who did the driving and the fretting and the packing up of everyone’s stuff; in the grandma who brought the upside down pineapple cake because that’s what her mother served at Easter; in the parents who raised the nephews to be the kind of young men you’d be lucky to know.

We don’t have to look far to find troubling news in this old world. But, I the comfort we all seek is often a little closer than we think too. And, just like it does around a dinner table, that grace spreads to the world beyond.

I hope you all had a lovely Easter weekend, and that you gave and received the kind of grace that will guide us all to a place where we’ll be safe.

The introduction takes a bit, but the wait is worth it for this beautiful song.