True Grace

All is Well and Good, oil painting by Debra Clemente

I can remember kneeling in prayer at my pew as I was supposed to do. My prayers were not rote, they were words so deep they stuck in my throat. Swelling within my heart tears then flowed. Yes, I knelt crying, for why I did not know. “This is not the place for tears,” I said to myself, and hear with my physical ears. “Contain yourself, behave. Wipe your face, appear with grace.” Yet, True Grace was what I had found but did not know for I had not heard it told as so.

Excerpted from the book Listen Hear, A Divine Love Story by Debra Clemente