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About the Author

Michael P. Pollastri, '95 is a Principal Scientist at Pfizer's research site in Cambridge MA, where he leads the chemical technology group. He lives in Waltham, MA with his wife, Alisha, and 3-year-old son, Xavier.

Thinking Outloud

I am serving as sponsor-by-proxy for a catechumen at my local parish. He's a freshman at a local college and is taking the next step in his faith journey. As a born-and-baptized Catholic, I'm not familiar with having to make this particular choice, though I've been a sponsor before and helped someone discern this step. It is an incredibly powerful experience, witnessing someone's conversion and growth in love for God and the Church.

This conversion and statement of faith is a bold embodiment of grace, one which calls out for attention, recognition, and appreciation, and one that recalls the verse from this week's reading of Paul's letter to the Ephesians, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God." In other words, there is nothing that we have done to deserve such a gift – it's given to us freely and without conditions. Even more, this saving grace was bestowed despite our being "dead in our transgressions." To realize this is to discover what unconditional love really is.

Truly, this is an awesome thing to grasp.

But the grace that brings about conversion of the catechumen, much like the conversion we are all called to experience during Lent, cannot go without action. After all, "…faith without works is dead" (James 2:14-26). Because this saving grace is unconditional, it is not contingent on what we do; instead, the works we do are a way to celebrate our saving grace and to return the gift to God. Jesus made it clear that in order to love him, we must love the least among us. I have found this to be the greatest challenge for me personally – to overcome the discomfort of interacting with those who are needy, ill, outcast – and showing them the love that I, as a Christian, am called to give.

Thanks to the Spiritual Exercises, I have learned how to be acutely aware of how God's grace plays a role in my life and in the choices I've made along the way. For a significant portion of my life, I struggled with a vocational discernment, and learned how to listen to what messages God is trying to share with me. Perhaps the more important part of this discernment process has been the ability to recognize the instances in my life where God's grace has been present. Of course, many times it's realized in hindsight... but when the connection is made, it's quite obvious.

I believe that everyone experiences grace in different, but very real, ways. I, for one, am cognizant of moments of grace by an uplifting of my heart – whether it’s from a warm, Spring day, or from a particularly loving hug from my son, or from hearing a favorite song. That surge of warmth can visit after unburdening in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, or in the remarkable moments of clarity when reflecting on scripture and realizing just how a particular passage fits in my life and situation. In a similar way, the comfort felt after asking God for guidance and reassurance in difficult times is a very real way that I feel and recognize grace in my life.

I am grateful for the gift of God's grace, in the many ways I feel it, and am particularly grateful for being able to recognize when this grace is alighting on me and to give thanks.

May God's saving grace be with you, and be truly experienced by you, in this Lenten season.