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Gracefully - This is how we want to live, from the inside, not merely externally.
“Gracefully done” can be applied to something as ordinary as one of us carrying a full platter of food to a table and gently setting it down just as it was prepared in the kitchen. We also might think of someone who, without visibly becoming upset, manages to separate two angry children and bring them to a peaceful resolution. Just as we do not have to be full of grace to act gracefully, we do not have to wait until we have every detail perfectly planned before hosting a small group for a meal in a graceful manner.
Whether anyone has ever called us graceful, or has praised us for doing something gracefully, we can reflect on our attitudes and beliefs and see where and how at least some of what we do and say, and how we pray, is graceful. Grace is always a gift, and in that, love is always the motive power. So, when we perform a kindness to anyone, it is graceful conduct. We might know some people who are notably graceful in the way they walk or move, and who are unaware that they appear as such to others. Similarly, even when it is habitual behavior, we act gracefully whenever we act from an attitude of care or a desire to be helpful.
It is possible to act gracefully in an external manner with primarily the intention of winning approval, but even such actions might still serve as a gift from the perspective of others. Our own reflections about gracefulness are best focused on the selfless choices we ordinarily make, sometimes conscious of our motive, often from good habits formed in the past.
We are at our most graceful when we pray, although it is probably not immediately observable by others, and not in our awareness when we are praying. When we come to engaging with God in prayer, we come as we are, which might or might not be gracefully, at least as we begin. But it is God we are addressing, and if it is truly prayer, it is God to whom we are also listening. The very act of faith itself is a loving gift of grace from God, and our participation in that gift brings forth gracefulness in us. It is like the action of a surfer who paddles to get up on a wave, but once on it or even in it, is carried gracefully along. The ride, or the prayer, lasts only for a time, but we are changed for the better by each such experience.
We cannot help but become more graceful as we pray, and the same God with whom we converse is also present and active within us in every thought, word, and deed that expresses our care for all God’s creation, especially people. All can be gracefully done.
Last Updated 8/30/2025