Engaging Spirituality -- from JustFaith

I believe that one of the frequent occupational hazards of ministry is you find yourself praying with others so often that you can frequently fail to take the personal time in prayer that you need.

Engaging Spirituality, from JustFaith ministries, is a good program for anyone who wants to "go deeper" in prayer, and that includes the professional minister. We've offered ES this year at St. Bridget, and we will probably offer it again this fall. It needs some tweaking...the team met this week to plan the final retreat, and we got to talking about the overall program, and we see things that should be done differently. No doubt JustFaith ministries will make some changes from the top, too.

But it gives ample time, ample quiet, the opportunity for community, and solid materials for reflection (good books, journaling, a couple of good videos, and personal input from diverse spiritual leaders). The program materials are easy for the facilitators to use (once you get started, that is; at first they're confusing). I hope to be more involved with it next year than I could be this year (the team held the gatherings on the same night that I had set aside for the regular JustFaith program).



This short video link offers a tiny insight to the program. Check it out!

US Catholic Bishops Weigh in on US Budget

I follow several religious "lobbying" efforts, including the Catholic Campaign Against Global Poverty, Network, Bread for the World, and Sojourners. Now that the 2010-2011 budget is settled, the arguments for the new year have begun, jump-started by Representative Ryan's Republican proposal. According to its author, it was an attempt to deal with the federal deficit. However, his version of the budget budget drew very clear lines, as his plan savages services to the poor while adding more tax cuts for the very wealthy, and continuing insane levels of support for our military.

The US Catholic Bishops have finally weighed in on the issue (to see their entire letter, check HERE). First of all, they wish to be clear...they "write as pastors and teachers, not experts or partisans." They also "clearly acknowledge the difficulties that the Congress, Administration, and government at all levels face to get our financial house in order: fulfilling the demands of justice and moral obligations to future generations; controlling future debt and deficits,; and protecting the lives and dignity of those who are poor and vulnerable." That said, they offer several "moral criteria" to help guide difficult budgetary decisions:

1.) Every budget decision should be assessed by whether it protects or threatens human life and dignity.

2.) A central moral measure of any budget proposal is how it affects "the least of these" (Matthew 25). The needs of those who are hungry and homeless, without work, or in poverty should come first.

3.) Government and other institutions have a shared responsibility to promote the common good of all, expecially ordinary workers and families who struggle to live in dignity in difficult economic times.


They continue..."A just framework for future budgets cannot rely on disproportionate cuts in essential services to poor persons. It requires shared sacrifice by all, including raising adaquate revenues, eliminating unnecessary military and other spending, and addressing the long-term costs of health insurance and retirement programs fairly."

Under health care, they also worry that "some proposed changes to Medicare and Medicaid could leave more elderly and poor people without the assurance of adaquaate and affordable health care. Medicaid block grants may offer states more flexibility, but could leave states with inadequate resources as costs grow or more people need health care in fugure recessions."


They also warn that the House Resolution appears to "cut foreign operations budget by more than a third...We strongly support poverty-based international assistance. They end by observing that "the moral measure of this budget debate is not which party wins or which powerful interests prevail, but rather how those who are jobless, hungry homeless, or poor are treated. Their voices are too often missing in these debates"...

It was too long a time coming, but I am glad that the Church finally found its voice on the budget. I for one HATE paying taxes because so much of it goes to the military. However, I strongly support programs that build a better future for the world here and abroad, especially by targeting those who need resources the most. For that, I'd be willing to pay more in taxes.

Death Without Regrets

Like my last homily, I thought about this one a long while. In fact, I thought about this one for over a year. Last year, during our parish Lenten retreat, I had the good fortune to listen to Fr. Jim Jepsen, who gave a masterful retreat. On the middle day, he spoke about the Passion, and at the beginning he raised the question, "Why did Jesus have to be crucified?" I was immediately hooked, but the answer was direct and simple. It wasn't a lofty Redemption theology, or something barely believable about how "our human sin against God required a divine sacrifice." It was simple: Jesus had to be crucified because he would not crucify others.

In other words, Jesus loved. He reached out to the humble, the poor, the outcast, the sinner. He spoke the truth to the powerful, and to the people who SHOULD have represented Yahweh's love more faithfully. And he would not back down from that mission. And yet, when it became obvious that reactionary violence was about to strike, and many of his followers were all too ready to react to that violence with their own violence... he had no choice but to proclaim love, forgiveness, and peace, all the way to the cross.

No regrets.

Good Friday, 2011

I want to thank each of you for being here this evening. These three nights of the Triduum … each is so very different, each in its own different way is so beautiful, and each in its own beautiful way speaks to powerfully to the heart of our faith, that I regret that any Christian misses any of it.

Tonight we are gathered to hear once again the sacred Story of Jesus love and sacrifice for us, to lovingly honor this sacred symbol of His love and sacrifice, and then to share our Holy Communion as ONE BODY in His Body, to strengthen us so that we in turn may go on to offer our lives for others as he did, even if it involves giving our own lives.

I believe that one of the most important questions of our faith journey is posed here in this story: Why does Jesus have to suffer? One of the most important functions of some of our devotions – the Stations of the Cross, the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary – is to bring us to face this suffering and death of Jesus. Some of our most ancient and evocative Christian art portrays this, forces us to face this directly. And it is not only Jesus’ suffering we face, it is also ALL the senseless suffering that the innocents of the world endure. This past week I read a beautiful reflection piece written by Bishop Kicanas of Tucson for Good Friday. He spoke about the Good Friday experience that Tucson went through this January 8th, when a madman gunned down 19 people in 16 seconds, critically wounding a US Representative and killing six, including a federal judge of deep faith and a little girl of 9 years. He compared the heartache of his community with the heartache felt by Mary, Jesus’ mother, by Mary Magdalene, by John at the foot of the cross, as they watched the most innocent of all men suffer. These all help us understand the cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

WHY? indeed.

I cannot answer why all the innocents of the world suffer. I know that we all will die one day, and that is our human condition. But I do not know why my life should be so lucky: well-fed, when so many subsistence farmers depend on the right rainfall in order to eat at all; healthy, when 3rd world children die from diarrhea because of the lack of clean drinking water; or sleeping in a warm bed under a secure roof, when so many are homeless on our own Seattle streets. I cannot answer the questions of why all the innocent suffer; but I can say that in each of the cases I just mentioned, those innocent surely suffer because of the collective sin of the world. We do NOT really live in solidarity with our own brothers and sisters who suffer hunger or die from preventable causes, or have no safe place to lay their heads at night. There is enough food in the world, enough wealth; but there is too little will. There are plenty of homes for the homeless in Seattle, but we’re all too afraid to share our own homes with them.

Sin causes much suffering. It’s obvious to see sin as a cause of suffering when people deliberately hurt others, like a madman on the loose or when someone is brutalized, because it’s personal; but it’s also obvious that sin is a cause of suffering even when it’s not personal, but collective. This is sin too. This is also Good Friday. And if you don’t believe that, you can’t really understand why Jesus died on the cross 2000 years ago. Jesus gave his life serving the poor, the lowly, the outcast, and inviting us to join him in service. His life of service, his confrontations with the powerful, & His witness to the Truth led directly to the cross. Jesus had foretold his suffering and death, and He went to Jerusalem deliberately. And he had no regrets, not even on the cross.


John’s gospel story is the one we listen to every Good Friday. It is different from Matthew, Mark, and Luke -- John is trying to tell us something that the others didn’t.

The three synoptic writers all present the awful sufferings of Jesus, and the reactions of the crowd, and details that John doesn’t mention, such as the account of the Agony in the Garden, or of Jesus crying out in desperation on the cross. Of all the gospel writers, John was the only eye-witness of the Passion. And he presents for us a Jesus who died horribly; but more so than any of the others, John tells us of the great dignity and calm of Jesus in spite of this suffering.

It begins in the garden, with his arrest, when there is no mention of a betraying kiss, but we see a Jesus who steps forward to the mob to ask whom they’re looking for, and when he tells them I AM, they step back and fall to the ground. We see this dignity in His interrogation by the high priest, and when he calmly confronts the guard, saying “If I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?” It continues in his conversation with Pilate, when Jesus speaks forthrightly of his mission: to testify to the truth, that everyone who belongs to the truth listens to his voice. Pilate does not want to deal with Jesus, who is clearly no ordinary prisoner, and though Pilate eventually gives him up to the crowd, his wrangling with the crowd is far more detailed and prolonged than in all the other accounts…because Pilate is afraid.

And it continues at the cross. Only in John do we see Jesus’ tenderness and concern for his mother, who is right at the foot of the cross at the end. And finally, when Jesus dies, it is not with a cry or a shout, but with the words, “It is finished.” John does not even say that Jesus dies… rather, Jesus bows his head, and gives up his Spirit.

Bishop Kicanas said more about this in his Good Friday reflection. He spoke about a 12th century sculpture of the Crucified Christ, in the Cathedral of St. Augustine in Tucson. He said of this sculpture, “Whenever I look at His face, captured by the artist in the first moment after His death, I see His response to violence, suffering, and death. I see His response to our sinfulness.”

I tell you, I had a hard time tracking it down, but I finally found images of that sculpture. Like our own central cross, it is a large wooden crucifix, though the one in Phoenix is far more emotive, and displays not only the suffering Jesus went through, but a face full of expression. As the bishop puts it, “On His face there is no twisted grimace of suffering. Instead, there is love, there is peace, and strange as it might sound, there is contentment. His is the face of someone who had no regrets.”

Jesus’ crucifixion on the cross, as horrible as it was, was Jesus’ GIFT to us. By this cross, Jesus shows us the great depths of his love. By this cross, he show us that it is possible to live a life for others, to live God’s truth and carry that life to its fulfillment, even if it upsets and provokes the powerful. By this cross, he shows us that we can face our own crosses with calm and trust. By this cross, we can find hope and strength, when our suffering or the sufferings around us seem too much to bear.

“This is the Wood of the Cross, on which hung the Savior of the world. Come, let us worship.”
[Leads immediately to Veneration of the Cross]
Deacon Denny Duffell, April 22, 2011

A Passion Song

At our Palm Sunday Masses this past weekend, our pastor and Music Director had arranged a beautiful, touching surprise for the assembly at Mass. After the reading of the Passion, and a few words from Fr. Tim, we were all invited to spend some quiet time in reflection on the Passion. After a few moments, this beautiful, meditative song was sung for us all by one of our choir members, Mariko Kita, who has a lovely, clear, emotive voice: How Deep the Father's Love for Us. I had never heard the song before, and because my hearing is faulty, I couldn't quite catch all the words. While the following rendition is not quite as good as hers, the accompanying video (from the Passion of the Christ) helps bring the words to life.

It makes for a good meditation in Holy Week -- or anytime.



How Deep the Father’s Love for Us

How deep the Father's love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One,
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice,
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

Is America Addicted to War?

I posted a few days ago about an excellent article in America magazine, entitled World Without War, written by Bishop Robert McElroy, the auxiliary bishop of San Francisco. (Unfortunately, this might ensure that he’ll never be anything but an auxiliary…) It was an excellent article, and I wish I could have reprinted it, or at least given a link to it, but America doesn’t allow that. At the time, I also mentioned a second article, not from a religious source, that I posted on my Facebook page, entitled Is America Addicted to War? (In my mind, there’s NO DOUBT that the answer to that is a sad but resounding YES.) The article mentions five reasons that contribute to that “addiction.” Please check out the original article, HERE. Here are the reasons, plus my comments:

1. Because we can.
2. The U.S. has no serious enemies.
3. The all-volunteer force.
4. It’s the Establishment, stupid.
5. Congress has checked out.

Because We Can… An obvious reason why we keep lurching into armed conflicts is because we have an extremely well-funded military, and we’ve got to keep them busy. What would they do if we didn’t? That’s actually a scary scenario to contemplate, but rather than think about that, just consider that we do get into conflicts like Liberia because we’ve got all this hardware and manpower just waiting around, itching to actually do something. It’s like the old government budget canard about spending your budget before the end of the fiscal year, even if you don’t need to … otherwise they’ll figure you don’t need it and you’ll get cut. The American people might begin to wonder why we need this gigantic expense if we didn’t really show how useful it is…

The U.S. Has No Serious Enemies… Well, of course we can’t just go invade Russia or China. However, our “sphere of influence” has expanded considerably since the rest of the world realized they’d go bankrupt trying to maintain an arms race with us. Nobody but the U.S. has anywhere near the resources devoted to the military that we do. Nor has anybody else in history, ourselves included.

The All-Volunteer Force… Actually, “volunteer” is a bad misnomer. It makes it sound like our forces are doing this out of a sense of altruism, and getting no monetary compensation in return. Isn’t that our understanding of the word “volunteer”? Actually, we should label this one as “Our Professional Military.” These folks are paid for their services – not as well as our bankers, of course, but they are paid nonetheless. They are NOT “volunteers” in the usual way we understand the term.

By this I mean no disrespect to the men and women, and their families, who serve in our military. I have parishioners who have served recently in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I have a nephew and his family who are “lifers” in the military. I respect them very much for their dedication. In many cases people in military actually put their lives on the line, and most of them serve out of great love for our country.

Nonetheless, they are not “volunteers.” There is a real monetary cost for their service. Now, if that service were provided by “draftees,” there would certainly be a much greater social cost involved. It would cause us to look a lot harder at the size and cost of our military, and the uses we make of it. This would be a good thing -- our government would have to be more accountable for its actions. It would be required to develop convincing rationales for our military actions that our citizenry would accept and support. As for now… most of our populace, and especially most of our leaders, personally have very little “at stake” in the sacrifice offered by those in the military. So, when we talk about the war in Iraq or Afghanistan, or our action in Libyaa, the discussion is very academic.

It’s the Establishment, Stupid… Having such a large and expensive military necessarily means that we have a lot of people with a LOT at stake in defending it and in developing ways for us to use it. There are a lot of people whose livelihood depends on it, and here I’m not talking about the soldiers, but the people in the CIA, the military contractors…jobs, in so very many political districts! And thus “bringing home the bacon” gets wrapped in a gaudy patriotism that gets politicians reelected. Actually, shouldn’t we start with the assumption that we should be trying to build a more peaceful world, rather than just juicing up our own abilities to be the biggest and strongest nation around?

Congress Has Checked Out… Has no one noticed that despite spending far more on our military more than the #2 nation (China -- four or five times as much) and almost as much as the rest of the world combined… that in the recent Budget negotiations, there was almost no discussion on reducing the amount of money we spend on our military? WHY NOT? Our representatives – Republicans and Democrats both – are afraid to appear soft. They are afraid to be the first to say, enough! And likewise, they do little to check the Executive Branch in its military adventures. When will they ask why Afghanistan is the longest war in American history, and begin to ask hard questions? (Such as: What are our aims? What is our plan? When will it be over?) Congress fails to ask these questions because the people in Congress are more afraid of being questioned about it when they have to run again. But those questions are important. These things should be discussed, debated! And they should all be held accountable for the results.

This is obviously a subject I have a lot of passion about.

Homily on the Raising of Lazarus

This was one of those homilies that I thought about a very long time...probably a month. I had the basic idea, and then got another to add to it. Of course, I didn't actually write it until "Saturday afternoon" before the evening Mass, like always. But the passion for the homily was there for a long time.

Fr. Tim kidded me afterwards: "Now I'll have to re-write my Easter homily -- you gave it for me." Wasn't sure what he meant, but I think it was a compliment.


Fifth Sunday of Lent (A), April 10, 2011

All of our readings today are about death! Death is a part of life. It’s not a pleasant subject; we may not like to think about it. But death is not only an inevitability someday, it’s also a constant reality in our everyday lives. We see it in the cycles of nature: living organisms die all the time, and provide the nutrients for new life. Even within our very own bodies, old cells are constantly dying – and being replaced by new ones. I had a skin cancer removed three weeks ago, it was here in my ear, and went deeper than they thought. They even had to do a skin graft. But here, behind my ear, and inside, there are new cells, filling in – it’s almost fully healed now. It's like a miracle. Capitalists even talk these days about the wonders of "creative destruction" going on in our economy. I’m not sure I like calling it creative, as it hides the fact that real people get hurt during that creative destruction... but it happens.

And of course, we do talk about death. We talk about dead spots on our lawn, or a dead spot in our schedule, or maybe a meeting we were forced to endure which was “Just Dead!” It might be our self-confidence that died... last Thursday night was my bowling night, and I’m our team’s anchor man, the go-to guy when the game is on the line. I needed a strike in the last frame, or even just a spare. I threw a good ball, and felt great! But I left a stupid ten-pin! So, I had to pick the spare. You know, I usually love that situation, the game on the line... but my confidence suddenly went dead, and I missed the spare. Teams go dead too – talk about the Mariners giving up 10 runs in the 4th inning at their home opener on Friday night! Liz and I go to a lot of games together, and we almost never leave a baseball game early. But we left that one after the 4th inning.

And death can be very intimate too, death can really be INSIDE of us; our lives can have dead places in them. These dead places can develop in our relationships – in friendships, or in marriages. One of the great sadnesses that I sometimes witness at Children’s Hospital is with a young married couple who suffer the death of a child... and then, weeks or months later, their marriage breaks apart. Fr. Tim and I have shared with one another over the past few months how affected we both have been – how sad... because of the marriages that have “died” within our parish community in the past couple of years. And within us as individuals, too, there can be dead places. Depression, fear, grief, or guilt can all be so powerful that we feel utterly lifeless, it strikes our sense of the meaning, right at our center, our core, even our faith – life feels very “dead.” And for any of us, dead places can occur spiritually. We can have a numbness within that deadens us to the awareness of how much we really need God. We can grow a coldness of heart that pushes the needs of our neighbor away to the edges of our awareness.

These dead places in our lives are truly MORE threatening than physical death itself. These dead places not only prevent us from experiencing the fullness of happiness, they keep us from becoming the luminous beings we are made to be. They cause us to shrink back from acting with courage and faith-filled confidence in this darkened world. These dead places numb us, isolate us from the needs of the world around us, and blind us to a vision of God’s creation as it is meant to be.

Where are YOUR dead places? That’s a good Lenten reflection! Where in your life, or in your heart, has LIFE been lost? Are your faith, your hope, your love buried in some tomb? It happens. It happens to sinners; but it has happened to saints too.

But though our scriptures today speak to us about death, the words are also full of life. Our first Reading is thrilling! In fact, take your Bible and read the words from Ezekial, Chapter 36 through today’s passage – it’s about a page. It was written during the time of captivity, when all seemed dark, when the country was conquered, the holy Temple razed to the ground, the leaders of the people carried away in chains. But Ezekial hears the word of God that God will open their graves, that the bones of the dead will rise. And Ezekial has a vision, and hears a noise, a rattling, as the bones come together, sinews and flesh covering them, breath coming into them, and the raised dead stand on their feet, a vast multitude! It was an unforgettable, prophetic image, for God to tell the people that hope was not lost.

And our gospel today is poignant. When Jesus finally arrived in Bethany, Martha chided him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Jesus said, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha replied, “I know he will rise again, in the Resurrection on the Last Day.” That’s a very respectful way of saying, “Don’t tell me that ‘He’ll rise someday’ garbage. Where were you? My brother is dead!” But Jesus then made resurrection a present-tense reality by calling Lazarus out of the tomb. “Unbind him, and let him go free!”

I think that the greatest Easter truth for us in our lives today is not that we are to live newly after death. Of course that is great news, and it brings hope and comfort, especially at our most difficult times. But it also means that we are able to live newly here and now, by the power of the Resurrection. Resurrection is not just “everlasting life” – meaning, an endless quantity of life. Resurrection is also a quality of life that begins in the present. And it begins when we realize that, in Christ, death has no power over us.

I’m 63 years old. Some might credit me with a faithful life, but I know myself. I know ways in which I’ve failed to be the person I could be -- when dead places, and the fears of different kinds of death have held me back from being the man I could be. But hey, I am 63 years old, and I am think that I am finally beginning to understand what the words mean: “Unbind him, and let him go free!” I have to tell you, I am FULL of hope for the future, for whatever it is God has in store for me.

Think of the dead places in your own life. There may have been dark days of suffering. A menacing difficulty without a solution. A loss that tore your heart out. The terrain of our lives is full of dead places. If we have lived long at all, we have lived through many deaths.

By what power, then, are we all still here? How have we survived so much dying? And beyond mere surviving, how might it be that we may have actually grown through these experiences? It is NOT through our own abilities. It is through the grace and power of the One who transforms death into life.

As you meet the Lord today in our Eucharist…know that He comes as “the Resurrection and the Life.” Trust him. He wants to call forth life from all the dead places.

Deacon Denny Duffell

WAR -- An Evil Incarnate?

I might almost have reached the stage of my life when I can speak what I believe, without fear. That statement is prompted by this weekend's scripture on the Raising of Lazarus! I haven't written my homily yet, but it's fermenting...

Today's post is about two articles that I have recently read, that I believe are timely and true. They don't say anything that I haven't already thought, but they've moved me to "another place," in that their words have reverberated within me -- and now, I have to decide what to do with that.

The first article, the one I read first and which I highlight here, is from the 2/31/11 edition of America magazine, published under the auspices of the U.S. Jesuits, and writen by the auxiliary bishop of San Francisco, the Most Reverend Robert W. McElroy. This is a timely and -- to me -- EXHILARATING article. It is entitled, "War Without End." The article begins with the war in Afghanistan, which (he observes) is the longest war in American history. The bishop declares that "for this reason alone... there should be a public debate that does not proceed from a blind commitment to 'stay the course.'"

Bishop McElroy then observes that "The United States has now achieved the capacity to wage major warfare over many years without greatly burdening its economy or its general citizenry." And because of this, he warns of the danger that "major warfare has become not an exceptional necessity but an ongoing way of life." True, a lot of people would take exception to the "burdening its economy" part of that, with the annual costs of our engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan over $100 billion! But that's not even part of the current budget debate, so let's grant that the statement has truth. Here are the three factors he cites, which have made this possible:

1) The sheer immensity of the American economy and its ability to float credit, which has made the costs of major wars like Afghanistan and Iraq a relatively small blip in overall government expenditures;

2) The creation of instruments of war through modern technology that minimize American casualties in warfare and greatly enhance American tactical superiority; and

3) The existence of a professional army, which limits the layers of American society that absorb the terrible trauma of casualties in war, in contrast to a general draft like that utilized in prior wars.

Bishop McElroy calls this situation no less than a "moral hazard for the politcal leadership to resort to force in the knowledge that civil society will not be deeply disturbed." (He wrote those words before the Lybian engagement.) This moral hazard is "compounded by a new idealistic tendency to cast war aims in transformational terms."

The article goes on to observe that NOWHERE in our just war tradition do you find any justification for this. Indeed, he identifies and highlights four statements of principle in his article:

1) Catholic doctrine does not permit war (or force of arms) to democratize other countries. (Principle of Just or Sufficient Cause)

2) Catholic doctrine does not permit the continuation of warfare in order to avoid the damage that will come to one's reputation from defeat. (Principle of Right Intention)

3) Catholic doctrine does not permit the use of weapons and tactics that eviscerate the distinction between combatants and civilians. (Principle of Non-Discrimination)

4) Catholic doctrine does not permit continuation of war based on a mere wisp of hope. (Principles of Probability of Success and Proportionality of Projected Results)

His article is obviously sharply critical of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also points to a dangerous state of mind that seems to exist in the country right now. Preoccupied by our own economic troubles, we seem not to know or care what is taking place in our name.

The second article is "Is America Addicted to War? The Top Five Reasons Why We Keep Getting into Foolish Fights," by Stephen Walt. I also posted this a few days ago on my Facebook page.

I need to think about this. And probably more than that...

That's Why There's Grace

Sometimes you just walk into something.

I ran across the lyrics to this song the other day: That's Why There's Grace. I'd never heard of it, nor the singer, Kendall Payne. But I did like the lyrics, so I searched the internet to find the song itself. I found it on GodTube.

I don't personally feel in pain, like the person that she's singing to. However, I know many people in pain, and I work with people in pain. I think these words are really very good, and so I wanted to share the song here.

Sometimes you just walk into something.



I know you feel forgotten
I know you feel confused
I know your hope’s been shattered
I know your solitude

You can’t find the reasons to believe anymore
Don’t hide your thoughts from me

That’s why I died, that’s why I live
I know every part of you that you won’t forgive
That’s why I try to reach you today
I know that it’s hard to have faith through the pain
That’s why there’s grace, That’s why there’s grace.

I know the days are dark now
I know the fear runs deep
I know there is redemption
I know one day you’ll make peace

You can’t fight the feelings, they are wearing your down
Don’t hide your shame from me

That’s why I died, that’s why I live
I know every part of you that you won’t forgive
That’s why I try to reach you today
I know that it’s hard to have faith through the pain
That’s why there’s grace, That’s why there’s grace
That’s why there’s grace, That’s why there’s grace.

Amazing grace how sweet the sound I once was lost but now I’m found
I once was blind but now I see amazing grace has RESCUED me
Amazing grace how sweet the sound I once was lost but now I’m found
I once was blind but now I see amazing grace has REACHED TO me
Amazing grace how sweet the sound I once was lost but now I’m found
I once was blind now I see amazing grace has COVERED me, it’s covered me