I picked up a copy of Invisible Acts of Power, by Caroline Myss, in the bookstore. After reading the first seven paragraphs, I decided I needed to own it. They are as follow:
When I was growing up Roman Catholic, we were bilingual in English and angels. Miracles could happen every day. The invisible power of angels and saints was everywhere and their existence was a given, a fact, ordinary. It would have been unthinkable not to believe in them.
Every day was a saint’s day and gave us the opportunity to recognize the importance of a particular virtue or energy that each saint embodied. We regularly invoked the saints’ and angels’ strengths: St. Jude gave us the courage to face impossible causes; St. Anthony helped us notice and find lost objects; St. Francis protected our animals and taught us compassion for all life. Even as an adult, when I was selling my home recently and wanted to make it go as fast as possible, I borrowed a statue of St. Joseph from a close childhood friend and, according to tradition, buried it upside down in the backyard. Say what you will, but my house sold within days of that little ritual.
For some of us children, the angels and saints were our first brush with invisible power. These nonphysical beings peopled our spiritual world and surrounded us with their support. We were never alone, and when we called or prayed to them, they always answered. They were our first spiritual community. Their lives modeled the power of faith–proof that no physical force on earth, from political oppression to illness, could defeat heaven.
To this day, the saints and angels are invisible forces in my life. Yet I also have a faith in an ever greater power: the energy or grace, that animates our seemingly impersonal but intimately interconnected universe. We receive infusions of grace on a daily basis, but in the middle of the ever day tasks of making a living and taking care of out family and friends, can miss its subtle power. Grace holds together the whole of our life–and all of our lives collectively. It watches over us and will come to our aid if we ask.
Many times I have wished that I could convince others to have faith in this immeasurable, invisible force that surrounds and protects us. I feel profound bliss and answered. I have seen and experienced for too many miracles to believe otherwise. Like you, I’ve had to move mountains in my personal and professional live. Whenever I am striving mightily on my own, pushing and getting nowhere, I usually realize that it’s time to step back and remember that, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard see, ye shall say unto this mountain, /Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove.” As the Tow Te Ching also advises, “Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.” Nothing is impossible for you when you have faith-in yourself and in your purpose.
Faith is an active force–not a passive one–an invisible power, like love. It is not simply a belief in goodness, it is a belief put into action in the present moment. In the ancient Hindu belief system, faith also conveys protection, by giving us trust and confidence in the rightness of what we are doing. Faith enables us to have a positive attitude and hope even in the face of seemingly irreversible setbacks.
God work anonymously–invisibly–through these powers of faith, love, and grace. Perhaps this is because we humans are to meddlesome to be trusted with direct divine intervention. Remember that mortals in ancient mythology who looked directly at a god (who was not disguised in an earthy form) went blind or mad from the sight. God frequently sends divine grace through human agents who perform nonrandom acts of kindness.