Coronation of the Virgin
Vatican Museum
Being, Grace and Mercy are the great forces of the Holy Trinity which drive the engine of the universe; and the second of these forces is Grace.
Grace is
inherent; by this we mean that Grace is an inalienable property of all that is. All of creation is imbued by Grace; there is no object, event, circumstance, or condition that is without Grace, because Grace enters all of creation through the original Will of the Lord.
Grace is the force of Gurdjieff's conscious labor, because it represents and provides what he called the "first conscious shock." That is, Grace is the Will of God, which is always and forever consciously exercised—the consciousness of God, penetrating and giving rise to all things. Nothing arises except Grace creates it; and nothing exists except Grace sustains it. So Grace is both Creator and Sustainer; and it is ever-present.
If we somehow think that Grace only enters some situations at some times, and is not eternally present, we err; because Grace is ever-present and in all things, even things we think are the worst of things. Grace cannot be measured by the human instruments of good and bad, for within the Will of the Lord there is no good or bad. We say the Will of the Lord is
unquestionable because it comes from a higher level and cannot in any way or measure be subject to human understanding. Grace, when it seems to appear to us, only does so because we are seeing
what was always already there; and it is merely a function of our fallen nature and our ingratitude that we do not sense the Presence of Grace and its action in all things and at all times.
When we seek to place ourselves under the influence of Grace and its action, we pray, "I Am, I wish to Be" because to
be is to be within Grace; for Being has no other place than within Grace, since that is its primary and functional condition. Grace can't be separated from Being because it emanates from the great and most holy, absolute
do of Being; insofar as we -re-align with Grace, we enter Being.
This is the action of God's consciousness within the octave. It supports all of the further evolution that can take place after it; and nothing can take place else Grace is invoked.
Grace is not special, any more than God's consciousness is special; they are inevitable. Grace is, instead,
fundamental; its action binds the three lower forces of body, intellect and feeling together, creating a whole that can cross into the manifestation of real Being at
sol on the
left side of the enneagram. This natural process ought to take place at all times and in all things.
So let's not speak of Grace as though it were distant or unattainable. Let us sense it together in the full and perfect knowledge that it is present
now—and that we dwell within it in every moment.
If we're fortunate, once in a while, we may actually sense this with our higher parts.
Grace takes on an infinite number of aspects because of its inherent power to reconcile the right side of the octave, to reconcile the otherwise independently functioning forces of materiality, desire and power.
May your soul be filled with light.