I just met her. Now, standing beside the bed of her loved one, who is leaving this world, we hold hands. I pray. We embrace like two old friends. Then, silence, lovely quietness. I turn, we talk. Then, we embrace each other like we have known each other for an eternity - possibly, we have.

Grace reaches out to connect, for Grace creates communion. Grace does that in different ways, but one way is through the body. While the body is often seen as a sexual object or an object that one self-objectifies to prove something about his manhood or her womanhood, the body is best seen as a means of Grace. The body, then, becomes a way Life touches Life, a way Love loves, and we are graced to be participants in this fulfilling of honoring and reverencing the Sacred that recognizes the Sacred.