Gratia non tollit naturum

On the Latin I remember

There’s a quote I learned in Latin approximately a million years ago that popped back up for me the other day and that I (not so quietly) needed this morning. It’s from Thomas Aquinas, from his Summa Theologiae (omg did you know I went to Catholic school??). The Latin is “Gratia non tollit naturum, sed perficit,” which basically translates to “Grace does not destroy nature, it perfects it.”

I’m not going to get into the theological meaning of it because, once again, did you know I went to Catholic school, I’ve done this enough for one lifetime. But in a week where I sat down with every intention of writing a thoughtful post today. I’ve had a lot on my mind lately,  naturally this should lead to a solid musing for today. But I couldn’t organize my thoughts, I felt (feel? actively?) entirely overwhelmed at work, and I was (am) beating myself up about not having the time to write like I want to. 

But then I saw this, and it made me think about something I talk about a lot – giving myself grace. And, in this sense, giving myself the grace not to write, the grace to give myself space to be creative later in time. Not to say it’ll be perfect any time soon, but sometimes giving grace is what you need to get to that “better.”

All to say – not much of a post this week. Hopefully we’ll be back next week, less overwhelmed, more centered, and most hopefully, with much better sleep to string all these thoughts together.