Circle of Grace

None of us can predict the endless twists and turns of life or the unimaginable impact that our Christian faith can have on its outcome. Through faith, one of God’s gifts we receive at our baptism, we are able to share God’s kindness and love – His Grace – among one another. Through God’s gift of free will, we can choose or not choose to share or seek God’s grace. Aside from so-called routine acts of kindness, grace encounters can come crashing into our laps out of nowhere or perhaps through a vague awareness that a stranger somewhere is facing a crisis. Our response often demands an extraordinary act of faith. In an uplifting tone, sprinkled with self-effacing, humorous reflections, Mikie Casem poignantly unfolds an often painful journey which led him and his wife, Rita, to not one, but two, extraordinary encounters with grace and a woman named Theresa Palumbo. During their journey, more than a few Catholic Clergy and Religious offered them practical advice, lifted them up from despair or challenged them to grow in their faith. Theresa Palumbo also candidly shares her two extraordinary encounters with Mikie and Rita: first, as an unwed, pregnant teen who was welcomed into the Casem home to live with a family she had never met and again, 32 years later, living 300 miles away, married with a family of her own and teaching school, when Theresa learned of Mikie’s end-stage illness. She made an astonishing decision to return and do what she could to try to save his life.