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HAVE YOU EVER TRIED ON A PAIR OF EYEGLASSES and had them make everything look blurry? That’s because the prescription wasn’t right for your particular vision. Our perception of the world can also be blurry at times. We go through periods when life is hard, and God seems distant or even absent. But if we make a concerted effort to view the people and circumstances that surround us through the lens of faith, we may discover God in unexpected places.
Seeing God in Prison
Catholic singer-songwriter Sarah Hart was performing a concert at a parish in Mansfield, Ohio, when the event’s organizers invited her to take part in their prison ministry program. Having never played in a prison before, she agreed to lead the music for a Mass for the inmates.
During a Christopher Closeup interview, Sarah reflected, “I’ve sung at 3,000 Masses in my life… [but this] was the most beautiful Mass I’ve ever been privileged to be a part of. The men sang with such gusto, they had a choir, they had instruments. Afterwards, we were all able to talk… Some of them told me why they were there. We talked about music, they talked about their struggles… I was so moved by them.”
She continued, “A lot of times, I think, when we as Christians go into charitable situations, we think, ‘I can’t wait to bring Jesus to these people.’ But I’m here to tell you, those guys know Jesus better than I do. They brought Jesus to me that day.”
Sarah was so moved by the experience that she wrote a song about it titled “As You Are.” She explained, “There’s so many people in this world who feel on the outside of church… who feel excluded and outcast. Here comes Jesus… speaking to us, ‘Come just as you are… There’s not a thing you can give Me except your heart.’ There’s no more beautiful concept than that, and no better news than that.”
“I wanted to write a song to thank [the prisoners] for opening my eyes to that… It allowed me to hear the voice of God saying, ‘You see, Sarah, nobody is excluded. My desire is that all come to Me.’”
Seeing God in Those with Disabilities
Delaney Coyne has a background in academic theology and admits she loves reading about God. But she acknowledges that faith must be more than simply knowledge from books. The person who has most helped Delaney see Jesus’s presence in this world is her younger sister, Charlotte, who has an intellectual disability.
Growing up together, Delaney witnessed the challenges and victories Charlotte experienced in learning and practicing her Catholic faith. In a Christopher Closeup interview, Delaney said, “Charlotte reminds me that there’s something a lot deeper to faith than just knowledge… She engages with the faith in a different way than I do. She’s often a much better Christian than I am. She sees the good in everyone. She shows love to everyone, and she’s open to love.”
Delaney continued, “It reminds me to break from my own rigidity and see the mystery of God’s abundant love. So, my image of faith and image of the Church is bound up in my relationship with my sister. I came to know God through going to church with my family and sitting next to her, and I learned who God is and what love is. It reminded me that there’s this real power of unity in diversity.”
Delaney later explored disability ministries in the Church for an article in America magazine. She discovered an inspiring example at St. Therese of Lisieux Church in Cresskill, New Jersey. Its pastor, Father Samuel Citero, O.Carm., was moved by a 2015 trip to Lourdes and started monthly special needs Masses at his parish.
These Masses involve people with disabilities in all aspects—from altar servers and lectors to choir members—creating a faith-affirming and inclusive experience. Delaney found herself deeply touched, seeing Jesus’s presence in the joyful worship of people who were overlooked no more.
Seeing God in Our Elders
Actress Annie Lees once worked entertaining fans at Minor League Baseball games in Minneapolis, Minnesota. One day, she chatted for an hour with an elderly man who clearly had memory issues. Later, his daughter approached her in tears, thanking her for giving her father such meaningful attention.
Months later, the daughter returned to another game and recognized Lees. She shared that her father had since passed away but that the memory of that simple, kind interaction lived on. That encounter led Lees to reflect on her own journey—she had battled addiction earlier in life and had since sought healing and purpose.
Inspired, she spoke to her pastor, who asked if she had considered ministry. Lees, drawn to listening to people’s stories, eventually became a chaplain. She now serves at Catholic Eldercare, a facility for seniors with dementia and medical issues.
Lees shared, “It’s a particular time in people’s lives. They’re coming to the end of things… I think what’s so beautiful about it is honoring them and helping walk them home… Our job is to walk each other home. And if we can do that for one another in some small way, every day, whatever it is, I think that’s what this life is all about.”
Seeing God in Times of Pain
In the early 2000s, Father Bob Colaresi, O.Carm., was Director of the Society of the Little Flower when he suffered intense back pain. Doctors discovered an infection damaging his spine, requiring urgent surgery.
In Between Friends, he wrote, “It was like a miracle. But I was still bedridden for a long time and impatient… Because I do not suffer well, I did not pray well. I was frustrated and felt God and everyone had abandoned me.”
Father Bob turned to prayer, asking St. Thérèse how she maintained her faith during her own suffering. He received a whisper: “Trust God!” At first, it angered him. Two weeks later, he prayed again—and heard the same message.
This time, it led to an awakening. Though he had asked for physical healing, what he received was spiritual: a revelation of his lifelong need to prove himself. “I spent my life trying to prove I have value and was competent… I was running over people to make things happen… The healing St. Thérèse helped me to experience was that I wasn’t the Messiah – God was still in charge!”
He concluded, “It was not the healing I was looking for, but the healing I needed to live a more faithful and generative life.”
There is a line in a prayer to St. Thérèse that reads, “Give me your childlike faith to see the face of God in the people and experiences of my life, and to love God with full confidence.” That’s a prayer worth repeating every day—for the grace to see God clearly, especially in the unexpected.
Seeing God in Little Acts of Love
Dominican Sister Ave Clark has spent more than 60 years in religious life, helping others deal with their struggles through her Heart to Heart Ministry program. She has learned to see God’s presence in all different kinds of people and situations, and takes special inspiration from the words of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who said in her Magnificat, “My soul magnifies the Lord.”
Sister Ave notes that we don’t have to magnify the Lord in large ways. It can happen through the smallest acts of love. “I look across the street every day,” Sister Ave said during a Christopher Closeup interview, “and I see a man put his special [needs] son, who is nonverbal, on this bus…He’s back out there at 3:15 waiting for his son. And when the bus pulls up, I see them. The son gets off, gives his father the bag, reaches out his arms, and they hug each other. The father will not change the son’s mental capacities or his emotional life, but what I see is love. That’s what I see through Mary. Each one of us can magnify… Mary’s loving ‘Yes,’ her loving trust, her loving humanity…That’s where our Magnificat happens in our ordinary life.”