Former columnist takes on new projects

BROWNSVILLE - Remember Dear Grace? Well, she's back, with some brand new projects to address the needs of the Catholic community, both local and global.

Grace MacKinnon, who wrote the Dear Grace column for Freedom newspapers throughout the Rio Grande Valley between 1999 and 2004 - it was even published as far away as Korea and Ireland - will hold her first "Lunch with Grace" on Tuesday at noon at the Brownsville Public Library.

"This is going to be to help busy Catholics," said MacKinnon, "and they don't even have to be Catholics, they can be anyone. It's going to be a place where they can ask questions and learn more about God, their faith, and meet other people who share that faith. It's the second Tuesday of every month."

MacKinnon, who holds a master's degree in theology from St. Mary's Seminary in Houston, also has filmed several segments of "Dear Grace" for Eternal Word Television Network. EWTN, a global Catholic network based in Alabama, transmits 24 hours a day to more than 140 countries and territories.

The segments, which MacKinnon says will be shown in small bites between programs, will follow the same format as the "Dear Grace" column that also ran in numerous church bulletins and diocesan newspapers throughout the Valley and the rest of the United States. She has also written feature articles for several Catholic magazines including This Rock, Lay Witness, Catholic Digest, Share The Word, and Canticle Magazine.

"It's going to start sometime in the spring," MacKinnon said. "It's going to be like segments, where I'm going to be sitting down, reading a letter from a viewer, and answering a question, and it's all going to be called ‘Dear Grace'."

The weekly "Dear Grace" column began at The Brownsville Herald in August 1999. Other newspapers picked it up, including the Valley Morning Star and smaller publications throughout the Valley. MacKinnon wrote the column while working as director of adult education for the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville. She left the diocese in July 2004 to start a nonprofit organization called Dear Grace Ministries. The column even ran on a Web site in South America in Spanish, she said.

"A lot of things happened because of that column," she said. "I also wrote my life story. That was called ‘Moments of Grace.' I did my own EWTN mini-series last year. That was my first mini-series with them. It was called ‘Suffering Is About Love'. It was a five-part mini-series. I've done a number of television and radio interviews. And almost all of it from that column. And now, like I tell you, it's coming to worldwide television."

That ‘life story' includes her struggle with muscular dystrophy, which has compelled her to use a wheelchair. She also grew up in abject poverty with seven other sisters and a single mother in a two-room home in an alley behind Jackson Street.

"She was married to my father, but they never got divorced," she said. "They separated when we were very young. So she raised us alone."

MacKinnon said she faced an uphill battle to get an education at a time when people with physical differences were stigmatized as being intellectually challenged as well. She was placed in a special school that taught only very rudimentary skills to "crippled" children in a sheltered environment.

"I always longed to go to school," she said. "I was the kind of kid that was always doing what she wanted, and one of the things I wanted was an education. I loved school, I loved learning."

She recalls her mother as being the family's "Rock of Gibraltar."

"She was the one who fought for me to get an education," MacKinnon said. "She was a very good and noble woman. She had me tested and I had an above average intelligence."

Once she tested high on intelligence evaluations, she went immediately to third grade; after completing that grade, she skipped fourth grade and went directly to fifth.

"A counselor in grade school told me, ‘Don't ever let anyone tell you what you can't do,'" she recalled. "And I am telling you, I had a determination that would not quit. I have always been that way, very tenacious, very persistent, especially when I know God wants me to do it."

MacKinnon said her own challenges have empowered her to help others. She recalled the executive producer at EWTN telling her, "Grace, we have a lot of people who come teach the Catholic Faith on the air, but none that are in a wheelchair like you are."

Her readers have shared similar sentiments.

"One of my readers said to me, ‘I like to read what you say because you paid the price. I have lived a challenging life, not only because of disability but poverty."

MacKinnon said her faith in God empowered her to overcome obstacles, and she wants to share that message with others. She looks forward to sharing that message on Tuesday during "Lunch with Grace." Each session will have a different topic; this Tuesday she will talk about New Year's Resolutions.

"At the beginning of the New Year, everyone is asking me what changes they can make to make their lives better, and I think that the most important change is to get closer to God," she said. "You know, people sometimes ask themselves, ‘Why aren't things going well for me? Why am I not getting what I want out of life. Why am I not happy?' And they don't realize what the source of real happiness is, and that's God. And you know what? We keep putting God on the shelf, like a book, and another thing that we do is say next week, next month, next year, I'll get closer to God, I am too busy right now, but then they wonder why they are not happy."