The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
'T is mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's,
When mercy seasons justice.

Labels: Mercy thoughts

A Little Goes a Long Way by John Rivera

In northern Uganda, an armed conflict between the government and a rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), has raged for nearly two decades and has uprooted millions of people from their homes. Dislocated by war, people have been forced to resettle in camps for the internally displaced, like the makeshift community that has formed by the side of the highway in Karuma, south of the city of Gulu.

Here, separated from the plots of land where they used to grow food to feed and support their families, the people were in dire need of some means to generate income. Humanitarian agencies provided emergency assistance. But a system of village banking — a form of microfinance that gives small loans and encourages savings among people who otherwise do not have access to financial services — offered an alternative to dependence on outside aid.

About 30 community members in the Karuma camp organized themselves with the help of advisors. In 2000 they founded the Can Coya Savings Credit Community. Can Coya is part of HOFOKAM, a specialized microfinance institution founded by the Catholic dioceses of Fort Portal, Hoima and Kasese in western and northern Uganda, with funding and technical support from Catholic Relief Services.

HOFOKAM serves about 15,000 clients — about 65 percent of them women — organized into nearly 1,000 groups. It has a loan portfolio of more than $1.4 million. CRS is in the process of supporting HOFOKAM to expand to additional dioceses, with an eventual vision of forming a single, unified church microfinance institution.

Those original members each borrowed 100,000 Ugandan shillings (about $50) and used the funds to start family businesses, such as selling beans, grain and flour in the small community marketplace. They are required to repay the loans with interest, as is required by any bank. The members of the village bank organize themselves, create their own bylaws and meet regularly to supervise the transactions. Over the years, the community has accessed 16 loan cycles, most recently receiving the equivalent of $4,162 this past July.

'Helping Us to Live Better Lives'

One founding member, Aidah Auma, is now the chairperson of the village bank. Aidah was forced to flee from her home village in 1990 when the LRA attacked, killing her husband, two of her six children and all of her husband's brothers. Aidah managed to escape with her four surviving children to the Karuma camp, but was left without any possessions. She first began selling fruit and other food items to support herself and her family.

Eventually, Aidah helped to establish the Can Coya village bank and used her loan to begin selling bags of charcoal for use in cooking. "With the profits, I managed to put my children through school," she says. She also invested her money in constructing a building that houses several businesses along the highway and nine traditional thatch-roofed dwellings that she rents out for income.

"We are managing the loans very well," she says. "And it is helping us to live better lives."

Encouraging members to accumulate savings is an essential aspect of village banking, explains HOFOKAM loan officer Gordon Kihumuro. Before members of the village bank can access their loans, they are required to begin accumulating some savings. "This encourages them to acquire the habit of savings," he says. "Some save the amount of their loan and they say, 'Thank you, but this savings is enough,' and they don't take the loan. They come to know the importance of saving." So far, the Can Coya village bank has accumulated about $1,200 in savings.

The Can Coya Savings Credit Community has transformed the lives of these people displaced by war, providing them with a means to support their families and giving their children hope for a better future. That hope is a powerful reality for Christine Akello, who used her loan to start a small restaurant in her home, where she serves a plate of chicken with beans and sautéed greens for about 80 cents. As she proudly shows off her restaurant, she holds her hope in her arms, her 1½-year-old daughter Can Coya, who bears the name of the village bank.

John Rivera is a senior writer with CRS' media communications department. He recently traveled to Ethiopia and Uganda to observe CRS programs. He works at CRS headquarters in Baltimore.

Labels: Uganda

Past the seeker as he prayed came the crippled and the beggar and the beaten.

And seeing them, he cried, "Great God, how is it that a loving creator can see such things and yet do nothing about them?"

God said, "I did do something. I made you."

Labels: Mercy thoughts

We tend to forget here in the West how devastating the AIDS epidemic has been in some countries. Here is something to give you some background.

Labels: AIDS, children

Prayer for Mercy

In the darkness of the moment, I turn to you, O Lord,
You who are the light in which there is no darkness.
Help me to see my way among the rocks and the holes,
The rubble of this sin-filled land in its starkness,
All the places where I might trip and fall
And be swallowed up by the night.

How the sound of sin's dark consequences
pierce through the midnight of this poor world,
The hatred masquerading as good intentions,
in smoke and fire and death and grief unfurl,
in little ways, too, with heart rending words
designed to cut and blight.

O Lord, remember us, how you gave your blood in love
to open up the door to heaven's healing touch,
And looked upon all our hurts and pains with loving eyes,
Shepherdless this people, needing much --
And as the darkness thickens, Lord,
Restore to us our sight!

Steadfast love we have not, save what comes from You,
Who sends your grace to fall upon this hard place
In spite of who we are and what we've done since day began.
In spite of sin and coldness, O Lord, turn not your face,
But remember how you wept in the garden
That one spring moonlit midnight.

O Lord, have pity on the ones I cannot reach but know
How frightened, lost and hungry are their days,
O Lord, the children lost, their parents dying, the wars go on
Satan's laughter piercing through the blood red haze --
Remember Lord, the cross that awful day,
Help us by your might!

Kyrie eleison,
Christe eleison,
Kyrie eleison.

Labels: Prayer

"I demand from you deeds of mercy, which are to arise out of love for Me. You are to show mercy to your neighbors always and everywhere. You must not shrink from this or try to excuse or absolve yourself from it.

I am giving you three ways of exercising mercy toward your neighbor:
the first — by deed, the second — by word, the third — by prayer. In these three degrees is contained the fullness of mercy, and it is an unquestionable proof of love for Me. By this means a soul glorifies and pays reverence to My mercy.

Many souls ... are often worried because they do not have the material means with which to carry out an act of mercy. Yet spiritual mercy, which requires neither permissions nor storehouses, is much more meritorious and is within the grasp of every soul.

If a soul does not exercise mercy somehow or other, it will not obtain My mercy on the day of judgment. Oh, if only souls knew how to gather eternal treasure for themselves, they would not be judged, for they would forestall My judgment with their mercy" (1317).

From the Diary of St. Faustina

Labels: Divine Mercy

(one of the saddest examples of human caused grief lately has been the troubles in Darfur - often ignored by the press, but a true crisis in need of prayer, work, and mercy)

The Crisis in Darfur

It's been three years since rebel groups in Darfur, Sudan's western province, rose up to demand more autonomy and a greater share of the country's resources. The brutal conflict that followed killed hundreds of thousands of people, leaving millions homeless and dependent on humanitarian assistance. Though the world's attention has largely drifted away, the situation on the ground is not resolved.

The Root of the Conflict
The crisis started in February 2003, when two rebel groups rose up against the government of Sudan, claiming they were treated unjustly over land and resources. The Sudanese government allegedly responded by arming local militias, and supporting an effort to attack communities linked to the rebels. The results were brutal — villages were torched, women were raped and millions of people still live in camps set up for the displaced.

Current situation
Three years after the conflict began, thousands of people continue to die each month from malnutrition, disease and insecurity. In addition, local militias called Janjaweed — or armed men on horseback — recently resumed assaults, and even African Union troops patrolling the area to monitor a formal ceasefire have been attacked and killed. Insecurity throughout the huge region, roughly the size of Texas, has forced some humanitarian operations to be curtailed. Though CRS continues to provide services in West Darfur, including food, shelter, education, clean water and agricultural support, dangerous conditions have limited access.

Insecurity
Insecurity is still the major problem facing people in Darfur. Internally displaced persons repeatedly described women being beaten or raped when venturing outside camps to search for basic living essentials, such as water and wood. Survivors have told consistent stories of terror, rape and brutal attacks that forced them to flee. According to witnesses, a typical pattern is that a government-backed militia stormed into their villages on horseback, surrounded them, killed men and raped women, and burned, pillaged and destroyed what remained of their communities. The increase in banditry on the roads throughout West Darfur has greatly hindered nongovernmental organizations' access to the most vulnerable.

The aiding of each other's rebel groups between the governments of Sudan and Chad has increased insecurity for many people in Darfur. Many cross the border to reach refugee camps in Chad. Many in Darfur suffer from attacks by both Chadian and Sudanese rebel groups. REcent splits within the Sudanese rebel groups and disagreements over the Darfur Peace Agreement signed earlier this year have heightened security concerns and created more conflict in the region. The African Union's mandate has been extended through December 2006, but needs much more support to be able to adequately protect civilians.

Regional Impact
The situation in Darfur is connected to the larger conflict that ravaged southern Sudan for 45 years. A peace accord ended fighting in that area in early 2005, and there is some hope that this will help spread stability. Sudan's relationship with its neighbors — including Uganda, Ethiopia and Chad — the handling of its oil wealth, and its systemic violations of human rights make it a focal point in Africa right now.

Humanitarian Concerns
Humanitarian groups have struggled to meet the needs in Darfur, partly because of the sheer size and scope of the crisis. Thousands of people remained out of reach because of ongoing insecurity, poor infrastructure and rugged terrain, and aid workers are often being targeted by bandits or armed groups involved in the conflict. As of October 2006, twelve humanitarian workers have been killed in conflict-related incidents.

In the past, people feared being attacked if they left the confines of the camps to gather fire wood or search out more food. But attacks on the camps themselves have become more common, leaving little escape for those who were already displaced from their homes.

The American Council for Voluntary International Action has a good information page about Darfur and the agencies that are trying to help: http://www.interaction.org/media/HOP/Hot_Darfur.html

Labels: Darfur

Teach me o Lord, the ways of your mercy,
How to reach out in truth,
Not in the false sentimentality of popular notions,
that shifting sense of fairness
that changes with fashion and taste,
but in the true ways your word reveals,
caring for the ugly and the outcast,
the unpopular, the needy,
in the ways that you show us to do.

Teach me O Lord, the ways of your mercy,
How to reach out in truth,
Not with the false rationality that blooms ever anew
to find reasons not to help, to say no
in spite of the truth of what your word reveals,
help me not to turn my back on the ones you send me,
help me not to grow hard hearted with the call now to love,
but to walk in the ways that you call us to do.

Teach me, O Lord, the ways of your mercy,
To see your eyes shining in the face of the lost,
To hear your voice calling in the cry of the hungry,
To reach out and cover your shoulders as I clothe the naked,
To feel your touch in the hands of the unloved.
Through your help, O Lord, let me reach out to God's children
As if I were reaching out in love to you.

This day, and always, Amen.

Labels: Prayer

Here is an exerpt of a neat piece on loving one's irritating co-workers, and shows how acting in mercy is a choice. This is something St. Therese would emphasize, herself in her little way, and this article demonstrates how we can do it in an everyday situation:

By Ann Darcy:

Love your enemies. Jesus demands that from us: "But I say: Love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you"(Mt 5:44).

Have you ever worked with someone who grated on your last nerve? Every day becomes purgatory.

Several years ago, I volunteered to help man the phone banks for a fundraiser in my community. We were calling people, asking them if they would be willing to go door-to-door in their neighborhoods, seeking donations to fund medical research. We worked from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m., hours when it's easiest to find someone at home. Unfortunately, it's also the dinner hour and time when families relax together. People do not appreciate being interrupted by a telemarketer, even for a worthy cause.

I've heard it said that it isn't the mountain you must climb, but the pebble in your shoe that makes the journey difficult. Well, the mountain I had to climb was the verbal abuse I received at times when my call was unwelcome. The pebble in my shoe was the woman assigned to the seat next to mine. I'll call her Della. She spent much of her time doling out criticisms on everything I did, from the color ink in my pen, to the order in which I called the numbers. She chewed and snapped gum. (more)

In some ways, even though they are more aggravating, it is easier to learn to love our irritating neighbor. What gets hard is when we need to act with mercy towards people we don't see...They become abstracts to us, carictatures of the real men and women, good and bad as we pigeonhole them by name. Frogs. Towelheads. Freepers. Geeks. Slanteyes. And the list goes on and on. We do it to individuals, too. The Chimp. Imanutjob. Saddam Insane. These are all the devices the dark uses to help us to demonize, minimize, and have reasons not to see the people as children of God. It's so easy to do. And once done, it's so hard to re-see the people as who they really are.

And yet, God calls us to a higher standard than that. Can we see the irritating one as a person instead of a pain?

Labels: Love of Neighbor

But as I look at the world, and the gathering darkness of hate and anger and self-indulgence, I am constantly haunted by a passage from the Gospel of Luke:

"But I say to you that hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from him who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to every one who begs from you; and of him who takes away your goods do not ask them again.

"And as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.

"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again.

"But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish.

"Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful."

Luke 6:27-36, RSV

The quandry to me is how to be merciful in a world where we are surrounded by those who would kill us? How to be kind, while keeping oneself from the knife at the neck? How to pray for those who hate you, even as they plan to tear down all you believe is good.

Jesus never said it would be easy. I'm going to spend some time contemplating this quandry, and looking for solutions.

Labels: Contemplations on Mercy