Works of Mercy

Mercy glorifies the one who receives it. Do-gooding glorifies the one who originates it.

Dan Valenti

Labels: Mercy thoughts

ABC's Of Mercy
A - Ask for His Mercy. God wants us to approach Him in prayer constantly, repenting of
our sins and asking Him to pour His mercy out upon us and upon the whole world.

B - Be merciful. God wants us to receive His mercy and let it flow through us to others.
He wants us to extend love and forgiveness to others just as He does to us.

C - Completely trust in Jesus. God wants us to know that the graces of His mercy are
dependent upon our trust. The more we trust in Jesus, the more we will receive.

source

Labels: Divine Mercy, Mercy thoughts

Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My mercy."

Jesus to St. Faustina

Labels: Mercy thoughts

Even though the poor are often rough and unrefined, we must not judge them from external appearances nor from the mental gifts they seem to have received. On the contrary, if you consider the poor in the light of faith, then you will observe that they are taking the place of the Son of God who chose to be poor. Although in his passion he almost lost the appearance of a man and was considered a fool by the Gentiles and a stumbling block by the Jews, he showed them that his mission was to preach to the poor: "He sent me to preach the good news to the poor." We also ought to have this same spirit and imitate Christ's actions, that is, we must take care of the poor, console them, help them, support their cause.

Since Christ willed to be born poor, he chose for himself disciples who were poor. He made himself the servant of the poor and shared their poverty. He went so far as to say that he would consider every deed which either helps or harms the poor as done for or against himself. Since God surely loves the poor, he also love whose who love the poor. For when on person holds another dear, he also includes in his affection anyone who loves or serves the one he loves. That is why we hope that God will love us for the sake of the poor. So when we visit the poor and needy, we try to be understanding where they are concerned. We sympathize with them so fully that we can echo Paul's words: "I have become all things to all men." Therefore, we must try to be stirred by our neighbors' worries and distress.

It is our duty to prefer the service of the poor to everything else and to offer such service as quickly as possible. Charity is certainly greater than any rule. Moreover, all rules must lead to charity. With renewed devotion, then, we must serve the poor, especially outcasts and beggars. They have been given to us as our masters and patrons.

from a writing of Saint Vincent de Paul

Labels: Mercy thoughts

You have a tremendous advantage over the person who slanders you or does you a willful injustice: you have it within your power to forgive that person.

--Author unknown

Labels: Mercy thoughts

Jesus to St. Faustina:

Write this for many souls who 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 or 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 treasures for themselves, they would not be judged, for they would forestall My judgment with their mercy.

From the Diary of St. Faustina

Labels: Mercy thoughts

"People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway. If you do good, people may accuse you of selfish motives. Do good anyway. If you are successful, you may win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. Be honest and transparent anyway. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway. People who really want help may attack you if you help them. Help them anyway. Give the world the best you have and you may get hurt. Give the world your best anyway."

Mother Teresa

Labels: Mercy thoughts

We must never undervalue any person. The workman loves not that his work should be despised in his presence. Now God is present everywhere, and every person is His work.

St. Francis de Sales

Labels: Mercy thoughts

I am not sure exactly what heaven will be like, but I do know that when we die and it comes time for God to judge us, he will NOT ask, "How many good things have you done in your life?," rather he will ask, "How much LOVE did you put into what you did?"

Mother Teresa

Labels: Mercy thoughts

Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. Let no one try to separate them; they cannot be separated. If you have only one of them or not all together, you have nothing. So if you pray, fast; if you fast, show mercy; if you want your petition to be heard, hear the petition of others. If you do not close your ear to others you open God’s ear to yourself.

When you fast, see the fasting of others. If you want God to know that you are hungry, know that another is hungry. If you hope for mercy, show mercy. If you look for kindness, show kindness. If you want to receive, give. If you ask for yourself what you deny to others, your asking is a mockery.

Let this be the pattern for all men when they practise mercy: show mercy to others in the same way, with the same generosity, with the same promptness, as you want others to show mercy to you.

St. Peter Chrysologus

Labels: Contemplations on Mercy, Mercy thoughts

Remember that the Christian life is one of action, not of speech and daydreams. Let there be few words and many deeds, and let them be done well.

- Saint Vincent Pallotti (1798-1850)

Labels: Mercy thoughts

"Charity must never look back, but always ahead, for the number of its past benefits is always quite small, as the present and future miseries it should alleviate are infinite".--Frederic Ozanam

Labels: Mercy thoughts

There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in - that we do it to God, to Christ, and that's why we try to do it as beautifully as possible. - Mother Teresa

Labels: Mercy thoughts

When the Lord hears my prayer for mercy (a prayer which is itself inspired by the action of His mercy) then He makes His mercy present and visible in me by moving me to have mercy on others as He has had mercy on me. This is the way in which God's mercy fulfils His divine justice: mercy and justice seem to us to differ, but in the works of God they are both expressions of His love.

Thomas Merton

Labels: Mercy thoughts

Everytime you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.

--Mother Teresa

Labels: Mercy thoughts

You and I, we are the Church, no? We have to share with our people. Suffering today is because people are hoarding, not giving, not sharing. Jesus made it very clear. Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do it to me. Give a glass of water, you give it to me. Receive a little
child, you receive me...

Mother Teresa

Labels: Love of Neighbor, Mercy thoughts

There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in - that we do it to God, to Christ, and that's why
we try to do it as beautifully as possible.

Mother Teresa

Labels: Mercy thoughts

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

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