Mercy is the power of love to restore a relationship. Therefore Mercy is never condescending.When God gives us his mercy, he is also asking for our mercy back. God seeks our mercy. In true friendship and Love, He gives us the dignity of accepting and caring for him through our confidence and our trust in him.

He has given us this free choice to accept him, and care for him. And there really isn’t any other way he would want it. God puts himself in our hands – asking for our mercy – and then we have the dignity to offer a gift to him – our trust and confidence in a truly loving exchange. So it is not just a one-way relationship of his mercy for us, but a mutual friendship, built on being able to give him a gift that he can’t have otherwise.

This is what you do with your friends, you put yourselves in their hands. Most of us will not follow through and have the trust to let our friends take care of us. And we don’t really step up and trust God either.

In the Prodigal Son parable, when the father pleads with the son, he is making himself vulnerable to his son. You have the question of whether the older son will come in or will stay outside. So the father is again vulnerable to the response. In the same way, God is making himself vulnerable to us. But most of us want a God who will save us, so there is the paradox and great scandal of the parable. We do not expect, or even want, a God that is going to place himself in our hands.

Yet, he does!

Live in a detachment from material goods and with an attitude of gratitude for all you have.
Blessed are those who mourn…
Be sorrowful for your sins and for the sins and injustices of society, and allow your mourning to lead to repentance.
Blessed are the meek …
Show restraint, be gentler spirit but strong and commitment.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness. ..
Desire what is just, show compassion and mercy for all, respect people’s rights, fulfill your obligations others, and care for those who are in need.
Blessed are the merciful. ..
Give other more love than they deserve; offer people who have wronged you another chance; be a forgiving person; let go of grudges.
Blessed are the pure in heart. ..
Remain focused on the gospel in on your mission as a disciple of Jesus; avoid distractions but stay focused on God.
Blessed are the peacemakers. ..
Offer to resolve conflicts at work and at home; help reconcile people to one another.
Blessed are those who are persecuted and righteousness’ for my sake. .
Take pleasure only in knowing that you are doing God’s will.
Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. .
Know that, even when it seems that no one else appreciate you, God loves you; know that following Jesus means following him to the cross..

Why don’t we have same fervor for eternal life that we have for physical life?

We are a spirit first, and a body second.

If there is no suffering, then there is no compassion; nor opportunity to help others – to serve others; for us to grow; and to change from selfish to unselfish.

Jesus called us to be involved. Jesus called us to serve.

Jesus, support me in what is good for you, not what is good for me. You are my example.

One of the seven signs – Repentance. Surrendering to God the right to one’s self. That’s what Jesus did when “he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped at”, and that is what Christians do when they humbly give up their rights in order to serve God and care for others.

Repentance means turning away from one’s own rights; and surrendering in order to live God’s will. That is true humility.

“You want to know more, but you do not want to live what you already know”.

Live so people will want to know what you know. Live in contentment and
happiness. Live in joy through gratefulness your sins have expiated by Jesus.

Oh Jesus! Meek and humble of heart, hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed, deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being loved, deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being extolled, deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being honored, deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being praised, deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being preferred to others, deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being consulted, deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being approved, deliver me, Jesus.
From the Fear of being humiliated, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of suffering rebukes, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being culminated, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being forgotten, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being ridiculed, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being wronged, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being suspected, deliver me, Jesus.
That others may be loved more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others maybe esteemed more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be chosen and I set aside,
Jesus, grant the grace to desire it.
That others may be praised and I go unnoticed,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be preferred to me in everything,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I
should, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

Love: seeking and doing what is best for another.
Love first, without being loved first or in return.
Love your neighbor as you would want to be loved.
Be loved, receive love, experience love. Get it from the outside, and let it change you.
Ask God for help.
Commit to growing in love.
Find a growth context for yourself – open up to others.
Look for others who need to be loved.
Spend time and energy being a loving person.
May all that I am today, all that I try to do today, even the frustrations and failings, all place my life in your hands. Please, let this day give you praise. I ask for the grace that my Lord would guide me in choosing how I will live my life more with and in Jesus.
Act Justly.
Love Tenderly.
Serve one another.
Walk Humbly with the Lord.

Prayer Excerpts from:

“Don’t Sing Songs to a Heavy Heart: How to Relate to Those Who Are Suffering”
book by Kenneth C. Haugk

Open my mind, O Lord, to the influence of your blessed Word. Teach me what you would have me know about suffering.
Let knowledge chase away my preconceptions and misconceptions, and let love animate the understanding I gain. This I ask in the name of your Son, Jesus.

Help me to honor the uniqueness of those who suffer and the uniqueness of their suffering.
Guide me as I enter the place where they are.

Teach me how to move to understanding as I get to know each of them as individuals, even as Jesus knows me.
I need you. Prepare me. Be with me. Make me your tool.

Most loving God, help me to sense the presence of Jesus at work in me and through me, so that the other person will see Jesus in me.

And when I gaze into the eyes of the suffering one, help me to see the face of Jesus so I always remember that as I care, I care for Jesus, and as I love, I love Jesus.

Dear God, sometimes I feel uncomfortable when someone cries in front of me. I know you’ve provided tears for times when words aren’t adequate to express the depths of pain and suffering. Jesus wept. Teach me to embrace the tears of those who are hurting and at times even to weep with them.

Dear God, tune me in to you, and to the needs of the suffering one. Help me to balance this tightrope of not-too-much-too-soon and not-too-little-too-late. Enable me to reach out with your love and be as consistent in my caring as you are in caring for me.

Dear Lord, I want my presence to be a help, not a hindrance. Help me to make it so. Help me relate to suffering people honestly, being good and true to their needs.

Without your watching over my tendencies to evade and avoid, I can’t do it, Lord. Thank you for guarding me from my own discomfort.

Dear Lord. I don’t want to close up if someone tells me bad news. Help me to radiate acceptance and love to hurting people, no matter what they find the courage to tell me. Thank you for giving me unchanging love no matter what I tell you.

Dear God, relating to those who suffer is profoundly holy work. Help me to keep the pure simplicity of it ever in mind, and keep me ever in your mind as I offer this gift of loving care to others. In your Son’s name. Amen

Loving God, you called us each by name and gave your only Son to redeem us.
In your faithfulness, you sent the Holy Spirit to complete the mission of Jesus among us.
Open our hearts to Jesus.
Give us courage to speak his name with those who are close to us, and the
generosity to share his Love with those who are far away.
We pray that every person throughout the world be invited to know and love Jesus as savior and Redeemer.
May they come to know his all-surpassing love. May they transform every element of our society.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Mary, Mother of the church, pray for us. St.Paul the Apostle, pray for us.
Evangelization is personal – both for you and the people you hope to influence. Because you love and respect them, you want to help them find what you have found.
You think about the needs of those in your life. You let them know you care.
It’s how you experience God, and how you share that experience with others.
Sharing your faith in God is a great expression of that friendship. Go and do
what Jesus asked you to do.

1. Gratitude: begin by thanking God in a personal dialogue for whatever you are most grateful for today. What has God done for me today? What has he given me? How does he sustain me? What is he offering me?

• The Grace we seek in accompanying Christ through his suffering is compassion. We reflect not merely on the physical pain he endured, but also on the emotional, interior suffering of a person who is misunderstood, isolated, rejected, and alone.

2. Awareness: revisit the times in the past 24 hours when you were, and were not, the-best-version-of-yourself. Talk to God about these situations and what you learned from them. “They sought the approval of man, rather than the approval of God”.

3. Significant Moments: identify something you experienced and explore what God might be trying to say to you through the event (or person).

4. Peace: Ask God to forgive you for any wrong you have committed (against yourself, another person, or him) and to fill you with a deep and abiding peace.

5. Freedom: speak with God about how he is inviting you to change your life, so that you can experience the freedom to be the-best-version-of-yourself.

6. Others: Lift up to God anyone you feel called to pray for today, asking God to bless and guide them.

Jesus heals so that we will participate in his mission of bringing others to life.

Lord, Jesus Christ, I acknowledge that I am a sinner. My sins hurt Christ, who loves me. Because I am hurting you Lord, I am going to stop.

And I beg you to forgive me. Come into my heart.

Take control of my life, be my Lord and Savior. Fill me with your Holy Spirit and make me your apostle. I love you, Lord Jesus Christ, and I surrender my life to you forever.

We should always be joyful because of our gratefulness that we have all of our sins forgiven, fully redeemed by Jesus. We should exemplify Christian joyfulness to everyone all the time.

We learned the rules of Christianity (which are guides for living), but not that God is amazing. That he is ALIVE and LOVES US. That he walks with us, that he hears us when we pray, and wants to be our friend. He is not an abstract idea.

If we don’t take that to heart, then it’s hard to care about him, and hard to
care about sharing the truth about him.