Category: Mercy
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Prayer for the Dead
In light of recent world and domestic events, I offer the following for our reflection and prayer: Prayer for the Dead Into your hands, O Lord, we humbly entrust our brothers and sisters. In this life you embraced them with your tender love; deliver them now from every evil and bid them enter eternal rest.…
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True Stewardship
An Everyday Stewardship Reflection for 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2016 What does it mean to give of yourself completely, without reservation, without fear, and without a concern for the cost? Should it matter if the person who needs us is unlike us in skin color, religion, or nationality? What does real mercy look like?…
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Anything But a Happy Place
I am shocked that the events of the past days have cast a shadow on my recent post on hospitality, where I urged churches to step up their efforts to become places of welcome. My post spoke about the Disney slogan of being “the happiest place on earth,” and that truly our parishes where one…
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Embodied Mercy
In Matthew chapters 5-7 Jesus delivers the greatest sermon the world has ever known. Christians should read these three chapters frequently. In fact, we would do well to memorize them. But these chapters (also known as The Sermon on the Mount) can make us squirm a bit. Jesus says counter-cultural things like, “[I]f anyone would…
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Mama Irene
My wife is always posting on social media about children who have been adopted or children who are seeking to be adopted. My wife was adopted. This fuels her desire for every child to have a family to call their own. We have friends that have welcomed new members into their family by adoption. It’s…
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Loving Presence
In my experience, the most common phrase used to express sympathy to someone who has lost a loved one is – “I’m sorry for your loss.” It’s a very nice sentiment and I believe everyone who uses it means it. But with any oft-used expression, its overuse can minimize the impact. We use phrases like…
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No Rewind; Press Play Now
I post this as I am spending a few days with my two youngest children at the beach. Family is a precious gift. Mercy is a precious gift. Sometimes, when we are open to it, the two come together for something extraordinary. I have heard the saying, “Hold your friends close, and your enemies even…
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A Time for Friends
Holy Week is about more than a reflection of events that occurred so very long ago. The events of this week are about NOW. It is about being present to the suffering and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This week unites our sufferings with His, our death with His, and our life with His. The events…
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The Letters
Even in a world that at times seems lost and lacking in love, there are good stewards everywhere that serve as good role models for us all. They demonstrate to us that holiness is not just for those we read about in a Book of Saints. They remind us that we all have the capacity…
Tracy Earl Welliver 