Tag: mercy
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The Most Jesus-y Thing My Church Does
Our church held it’s annual festival last weekend. Now, I grew up in a respectable Southern Protestant household, so this was foreign to my childhood. If we wanted to ride marginally safe spinny rides, our only outlet was the county fair. On its face, the festival is a pure sellout to the devil, raising money…
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The difficult grace of the passive voice
My wife is truly a saint in the making, and not only because she puts up with me. She has an unquenchable thirst for God – prioritizing prayer and study. She’s great at something I am horrible at – praying for others in her life, not only when they ask for it but just as part…
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What a hairless Mexican dog taught me about mercy
My first lesson in this Jubilee Year of Mercy came from a hairless Mexican dog and her owners over the New Year’s weekend. Chica, the dog in question, is owned by friends of ours. Over Thanksgiving, we house- and dog-sat for them, and my daughter, always passionate about dogs, bonded with Chica and her brother…
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What does mercy look like to…
What does mercy look like to me? Every time I’m confronted with my own failings, which is a lot, it’s remembering that God loves me more. It’s also every small kindness I receive and every chance to offer one to others. What does mercy look like to my family? It’s every person who lets on…
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What do we do with mercy?
Today, Pope Francis inaugurated the Jubilee Year of Mercy to help us bring to the forefront the role of divine mercy in our life and to “rediscover the infinite mercy of the Father who welcomes everyone and goes out personally to encounter each of them.” Mercy is the place where God’s perfect love meets our…
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Writing straight with our crooked lines: #Synod15, family, and the hot issues.
For the next three or so weeks, the focus of the Church is off of Pope Francis and on the bishops gathered for the ordinary synod on the family. If this sounds like deja vù, it’s because last year bishops gathered for an extraordinary synod on the same topic (ordinary synods happen every three years;…
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What do we do in a HOLY year?
Based on the papal bull Misericordiae Vultus, we are headed for a Holy Year of Mercy. How might we celebrate that? Ultimately each nation’s bishops will decide, but here are my two cents worth, based on what’s in the document. Pope Francis calls on us to “contemplate the mystery of mercy.” (2) This requires us…
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Mercy
You may have heard that Pope Francis announced a Holy Year of Jubilee Year of Mercy, to start December 8 2015 and end November 20 2016. The document that announces this holy year, called a papal bull, is titled Misericordiae Vultus and is well worth the read. Knowing that most people won’t read this document, even…
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“I’m sticking with Jesus”
Is anyone else finding it relevant that as the Church leadership discusses rules on divorce and remarriage, contraception, homosexuality and other family issues, the daily readings from Galatians, in which Paul rails against the congregation for falling for false prophets who undercut the power of the gospel of grace by insisting that followers have to…
Reading Francis 