Tag Archives: Mother of Mercy

Mary, Mother of Mercy

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“Hail Holy Queen, mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope.” Why is Mary called “mother of mercy?” First of all, because she knew she had received the mercy of God which, like the oil poured on kings and priests, gave her power “to fulfill what is beyond human capabilities.” (Anthony Bloom)

Her cousin Elizabeth declared her “blessed among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”
Mary’s responded: ‘The Lord who is mighty has done great things to me, holy is his name.” She knew God’s mercy was a work in her to restore the human race. (Luke 1, 43-48)

How, then, was Mary merciful? How did she do what Jesus taught “Be merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful?” How did she live a merciful life? How did she do those works of mercy that tradition ascribes to the merciful person:
• Feed the hungry
• Give drink to the thirsty
• Clothe the naked
• Shelter the homeless
• Visit the sick
• Visit the imprisoned
• Bury the dead

• Admonish the sinner
• Instruct the ignorant
Comfort the sorrowful
Bear wrongs patiently
• Forgive all injuries
• Pray for the living and the dead

The scriptures say hardly anything about her. “Do whatever he tells you.” she says at the marriage feast of Cana. She had no teaching of her own, but always  points  to the teaching of her Son. The mystery of the Incarnation says that  Jesus took his human nature from Mary, his mother. Can we say he who became like us became like her and Joseph, the man who raised him as a child and into his adult years? From Jesus we can tell what Mary was like, a woman of mercy, and her first school was Nazareth. Now she is a teacher in the church.

Good Shepherd Parish, Rheinbeck, NY

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I’m preaching a parish mission at Good Shepherd Parish, Rheinbeck, New York, December 5-9. The theme of the mission is “Be merciful, as your Father is merciful,” the theme of the Holy Year of Mercy that Pope Francis called for last March.

The holy year begins December 8th and ends November 20, 2016, “the Sunday dedicated to Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe–and the living face of the Father’s mercy.”

Each evening, from Monday to Wednesday, I’ll be preaching on God’s mercy.

Monday: Jesus the Living Face of the Father’s Mercy. In Luke’s gospel Jesus is truly “the living face of the Father’s mercy” from his birth till his death and resurrection. His miracles and encounters with many during his lifetime, like the blind man and Zacchaeus, the tax collector, reveal his gift for changing people and bringing them joy. We experience the mercy of God in the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Penance through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Tuesday: Mary, Mother of Mercy. “Hail holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope.” God’s gift of grace enabled Mary to be what Jesus asked: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” It enabled her to embrace so many mysteries of God’s hidden plan, especially the mystery of suffering and death. We, “banished children of Eve,” cry out to her; she is “our life, our sweetness and our hope.”

Wednesday: Jesus, the Bread of Life. In his encyclical, Laudato Si, Pope Francis invites us to see in the Eucharist a call to care for the earth, our common home. “The Eucharist joins heaven and earth; it embraces and penetrates all creation. The world which came forth from God’s hands returns to him in blessed and undivided adoration: in the bread of the Eucharist, ‘creation is projected towards divinization, towards the holy wedding feast, towards unification with the Creator himself’. Thus, the Eucharist is also a source of light and motivation for our concerns for the environment, directing us to be stewards of all creation.” (LS 230)