Daily Devotions - Thursday, May 26

Act with Mercy

“Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
bind them around your neck,
write them on the tablet of your heart.”
--A wisdom saying from the Proverbs
Chapter 3:3

One day Mother Teresa was writing a letter to her fellow laborers in Calcutta, the Missionaries of Charity and their Co-Workers. Her goal was to inspire the workers as they performed their acts of mercy with people in need. She quoted from one of Cardinal Newman’s prayers and added her own thoughts. Pray with me today:

“Help me to spread thy fragrance everywhere I go—
let me preach thee without preaching, not by words but by example—
by the catching force;
let the sympathetic influence of what I do
be evidence of the full love my heart feels to thee.” (Newman)

She then continued saying, “Our works of love are nothing but works of peace. Let us do them with greater love and efficiency—each in her or his daily work both in your home and with your neighbor. Listen to the cry: I was hungry – not only for food, but for peace that comes from a pure heart; I was thirsty – not for water, but for peace that satiates the passionate thirst of passion for war; I was naked – not for clothes, but for that beautiful dignity of people for their bodies; I was homeless – not for a shelter made of bricks, but for a heart that understands, that covers, that loves.”

A prayer: God, may I act with mercy today. Amen.

--Ben Keckler
06.26.08