We rely on God’s love and mercy every moment of every day. And boy, do we need it!
But mercy isn’t exclusive to God, as we find in a couple of our prayers.
We name Mary as mother of mercy, which can mean two things. First, she’s the mother of Jesus, and Jesus embodies mercy in action. And second, we honor Mary’s role in heaven as a pathway to receiving mercy from God and the Son.
We also mention Mary’s eyes of mercy. And, as we know, someone’s eyes are a powerful part of expressing emotion, generosity, and empathy. I call those “soft eyes” but I don’t know whether that’s a generally used term.
We certainly recognize that the eyes of a loving mother help us to have a generous heart ourselves, and to therefore show mercy to each other.
In the Fatima Prayer, we also ask God to show mercy toward sinners in the final judgment. To ourselves, sure, but also toward all the fallen of humanity. Everyone.
You might notice that I include the Latin for each prayer here on the page. Today’s word is a great example of why I do that. We’re talking about misericordia, which is such a beautiful and flowing word. Six syllables, but it just flows when you sing it.
And it makes me think about the complex relationship between misery and mercy. Two sides of the same coin!