Blessed Are the Merciful

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The 5th Beatitude is Blessed are the Merciful for they shall receive Mercy.

If we want to receive the Mercy of God, then we must give mercy to others.  Jesus said to St. Faustyna: If a soul does not exercise mercy somehow or other, it will not obtain My mercy on the day of judgment.  Oh, if only souls knew how to gather eternal treasure for themselves, they would not be judged, for they would forestall My judgment with their mercy. (Diary 1317)

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Jesus said to St. Faustyna: I demand from you deeds of mercy, which are to arise out of love for Me.  You are to show mercy to your neighbors always and everywhere.  You must not shrink from this or try to excuse or absolve yourself from it.

Later Jesus said to her: I am giving you three ways of exercising mercy toward your neighbor:  the first- by deed, the second – by word, the third – by prayer.  In these three degrees is contained the fullness of mercy, and it is an unquestionable proof of love for Me… Diary of St. Faustyna 742

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If we want the Mercy of God then we must give mercy to others by deeds, by words and by prayer.

If we are to give mercy to others first by our deeds, then what do people need most. In our affluent western society, there are certainly people who need food and shelter, but what our wealthy culture suffers most from is from friendship deficit syndrome. It has become a world of unfriending. Justice is the virtue by which we give others what is rightfully theirs. Mercy goes past strict just and gives to others what is rightfully ours. That which is most rightfully ours is our time and our freedom to do whatever we want. Therefore, maybe the most important way we can be merciful is to give to people our time and attention in friendship.

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The second way Jesus wants us to give mercy is by our words.

One way to give mercy to someone by your words is to demonstrate just how good it is that they exist and how they make the world a better place just by being in it. How do we do that? Simply get to know their personal story. It may be the story of their past, how they got to this point today. It may be their current story of what is going on in their life. Or it might be the hoped-for story of their future comprised of their desires and dreams.

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The third way Jesus commanded us to live mercy is by prayer.

There is a very easy three-fold way to do this:

First, when people share with you difficulties they are experiencing, promise to pray for them in your Rosary and if they are open to it, submit their prayer intention to our podcast and 10’s of 1000s of people will be praying for them.

Second, share the Rosary Podcast with others.

Third, invite your small group of family and friends to pray the Rosary with you.

Start with lay-ups rather than three-pointers.

You probably already know someone who prays this podcast or the traditional Rosary. Invite that person or persons. That’s a lay-up.

Invite someone over for a simple meal and pray the Rosary and ask them what caught their attention during the Rosary meditation and talk about it. If there is awkward silence, then get to know their story better.

If that doesn’t work them kick them out and find some new friends.