NEWSLETTER INSERTS – ON MERCY AND FAITH

‘Justice without mercy is cruelty; mercy without justice means the dissolution of all right order.’

St Thomas Aquinas

‘For if justice were without mercy it would be joined to the darkness of cruelty and would be injustice rather than justice.’

St Catherine of Siena

‘Never despair of God’s mercy’.

Rule of St Benedict, 4.74.

‘Believing in love means believing in mercy’.

Pope St John Paul II, Dives et Misercordia.

‘God’ love…engages the entire human being with all of his or her physical, psychological and spiritual powers’.

Cardinal Walter Kasper

'Nothing can resist humility; no cruelty can withstand love; mercy always conquers harshness; and joy vanquishes sorrow'.

Michelangelo

‘Hide yourself under the wings of God’s mercy for he is more ready to pardon than you are to sin’.

St Catherine of Siena

‘God's mercy can make even the driest land become a garden, can restore life to dry bones (cf. Ez 37:1-14). ... Let us be renewed by God's mercy, let us be loved by Jesus, let us enable the power of his love to transform our lives too; and let us become agents of this mercy, channels through which God can water the earth, protect all creation and make justice and peace flourish’.

Pope Francis, 31^st March 2013

‘It is impossible to believe on our own. Faith is not simply an individual decision... By its very nature, faith is open to the 'We' of the Church’.

Pope Francis, Lumen Fideii.

‘Divine Mercy is not a one way street. It’s not merely something we seek out when we need it. It is a love and mercy that seeks us and tries to reach our hearts all the time. When we welcome it and experience it in the heart, we are born anew. Then we join with Thomas in making our own his great acclamation of faith: ‘My Lord and my God!’ May these words be on our lips and may mercy fill our hearts this day!’

Fr Billy Swan