Mercy is not a virtue that you choose to put on one day. Mercy has to be your deepest way of seeing, this way of generosity of spirit, drawing your identity from your deepest dignity which is love. You are made in love. You are children of God created in God’s image. And when you operate out of love, you operate out of your dignity. And you feel good about yourself. You do! This is to your advantage. When you are small and stingy and lacking in generosity of spirit, you do not operate out of your deepest identity; you do not operate out of your deepest dignity.

So love always wins. Love is the very shape of reality. What your prayer must be every day is to learn how to resituate yourself there. It’s work. It’s often work because the voice of resistance will be constant. The ego knows itself by constriction, by pulling back. It likes to be separate and likes to be superior. And it will play any game it can to be separate or superior. The soul opens itself up. It knows itself by expansion. There’s always room for more. There’s always room for another place at the table. And most of us have to be converted to that knowing every day. Because it’s what it means, I think, to be converted to God who is that love.

It’s the Spirit that teaches you. You can’t force yourself to be there. You can allow yourself to be led there. And I promise you that once you let go, once you stop holding on and clenching your fists, this is where God’s Grace always leads you.

The words of Fr. Richard Rohr.

R: Give thanks to Our God, who is good, whose love is everlasting.

Let the house of Israel say it,

“Your love is everlasting!”

Let the house of Aaron say it,

“Your love is everlasting!”

R: Give thanks to Our God, who is good, whose love is everlasting.

I was pressed, pressed, about to fall,

but Our God came to my help.

Our God is my strength and my song.

Adonai, You are my savior.

R: Give thanks to Our God, who is good, whose love is everlasting.

It was the stone rejected by the builders

that proved to be the keystone;

This is Our God’s doing

and it is wonderful to see.

R: Give thanks to Our God, who is good, whose love is everlasting.