 I was raised in an evangelical Presbyterian church and we had an emphasis on evangelizing. There were often disagreements between various churches in Cincinnati about should the emphasis be on evangelizing, going door to door, teaching people how to evangelize, or really should we be doing works of mercy, caring for people and their immediate visible needs. Was it the gospel or was it the social gospel? And in some ways it's kind of coming full circle as you hear some of the evangelical churches emphasizing being a deeds church and you know maybe we shouldn't talk so much about the Lord we should just be his hands and feet. We knew that sharing the truth about the Lord had to fit with caring for others because James 2 15 and 16 says if a brother or sister is ill clad and in lack of daily food and one of you says go in peace be warmed and filled without giving them the things needed for the body what does it profit but at the same time should our focus be primarily caring for their bodies which only will live for a brief amount of time or caring for their souls which will last for eternity and the beautiful thing is that the Catholic way is both and we need to do both. Pope Francis says this Jesus introduces us to these works of mercy in his preaching so that we can know whether or not we are living as his disciples. Jesus is the evangelist of mercy and he draws people to himself through both his words and his deeds the spiritual works of mercy focus more on the words and the corporal works of mercy focus more on the deeds and Jesus invites us to imitate him so we're going to go through if you're taking notes I'm sorry I don't have an outline but we're going to go through the seven spiritual works of mercy and then the seven corporal works of mercy and I hope as we go through them other illustrations will come to your heart and your mind because we're all seeking to live this right we all have different makeup in our family some of us have very tiny children some of us are at the grandparent or great grandparent stage and I hope that as you get ideas you might consider sharing them with me and sharing them with each other because the Holy Spirit just works in this wonderful way individually responding helping us to respond to this word and I know that you'll have many other illustrations than what I have so number one spiritual work of mercy is admonish sinners when Jesus meets up with Levi the tax collector he says let's go to your home and he ends up at Levi's home Levi becomes Matthew and he's surrounded by sinners public sinners as Brent Petrie was teaching us the other night and from the outside it looks like Jesus is keeping pretty shady company and his comment back to those who would judge him in Luke 532 is I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance and that's always a little tongue in cheek because when he refers to the righteous it the people it's more the people who are thinking that they are righteous right it's not always those who are truly righteous that sort of comes into focus with his interaction in Luke 7 36 to 48 where a Pharisee invites him over for lunch and isn't really hospitable in a typical Jewish way right the Pharisee invites him over for lunch and Jesus arrives he begins to recline at table and who is the uninvited guest it's the prostitute and she comes in and she pours out tears and washes Jesus's feet with her tears and and dries them with her hair she kisses his feet and anoints his feet and all the while the Pharisee is sitting there thinking what kind of a prophet is this I mean doesn't he know who's touching him and so before Jesus answers the question on his heart he says what tell you story two men owed one individual one owed 50 denari one owed 500 denari neither could pay and so the man forgave them both who do you think loved him more and the Pharisee rightly answered the one that was forgiven more and then Jesus says therefore I tell you her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much but he who is forgiven little loves little now is Jesus saying that the Pharisee doesn't have much sin or is it that she knows how much she's been forgiven and the Pharisee doesn't get how much he needs that forgiveness how many saints refer to themselves when you read their their writings even close to the end of their lives how many of them describe themselves as the worst sinners the chief of sinners even though we know how holy they actually are it's because they're aware of God's holiness and their sinfulness and Jesus invites us through this first spiritual work of mercy to recognize our sinfulness if we really understand our sin if we appreciate the distance we have put between ourselves and God then we will appreciate the mercy of God so much more in Luke five we have this wonderful story about Jesus coming up to Peter who's fished all night and he and he asked if he can get into his boat so he can teach the people and they push away a little bit and after Jesus is done teaching he says let's let's go out deeper and let down your nets and the and the catch is so full that Peter really sees through it all and and rather than grabbing a net and trying to help haul in the fish he just hits the deck on his knees and says depart for me for I am a sinful man oh lord and Jesus responds depart from you I want you to depart with me I want you to follow me because if you know you're a sinner saved by grace I want you to come catch fish the men I want you to catch men rather than be fishers of fish be fishers of men don't be afraid henceforth you will be catching men if we are to admonish sinners we need to approach others in humility aware that we are sinners saved by grace I thought Jesus wanted to share the good news well the good news is understood in light of the bad the fact that we're sinners really isn't news at all we just need to recognize it in Luke 642 Jesus admonishes us how can you say to your brother brother let me take out the spec that is in your eye when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye you hypocrite first take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the spec out of your brother's eye he doesn't say the brother doesn't have a spec it's just we need to do that work of mercy in our own lives let the Lord show us our sin and then we can reach out to others we are to admonish sinners we don't judge the person as brant said from Luke 637 but we do speak to sinful actions when we go to confession are we receiving admonishment or is it really more of a spiritual at a boy at a girl I have six children and there are many times that I went to confession and somehow or another I would work that in I'm the mother of six children and often priests would say God love you wow that is you are doing so much and when I went through my litany and it was almost always the same sins you know impatience and being quick to anger and not listening carefully etc usually it was just like you're doing the best you can just try a little harder and I would leave feeling a little bit self-justified well one day I went to St. Peter's for confession that's our church downtown and there was a visiting African priest and I probably even was sounding a little perfunctory you know going through the list and he said well you must stop it he said you have to be the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary in your home would she do these things that was awesome that was awesome he was right to call me on the carpet the catechism in 1829 says that we are required charity requires beneficence and fraternal correction now fraternal correction is where we share one-on-one with a brother or sister in Christ and it has to be done gently and with humility but directly we don't do everything well we don't do everything correctly and so if a brother or sister in Christ truly loves us they will care enough about us to speak to us when they actually see us in wrongdoing we regain a brother or we restore a relationship James 520 says whoever brings the sinner back from the air of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins the second spiritual work of mercy is instruct the ignorant from the outset of his ministry in Nazareth Jesus said quote the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor now sometimes Jesus preach very plainly like in Luke 4 43 I preach the good news of the kingdom to the other cities also for I was sent for this purpose very direct this is why I'm here but sometimes he spoke in parables that were confusing they were parables about the kingdom of God and in Luke 8 9 to 15 he explains the scattering of the seeds and tells his disciples he's giving them the interpretation but the people are not supposed to understand when he's asked to teach the disciples to pray in Luke 11 1 he gives them the our father when Jesus comes to Jerusalem and he's teaching in the temple and the leaders really want to seize him and do away with him they can't get very close to him because according to Luke 1947 and 48 the people were hanging on his every word so instructing the ignorant is obviously something Jesus showed us did you know it calls us then to imitate Romans 12 to is one of my favorite passages and it says this do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that you may prove what is the will of God what is good and acceptable and perfect we will not know these things automatically we have to keep renewing our mind we are people of our culture we are people of our nation we don't always know the difference between being independent in a good way and being independent in a way that tears down the body of Christ for instance as an American so how do we do this we transform our minds by renewing them that's part of why you're here is to get new thoughts new ideas new ways of applying God's word in your life in your family we have given us those of us who are parents a responsibility to instruct our children in the faith that's part of instructing the ignorant the catechism in 2225 says quote through the grace of matrimony they receive the responsibility and privilege of evangelizing their children it's not just teaching them about the faith it's calling them on to a commitment to Christ calling them on to know him and love him and serve him with their whole being teaching our children in the faith in our home includes praying together as a family and living the faith richly alongside them there's a lot of misinformation and malformation out there so we need to get good materials into their hands and for those of us with adult children looking for good materials to help them teach their children and then backing that up one of my great privileges coming up is that my oldest granddaughter has asked me to be her confirmation sponsor at the end of august and i'm so honored that Veronica would ask me it's such a privilege to be able even just to witness her confirmation but to actually be her sponsor is amazing we do a lot of catechism in the car at least we did when they were little i'll give you just one example we were driving down for Thanksgiving all of our children were in the car with a big age spread from 16 years spread so probably was the last time we were all driving down with no one married and my Joe was in second grade but he had missed a lot of his answers on a particular chapter having to do with the person of Christ so it was second grade we're preparing him for first communion and i showed scott that he had missed a lot of things about about jesus on this little test and so he thought okay we're in the car we call it cardekesis you know we'll just do this in the car so he began to do some instruction everyone was listening and then he said now joe let me ask you a few questions so would would you say that jesus is fully god and he said yes yes he is and then from the back we heard david go yes he is like oh what do you know the little four-year-old's listening okay he said is jesus fully man and joseph said yes yes he is and then from the back yes he is and then scott said is god eternal and joe said yes and from the back we hear him he is not like with all the definitiveness that a hawn can speak about theology and scott said what do you mean he said i had i know what a turtle is i've seen a turtle and god is not a turtle he was not going to be fooled lord at mercy the third spiritual work of mercy is counseling the doubtful after the transfiguration jesus comes down from the mountaintop with the disciples and he finds that the disciples that had remained were unable to heal a little boy who had a demon that caused him to have seizures that were life-threatening in luke 9 40 and 41 the father comes to jesus and he said i begged your disciples to cast it out but they couldn't and jesus responds not just to him but even to the disciples is oh faithless and perverse generation how long am i to be with you and bear with you bring your son here and the father hears this comment and we have a little commentary on that the gospel of mark adds some details the father says to jesus when he brings his boy over if you can do anything have pity on us and help us and jesus said if you can all things are possible to him who believes the father of the child cried out and said i believe there was no pretense there it's not that he had no faith but it was weak faith that was enough of a real prayer and jesus heals that little boy the father had doubts but he was willing to doubt his doubts and profess at least the faith that he had we're so quick to label thomas doubting thomas and we looked down our nose at him as if i were there i would have believed the disciples but i think we have to understand that he was broken hearted like the other disciples he had believed that jesus was going to be around for a while and when he died it was so devastating and he was so confused and sorrowful that he said i'm not going to believe unless i put my finger in his side and jesus in his sweet accommodation to doubting thomas says put your finger here and see my hands and put out your hand and place it in my side do not be faithless but believing and thomas's response is immediate my lord and and jesus says he says something about us he said have you believed because you've seen me blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe to be able to counsel the doubtful we need to pray we need to ask the holy spirit who is the counselor for his gifts because those include wisdom understanding and counsel according to the catechism in 1829 second we've got to prepare it's part of why you're here and for those of you staying for defending the faith you're going to learn more apologetics first peter 315 says always be ready to give a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you yet do it with gentleness and reverence and quote third we need to listen to the heart of the person is there doubt a theological one or is it a personal one at the same time we realize we have limitations we cannot argue someone into obedience a mind changed against against its will is of the same opinion still fourth we memorize scripture to have more at our fingertips to be able to share fifth we may ask our spiritual director or a pastor what's a better idea of how to share with others and when proverbs 1920 says listen to counsel and receive instruction that you may eventually become wise and finally maybe you want to invite that person to come with you to something to a bible study to mass to rcaa because i found as i was examining the catholic faith that it was easier for me to go and hear a presentation than to have the one-on-one contact with scott over theological concerns okay less confrontational more invitational the fourth spiritual work of mercy is to comfort the sorrowful in jesus initial preaching in nazareth in luke 418 he's quoting isaias 6 1 which is he came to heal the broken hearted in luke 7 12 to 15 this is such a beautiful passage and it's almost you get the sense that it it wasn't planned although there's no there's no accident with our lord but jesus is just passing by someone and listen to what it says as he drew near to the gate of the city behold a man who had died was being carried out the only son of his mother and she was a widow and a large crowd from the city was with her when the lord saw her he had compassion on her and said to her do not wait young man i say to you arise and the dead man sat up and began to speak and he gave him to his mother fear seized them all and they glorified god saying a great prophet has arisen among us and god has visited his people even though jesus knew before he arrived in lazarus uh home and at the tomb after meeting mary and martha he knew he was going to raise lazarus from the dead but he's still wept at the tomb comforting the sorrowing is a ministry of presence we need to draw near to them listen to them and share their sorrow we have to risk it one evening i got a call from a friend who happened to catch the six o'clock news and she said do you know our mutual friend uh her husband was killed in a car accident today and i i was concerned you know if i called my friend was i just gonna intrude on her family space but i thought you know what i just i just need to to let her know i'm with her so i called her and i said this is so off the wall but i i just i just want you to know i'm praying for you and is there anything i can do and she said would you please come out to the house i have to start going through his things and i need someone with me and so i just went out we just sat cross-legged on the floor and we started going through some of his personal things and and we laughed she told me stories we cried and i was with her let's not get caught up and having all the right words to say and whatever you do don't say i know exactly what you're going through because chances are good you don't but that's not the important thing it's acknowledging a loss you hear of someone having a miscarriage or a stillbirth you know what if all you can do is get out tears it's okay to just cry we are called to weep with those who weep some of you may be involved in rachel's vineyard which is an amazing ministry an outreach to men and women who realize the enormity of the loss of what has occurred through their abortion and they're seeking forgiveness and restoration if you hear of someone having a loss of a family member take a moment to write a note place a call drop off some food is someone dealing with a very sick person maybe a chronically ill person in their family or someone suffering a divorce or abandonment by either a spouse or a child give them a call and ask the holy spirit i love romans 826 it says likewise the spirit helps us in his weakness in our weakness for we don't know how to pray as we ought but the spirit himself intercedes with us for with size too deep for words what comfort it is to know that the holy spirit even can translate our groans and our cries before a heavenly father the fifth spiritual work of mercy is bear wrongs patiently in the sermon on the plane jesus says in luke 6 22 and 23 blessed are you and men hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and cast out your name as evil on account of the son of man rejoice in that day and leap for joy for behold your reward is great in heaven for so their fathers did to the prophets oh across the world this is happening to christian people jesus said if they hated me they will hate you for our soul's sake we have to bear it patiently but it can also be true of some non-catholic christians who choose to reject us when we become catholic or to neglect our friendship and let it just die because it's easier to ignore us than perhaps to listen to the truth claims of the catholic church we lost some friends when scott became a catholic but i had a few people who said i'm hanging in there with you kimberley you hang tough you stay strong and after four years when i became catholic we lost more bill bales who spoke as one of our workshop presenters didn't cut us off but i visited he and his wife just a few months after scott became catholic actually it was one year it was one year after scott became catholic and his advice to me and we quoted in roman in rome sweet home he said really you have grounds for divorce kimberley and i didn't want to defend scott because i didn't want to become catholic but i gave i said i don't believe that that's true and i gave him the defense and about four months later he called scott and he said i owe you an apology he said would you please forgive me for telling kimberley i thought she had grounds for divorce what she shared is shaking me up and i've got to talk to you about it and as it turns out just i came in at easter vigil 1990 bill came into the church in september and in that process i engaged his wife because i said look if i'm having to study these things and bill's looking at these things you're you got to be my study buddy and we got to figure out is this something we're going to do or something we're not and so we we would study hard and then talk for two or three hours on the phone and that spring after bill came in scott and i were there witnessing when his wife leeson and their children were received into the church praise the lord yeah jesus says in luke 6 27 but i say to you that here love your enemies do good to those who hate you bless those who curse you pray for those who hurt you we want to defend ourselves we want to prove we're right we haven't lost our minds we haven't lost our faith it is so counterintuitive instead to pray and to bear the difficulty patiently but we need wisdom you think of father hamel this week such long years of service in his mid eighties filling in for another priest yet the lord of the martyrs is the seat of the church i said to scott we've prayed so hard for this first daughter of the church france maybe this is part to the answer to i don't know if you caught it but the french bishops have put out a call for a day of prayer and fasting you think of all the priests and nuns that were slaughtered in the revolution and yet what did the president of the country say the death of a priest affects all of us i'm so grateful that he knows that let's pray for the french people we plant seeds and we trust god to work in his time to produce the harvest and our responsibility as brother as blessed mother teresa said is not the fruitfulness that we see but faithfulness even when others wrong us the sixth spiritual work of mercy is to forgive offenses jesus said in the our father in luke 11 for when he taught his disciples to pray forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us and lead us not into temptation now matthew six 14 and 15 adds this little commentary about what that actually means quote for if you forgive men their trespasses your heavenly father also will forgive you but if you do not forgive men their trespasses neither will your father forgive your trespasses do you get that that in every our father we're we're praying we're saying in jesus forgive me the way i forgive others and if i don't forgive others don't forgive me that's scary because we pray a lot of our fathers so we've got to ask god to help us have his heart of forgiveness from the cross in the midst of the agony of the crucifixion jesus prayed father forgive them for they don't know what they do luke 23 24 and our mother prayed that you know she united her heart to her sons how did she forgive them while they abandoned her son while they nailed her son while they reviled her son while they forgiveness is not a choice and it isn't sorry it is a choice it's not based on feeling think of quarry tenboom who wrote the hiding place about the fact that her family hid jews in their world war two home in austria before their family was taken to concentration camps and both her father and her sister died there she was speaking in germany after the war about forgiveness and the very guard that she held responsible for her sister's death came up to her and said i'm so thankful for what you shared will you forgive me and extended his hand and everything in her recoiled and in her heart she said jesus i can't do this you will have to and the sheer act of her extending her hand it was almost physical that she could feel the forgiveness of christ and we have that beautiful parable of the lost son luke 15 11 to 32 where the father's heart of forgiveness means he runs to him he throws a robe of authority over him and puts the ring on his hand and celebrates his return the seven spiritual work of mercy is that we pray for the living and the dead we know jesus prayed all the time for the living he continually withdraws from the public and the disciples luke five sixteen he withdrew to the wilderness and prayed luke six twelve in these days he went out to the mountain to pray and all night he continued in prayer to god and i could really walk through probably almost every chapter where he was with the crowd and then he withdrew to get that um just strengthening from god his father to be able to continue to reach out to the people leading up to his passion jesus tells the disciples in the upper room of the dangers they are facing but i have prayed for you he also prayed for the dead before jesus raises lazareth from the lazarus from the dead he prayed in john 11 father i thank you that you have heard me i know that you hear me always but i've said this on account of the people standing by that they may believe that you did send me and when he said this he cried out with a loud voice lazarus come forth we pray for the living in imitation of jesus intercession for us as a family about every six months we share a prayer concern a major prayer concern for the next six months and if anyone can't be there for christmas or for our vacation uh we ask ahead of time what what are you facing and then we type up the list and share it with each other and it is amazing to then look back after six months and realize how god has been at work so personally so individually in our lives it's powerful to keep track and watch god work even though we may not know specific names of persecuted christians around the world we can be one with them and pray for them and we must we pray for politicians and i'm very grateful because now i am one last year we asked for prayer and and i was elected councilwoman at large here in stubenville and i am so grateful every time they pray thank you thank you that that's i think it's been the grace of god to me the mercy of god to me um in all its different forms um but we pray for politicians and i hope you will i hope you will uh we need to pray for pastors i read recently if you want a better pastor pray for the one you have great thought we need to pray for conversions in our families about 30 years ago scott and i were having a conversation and we realized we had stopped praying for his father's conversion we didn't intend to it's not like we thought well he's really not saveable it just there were just so many blocks i think we just he was tall handsome accomplished talented wealthy healthy he did not see a need for god and he said that he was an agnostic he was hedging his bets there might be a god but it wasn't going to be the one he wasn't going to try to to pretend that he followed him and he stopped going to church even though he had been a church member and it was hard we'd visit with our little ones and he just didn't want the pretense and so he would send us off to church and everyone would go but dad and so we repented of not praying for him we loved him more than most people in the whole wide world we needed to pray for him and then god allowed his liver to fail and in the humiliation and humility of losing his health of not being able to work of being needy god worked in his heart and showed his power in the face of dad's weakness and he came to faith what a joy what a joy is there someone in your family that you've stopped praying for ask the lord to show you and begin again you have a natural love for that person let the holy spirit purify it my father has pages and pages of names of people that he has committed to praying for and it takes him more than an hour a day to pray for all the people he has committed to praying for for now we pray for the dead when we attend funerals offer masses for the repose of someone's soul walk through a cemetery and pray for the souls that we're walking by when we go to an abortion mill and pray with say 40 days for life at mass we're invited to pray for the departed and I love it that our priest actually pauses and there's like a minute in there so I actually can go through the family lineup because we're getting more and more on the other side of this life and what a privilege to remember them in prayer especially since all of our family are still not catholic except for one cousin's son and his wife and so who else in the family would even think of praying for them we need to pray for their souls and then the holy souls in purgatory depend on our prayers and it is good to pray for them according to second maccabees 1246 now the spiritual works of mercy are an important work but it doesn't preclude the corporal works of mercy we don't pit souls versus bodies we are embodied souls and if we don't care for the people's needs around us will they even be able to hear us share the gospel if someone is cold or hungry or sick or imprisoned can they hear us so they're lesser needs but they are real needs and maybe immediate needs Dr. Robert Stackpole who was one of our workshop presenters wrote this about Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta she used to say there are two kinds of real presence of our Lord in this world the Lord's real presence in the blessed sacrament where he fills us with his light his life and his love and our Lord's real presence in the poor both in those materially poor and those spiritually poor where he is waiting for us to give him back his light his life and his love so how do we do that well there's seven corporal works of mercy the first one is to feed the hungry Jesus speaks of the obligation for us to quote share with him who has none and he who has food let him do likewise in loop 311 he illustrates this in the feeding of the 5,000 I mean you think of that little boy having that just five loaves and two fish that's all he had he'd thought ahead or his mother did he had a meal and there are 5,000 men plus women and children so the disciples see the need they've been away all day no food that was distributed at least and so they come to Jesus because they're concerned for the people send them away and Jesus says you feed them so the disciples sort of take stock on we have five loaves and two fish unless we're to go and buy food for all these people so Jesus takes the gift that he's given he has the disciples tell the people to sit down and then he looks to heaven and notice notice the verbs used here he blessed what he had been given he broke it and he gave it and all eight and were satisfied and there were 12 baskets left over and then he went on later to teach that he was the living bread because of course once they got the physical bread they were thinking okay this is good this is a nice welfare program let's follow Jesus he's gonna feed us and he's saying oh this was only for a day but I'm the living manna from heaven I want to feed you for life how do we feed the hungry we can bring meals to families who just had a baby or moved or experienced an illness in the family or death we can invite others over to share in our Sunday dinner college students or seminarians we can invite our priest over for a home cook meal our son Gabriel and his wife one year made up bags ziploc bags that had a sandwich an apple a small bag of chips a water bottle and a copy of room sweet home and they got about 30 or 40 bags together and they knew corners where there were homeless people and so they would drive by and one of them would jump out of the car and hand out a few bags and then they keep going and he had one left when I was visiting and he said mom we're gonna we're gonna let you be the one to do the last one and so we pulled up to the corner and he said okay go and so I jumped out of the car they ran over to someone and I and I handed it to them and I said god bless you and I got back in the car and he without looking Gabe said now I want you to look out and see who he is sharing that with and sure enough already it was being opened and shared right there we can donate to a food pantry we can help serve meals to the homeless at a soup kitchen especially on a holiday and we can offer produce from our garden to a neighbor or elderly person who can't have their own garden anymore but love the fresh vegetables second corporate work of mercy give a drink to the thirsty in mark 941 Jesus says for truly I say to you whoever gives a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose their reward and even though we know that john three the wedding feast of cana is really about launching Jesus ministry and turning water into wine in anticipation of turning wine into his own blood in the Eucharist there's such beautiful spiritual lessons let's be frank he gave them something to drink he gave the best wine for the people rescuing the host of that wedding feast from hospitality disaster we can give a drink to the thirsty by offering a cup of water to people working for us we can contribute to building wells there's a high school down in tampa that found out if they could raise three thousand dollars they could give it to a diocese in Nigeria and they would have enough money to build a well and of course if you can build a well you can give water good water to a whole village they got so enthusiastic they ended up raising nine thousand dollars and so there were three wells that were possible with that donation the third corporal work of mercy is to clothe the naked Jesus says in Luke 3 11 he was two coats let him share with him who has none Jesus teaches the disciples that God will provide for your needs in Luke 12 28 to 31 he says for if God so clothes the grass which is alive in the field today and thrown into the oven tomorrow how much more will he clothe you oh men of little faith and do not seek what you are to eat or what you're to drink nor be of anxious mind for all the nations of the world seek these things and your heavenly father knows that you need them instead seek his kingdom and these things shall be yours as well God will provide for our needs and we are to help provide for others needs to clothe the naked by sharing the clothes that we have for instance maybe offering a business suit to to a group of people who are helping people coming out of prison to look very sharp when they go for a job interview giving away clothes to goodwill contributing in our area to coats for kids having baby showers you know that's a wonderful tradition of surrounding a young couple that probably doesn't have much money and being able to give them clothing for that little baby or lending maternity clothes maternity clothes can be so expensive and so maybe you can clothe the naked by sharing a box of maternity clothes or collecting clothes for someone who lost everything in a fire or flood or disaster the fourth corporate work of mercy is shelter for the homeless or welcome the stranger Jesus received shelter at st. Peter's home and there's the most beautiful church built over the home of st. Peter in Capernaum in Luke 4 38 to 41 and I don't know why I just get such I find this so funny when I read this story you know Jesus shows up at Peter's home and his mother-in-law lives there we don't know if his wife still live was was living we don't know if Peter was a widow a widower or not but his mother-in-law lived with how's that for a challenge you know and I am a mother-in-law and I think very highly of mothers in law but I still I still feel a little for each of them but anyway Peter had welcomed her into his home and she was sick now can you imagine Jesus comes and you're really really under the weather it said she had a high fever what is her response well Jesus figures out she has a high fever he goes and immediately heals her and what does she do she immediately rose and serves them it's not like oh I'm so glad I feel better it was now I feel good enough to go and serve and so what happens not only does she serve Jesus but all day long everyone who needed help came to their doorstep now some of us have a limit some of us say you know what I got enough visitors but here's this precious oldest older lady just saying bring it I feel good let's let them come and it says Jesus left the following day so he was offered shelter there the Good Samaritan provides shelter for the wounded man in Luke 10 34 and 35 taking him to an inn paying for him there how do we provide shelter maybe we open our home in foster care or adoption we opened Scott and me we have opened our home to 42 students since we moved here in 1990 and just a few of the ones who've lived with us are Ted Sri Michael Barber Curtis Mitch Curtis Martin Tim Gray and so many others in fact three priests who are now priests we can welcome older family members to live with our family we can contribute to a homeless shelter and perhaps visit them not just send a check but go and talk with them face to face demonstrating the dignity of their personhood for our 25th wedding anniversary we decided to do something really different instead of getting ourselves a gift we decided to do a home build in Tijuana we flew our family down we paid for all the supplies and we built a little tube room home for someone who had never owned a home in their lives we can contribute to organizations helping house refugee sorry refugees and we can contribute to organizations that help find housing for runaways drug addicts veterans suffering from PTSD ex-prisoners people who lost their home in financial crises or people escaping an abusive home and we can welcome a stranger now sometimes I don't always remember who's been to our home I went to a homeschool conference and I met a priest and I said um it's so nice to meet you and he said we met before and I said really where did we meet and he said when I came to your house for dinner and I turned to the other priest who was with him and I said have we met before too and he said I spent the night look a verse he's visiting the sick everywhere Jesus went he healed the sick in Luke 10 30 30 to 37 the Good Samaritan cares for the stricken man and pays for more care for him how can we visit the sick we can volunteer at a nursing home or hospital my oldest son Michael and his family just moved from south bend but for the last two years they had gone to a nursing home and visited at first just one elderly lady and then as they came in with all their little ones more people came out in the hallway and they began to make more friends and they had a number of friends and the children the little children talk about their various friends with their first by their first name all through this pregnancy as they went back this is their fifth baby they would pray for Anna and they were so excited and when I was out helping with the new baby on that Saturday the day he was actually going to be baptized the whole family went with this day's old baby to show all of the people at the nursing home this child that they had all prayed for we can stop by a housebound elderly neighbor or a friend's home to offer company conversation and some practical care we can relieve a caregiver of someone who is caring for someone who's chronically ill we can be a Eucharistic minister and take the Eucharist to them if you're a doctor dentist or nurse you can go on a medical mission and as a mother-in-law and a mother I have offered to go and help with the new babies and it's it is real the sixth corp of work of mercy is visiting prisoners Jesus said in Luke 4 18 he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and sorry recovery of sight to the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed at my uncle Doyle's funeral one man stood up and he said I learned to be a pastor from Doyle Snyder he said I I was an assistant and we had had a murder in our neighborhood of Bellevue over in Pittsburgh and someone had been arrested immediately he said I went to church that day and I couldn't find Doyle and I asked where he might be and what had happened was my uncle had gone to church that day and called down to the jail and he said is anyone visiting this man and they said no and he said would you ask him if he would receive a visitor and he was very eager to have a visitor and so my uncle wasn't at church because he was down at the jail trying to speak the love of Christ to that man when we went out to Allentown one year Scott and I were having a luncheon with the bishop before we were going to speak that evening and all of a sudden it hit me that there were pro-lifers from Steubenville in the Allentown state prison and I said Scott we can visit real prisoners that we know now at that time we didn't have to have a driver's license to fly so we didn't have them we asked the bishop could you make a call for us and he did and he said that we could go so we took a copy of Rome's Sweet Home I'm not kidding you and we showed them the photo on the back and said this is us and they let us in and we had the privilege of meeting first with the four men and then with the four women they were in prison only because they had been to abortion mills and had dismantled a machine and yet they were with the most hardcore criminals who had done child abuse and murders and it was such a privilege to be with them to give them words of encouragement there's so much more I can say but I'm gonna have to wrap it up seventh is the corporal work of mercy of bearing the dead Jesus actually didn't have to because he kept raising them but this is a Christian act of charity to bury the dead and if you get to Rome I would really encourage you to go to Saint Pudenciana and Saint Prisades churches because they're church's name for two sisters who were the the daughters of senator pudin's actually mentioned in the book of romans in roman 16 and there's a beautiful mosaic of them going out on the field after these christians have been slaughtered and gathering up their bodies for burial they ended up being martyred as a consequence of their faith and their wells in both churches that for a time held the bones of of christian martyrs until they could be buried what can we do participate in funeral services sing and serve contribute to the bearing of the bodies of aborted babies and visit the cemetery how can we be evangelists of mercy we need to care for our families for the household of faith and reaching out to those who do not know the lord like the loaves and fish we don't have a lot to offer but you know what jesus says I just want it all and then I will do the impossible with it saint jose maria escrava says in friends of god mercy means keeping one's heart totally alive throbbing in a way that is both human and divine with a love that is strong self-sacrificing and generous let's pray that god will work through us with us through the spiritual works of mercy and the corporal works of mercy so that we may hear jesus say well done good and faithful service servant enter into the joy of your master