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Text Box: DO NOT NEGLECT OPPORTUNITIES FOR MERCY Put ye on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, the bowels of mercy, benignity, humility, modesty, patience (Col 3:12) That is a great list of virtues. Focus on only one of them. Put on the bowels of mercy. If you wish to be harvested into the barn, put on the bowels of mercy. Mercy is something which we can practice and exercise every day without any difficulty at all. But we often miss opportunities. If you are leaving a store and someone else is coming in the door, you can hold the door open for them. That is practicing mercy in the form of common courtesy. But what about a similar situation where the opportunity is lost because we are not attuned to either the practice of mercy, or the opportunity to be merciful. An example: You have left an auto parts store, crossed the sidewalk, and see a skinny old man straggling to carry a heavy car battery, and you keep walking. Nothing you can do to help him - right? But as you drive off, you see the old man drop the battery on the sidewalk as he attempts to open the door to the auto parts store, and you realize you could have, should have, walked back to the store when you saw the old man, and held the door open for him. So, you berate yourself for not being more attuned to the needs of your fellow man. You berate yourself for not being attuned to the opportunity to practice and to be merciful. But, you say, you do not usually think quickly or clearly enough to realize you could have helped the old man with the battery. So what can you do? Being attuned to the opportunities to be merciful may require practice and intentional focus on seeing the opportunities, which may be difficult. But attempting to be attuned, coupled with the actual practice of mercy itself, will assist in making the opportunities known. Another perspective is: practicing being merciful assists us to become more aware of the

Text Box: opportunities to be merciful. You do not have to walk down the street seeking people to or for whom you can practice mercy. You do not have to mentally say, “God please help that person,” every time you see a hobo, or give the hobo some money, or buy the hobo something to eat. Those are good things if done for good reasons, but often the hobo is really a con artist who needs a different kind of prayer, or someone so destitute that assisting them really is beyond the ability of a single individual. In these types of situations we often are at a loss as to what to do other than say a prayer - a real prayer, not one of those quickie jobs. But there is a whole class of people for whom you can practice mercy, and who are unable to do anything for themselves. That class of people is the dead. Many Orthodox Catholics do not like the word Purgatory, primarily because it is perceived as a Roman Catholic term. Many Protestant, Pentecostalists, Charismatics, and an increasing number of Roman Catholics, including Roman Catholic Priests, do not like the word, because they believe that when you die you go directly to Heaven or Hell, and that there is no Purgatory. Here there will be no discussion of the Biblical references which support the existence of Purgatory - that has been done numerous times and anyone interested can read those and numerous other works on the subject. The subject here is Mercy. You can practice mercy by intentional prayer for the dead. There are lots of dead people all over the place. There are more dead people than there are people who are alive. Some of them are physically dead, and some of them are spiritually dead. The ones in Hell are both, and there probably is nothing which can be done for them, but since we do not know for sure that any particular individual other than Satan, and his devils, is in Hell, we can and should pray for the dead; even those we think probably went to Hell. Pray also even for those we believe or “know” went to Heaven, such as a Baptized

Text Box: infant. Our prayers may effect those in Heaven, by assisting in moving them to a higher place at the Heavenly table. Our prayers also may beneficially effect those in Hell in some manner we can not comprehend. But we know our prayers assists those in Purgatory, because of the Biblical references which direct us to pray for the dead. We know our prayers help the dead because the Liturgy and prayers for the dead ask assistance for the dead; and those liturgies and prayers were formulated by and are used by the true Church under the influence and direction of the Holy Spirit. They are within the history and tradition of the Church, from the beginning, through to today. By praying for the dead you help them while they are in a situation where we believe they can not help themselves. They are that old man carrying that heavy car battery, and attempting to open the door to the heavenly auto parts store. And they need your help to get into and thorough the door, and into the store, with that battery, which God will supercharge. Ref: Col. 3:12-17; Mat. 13:24-30 +

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