Posted by The WORD in other words (2018) by Sister Ancille Elvena SSpS – Convent of the Holy Spirit, Quezon City
Monday 2nd Week of Lent
Once I read that “…mercy (is) a fundamental theme of the Old and New Testaments and a fundamental issue for the twenty-first century as an answer to the signs of the times.” I need to recognize, though, the sign and to act on time, by God’s grace.
The lady in a religious garb who had come to the convent asking for counseling came back one day, now requesting to spend two nights and a day with us because she said that she needed a quiet place where she could pray and meditate in complete silence.
“Strange,” I thought! I was also dismayed that she presumed to be taken in without prior notice just because she was in a religious habit. In utter quandary, I looked out the window into the dark night and prayed for light. After much thought, despite my apprehensions, I gave in to an inner urge to accept her and offered her the needed accommodation.
We saw her only during the Morning Prayer, Holy Mass and Evening Praise on the next day. On the day she bade “Goodbye” and said “Thank You!” I noticed her eyes glow and her lips part in a wide smile. “Sister” she said, “I didn’t know that I would find healing here. The elderly Sisters spoke with me so kindly and I felt loved and accepted!”
We gave and in return we received “in good measure, packed together, shaken down and overflowing…” (Lk. 6:38). Soon after that day, I read from Cardinal Walter Kasper’s book, MERCY The Essence of the Gospel and the Key to Christian Life, “…mercy is the perfection of God’s essence…God’s mercy is, so to speak, super proportional. It exceeds every measure.” (p.69)
2 comments