The Seven Spiritual Works of Mercy

Mr. Pablo Cuadra

Religion Class
 The Works of Mercy
• The works of Mercy are divided in two
main categories:

• Spiritual Works of Mercy

• Corporal Works of Mercy

• According to the Catechism of the

Catholic Church the works of Mercy
are:

# 2447 “Charitable actions by which

we come to the aid of our neighbor in
his spiritual and bodily necessities.”

• This presentation will deal with the first

category:

“The Spiritual Works of Mercy”

Which are the Seven Spiritual
Works of Mercy?
• To instruct the ignorant
• To counsel the doubtful
• To admonish sinners
• To bear wrongs patiently
• To forgive offences
willingly
• To comfort the afflicted
• To pray for the living and
the dead.
 Instruct the Ignorant
• Socrates (470 BC) a Greek philosopher
once said: “I neither know nor I think that I
know” (Apology of Plato).

• True wisdom Socrates said is knowing that

we know nothing.

• We all experience ignorance of some sort.

Our Christian Faith challenges us to seek
the truth; to come out of the shadows of
ignorance. Jesus said: "And you shall
know the truth, and the truth shall make you
free." (John 8:32)

• Human ignorance can be experienced in

three different levels

A. Intellectual ignorance
B. Moral Ignorance
C. Spiritual Ignorance
 Instruct the Ignorant
• Intellectual ignorance: “things we don’t
know”.

• Our Christian faith calls us to be

teachers, to share the knowledge we
have acquired through life with others
specially, those who have been
deprived of the opportunities to learn
and advance in our society.

• Saint Katherine Drexel (1858-1955)

not only committed her life to teach but
also donated all her inherited wealth
$20 million dollars to open schools for
African Americans and Native
Americans at a time in America’s
history of great discrimination and
social injustice to minorities.

• She was the founder of Xavier

University in New Orleans.
 Instruct the Ignorant
• Do you know how to play the guitar or
maybe the piano? Do you know math
or maybe algebra? Are you a good
artist or writer? Do you know a second
language? God calls us to share our
knowledge, skills, talents with others.

• Practical tips:

Consider being a mentor at a non-

profit organization or at your parish
education or social program.

For example, Covenant House, a

Catholic runaway crisis shelter for
youth, is always in need for mentors
and volunteers for its program. Below
there is a link to the Covenant House’s
website

http://www.covenanthouse.org/
 Instruct the Ignorant
• Moral Ignorance: Ignorance of the moral
values, attitudes and dispositions of our
faith.

• Our baptismal call challenges us to be a

light to the world. We live in an age marked
by secularism and moral relativism.

• Our society seems to be plagued by sexual

scandals, corporate corruption, greed,
political abuses, family disintegration and
social apathy.

• In a world so obsess with materialistic and

hedonistic tendencies, Catholic Christians
are called to instruct and lead first and
foremost by example.

• In his most recent encyclical Spe Salvi

(saved by hope), Pope Benedict XVI says:

“If technical progress is not matched by

corresponding progress in man's ethical
formation, in man's inner growth (cf. Eph 3:16; 2
Cor 4:16), then it is not progress at all, but a
threat for man and for the world.”
 Instruct the Ignorant
• To combat moral ignorance, first and
foremost We Catholic Christians must
take a stand. A commitment to learn
more about our faith, to know why we
believe what we believe.

• We, Catholics must commit ourselves

to educate and form our consciences.
Jesus said: "Can a blind man lead a
blind man? Will they not both fall into a
pit? Luke 6:39

• Christians are the conscience of the

world. We are called by our baptismal
call to announce and to denounce. To
teach and to challenge. To plant and to
uproot.

• We have a Christian and moral duty to

denounce and reject the structures of
injustice, sin, and social evil affecting
the moral stratum our world and lives.
 Instruct the Ignorant
• How to contend with moral ignorance?
practical tips:

A. Support the social issues and causes of our

Catholic faith. Get to know what these issues
are. The website of the U.S. Catholic bishops
has plenty of information. Here is their link:

http://www.usccb.org/

B. Make a clear stand against the anti-values of

our culture.

C. Have the courage to take stand for life,

family values, social justice. Become involved
in your church and society.

D. Become acquainted with the moral and

social justice values our your Catholic faith.
Share these values at home with your children,
at work with your colleagues, and with the
world at large.

E. Be an example, actions are more convincing

than words. This means abandoning
hypocritical attitudes and adopting Conversion-
change of the heart. Conversion (metanoia) is a
life long process.
 Instruct the ignorant
• Spiritual ignorance: Ignorance of the core
tenets, practices, and devotions of our faith.

• St. Paul says: “faith comes from hearing the

message, and the message is heard through
the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17).

• The day of our baptism our parents received a

candle lit from the paschal candle blessed
during the Easter Vigil. This candle represents
the light of faith, that must be passed on, share
and experienced in the domestic church we call
the Family.

• As mature Catholics we have a responsibility to

grow in the knowledge of our faith’s teachings
but also to share this knowledge with the world
at large.

• Jesus commanded his disciples: “Therefore go

and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit” Matthew 28:19
 Instruct the Ignorant
• Spiritual Indifference is the result of a faith
that was not nourished or mentored.

• John Paul II in his encyclical Familiaris

Consortio highlights the fundamental role
of parents and mentors and nurturers of
faith.

• The pope says: “Christian marriage and

the Christian family build up the Church:
for in the family the human person is not
only brought into being and progressively
introduced by means of education into the
human community, but by means of the
rebirth of baptism and education in the
faith the child is also introduced into God's
family, which is the Church.”
 Instruct the ignorant
• As practicing Catholics it is our duty to assist those
who are struggling with their spiritual lives and crisis
of faith.

• Practical tips:

• A. Be a role model of faith

• B. Attend Church with your children on Sundays and

Holy Days of Obligation, young people learn by
example. Consistency is key the learning process.

• C. Learn more about your faith’s teachings. Each day

make it a project to teach your children, a friend,
stranger, or relative something new about your faith.
Sharing is learning.

• D. Enroll your kids in a Catholic school. If this is not

possible, enroll them in the CCD classes of your
parish program. CCD stands for confraternity of
Christian Doctrine.

• E. Pray as a family. A family that prays together

remains together. Teach your kids about the word of
God, and the customs of our Catholic faith.
 Counsel the Doubtful
• We all experience confusions and
doubts in our human journey. We
all know someone discerning a
difficult choice.

• The Holy Spirit has filled us with

his gifts to assist those in need of
good advise.

• There are people who tell us what

we like to hear and there are those
who tell us what we need to hear.

• Giving Good advise is an act of

charity and justice. Knowingly,
giving bad advise is an offense
against love and justice.
 Admonish The Sinner
• "Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke
him; and if he repents, forgive him.” Luke 17:3

• Maybe you have a son that is using illegal

drugs or a friend that is cheating on his or her
spouse or a co-worker that tends to drink and
drive. As Christians we have the duty to
announce good news but also to denounce
sin, injustice and evil.

• Keeping silence lead us to the sin of omission.

The things we could have done or the words we
could have said but didn’t.

• We have the moral duty to offer fraternal

correction to our brothers and sisters.
“Silence gives consent”. Saying and Hearing
the truth can be hurtful at times. However, We
should not be afraid to speak the truth and
correct others when they do wrong. By taking
a stand we may save them from greater
catastrophes.

• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was not afraid of

speaking the truth about social injustice at a time
in American history when most Christians kept
silence about racism and social inequality.
 Comfort the Sorrowful
• Taking the time to listen, or maybe writing a
few words of encouragement, or just simply
being present to someone in pain can make
a big difference in the life of someone
experiencing sorrow and grief.

• Christ our Lord is the perfect example of

Compassion. “Seeing the people, He felt
compassion for them, because they were
distressed and dispirited like sheep without a
shepherd.” Matthew 9:36

• Mother Teresa spent almost 40 years

ministering to sick, lonely ,hungry and dying
in the slums of Calcutta India. She insisted
on small things done with great love
produce big results. As Christians we are
compelled to reach with compassion to
those in our world who are hurting.

• Who are the poor among us? What is our

response to them?
 Forgive Injuries
• Gandhi once said: “an eye for an eye • In 1981 Pope John Paul II was shot four
make this world blind”. times by a Turkish national in St. Peter
square. The Pope was badly injured by the
bullets, undergoing a five hour, life
• We all have made mistakes in the threatening surgery, in Rome. Despite, this
past. And we all have been hurt by attempt on his life and despite the physical
someone in the past. Our faith injuries resulted as a consequence of the
attack, the Pope decided to forgive and
challenges us to forgive and to seek
meet his attacker.
forgiveness.
• The pope forgave Mehmet Ali Agca and
• Forgiveness is one of the most met him in his Italian prison cell in 1983.
powerful liberating human
experiences. Ironically, forgiveness is
at the same time one of the most
difficult acts to offer.

• As Christians we are called to forgive

seventy times seven meaning,
“always”. Matthew 18: 21-22
 Bear Wrongs Patiently
• Impatience, anger, negativity, revenge, are • Nelson Mandela spent 27 years
all reactions deeply ingrained in human confined in a prison cell in Robben
nature. Island and Pollsmoor prison for fighting
apartheid, racial discrimination in
• South Africa.
We all have been tempted, time and time
again, to react negatively to the wrongs and
injustices inflicted upon us by others. • Mandela was released on February 11,
1990. Soon after his release Mandela
• began advocating reconciliation and
Who hasn’t been cut off in traffic or political dialogue with the political
discriminated against in one way or opposition.
another? Who hasn’t dealt with a rude
person or an annoying personality?
• Nelson Mandela received the Nobel
• peace prize in 1993 and became the
Christ is our example of patience, he carried first black president of South Africa on
his cross, a symbol of injustice, death, May 10, 1994. In an act of good will
hatred, and apathy with patience. Like and reconciliation Mandela invited the
Christ, we must also carry our cross guards of his prison to the ceremony of
patiently in a world that is often unfair, inauguration.
indifferent, violent and rude.
Pray for those who discourage us
• Jesus said: Blessed are the peacemakers Pray for those who put us down
for they shall be called children of God.
Pray for those who do us violence
Pray for those who are unfair to us.
Pray for the Living and the dead
• In the catacomb of Priscilla 5th century
there is this inscription by an early
Christian: “I implore you, brothers to
pray whenever you come here and
invoke the Father and Son in all your
prayers so that they might save Agape
(the person in the tomb) forever"
• Catholics believe that we belong to one
body that of Christ Rom 12:5. We also
believe that we can pray for others in
this life and in the life to come. Because
the unity of the body of Christ is not
fractured or separated by death.
• Praying for the living and the dead is
part of our Judeo-Christian tradition. To
this day devout Jews pray for the dead.
Christianity inherited this practice from
the people of the Old Covenant.
• Jesus prayed for his disciples,
likewise we should also pray
for others specially:
• The poor
• The homeless
• Those who find life difficult
• Those who are trapped by hatred and
injustice
• Those who are victims of hunger, war, and
social injustice
• Those who have no one to pray for them.
• Those souls in purgatory awaiting the
beatific vision.
Inscription in Christian catacomb, requesting
Prayers for the dead. 5th century
 Serenity Prayer
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

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