Eleison (Mercy)

In my recent study on the gift of mercy, I came across a couple quotes from that I would like to share with you because they have spoken much to me.

If ours were a society in which everyone showed other people kindness, then to say, "Blessed are the kind" would seem like too big a blessing for too small a virtue. But in a society like ours, where self-interest, rudeness and insensitivity increasingly govern relationships, simple kindness can seem an awful lot like mercy - grand, rare, even blessed.

To wipe all tears from off all faces is a task too hard for mortals; but to alleviate misfortunes is often within the most limited power: yet the opportunities which every day affords of relieving the most wretched of human beings are overlooked and neglected with equal disregard of policy and goodness.

Perhaps these can move from being good thoughts to being acts of mercy to those we encounter.