1. CALLED TO BE CHURCH: The Call to Mercy

2. D
Deus Caritas Est
The Church’s deepest nature is expressed in her threefold responsibility:
-proclaiming the Word of God
-celebrating the sacraments
-exercising the service of charity
“The Church cannot neglect the service of charity any more than she can neglect the Sacraments and the Word.”

3. Virtue
Virtue is a habit that perfects the powers of the soul and inclines one to do good. It is the skill or ability to act rightly and with ease through acquiring and developing natural goodness. Thomas Aquinas, following Aristotle, teaches us that virtue is to be found “in moderation”, not in the extreme.

4. Virtue Theological Virtues: Cardinal Virtues: Faith, Hope, Charity
Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude, Justice

5. Seven Virtues Seven Deadly Sins
Chastity Lust Temperance Gluttony Charity Greed Diligence Sloth Patience Wrath Kindness Envy Humility Pride

8. Inclusion

9. Accompaniment

10. Mercy

11. Mercy Latin misericordia Spanish piedad German Barmherzigkeit
French Merci
Italian misericordia
Hebrew Rehem

12. Epicurean Paradox
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

13. Lisbon: November 1, 1755

14. Auschwitz 1944

15. Moltmann: The Crucified God
E. Wiesel: God himself was hanging at Auschwitz
No justification for Auschwitz or other evils
God is in the tormented world and the tormented world is in God
God will transform pain into joy
(Eschatalogical perspective)

16. Reversal of Epicurean Paradox
“We have to concede: By the traditions of the life and behavior of Jesus of Nazareth, for the first time in human history, the weak and marginalized were given a possibility to identify themselves. For the first time, a religion attempted to integrate them into their view of the world (Weltanschauung), and even to put them at its center“
(Hermann Meyer, in: Geschichte der Sonderpädagogik, Stuttgart 1983, 89)

17. Mercy is the very foundation of the Church's life
Mercy is the very foundation of the Church's life. All of her pastoral activity should be caught up in the tenderness she makes present to believers; nothing in her preaching and in her witness to the world can be lacking in mercy. (Misericordiae Vultus10)

18. 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

19. Corporal Works of Mercy
To feed the hungry.
To give drink to the thirsty.
To clothe the naked.
To shelter the homeless
To visit the sick.
To visit the imprisoned
To bury the dead.

20. It is undoubtedly an act of love, the work of mercy by which one responds here and now to a real and impelling need of one’s neighbor, but it is an equally indispensable act of love to strive to organize and structure society so that one’s neighbor will not find himself in poverty.
Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, #208

21. St. Odilia Mission Statement
We are a Catholic community of faith that welcomes every person to grow in holiness and draw closer to Jesus Christ through Worship and Evangelization, Faith Formation and Education, Works of Charity and Justice ...every day and at every stage of life.

22. Compassion is the fire which the Lord has come to send on the earth.
Thomas Aquinas
Compassion is daring to acknowledge our mutual destiny so that we might move forward all together into the land which God is showing us.
Henri Nouwen
The first outburst of everything God does is compassion.
Meister Eckhart

23. Christ has no body now but yours, No hands but yours,
No feet but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which
Christ’s compassion must look out on the world.
Yours are the feet with which
He is to go about doing good.
Yours are the hands with which
He is to bless us now.
St. Teresa of Avila