One of the most difficult Works of Mercy for any of us to perform is to “Admonish the Sinner.”  It is very difficult to correct someone, especially when the thing they are doing is morally wrong!  Oh, we can correct someone for holding their knife and fork incorrectly, or for chewing with their mouth open, […]

The third Corporal Work of Mercy is “Clothe the Naked.”  In times past, there may have been many people who only possessed the clothes on their backs, and those might have been so threadbare and worn out that the person might have been virtually naked. Although times have changed, and there are few people (in […]

The second Spiritual Work of Mercy is to Counsel the Doubtful.  What does this mean?  How can we live this work of mercy? Many people today are confused.  They might be looking for meaning in their lives, for answers to the biggest questions (Why do I exist?  Is there a purpose for my life?  What […]

The second Corporal Work of Mercy is To Give Drink to the Thirsty.  What are we talking about here?  I am sure that somebody, with tongue in cheek, will say that we should give free booze to alcoholics!  But that it NOT what the Gospel tells us:  Jesus said that the person who gives even […]

The first of the spiritual works of mercy is “Instruct the Ignorant.”  We sometimes think that it is an insult to say that someone is ignorant, but in reality, it simply means that the person is without knowledge — of something that they would benefit from knowing.  To give knowledge — to give someone the […]

The first of the Corporal Works of Mercy (“corporal” is derived from “corpus,” Latin for “body” = Bodily works of Mercy) is the Feed the Hungry.  In a day and age in which millions of people go without basic food — as the result of famines, hurricanes, earthquakes, wars and deliberate starvation by corrupt and […]