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Saturday, October 10, 2015

The Corporal Works of Mercy


My "cloistered brothers" and I were discussing the upcoming Year of Mercy.  We were going through the Corporal Works of Mercy:

  • To feed the hungry;
  • To give drink to the thirsty;
  • To clothe the naked;
  • To harbour the harbourless;
  • To visit the sick;
  • To ransom the captive;
  • To bury the dead.
and wondering how they could perform some of these tasks since they were "cloistered."  I thought their solution to "to clothe the naked" was ingenious.  When they need a new habit, they can't get one, until they hand over their old one.  So what they do is find someone else who is their size, and whose habit is raggier than theirs, and swop.  The raggy habit is then turned in and the "cloistered brother" can then get a new one.  

"Ransom the captive" is difficult.  Since my brothers have no money, they pray and try to help others who are captives in other ways, e.i., captive to an addiction, a bad habit, etc.  

The other corporal works are easy for them to perform.

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