Year of Mercy

This is one of those Dynamic Catholic books, promoted by Matthew Kelly.  Beautiful Mercy. 

It was perfect for me.  I have little patience and prefer to read a couple of pages for meditation, than an entire book.  Beautiful Mercy has short chapters.  The book is divided into the Spiritual Works of Mercy and the Corporal Works of Mercy.  The chapters are written by different people, most of whom I recognize.  

My favorite story was "Hopeful Mercy" by Mother Olga Yaqob.  She was a teen in Iraq, when war broke out.  She was thrown into violence, hatred, bloodshed and death.  She had to perform the corporal works of mercy, in particular, "bury the dead."  All around her, she saw death and no one to care for their bodies.  Relatives were dead, too.  One man in particular, had been dead long enough to be full of insects.  She carted him to the convent to be washed and prepared for burial.  But no one wanted to touch him because of his smell.  Strangely, she didn't smell anything.  If anything, he smelled of incense.  So, she prepared his body.

A couple more incidences were when she definitely, felt the presence of Mary with her.  Her stories are powerful.

The other articles are good, too.  Think of the chapters as meditative presents.  Opening each one was a pleasure.

Dynamic Catholics

This Christmas, my pastor gave every family a copy of the book, The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic, by Matthew Kelley.  Actually, this is my third time reading it.  I read it last year, along with Rediscover Catholicism, Forming Intentional Disciples, and Rebuilt.  My prayer group also subscribes to Lighthouse Catholic Media, so we’ve already heard Matthew Kelley’s Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic.

I’m up to the discussion questions in the study guide and I’m starting to wonder why I’m reading this.  I already AM a Dynamic Catholic.  Look at these questions:

Do you have a daily routine of prayer? If so, what is it? If not, what would you like it to be after reading this chapter?  Do I ever!  Daily Mass, Divine Office, Rosary, 15 minutes Lectio Divina, and a few other personal intentional prayers.  And this is the bare minimum that I do.  If I have time, I do more Lectio.  I pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy.  I also have a Spiritual Director who sits on me, or I’d really be off the wall.
    I’m not extraordinary, either.  I’m a Lay Dominican.  We ALL are required to have this daily routine of prayer.  So do Secular Franciscans, Lay Cistercians, Benedictine Oblates, etc.  And even if you aren’t associated with a religious order, I have many friends who go to daily Mass and pray the Divine Office and the Rosary. 

How consistent is your prayer life? What prevents you from praying on days when you don’t?  Read above.  What prevents us—our vows or solemn promises and SDir.

As for evangelizing, well we Lay Dominicans have apostolates, both personal and chapter.  I preach on this blog and other social media.  I edit a newsletter.  I write book reviews for three publishers.  I belong to a writers group that contributes to the local newspaper.  I help facilitate RCIA in a prison.  And this is not extraordinary.  Many friends have similar and/or other apostolates.

We are dynamic Catholics.  And you know what?  When the parish has its book discussion, I bet it’s those of us whom are already dynamic Catholics, who attend.  So what’s the point?

As Matthew Kelley explains, we’re the 7% that are doing everything.  Yet look what we do!  We keep the parish running.  Just imagine if we were 8%.  That’s why we’re attending the discussion, because we hope that we can get just one or two more people interested.

And if it’s not this book, we’ll try another.  We’ve done the Renew programs, Cursillo, Life in the Spirit, Alpha.  We’ll keep trying because the touching of the hearts is the Holy Spirit’s job.  We bring in the people, and pray that they’re receptive to the Holy Spirit.  Come Holy Spirit.