Mercy

Bi'simillahi ihr rahman ihr rahim (In the name of the Benevolent and Merciful). This was a prayer one of my Senegalese co-workers taught me more than 25 years ago. I was told to pray it often. I do.

Today, the second Sunday of Easter, is a Sunday to focus on Divine Mercy. This weekend retreatants have been studying mercy in scripture and in their own experience.

John Paul II, early in his pontificate, wrote an encyclical on God's being "Rich in Mercy." In one of the chapters, he focused on the revelation of mercy in the Hebrew scriptures. The footnotes include a long one (#52) on the semitic roots for the word, including the root rhm shared by words in both Hebrew and Arabic.

Dom Christian de Chergé, the martyred prior of our monastery in Algeria, wrote a long essay on mercy in which he linked John Paul's encyclical with passages in the Qur'an. He and his brothers lived as neighbors, working side by side, with the villagers of Tibhirine. This sharing of experience is one of the principal means of inter-religious dialogue lived today.

After lunch I walked into the woods. I gathered some moss to put around the jade tree I care for. Throughout the woods were branches of white dogwood blossoms and threads of redbud. Brilliant green beetles were flying about.