New Evangelizers Post: What I Learned from the Year of Mercy

I have a new article up at NewEvangelizers.com.  

With the Jubilee Year of Mercy closing, I thought that it would be an appropriate time to reflect on what, if anything, I have learned about the Mercy of the Lord during this year. It turns out I learned a great deal. But it was not what I was expecting.

My year of mercy began with a great deal of family stress. I have written extensively here at New Evangelizers and on my blog about how anxiety and worry are the antithesis to faith. However, it comes as little surprise that I do not live up to the ideals that I preach. I struggled, sometimes daily, with severe worries. And as I wrote about in my reflection on the Year of Faith, these trials are opportunities to exercise my faith so that it may become real.

But what these worries also did for me was it provided an opportunity to reflect upon Our Lord’s mercy. At one point my wife and I were seriously worried about losing our home. By His grace, we have been able to make ends meet and remain where we are. But every day that we can wake up in this home we have made together, we are filled with gratitude that God was merciful enough to let us continue here. It becomes more and more apparent that we are living under the shelter of His mercy.

And this became all the more apparent with my spiritual journey.

I became gripped with an overwhelming sense of my own sin.

You can read the entire article here.