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Summary
- The Gospels say again and again that Jesus “was moved with compassion” (Matthew 9:36; 14:14; Mark 1:41), and his parable of the good Samaritan ends, “Go, and do thou likewise” (Luke 10:37).
- Ephesians 4:32, Colossians 3:12 and Luke 6:36 (“Be ye therefore merciful”) give the New Testament’s plainest instructions on kindness.
- Traditional prayers include the 1928 Book of Common Prayer’s Quinquagesima collect on charity and the Orthodox Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian, said in Lent: “grant that I may perceive my own transgressions, and judge not my brother.”
- Short prayers cover kind words, home, getting along with others, strangers, suffering people, stress, hard people, unkindness, judging, kindness to oneself, accepting help and compassionate leaders.
- Catholic teaching lists seven corporal works of mercy, most drawn from Matthew 25:35–36, and the Catechism says people owe animals kindness (paragraph 2416).
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (1 Samuel 16:7; Psalm 139:14; Proverbs 15:1; 19:17; Matthew 9:36; 14:14; 25:40; Mark 1:41; Luke 6:27, 36; 10:33–34, 37; John 4:9; Romans 12:15, 21; 1 Corinthians 12:26; Galatians 6:2; Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 3:12; 1 Timothy 2:2; Hebrews 13:2; 1 John 3:18). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. The Sunday called Quinquagesima, Collect, p. 122; Prayers, “For Christian Service,” pp. 43–44. PDF facsimile: https://www.artisticdailyprayers.org/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/bcp1928std.pdf
- Hapgood, Isabel Florence, trans. Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1906. The First Hour, Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian, p. 41. https://archive.org/details/cu31924029363128
- A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity, prepared and published by order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1888. Brief Statement of Christian Doctrine, “The Corporal Works of Mercy,” p. 22. https://archive.org/details/AManualOfPrayers1888
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997. Paragraph 2416. https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P8B.HTM
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