April 15, 2021

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray once again with the beautiful words of Psalm 34:

I will bless the LORD at all times;
    praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Taste and see how good the LORD is;
    blessed the one who takes refuge in the Lord.

Psalm 34:2-9

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Today’s verses offer us this tender image of God’s lavish mercy:

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
    and those who are crushed in spirit God saves.
Many are the troubles of the just one,
    but out of them all the LORD delivers us.

Psalm 34: 19-20

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And John’s Gospel today affirms God’s extravagant tenderness toward us:

May we just rest in these images letting the Lord cradle our heartbreaks and those of our suffering world.

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Poetry: The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene I –William Shakespeare 

The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'T is mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown:
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice.

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Music: A Broken Heart – Luke Mayernik