Mercy Moments: New Years Resolution to Lighten the Load
I like to make resolutions. I’ve been thinking about this Jubilee Year of Mercy and what it might mean for me personally. I remember back to a conflict resolution activity I facilitated in El Salvador when I was a lay missioner there. It was for a group of teachers struggling to work together as a team. I passed around a sack full of small stones, each one only 1-2 inches. I used the sack as an example of little irritants we sometimes develop with each other and allow to accumulate until they feel like a heavy load. I gave a handful to each teacher and invited them to unburden their hearts with each other in order to empty the loads of resentment they were carrying but not expressing. It was a moving experience when at the end, we passed around the empty sack that had started out so heavy. Mercy can feel like that light sack! Now I’m asking myself what I need to release in order to feel the lightness of God’s Mercy and be a missioner of Mercy in 2016.
Yvonne Dilling is a Maryknoll Mission Educator and Animator who works out of San Antonio, TX.
I like to make resolutions. I’ve been thinking about this Jubilee Year of Mercy and what it might mean for me personally. I remember back to a conflict resolution activity I facilitated in El Salvador when I was a lay missioner there. It was for a group of teachers struggling to work together as a team. I passed around a sack full of small stones, each one only 1-2 inches. I used the sack as an example of little irritants we sometimes develop with each other and allow to accumulate until they feel like a heavy load. I gave a handful to each teacher and invited them to unburden their hearts with each other in order to empty the loads of resentment they were carrying but not expressing. It was a moving experience when at the end, we passed around the empty sack that had started out so heavy. Mercy can feel like that light sack! Now I’m asking myself what I need to release in order to feel the lightness of God’s Mercy and be a missioner of Mercy in 2016.
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