Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy

“It’s not about how much you do, but how much love you put into what you do that counts,” said by one of the most generous and religious figures, Mother Teresa. This quote is very inspirational and pushes a lot of people to try and make a difference. Aside from the quote, the person who stated it was a very iconic and inspirational person, Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa did a lot in her lifespan and she made a big impact on the whole world and on other’s lives.

Mother Teresa did both Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy when she was serving. For my service project I served as a peer minister and a helper for St. Margaret Mary Church in Lomita. There was many Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy that coincided with my service project: Spiritual was instruct the ignorant, counsel the doubtful, admonish the sinners, comfort the conflicted and the Corporal was feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty.

Before getting into how my service project actualized the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy, I’m going to be defining and explaining what each is. Instructing the ignorant is pretty much helping others learn the truth and the Word of God to help save their souls. Instructing the ignorant can be thought of as tutoring someone or teaching someone about the Catholic Church and the teachings. Counseling the doubtful is helping and guiding others on what they should do to love and serve God. Admonishing the sinners is trying to make someone else realize how bad sin is and how it could worsen our relationship with God. Comforting the afflicted is helping someone with any type of sorrow and to help not spread the sorrow to another person. Feeding the hungry is pretty self explainable; helping others get what they need for their bodies (food). Lastly give drink to the thirsty which is just like feeding the hungry but giving others the most important thing for our bodies, water.

Since we went over each of the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Merch related to my project, we will move moveon how my service project actualized each of them. As a peer minister, I helped catechists with their classes, talked to the candidates, and even teached some of the candidates about our religion. This is pretty much instructing the ignorant because I was pretty much helping others learn the truth and the Word of God to help them in their lives. Also our group at St. Margaret Mary Church had a motto which was saying our main thing to teach the candidates on how they should serve God, know God, and serve God, which is counseling the doubtful. One of our lessons was related to sin and wrongdoing which pretty much talked about original sin, Ten Commandments, and wrecking our relationship with God. In the lesson we told the candidates how bad sin is and how we should not sin; which is one of the Spiritual Works of Mercy, admonish the sinners. The last Spiritual Work of Mercy is comfort the afflicted and I did this by comforting and talking to the candidates who were down and depressed. I got close with a lot of the candidates and I helped a lot of them get through tough times. The two Corporal Works of Mercy, feeding the hungry and giving drink to the thirsty was done at a soup kitchen. A group of us peer ministers went to a soup kitchen and served the homeless there.

After doing these Spiritual and Corporal Works of Merch I think I made a domino effect that impacts a lot of people. I think the individuals I talked to and helped out are going to be the ones really impacted or inspired. This is the beginning of the domino effect. After helping them and getting close to them, they are going to want to do what I do (become a peer minister or helper). Then if they were to become a peer minister they can teach others about our religion and continue doing the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy. This would bring more people into the church and guiding more on how they should live their life as a Catholic. Then the cycle just continues on and on. Aside from the effects there are other ways the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy I actualized can be lived out. For the Spiritual Works of Mercy you can just visit a religious program, talk to others who are down, or you can become a counselor/priest. For the Corporal Works of Mercy you can donate or just visit a soup kitchen like I did.

In conclusion the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy have a big effect on modern society. There’s still people who are actualizing both the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. There’s soup kitchens around the world, homeless shelters, places with professional counselors, and many more places where they live out the Works of Mercy. We have to continue to live these Works of Mercy out and continue to do the many services with a lot of love. Just like what Mother Teresa said, “It’s not about how much you do, but how much love you put into what you do that counts.”

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