Live the Works of Mercy Locally!
Explore below our growing list of ways that you can live the spiritual and corporal works of mercy at home and in your community here in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. If you would like to submit a suggestion to add to the list, send your idea in an email to phillyevang@archphila.org.
Guide: What are the Works of Mercy?
Plenary Indulgence for performing the Works of Mercy during the Jubilee: “I have asked the Church in this Jubilee Year to rediscover the richness encompassed by the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. The experience of mercy, indeed, becomes visible in the witness of concrete signs as Jesus himself taught us. Each time that one of the faithful personally performs one or more of these actions, he or she will certainly obtain the Jubilee Indulgence”. (usual conditions apply) -Pope Francis, Letter 9/1/15
Corporal Works of Mercy
Feed the hungry
1. Coordinate a Food Drive in your parish or ministry through the Archdiocese’s Community Food Program. Learn more or get involved: http://communityfoodprogram.org/
Peanut Butter & Jelly Drive-September 1 to October 16-PB&J Flyer 2015
Holiday Canned Food Drive-November 2 to January 15
Souper Bowl Sunday-February 7, 2016
CRS Rice Bowl-Ash Wednesday, February 10 throughout Lent: http://www.crsricebowl.org/
(75% helps the hungry overseas and 25% helps the hungry in the Archdiocese)
CRS Helping Hands (anytime throughout the year): http://helpinghands.crs.org/
CRS Fair Trade (anytime throughout the year): http://www.crsfairtrade.org/
Lenten One-Can Meal Drive-February 10 to April 8
Emergency Baby Formula Drive-January 4 to February 8
Walk Against Hunger-Saturday, April 9, 2016
Manna Food Drive-Sunday, May 15, 2016 or anytime throughout the summer
Kid Snack Bags, Outreach Bags, Breakfast Bags-anytime throughout the year
Vacation Bible School Food Drive-anytime throughout the summer
2. Continue the spirit of the World Meeting of Families by participating in a “Fill A Bag- Fill A Heart” Project for needy children, the homeless or the homebound elderly. For more information contact Anne H. Ayella at aayella@ndsarch.org.
3. Prepare a casserole for a local shelter. For more info, visit www.mercyhospicephilly.org, www.saintjohnshospice.org or www.bethesdaproject.org for more information.
4. Become involved with Aid for Friends by making a meal and freezing it for a homebound senior. Visit www.aidforfriends.org.
5. Participate in the Annual Walk against Hunger on Saturday, April 9, 2016. For more information,
Visit www.hungerwalk.org.
6. Volunteer your time at the Share Food Program during their monthly bagging week. For details on dates, visit www.sharefoodprogram.org.
7. Help Aquinas Center prepare and distribute Garden-at-Home kits to immigrant families so they can grow healthy vegetables - Contact Sabina at Encounter@staquinas.com
8. Host an education night at your parish or social group to learn about issues of justice related to food access for fresh, nutritious, culturally relevant food for intercultural communities and discover ways to pursue change - Contact Sabina at Encounter@staquinas.com
Give drink to the thirsty
1. Have a collection of bottled water for use by Outreach teams during the summer months. For more information, contact Anne Ayella at Nutritional Development Services at aayella@ndsarch.org..
2. Make a sacrificial offering to the Missionary Childhood Association to provide clean water for children in countries where many families lack access to safe drinking water, such as Burkina Faso India, Cameroon, Ghana, Malawi, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. Visit www.phillymissions.org.
Clothe the naked
1. Donate new or gently used clothing to Philadelphia’s St. Vincent de Paul Society: http://svdp-phila.info/find-clothing-donation-bins/
2. Donate new hooded sweatshirts, gloves, hats, and scarves for newly arrived refugees and asylum seekers - Aquinas Center - bwelch@staquinas.com
Help us grow our list! If you would like to submit a suggestion to add to the list, send your idea in an email to phillyevang@archphila.org.
Shelter the homeless
1. Donate to Parishes Organized to Welcome Refugees (POWR) fund
2. Volunteer at one of the Archdiocese’s many housing and homeless service centers: http://cssphiladelphia.org/housing-homeless-services/
3. Volunteer with refugee resettlement agencies (HIAS PA, Lutheran Children and Family Services, Nationalities Service Center, Aquinas Center)
4. Donate new or lightly used household appliances and kitchen items for newly arrived refugees and asylum seekers - Aquinas Center - bwelch@staquinas.com
5. Volunteer at Guiding Star Home, a shelter for pregnant women and children. Contact the Pro-Life Union at 215-885-8150 or visit www.prolifeunion.org. Or, volunteer at Mother’s Home in Darby, www.mothershome.org.
Help us grow our list! If you would like to submit a suggestion to add to the list, send your idea in an email to phillyevang@archphila.org.
Visit the sick
1. Sign up to bring Holy Communion to those who are sick or homebound.
2. Visit a sick friend or relative.
3. Give a day of rest to a regular caregiver who is caring for someone who is sick by volunteering to take his or her place for a day or week.
4. Volunteer with Mercy Health System: http://www.mercyhealth.org/resources/volunteer/
Help us grow our list! If you would like to submit a suggestion to add to the list, send your idea in an email to phillyevang@archphila.org.
Visit the imprisoned
1. Bring the beauty and love of the Gospel to those who are imprisoned through the Dismas Ministry http://www.dismasministry.org/act/
2. Join the Union of Prayer for those who are imprisoned through the Dismas Ministry http://www.dismasministry.org/union-of-prayer/
Help us grow our list! If you would like to submit a suggestion to add to the list, send your idea in an email to phillyevang@archphila.org.
Bury the dead
1. Start up in your parish or join an already-existing funeral hospitality committee that ministers to grieving families and provides assistance during funerals.
2. Attend funerals and Masses for the deceased of loved ones, co-workers, friends and enemies.
Help us grow our list! If you would like to submit a suggestion to add to the list, send your idea in an email to phillyevang@archphila.org.
Spiritual Works of Mercy
Admonish the sinner
1. Regularly make an examination of conscience and sacramental confession.
2. Be available to loved ones and friends who wish to talk over their problems and be prepared to prayerfully and lovingly steer them in the right direction towards God.
3. Participate in prayer rallies and marches against social evils:
March for Marriage
Immigration reform rallies
Religious freedom rallies
Prayer vigils against capital punishment
4. Speak honestly and lovingly with family members or friends who are living in seriously sinful situations. Look for the right opportunity from the Holy Spirit, marked by a sense of peace and good will, to speak a word of truth and direct them towards the true and the good.
5. Communicate with your state and federal legislators about issues of importance to the Catholic Church: http://www.pacatholic.org/ (state issues), http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/take-action-now/capwiz/ (nationally), http://www.confrontglobalpoverty.org/ (global issues)
6. Pray outside of an abortion clinic for all those involved in the sin of abortion. Sign up for a specific prayer time during 40 Days for Life: https://40daysforlife.com/ or visit the Pro-Life Union of Greater Philadelphia: www.prolifeunion.org.
Instruct the ignorant
1. Attend an adult faith formation event or study at your parish or in the Archdiocese. For more information, contact your parish or visit: phillyevang.org/events
2. Equip yourself through reading, prayer and reflection to be ready to explain your faith to others when they ask.
3. Inquire into serving as a catechist in your parish’s PREP program.
4. Give out Lighthouse Catholic Media CDs our Our Sunday Visitor pamphlets as part of your Christmas present to friends and family. Website: LighthouseCatholicMedia.org; osv.com
5. Invite someone to attend a Catholic event with you.
6. Learn more about our call to global discipleship and Catholic Social Teaching through Catholic Relief Services: http://www.crs.org/get-involved/resource-center.
7. Host a Catholic Relief Services speaker at your parish to learn more about the Church’s work to help those in need around the world: http://globalfellows.crs.org/.
8. Share brief stories from CRS and Catholic Charities USA in your parish bulletin or on your parish website through the You Did It for Me bulletin program. These stories highlight how the prayers, compassion and generosity of Catholics in the U.S. are making a difference in the U.S., and around the world: http://www.crs.org/get-involved/learn/you-did-it-for-me
9. Support missionary priests, sisters, brothers, and catechists spreading the Good News of Jesus in 1,111 local churches under the care of the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples through the Pontifical Mission Societies. www.phillymissions.org
10. Attend the Archbishop’s Lecture Series and invite someone to come with you!
Counsel the doubtful
1. Familiarize yourself with the great miracles of the Catholic tradition to be prepared to help someone whose faith is faltering by sharing a story. These miracles include the incorruptible bodies of some saints, the verified miracles of the saints, Eucharistic miracles, etc…
2. Lead a good Christian life so as not to cause scandal and so as to inspire faith, especially to those whose faith is weak.
3. Think of the stories in your own life where God has shown himself to be present without doubt. Be prepared to share those stories with others as the opportunities arise.
4. Learn the reasons behind the Church’s teachings so you can demonstrate that your faith is reasonable and worthy of trust to those who are struggling with doubt.
5. Introduce someone who is struggling with questions about belief in God to the Magis Center for Reason and Faith’s comprehensive encyclopedia. http://www.magiscenter.com/on-line-encyclopedias/
Comfort the sorrowful
1. Start or join a bereavement ministry in your parish.
2. When natural disaster or conflict strikes in other parts of the world, we can often feel helpless to respond to those in need. But there are tangible ways we can take action from wherever we are through Catholic Relief Services (CRS). CRS invites Catholics to pray, learn, act, and give to help people affected by emergency situations:
Prayer resources for families, individuals, parishes, and schools
http://www.crs.org/get-involved/resource-center
Learn and give
http://www.crs.org/our-work-overseas/program-areas/emergency-response-and-recovery
Act by advocating with your elected officials
http://www.confrontglobalpoverty.org/
3. Become involved in the USCCB Justice for Immigrants campaign for Comprehensive Immigration Reform- http://www.justiceforimmigrants.org/
4. Help someone who is suffering with post-abortion trauma symptoms to find healing through Rachel’s Vineyard, Project Rachel or the Sisters of Life post-abortion healing retreats.
Help us grow our list! If you would like to submit a suggestion to add to the list, send your idea in an email to phillyevang@archphila.org.
Bear wrongs patiently
1. Give up complaining during Lent (and beyond!).
2. Make a list of 10 good things about someone you dislike. Try to mention those good things about that person to others or to the person.
Help us grow our list! If you would like to submit a suggestion to add to the list, send your idea in an email to phillyevang@archphila.org.
Forgive all injuries
1. Go before Jesus in prayer, especially, if possible, in front of the Blessed Sacrament, and make a list of the people who have injured you. Bring each person mentally before you, imagining yourself standing there with Jesus. Say simply, “In the Name of Jesus, I forgive you.” If possible, name the injury you forgive them for (e.g. “…for betraying me, rejecting me, abandoning me, failing me, etc…). Then move on to the next person. Do this repeatedly throughout the Holy Year as often as necessary until you no longer need to.
2. Read one of the great stories of forgiveness: St. Josephine Bakhita who forgave those who enslaved her, St. Maria Goretti who forgave her attempted rapist, or Imaculee Ilabagiza who forgave the man who murdered her family during the Rwandan genocide. Allow these great witnesses of mercy to soften your heart and open you to forgiving those who have injured you.
Help us grow our list! If you would like to submit a suggestion to add to the list, send your idea in an email to phillyevang@archphila.org.
Pray for the living and the dead
1. Have Masses offered for those you know who have died. Contact your local parish for details.
2. Have Masses offered for those who are living. Contact your local parish for details.
3. Pray for those who are poor and suffering around the world during Mass and at home with prayers from Catholic Relief Services: http://www.crs.org/get-involved/resource-center
4. Through the Pontifical Mission Societies in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, you can make a Mass intention offering for living or deceased family and friends. Your Mass Offering is a special help to a Mission priest, poor himself and serving among the poorest of poor in a Mission Dioceses in Africa, Asia, the many islands of the South Pacific & remote regions of Latin America. Though the Mission priest who receives your offering is unknown to you, you are united in love of Christ in the Eucharist and faith in the power of prayer. Call 215-587-3944 or visit www.phillymisions.org.
5. Pray the World Mission Rosary, developed by Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen as a way to pray for the human family on every continent. Learn how at www.phillymissions.org.
6. Attend the St. Rita Novena on Wednesdays at the 8am, 12 noon and 7 pm Masses at the National Shrine of St. Rita of Cascia. (This is also the location of one of six Archdiocesan Holy Doors of Mercy.)
7. Pray a Chaplet of Divine Mercy each day of the Jubilee Year of Mercy and attend one or more of the Holy Hours of Mercy n the Archdiocese.
8. Pass through a Holy Door of Mercy to obtain an indulgence on behalf of someone who has died.
9. Attend Mass on Fridays at 7pm followed by the recitation of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa. Once per month this Mass will be a Mass for Healing.
Help us grow our list! If you would like to submit a suggestion to add to the list, send your idea in an email to phillyevang@archphila.org.