Year of Mercy

For multiple and varied reasons the month of May has come to be associated with Mary, the Mother of Jesus.  In the United States it is the month in which Mother’s Day, First Communions, many ordinations and weddings are celebrated.  It is also associated in the...

The Madness of Mercy: Jacques Derrida on Forgiveness In this brief meditation (and, quite frankly, rather “thick” in the best sense of the term) we will focus on one key idea by one writer-philosopher - Jacques Derrida.  For those unfamiliar with Derrida (1930-2004),...

Forgive Us Our Debts As We Forgive Our Debtors: Mercy and Justice in the Political and Economic Sphere – Part I We begin with a dream (or perhaps more accurately a fantasy).  What, if in the days following what we now refer to as 9.11, people’s minds and hearts turned...

In the previous meditation, we embarked on an exploration of the somewhat tense if not actually tortured relationship between mercy and justice.  We also highlighted the various “station stops” we would make along the way.  This first such “station stop” simply seeks...