Corporal Works of Mercy - how to practice

  • Thread starter Thread starter Christphr
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
C

Christphr

Guest
  1. To feed the hungry
  2. To give water to the thirsty
  3. To clothe the naked
  4. To shelter the homeless
  5. To visit the sick
  6. To visit the imprisoned, or ransom the captive
  7. To bury the dead
How can a person, without special skills, much money, or much time practice them? Your thoughts?
 
Last edited:
  • To feed the hungry. - buy an extra can of food for the food drive at church, buy a sandwich for the homeless guy outside the store.
  • To give water to the thirsty. - same as above
  • To clothe the naked. - donate clothes if you can to the clothing drive at church
  • To shelter the homeless. - donate what you can to SVdP or some other Catholic organization that helps provide shelter or rent assistance. Your church may even do this itself.
  • To visit the sick. - You can visit hospices
  • To visit the imprisoned, or ransom the captive. - you can visit prisions
  • To bury the dead. - Talk to your priest. Likely you can donate to help poor people who cannot afford Catholic burials.
Don’t neglect the spiritual works of mercy either. These will keep a man alive for a time. Spiritual works of mercy will keep him alive forever.
 
With things such as catholic charities one can make donations too, quite a few can be marked off the list. Even just small donations help with clothing, food, water, shelter. Even though you aren’t the person physically seeing to these things, you donations help to ensure the people with the time and resources can on your behalf.
 
I agree in doing it very small. I find the corporal harder to do in big ways, the spiritual I find very easy because it doesn’t require concerted effort-you basically respond as life happens. Someone’s sad? Say a word of comfort etc. But giving someone a sandwich, giving even $1 to charity is better than nothing. Think small and let it grow if you wish.
 
Christphr said:
  • To feed the hungry.
  • To give water to the thirsty.
  • To clothe the naked.
  • To shelter the homeless.
  • To visit the sick.
  • To visit the imprisoned, or ransom the captive.
  • To bury the dead.
Click to expand...
  1. Give, even something small like a bag of beans, to the parish food drive. Give some change to the bell ringer for the Salvation Army (even if he spends it on getting himself a sandwich then you fed a hungry person).
  2. Conserve water by turning off the tap when you brush your teeth or taking shorter showers.
  3. In olden times I’d say give old clothes to Goodwill but usually they just get recycled now so probably best to give something like new socks to a charity. Also lots of parishes have Coats drives when it gets cold so if you have an old coat especially for a child, give that. You can also donate online to missions where they collect for people who really have NO clothes at all.
  4. Volunteer at a homeless shelter or donate to one. Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. Be nice to homeless people you see on the street and treat them kindly.
  5. Be a nursing home visitor (one of my friends’ moms does that). If anyone in your family is sick or in a nursing home, visit them.
  6. If you are one of the people who can do prison ministry, then do that. (Not everybody can or should do it because there are a lot of risks involved. I speak as someone who has done prisoner pro bono in the past. ) Send a card to someone like Cardinal Pell who is in prison. Ransoming captives is not something we do any more but the Mercedarian Order was founded for that and nowadays they do a lot of good work in other areas, so donate to them. They run some elementary schools in my hometown.
  7. Make sure dead people in your own family get buried or interred properly. Be respectful of the dead in cemeteries. Contribute to legitimate Gofundme’s for people (preferably someone you know or is at least a friend of a friend) facing unforeseen funeral expenses.
You say you don’t have much money, but most people I know don’t have much money to be honest. They can still usually find money for a 5 or 10 dollar donation, or just give pocket change.
 
Last edited:
Christphr said:
How can a person, without special skills, much money, or much time practice them? Your thoughts?
Click to expand...
You can volunteer with organizations that help the poor. You can volunteer at your church for visiting ministries such as those that visit the sick. You can volunteer at a nursing home or hospital. You can pray for the dead, volunteer for cemetery clean up day, etc. you can give money when you can.

You don’t have to do ALL the corporal works of mercy at the same time. Some people are called to a ministry in one or another area of corporal mercy.
 
A priest said prayers are good if a person cannot afford physical help
 
Three ways, by action, word and/or prayer. Even if you don’t have much money, you can donate your time, energy and effort, which is mostly actions. Often you can volunteer eg foodbanks, night shelters, hospital volunteers etc. Mother Theresa said to start at home by loving your family. You can do it in small deeds like visiting your own sick mom or auntie etc. or sending them a card to cheer them up. Donate your clothes to charity shops (think you call it good will there). Any deed done with love. If you can’t go somewhere or do something due to lack of money or illness etc. then you can use words, give someone who is ill a call or message them. Greet homeless people if it’s safe to do so or give people a smile.
Then of course you can pray for the people on this list (poor, dead, sick, imprisoned etc.) . It’s important not to forget this one as even if you yourself are infirm or ill, you can still do these works of mercy by being a prayer warrior.
 
Christphr said:
To visit the imprisoned, or ransom the captive
Click to expand...
Some great ideas are already posted, but I would include the notion that the “imprisoned” may also include the elderly, infirm, and shut-ins. This problem has been nagging at me lately. I can’t find the link, but I recently read that seniors can go up to a a week without any human contact. That’s just wrong. 😪
Christphr said:
To bury the dead
Click to expand...
A young man was fatally shot in my community where I used to live. His family put up a memorial at the site. It was so close to where I was gardening that I would go replenish water in the vases and trim the flower stems. Short of becoming coroners and funeral home directors, there are still little things we can do.
 
Christphr said:
  • To feed the hungry
  • To give water to the thirsty
  • To clothe the naked
  • To shelter the homeless
  • To visit the sick
  • To visit the imprisoned, or ransom the captive
  • To bury the dead
Click to expand...
Donate to your food pantry or volunteer to help them

See above, also donate to CRS


or simply carry around a cooler with cold water in the summer. Give bottles away to people.

Donate clothes you don’t need, and the occasional package of new socks/underware, to a local homeless resource center. Your parish knows where you can donate.

Volunteer with Habitat for Humanity or a local homeless resource center.

Volunteer with the hospital. I cannot tell you how lonely it can be for adults who are in ICU or in for a long time, people think about visiting children in the hospital, but, adults can be very lonely and need visitors. If you have a transplant hospital, those folks are in for a LONG TIME.

Your Diocese Jail/Prison ministry, Kairos

Bury the dead can be as simple as attending funerals. Tell the parish that you want to do this work of mercy, so many times funerals are done for people who have no family or friends.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top