What do you think?
Rate this book
Mercy: What Every Catholic Should Know
Series Summary
The new What Every Catholic Should Know series is intended for the average faithful Catholic who wants to know more about Catholic faith and culture. The authors in this series take a panoramic approach to the topic of each book aimed at a non-specialist but enthusiastic readership. Forthcoming titles planned for this series the Eucharist, salvation, history, art, and philosophy.
Book Summary
In Every Catholic Should Know, Fr. Daniel Moloney covers a broad range of topics regarding mercy that are prevalent for our society today. Beginning from an unexpected perspective in the first half of the book, Fr. Moloney approaches mercy from a political point of view, explaining how mercy is in fact truly and intimately interwoven with politics and power. Through this lens, he touches upon pertinent topics such as legal punishments, the death penalty, and self-defense. He also assesses the clergy scandals, laying out why they occurred, what went wrong in how they were dealt with, and how the Church can improve moving forward for the greater glory of God. He eloquently explains how mercy is not synonymous with leniency, but is an act of responding to a privation, a lack of something which ought to be there. Sometimes the road to this may have to be tough love for the good of all involved.
Fr. Moloney invites the reader to wrestle with the supposed contradiction of God saying that he is merciful, yet killing and punishing his creation. Moloney ultimately resolves this apparent contradiction by highlighting God's identity as the loving Father, explaining how, similar to good earthly fathers, sometimes the most loving route to take in truly loving your children and bringing them to their ultimate good is through the course of tough love. God is always good and loving, and his justice and mercy go hand-in-hand.
The new What Every Catholic Should Know series is intended for the average faithful Catholic who wants to know more about Catholic faith and culture. The authors in this series take a panoramic approach to the topic of each book aimed at a non-specialist but enthusiastic readership. Forthcoming titles planned for this series the Eucharist, salvation, history, art, and philosophy.
Book Summary
In Every Catholic Should Know, Fr. Daniel Moloney covers a broad range of topics regarding mercy that are prevalent for our society today. Beginning from an unexpected perspective in the first half of the book, Fr. Moloney approaches mercy from a political point of view, explaining how mercy is in fact truly and intimately interwoven with politics and power. Through this lens, he touches upon pertinent topics such as legal punishments, the death penalty, and self-defense. He also assesses the clergy scandals, laying out why they occurred, what went wrong in how they were dealt with, and how the Church can improve moving forward for the greater glory of God. He eloquently explains how mercy is not synonymous with leniency, but is an act of responding to a privation, a lack of something which ought to be there. Sometimes the road to this may have to be tough love for the good of all involved.
Fr. Moloney invites the reader to wrestle with the supposed contradiction of God saying that he is merciful, yet killing and punishing his creation. Moloney ultimately resolves this apparent contradiction by highlighting God's identity as the loving Father, explaining how, similar to good earthly fathers, sometimes the most loving route to take in truly loving your children and bringing them to their ultimate good is through the course of tough love. God is always good and loving, and his justice and mercy go hand-in-hand.
210 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 9, 2020
14 people are currently reading
52 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 20, 2021
Another outstanding entry in this series. Really got me thinking of mercy in different ways.
September 8, 2021
Hooray for Daniel Moloney, creating this book from the perspective of MIT chaplain who also guest speaks at other prestigious universities around the globe. This is a great book for understanding God who is both just and merciful. This is especially a great gift for attorneys and others with juridic minds who are trying to understand Divine Mercy in our faith. Highly recommend it.
The flow is intuitive in that he first clarifies true justice and mercy, as opposed to being a tyrant or a wishy-washy doormat. And then he goes on to explain St. Faustina's private revelations as opposed to public relevations, without going overboard (as some of us tend to do when we get excited!) to put her diary at a level of Scripture. Really well organized and great reference as an output of years of ministry to intellectual minds.
The flow is intuitive in that he first clarifies true justice and mercy, as opposed to being a tyrant or a wishy-washy doormat. And then he goes on to explain St. Faustina's private revelations as opposed to public relevations, without going overboard (as some of us tend to do when we get excited!) to put her diary at a level of Scripture. Really well organized and great reference as an output of years of ministry to intellectual minds.
December 9, 2020
How timely it is to complete this book on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. It gives very clear and detailed definition mercy in relation to Catholic theology, particularly in relation to the historical evolution of the sacraments, Sacred Heart, Works of Mercy, Divine Mercy Devotions, all proved insightful for a fairly young and ignorant believer like me. I was even astounded at that the author devoted an entire chapter in addressing the taboo topic of clergy sexual abuse, providing of strong argument of how misunderstanding of mercy may have led to this unfortunate state of affairs, convincing readers/believers of the pressing need to address of misconceptions before the church can heal and move on successfully.
November 10, 2023
First half of this book was not an easy read. Kinda boring. I had to force myself to read a little bit everyday to make progress on it. But then the book really took off starting in chapter 10. Some fantastic insights into the role of Jesus in God’s plan for salvation. I zipped through the 2nd half of the book and am glad I read it!
November 17, 2021
This book is a thorough review of what mercy is and what it is not. In a time when the word mercy is often used in the wrong context, this book is a great work that captures and corrects the reader into a proper outlook of mercy. Through the explanation of mercy a clear idea of God is portrayed.
May 21, 2023
There's alot more to mercy than meets the eye!
April 18, 2024
This book does a great job of digging into the theology, philosophy, and Catholic practices regarding Mercy. At first I thought it might be a little dry and/or boring, but quickly found it interesting and very edifying.
One of the key points is that mercy and justice can not be seen just as opposites of each other. Both are aspects of the goodness of God. Fr. Moloney works out the implications of this through the rest of the book.
Chapters 13, "Justice Mercy and the Spritual Life" was especially encouraging and practical. The explanation of Jansenism (with its extreme focus on justice and punishment) as the historical setting for the rise of devotion to Divine Mercy was eye-opening.
One of the key points is that mercy and justice can not be seen just as opposites of each other. Both are aspects of the goodness of God. Fr. Moloney works out the implications of this through the rest of the book.
Chapters 13, "Justice Mercy and the Spritual Life" was especially encouraging and practical. The explanation of Jansenism (with its extreme focus on justice and punishment) as the historical setting for the rise of devotion to Divine Mercy was eye-opening.
December 19, 2021
This book was one of the most informative books on Catholicism I've read, and I highly recommend it to any Catholic or Christian who wants to learn more about mercy, or Christian teachings in the context of politics.
The book gave me better understanding of what Catholic mercy is and how I could grow in this virtue. In the beginning, the author thoroughly explained what mercy truly is, and what we need to do acts of mercy.
The author spent most of the first half of the book on what mercy is in the context of today's society and politics, from how punishments should be in the modern world to how church treated sex abuse scandals in Catholic church. The most of the second half of the book discussed God's mercy in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, where I personally learned a lot about how to read scripture.
The book gave me better understanding of what Catholic mercy is and how I could grow in this virtue. In the beginning, the author thoroughly explained what mercy truly is, and what we need to do acts of mercy.
The author spent most of the first half of the book on what mercy is in the context of today's society and politics, from how punishments should be in the modern world to how church treated sex abuse scandals in Catholic church. The most of the second half of the book discussed God's mercy in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, where I personally learned a lot about how to read scripture.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews