great mercy

"O merciful heart of God, grant me yet again Thy forgiveness. Hear my sorrowful tale and in Thy great mercy blot it out from the book of Thy remembrance. Give me faith so to lay hold of Thine own holiness and so to rejoice in the righteousness of Christ my Saviour that, resting on His merits rather than on my own, I may more and more become confirmed to His likeness, my will becoming one with His in obedience to Thine. All this I ask for His holy name's sake. Amen." ~John Baillie

mercy

"And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."

~Luke 6:34-36 [NIV]

God's Clever Strategy

"The selfishness that is within us, however, is so contrary to God, that God cannot induce us to do His will except by a clever strategy: promising us greater things than what the world can give--even in this life--and promising a kind of consolation that the world does not know. God does this, I think, because He knows how much we are attached to pleasure. He knows that we are the kind who will not leave our one little toy unless we are offered four."

~Catherine of Genoa