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What are the Works of Mercy?
What are the Works of Mercy?
The seven corporal works of mercy and seven spiritual works of mercy, also known as acts of mercy, are actions and practices to be fulfilled by faithful Catholics. Though the lists of the works or acts were formalized later (at least by the time St. Thomas Aquinas wrote the Summa Theologica), the importance of performing these duties was urged from the earliest days of the Church. They do, in fact, stem from living according to Christ’s declaration of the two highest commandments:
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it; You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
Fulfilling both the spiritual and corporal works of mercy fit hand in hand with loving God and your neighbor. The Works of Mercy are enumerator below, in their fourteen umbrella categories: seven spiritual [ soul], and seven corporal [body]:
Corporal works of mercy
Corporal works of mercy
- Providing Food for the Hungry
Making saint card cookie packages for OLP's St. Vincent De Paul Food Pantry
- providing drink for the thirsty
- Providing visitation to the Imprisoned
Creating prayer bracelets for local youth in detention centers to gift their moms on Mother's Day
- Providing Burial for the Dead
Local Funeral Mass for the Homeless on April 16th, the feast day of St. Joseph Labre, patron saint of the homeless
Putting flowers on veterans' graves for Veteran's Day
- Visiting the Sick
Hosting feast day parties at local facilities for convalescent and memory care homes
- Providing Shelter for the Homeless
- Giving Alms to the Poor
Spiritual Works of mercy Charities
Spiritual Works of mercy Charities
- instructing The Ignorant
Raising awareness of God's great love for us through events fostering the evangelization of local culture
- Counseling the Doubtful
- forgiving injuries
- Admonishing the Sinner
- Praying for the Living and the Dead
OLP student prayer ministries
- Comforting the Sorrowful
Praying for and making cards for those undergoing the loss of a loved one
Raising funds for Project Rachel
OLP's youth works of mercy projects foster community service opportunities for youth to practice the seven corporal and seven spiritual works of mercy of the Church, alongside their peers.
The club meets two Thursdays each during the school year from 3:30-4:30 PM in OLP's New Hall.
To sign up, make a donation, or join the Club mailing list, please contact: worksofmercyclub@gmail.com
2025-26 CLUB CALENDAR MEETING DATES
Oct. 9 & 23
Nov. 6 & 20
Dec. 4 & 18
Jan. 8 & 22
Feb. 5 & 19
March 5 & 19
April 16 & 30
May 7 & 21
June 4
Saint Thomas Aquinas and the Spiritual Mercy of Instructing Others
By Cardinal Donald Wuerl
One inescapable experience of aging is reaching the moment in life when, like the rich young man in the Gospel, we wonder how God will judge our lives. On the one hand, not knowing the mind of God, this might seem to be fruitless exercise. On the other hand, our Lord in his teaching has given us some indication of the norms that might be used. One set of indicators is how well we have practiced the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.
We may remember from our religious education classes that the spiritual works of mercy focus on ways to offer help to others on the level of the heart or soul. In the appendix of the Catechism they are defined as counseling the doubtful, instructing the ignorant, admonishing the sinner, comforting the sorrowful, forgiving injuries, bearing wrongs patiently, and praying for the living and the dead (cf. CCC 2447).
It is certainly easy to see how prayer, practicing patience and forgiving others are loving spiritual works, but the related mercies of counseling the doubtful, instructing the ignorant and admonishing the sinner might seem in our day to be rather judgmental and presumptuous. They also sound like they might not be the responsibility of every follower of Jesus, but instead more suited to priests, spiritual counselors and teachers.
However, these spiritual works are indeed mercies that are perhaps needed more than ever in our time. Just as you might give directions on a map to someone trying to reach a particular destination, and just as you might warn them that they are going in the wrong direction or that they are driving with their lights off in the dark, as followers of Christ we do mercy to others by offering them guidance in life. When we fail to do this, allowing them to endanger themselves, not only are we being uncharitable by our silence and inaction, God says he will hold us to account (cf. Ezekiel 3:18, 33:8).
One of the great teachers of the Church, offering instruction on a massive number of subjects, is Saint Thomas Aquinas, the “Universal Doctor” of the Church whose feast day is today. He is called the Angelic Doctor, and his monumental masterpiece, the Summa Theologica, has for more than seven centuries provided instruction to countless popes, bishops, priests, religious and lay faithful.
The spiritual mercy of instructing the ignorant has a special place in the life of pastors, whose first responsibility is to share the Good News of the Gospel, and in a particular way to those who do not know the teachings of Jesus. This spiritual work also resonates with teachers who educate our children in preparation to make their way in the world.
Instructing others regarding the truth is not reserved however to preaching and formal education. As Pope Francis points out, all followers of Jesus are called to practice these works and so all of us are called to share our knowledge with those who may not know what we know. Here, I am thinking especially about those times when we find ourselves in a conversation in which someone says something about the Catholic faith that we know to be wrong. Even if we may not possess the brilliance of a Saint Thomas, still we must, with humility and grace, offer a correction, or another way to answer the question, or even volunteer to “google the Catechism” and together find the right answer!
Also, with all of the public venues for conversation that are available today – blogs, tweets, online news with space for comment – as Catholic evangelizers, we need to work together to make sure that if someone is talking about the Catholic faith, they are getting their facts right. If we know the information to be incorrect and we know how to correct it, we do have a responsibility to do just that.
In this digital age in which we live, instructing the ignorant can be thought of as a uniquely modern from of evangelization and a way that someone who may not know our Lord or much about the Catholic faith can come to a deeper appreciation of Jesus and the Christian life.
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