(My mother alleges that I\u2019ve put in too many chocolate chips, but I am perplexed by this paradoxical assertion).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBut, while I\u2019m occupied with my gavel and the oven mitts, I think I do have an appropriate story for today from church. Some indeterminate length of time ago, I was upset with a friend-or-acquaintance-who-will-remain-non-identifiable. \u00a0The person\u00a0had<\/em>\u00a0inconvenienced me in a way that upset me, but, by this point, I was doing much more damage to myself by holding on to anger and resentment than the person-in-question had managed to hurt me in the first place.<\/p>\nI could even recognize that my behavior was counterproductive, but I couldn\u2019t stop my mind from drifting back to my frustration and general peevishness. \u00a0I had gone to Daily Mass during my lunch break, which was lovely, but I was still ruminating and disagreeable.<\/p>\n
Afterwards, when I was walking out, I saw a gentleman in a Roman collar a little ways ahead of me. \u00a0He wasn\u2019t the priest who had celebrated the Mass, but he was\u00a0a\u00a0<\/em>priest, and I asked him if I could borrow him for a moment, explained my problem in brief, and asked if he would bless me and pray for me to be delivered from my anger. \u00a0Because, at the very least, if I couldn\u2019t\u00a0stop<\/em> being angry, I could at least consent to\u00a0be stopped<\/em> <\/em>if anyone else cared to stop me.<\/p>\nThen, as I shook his hand and thanked him, a little old lady, who had apparently been standing behind me, came up to the priest and asked excitedly, \u201cAre you blessing people? \u00a0Would you bless me<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\nI couldn\u2019t help grinning when I left. \u00a0I didn\u2019t exactly let go of my anger all at once, but getting to give someone else the opportunity to ask for help by asking for help myself was a very nice reminder of what I was giving up by holding my resentment so close. \u00a0I was exchanging peace for a little bit of security (and unhappiness!) through a petty righteousness.<\/p>\n
But the lady who followed me was a nice reminder of how much power we have to be kind to others, and how offering even a small blessing or act of forgiveness may embolden others to ask for more and reveal needs you didn\u2019t know you could serve.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, which providentially turned out to be the day my friends and I are holding our debate on the Brendan Eich donnybrook. \u00a0But, since both faith and works are both required to save us, I\u2019ve also thrown together the NYT Best Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe, so that we can all break […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":9366,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parsing-catholicism","category-spiritual-practice"],"yoast_head":"\n
The Blessings of Asked For Mercy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, which providentially turned out to be the day my friends and I are holding our debate on the Brendan Eich donnybrook. \u00a0But,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/04\/the-blessings-of-asked-for-mercy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Blessings of Asked For Mercy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, which providentially turned out to be the day my friends and I are holding our debate on the Brendan Eich donnybrook. \u00a0But,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/04\/the-blessings-of-asked-for-mercy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Unequally Yoked\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-04-27T11:45:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/84\/2014\/04\/divine-mercy-text.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"956\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"848\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Leah Libresco\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Leah Libresco\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/04\/the-blessings-of-asked-for-mercy.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/04\/the-blessings-of-asked-for-mercy.html\",\"name\":\"The Blessings of Asked For Mercy\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-27T11:45:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-04-27T11:45:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/17ee17592b35b40040d5f5f7ea5ab464\"},\"description\":\"Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, which providentially turned out to be the day my friends and I are holding our debate on the Brendan Eich donnybrook. \u00a0But,\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/04\/the-blessings-of-asked-for-mercy.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/04\/the-blessings-of-asked-for-mercy.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/04\/the-blessings-of-asked-for-mercy.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Blessings of Asked For Mercy\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/\",\"name\":\"Unequally Yoked\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/17ee17592b35b40040d5f5f7ea5ab464\",\"name\":\"Leah Libresco\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20e1e6a3a94c4e7928687804a41d888d?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20e1e6a3a94c4e7928687804a41d888d?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Leah Libresco\"},\"description\":\"Leah is the author of Arriving at Amen and Building the Benedict Option. 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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/84\/2014\/04\/divine-mercy-text.png\" "\\"divine")
<\/a><\/p>\n