Mercy means thankfulness, beloveds. I am as thankful for you, as you are for Me. I am more so because I love very well and I see your worth more than you do. Mercy, as I use it, is another word for love. Mercy is not intellectual. It is not a decision. Mercy is what shows when one loves. Mercy is how love may be perceived by those who bestow it or receive it and who may be surprised by it.

One who gives mercy must not think he is a dispenser of it, for then he holds himself higher than another and thinks he is benevolent. Love benefits, but it is better that one does not consider himself benevolent, for then he considers himself notable when, all the while, benevolence is the very meat of life and the natural order. Where there is love, love is given.

Merciful does not mean indulgent. Love does not indulge. Doting is not love. Love is love. Do not mix up mercy with indulgence.

And yet, you are not a court that decides to be merciful. When a court dispenses mercy, or believes that it is, it is saying that it is majestic. The court bestows mercy as a favor. Favors are not much. They are little things.

But thank God for mercy. Even those who scrutinize others from the bench and pass sentence have been blessed with mercy in their lives, or they would not be sitting there.

Love is your due, yet be glad and grateful for it. Be gladdest of all that you are one who loves. What would you be without love in your heart? And what would life be without beautiful esplanades of love?

Most of all, be merciful unto yourself. If you were truly good to yourself, you would have let the past go long ago. You would not hold to incriminations and recriminations of yourself and others. In the medium of love, the past and its errors do not exist. In the medium of love, thought does not start. Thought is so minor next to love. In the medium of love, love exists, and it is enough. Nothing occupies like love. Nothing unites like love. Nothing unites your heart and mind like love. Nothing unites anything like love, and nothing unites without love.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life, but it is you who strews them as you go long. In this way, you have goodness and mercy on all sides, goodness and mercy surrounding you like leaves swirling around your feet in autumn. Know once and for all that goodness and mercy shine on you like the radiating sun. Consider all the amazing overt and subtle things that the sun does for you without requiring that you be conscious of it. Sunshine works its magic on you with or without your awareness.

Mercy, the same. You have received God's mercy all your life, and it has graced you. Now it is time for you to know this and rise higher.

Mercy does not accuse. Mercy does not nag. Mercy lifts its chin high and looks kindly on all of creation whatever it seems to look like. Mercy covers error with love. Love erases error. Error was just a thought anyway, wasn't it? And it goes the way of all thoughts. And you go the way of love.