Merciful Humor

Throughout this year, I will be posting to my page, Year of Mercy.  You can read more about the Year of Mercy in this post.

A few weeks ago, one of my older children who will remain nameless, was picking on one of my younger children and made them cry. 

 I responded to said older child, "There, now don't you feel terrible? You made her cry."

 To which said older child who will remain nameless retorted to me, "Nope, not at all.  I know the story of the Prodigal Son.  I know how it ends."

Aaaahhhrrrrgggggg!!!!  I laughed so hard!  It caught me by surprise as I was in serious "Mom mode".

And, younger child who really wasn't all that hurt, stopped crying.  Not because she knows the story of the Prodigal Son and thought her older sibling who will remain nameless was so witty, but because she really wanted to know what made me laugh so hard.

The Gospel for today's Mass readings is the story of the Prodigal Son or also known as the Parable of the Lost Son.  If you don't know the story, it's a really, really, really, powerful one.  You can find it here in Luke 15:11-32.  Commentary can be found here.  Want to delve into it further?  This book is the "go to" for the parable. We have it, but I read it years ago. I think it would be a good one to reread in this Year of Mercy.

Why the image above?  As I was deciding which photo I could include with this post, this image I created a few years ago came to mind.  Maybe because it's three flowers.  The Father, the lost son, and the son who stayed.  Of course there is also representation of the Holy Trinity too. 

Even more so, I think this image came to mind from it's inspiration.  The book,  "Ish" by Peter Reynolds.  (Which I bought a few months ago to read to my kids and for myself) It's so inspiring, to be who you are! The book itself is a story of Mercy.  A little sister recognizes the beauty in her older brother's art before anyone else and that allows him to see his own beauty.  Truly, this is a great book.

I learned to make the flowers in Photoshop from this tutorial from EarlK Designs.  He calls them "Ish" flowers.  He was inspired to make the flowers from the book, "Ish" which is then how I came to know this book. Good things inspiring good things....