Mercy is the quality that sees behind expression to the need that is inside it. Behind the anger to the sadness, behind the coldness to the fear. Mercy goes behind and meets the hidden needs of a person’s mind, their child-self.

To have mercy is to know the vulnerability that is in you and feed it with what you are learning, so that it strengthens and becomes level with your adulthood and calmness. Mercy is to know that, though it often asks for what is visible and material, the mind’s needs are deeper and more demanding and cannot be met by anything false or short term.

Mercy is the wisdom to see that a failing mind needs a system in which to meet its needs. Real mercy is not therefore merely softness or com passion, but a spiritual system whose clear footsteps hold God presence and so, followed, become a meeting point with him. That meeting is itself the most valuable present a human mind can receive. In it lies a training for the senses; a training to draw them inwards so that alone from influence, the mind can regain its strength and learn what is unique to it - as though, in a moment of quiet victory, it receives its own inheritance.

When a mind finds its strength again, it develops the confidence to re enter the world and be alive and gifted in it. Mercy is to keep the strict ness until the last moment and to help others do the same, so that they no longer bank their lives on temporary attractions, but move towards the hidden beauty that is in them.

This is why it is wrong to blame someone when they hurt you, for blame sees only what is outside and not what lies behind it. Mercy is to think, do and speak only what leads inwards to where the real reasons lie.