Monsignor Michael Otto Ekpenyong

Flickers of Mercy in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona Monsignor Michael Otto Ekpenyong

The reflections in the pages of Flickers of Mercy symbolize - flickers, moments, and possibilities of how to be human in order to replenish the deficit of Mercy in our century. Mercy is God who is I Am. As partakers of God's being, mercy is our very being. It does take effort to fan it into contagious flames. I need to be infected by the sparks of other missionaries' contagion and together we can turn the world of our day upside down by giving into the heart of misery as did Joseph and Mary and Jesus. Let us work as if all the world depends on us for mercy and pray because mercy is God's gift. Pope Francis inaugurated and set a limit to the Jubilee Year of Mercy (December 8, 2015 - November 20, 2016). But he didn't mean that mercy is human work for one year only. He was rather calling us to consciously revisit a cardinal virtue and to make it a habit in our lives. I, therefore, believe that the Jubilee Year is a beginning; and it is a call to all of us to join the Pope to work to make mercy the culture for all generations. In this sense Flickers of Mercy looks at the bigger picture of mercy ahead; and it humbly exhorts all of us to become co-workers of mercy with the Pastor of Mercy, Pope Francis. I have embraced the insight of Rudyard Kipling by crafting lived human experiences into the narratives of Flickers of Mercy to prolong in time and eternity our divine-human conversation.