a Father with a Mother’s heart

The 2015-2016 walk booklet

The 2015-2016 stage calendar

“Jesus Christ is the face of the Father’s mercy. It has become alive, visible
and has reached its culmination in Jesus of Nazareth who with
his word, with his gestures and with his whole person reveals the
mercy of God “.

The pope reminds us that “in order to be capable of mercy we must in
the first place place ourselves in listening to the Word of God.”

Responding to this invitation, our journey at
this year will walk through the theme of mercy through some
biblical passages from the Gospel of Luke.

We will start with three parables that tell different aspects of God’s mercy
. The first is the parable of the merciful father, the most beautiful
Jesus gave to universal literature. With
it we will reflect on the fundamental characteristic of mercy,
that of being love that surpasses justice. Then we will turn to
the parable of the Good Samaritan, in which we will be led to consider
the most concrete aspect of mercy: corporal works. Finally
we will address the theme of mercy and judgment through the
parable of the Pharisee and the publican who go up to the temple to pray.
Leaving the bank of parables, we will then make the
acquaintance of real men, in the flesh, who experience the fatherhood and
motherhood of God by meeting Jesus of Nazareth. We will first fix
our attention on the figure of Zacchaeus, who was able to overturn
his own existence after obtaining mercy, esteem and trust
from Jesus who “promoted” him to new life. We will then move on to the
two disciples of Emmaus: they become the object of a whole
series of actions on the part of the mysterious wayfarer, their
companion on the road, actions that are exactly what the Church
calls spiritual works of mercy. Finally, we will meet the
ten lepers, indeed, one in particular, a Samaritan: he will
make us reflect on the need to move from the experience of Jesus’ merciful goodness
to the need to say thank you first
to God, then also to our brothers and sisters.