"Pope Francis and the Tender 'Music of the Language of the Lord'"

     Ps. 116:5, NIRV

     When Pope Francis was still a cardinal in Buenos Aires he was known for taking the baby Jesus from the crèche at Christmastime, showing the babe to the gathered congregation and saying: “This is God.  God is tenderness.”^[1]  How often Pope Francis speaks of God’s great tenderness, which he sees as the “music of the language of the Lord.”^[2]  Today we look at some of Pope Francis’s most compelling statements in this regard.

     This is of special interest to us: when we began this blog more than a year ago our underlying concern was stated in our title: “Missing Sacred Tenderness in Christian Tradition (missing because neglected).”  For some time we were not fully aware that another voice—far greater than our own—was calling attention to the same concern and the same neglect.^[3]  Indeed, it was not until Pope Francis was en route to the USA for his much anticipated visit in September of 2015 that we first heard headlines about his Revolution of Tenderness.^[4]  We then searched further and began to see more clearly the thought processes behind Pope Francis’s already obvious actions.  We saw that a consistent part of Pope Francis’s mission seems to be to stress these two points:

1) We are called to love one another with great tenderness: we are summoned to a “revolution of tenderness” by Jesus’ example of humbly, tenderly taking our flesh in order to bring God’s intimacy, closeness, love, mercy, and ways to us.^[5] 

2) This “revolution of tenderness” begins, of necessity, with our own deepening experience of just how tenderly God loves each one of us.  We love because he first loved us: “[T]he Lord has taken the initiative,” Pope Francis says, “he has loved us first (cf. 1 Jn. 4:19).”^[6]  As we ourselves come to a deeper experience of the tenderness of God’s love, that love fills us, upholds us, empowers us, and helps us to pass tender love on.  This process is the science of tenderness (in one commentator’s summary of Pope Francis’s ideas).^[7]  And every day Pope Francis demonstrates the science of tenderness in his actions.

     From the beginning Pope Francis launched his papacy with a call to his priests and leaders to be more tenderly pastoral in their approach to their flocks—to see the church as a “tender mother” and “shepherdess.”^[8]  Leaders first concern should be to love and care for those entrusted to them.  “I ask you to be shepherds with God’s tenderness, to leave the ‘whip’ hanging in the sacristy and be shepherds with tenderness, even with those who create more trouble for you,” Pope Francis says.^[9]

     The implication is that the metaphoric “whip” (a “Law first” approach^[10]) had too often been used in the past.  One commentator speaks of the “theological police work” that had sometimes been a focus previously.^[11]  In contrast, in his inaugural homily Pope Francis spoke of the need “for a certain tenderness. . . .  [G]reat tenderness . . . is not the virtue of the weak but rather a sign of strength of spirit. . . .  We must not be afraid of goodness, of tenderness!” ^[12]   

     Pope Francis’s thought in this regard continues (as reported by C. Glatz):

When the Good Shepherd finds his lost sheep, “he doesn’t hit it, he doesn’t scold, he takes it in his arms and embraces it and takes care of it because it was wounded.  Do you do the same with your faithful?”

     Remember God’s tenderness, he [Pope Francis] said, be moved by it and imitate Jesus, who says, “When you are alone, confused, lost, come to me, and I will save you, I will console you^[13] [e.g., see Mt. 28:30].

     Pope Francis has reminded us of how “the father welcomes his son” (in the story of the wayward, returning prodigal; Lk. 15:11-22): “He will hug you with great love.”^[14]

     And who is God the Father—especially as taught by Jesus and demonstrated in Jesus’ own intimate relationship with the Father?  Pope Francis commented:

It is the Spirit . . . who spurs us to say to God: “Father” or, rather, 

“Abba!”, which means “papa” . . . [“dad”].  Our God is like this: he 

is a dad to us. . . .  And this is the greatest gift. . . .  God treats us as 

children, he understands us, he forgives us, he embraces us, he 

loves us even when we err.  In the Old Testament, the Prophet Isaiah 

was already affirming that even if a mother could forget her child, 

God never forgets us at any moment (cf. 49:15).   And this is 

beautiful!^[15]  

     Our attitude toward others is meant to be based upon the “beautiful” way God treats us: “Every human being is the object of God’s infinite tenderness, and he himself is present in their lives,” Pope Francis affirms.^[16]   And, “To believe in a Father who loves all men and women with an infinite love means realizing that ‘he thereby confers upon them an infinite dignity.’”^[17]  

     But how do we learn the true depths of this lesson?  It is so easy to talk about love, but how can we truly know it?  Pope Francis suggests: Be silent, so we can hear the tenderness of God.  Take time to listen to, “God who speaks to us with the tenderness of a father and of a mother.”^[18]  Pope Francis offered an example: 

When the child has a bad dream, he wakes up, cries … the father goes and says, “Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, I’m here.”  That’s how the Lord speaks to us.  “Do not fear . . .” (Isaiah 41, 13).  The Lord has this way of speaking to us: He is near. . . .  When we look at a father or a mother who speaks to their little child, we see that they become little and speak with a voice of a child and with the manners of children.  Someone looking in from the outside [would] think, “this is ridiculous!”  They become smaller, right there, no?  Because the love of a father and a mother needs to be close. ...  [T]hey want to take up the manner of speaking of the child.  They come close. . . .  And so it is with the Lord. . . .  This is the language of the Lord, the language of the love of a father, of a mother. . . .  And we [too] must do what the Lord does, do what He says and do it as He says it: with love, with tenderness, with that condescension [bending] toward the brethren. ...  This is the music of the language of the Lord, and we . . . ought to hear it: it would do us so much good. . . .  [T]o have a little silence and to hear these words of love, these words of such nearness, these words of tenderness . . .” (emphasis added).^[19]

     Similarly, taking a cue from the prophet Isaiah^[20], in another of Pope Francis’s homilies, God’s tenderness is represented in the imagery of a mother: “God’s closeness . . . is presented like a mother, a mother who talks to her baby, and sings lullabies to her baby.”  In Isaiah God expresses “closeness with tenderness: the tenderness of a mother.”  In this we see the “beautiful truth of God’s closeness.”^[21]  (Note Isaiah 66, for example: “As a mother comforts her child, so I [the Lord] shall comfort you”; v. 13, NJB.)

     For Pope Francis, God’s desire for closeness to us is especially seen in God’s “condescension” (stooping, bending to meet us), and this is most clearly seen in the story of the Nativity and Incarnation:

     The “sign” [in Lk. 2:12] is the humility of God taken to the extreme; it is the love with which, that night, He assumed our frailty, our suffering, our anxieties, our desires and our limitations.  The message . . . was none other than the tenderness of God: God who looks upon us with eyes full of love, who accepts our poverty. . . .  How much the world needs tenderness today! . . .  The Christian response cannot be different from God’s response to our smallness.  Life must be met with goodness, with meekness.  When we realize that God is in love with our smallness, that he made himself small in order to better encounter us, we cannot help but open our hearts . . . (emphasis added).^[22]

    

     What a lovely theme: “God is in love with our smallness . . . [so] he made himself small. . . .”  Pope Francis also refers to the special combination of “tenderness and hope” in the Nativity story, in this supreme example of God’s “condescension”:

When God meets us [in the Nativity story] he tells us two things. The first thing he says is: have hope.  God always opens doors, he never closes them.  He is the father who opens doors for us.  The second thing he says is: don’t be afraid of tenderness.  When Christians forget about hope and tenderness they become a cold Church, that loses its sense of direction and is held back by ideologies and worldly attitudes, whereas God’s simplicity tells you: go forward, I am a Father who caresses you.  I become fearful when Christians lose hope and the ability to embrace and extend a loving caress to others. . . .  Throughout my life as a priest, going to the parish, I have always sought to transmit this tenderness, particularly to children and the elderly.  It does me good and it makes me think of the tenderness God has towards us (emphasis added).^[23]

     Similarly, Pope Francis comments: “Every Christian is a missionary to the extent that he or she bears witness to God’s love.  Be missionaries of God’s tenderness!”^[24]  He offers an example of someone who knew how to reach out with such love:

In the Gospels, Saint Joseph [Jesus’ earthly father] appears as a strong and courageous man, a working man, yet in his heart we see great tenderness, which is not the virtue of the weak but rather a sign of strength of spirit and a capacity for concern, for compassion, for genuine openness to others, for love.  We must not be afraid of goodness . . . tenderness. ^[25]

     There is a catch to all of this, however: It is us!  Blocks within us!  In this regard, Pope Francis advises:

This may sound like heresy, but it is the greatest truth!  It is more difficult to let God love us, than to love Him!  The best way to love Him in return is to open our hearts and let Him love us [1 Jn. 4:19].  Let Him draw close to us and feel Him close to us.  This is really very difficult: letting ourselves be loved by Him.  And that is perhaps what we need to ask today . . . : “Lord, I want to love you, but teach me the difficult science, the difficult habit of letting myself be loved by You, to feel You close and feel Your tenderness!  May the Lord give us this grace” (emphasis added).^[26]

     And, furthermore, Pope Francis boldly wrote, “Only he [she] who has been touched and caressed by the tenderness of his mercy really knows the Lord.”^[27]   

     Pope Francis offered a suggestion if we lack understanding in this regard.  He presents Jesus as an example of One who draws close to us to teach us today, just as Jesus did during his earthly ministry:  “How good it is for us to contemplate the closeness which he shows to everyone!  If he speaks to someone, he looks into their eyes with deep love and concern….”[28]  For example:  

                      

“Jesus, looking upon him, loved him” (Mk 10:21).  We see how accessible he is, as he draws near the blind man (cf. Mk 10:46-52) and eats and drinks with sinners (cf. Mk 2:16) without worrying about being thought a glutton and a drunkard himself (cf. Mt 11:19).  We see his sensitivity in allowing a sinful woman to anoint his feet (cf. Lk 7:36-50) and in receiving Nicodemus by night (cf. Jn 3:1-15).  Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross is nothing else than the culmination of the way he lived his entire life.^[29]

                                                                    

     One of Pope Francis’s most beautiful passages about God’s tenderness is based on Hosea 11: 

In [Hosea] . . . we enter into the tenderness of God: God tells his people how much he loves them, how much he cares for them.  What God says to his people, in this . . . he says to each one of us.  And it would be good to take this text, in a moment of solitude, and set ourselves in the presence of God and listen: “When you were a child, I loved you; I loved you as a child; I saved you; I led you out of [captivity in] Egypt, I saved you from slavery”, from the slavery of sin, from the slavery of self-destruction and from every kind of slavery that each of us knows, has had and has within.  “I saved you.  I taught you how to walk”.  How beautiful to hear that God teaches me to walk!  The Almighty abases himself and teaches me how to walk.  I recall this phrase from Deuteronomy, when Moses says to his people: “Listen you”—they were so hard-headed—“when have you ever seen a god so close to his people as God is close to us?”.  And the closeness of God is tenderness like this: he has taught me how to walk.  Without Him I wouldn’t know how to walk in the Spirit.  “And I held you by the hand.  But you did not understand that I was leading you, you believed that I would leave you alone” (emphasis added).^[30]    
                                                                       

     Pope Francis wishes each of us to enter personally, deeply into this story:

This is the story of each one of us.  “I held you with human bonds, not punitive laws”.  With bonds of love, ties of love.  Love binds, but binds in freedom; it binds while leaving you the space to respond with love.  “I was for you as one who raises a child up to his cheek and kisses her.  And I bent down and fed her”.  This is our history, at least it is my history.  Each of us can read her own history here.  “Tell me, how can I abandon you now?” . . .  In the moments when we are afraid, at the times that we are uncertain, He says to us: “If I did this for you, how can you think I would leave you alone, that I could abandon you? . . .  My heart recoils within me and my compassion grows warm and tender” [God says; Hos. 11:4, 8].  God’s compassion is kindled, this warm compassion. . . .  It is the declaration of a father’s love to his child.  And to each one of us (emphasis added).^[31]   

     However, once again our own blocks may enter in; then we neglect God’s offer of tender concern.  Pope Francis continues:

How often do I think that we are afraid of the tenderness of God and because we are afraid of God’s tenderness, we do not allow it to be felt within us.  Because of this we are so often hard, serious, punishing. . . .  What does Jesus say to us in Luke at Chapter 15?  About that shepherd who noticed that he had 99 sheep for one was missing.  He left them well safeguarded . . . and went to search for the other, who was ensnared in thorns….  And he didn’t beat it, didn’t scold it: he took it tightly in his arms and cared for it. . . .  [H]ave [you] forgotten about the tenderness your Father gave you, and it is recounted to you here, in chapter 11 of Hosea.  And you have forgotten how to give that compassion [to others].  The Heart of Christ is the tenderness of God.  “How could I fail you?  How could I abandon you?  When you are alone, disoriented, lost, come to me, and I will save you, I will comfort you” (emphasis added).^[32]  

Pope Francis is convinced that we have a God who is “rich in

mercy”; we can be “touched with tenderness from His hand.”[33] 

We are meant to know such tenderness, to dwell deeply in it, to

let it empower, comfort, and enlighten us and then to share it--passing God’s great generosity on in a “revolution of

tenderness.” Or even, as he has said more recently, in a

"theology of tenderness"![34] 

We have a Catholic friend who expresses doubts

about some of Pope Francis's ways. She wonders if his

generous tender love might be too soft. She grew up with

a heavy dose of the "Law First" approach that we discussed

previously.[35] A "Law First" approach can seem to

give one a sense of security. But such security is

transient, and it leaves many others out in the cold.

Luke tell us that Jesus came to bring God's "tender mercy"

into our world (1:78). And often that tender mercy focused

especially on those then left out in the cold--the

marginalized.[36] Pope Francis knows that the kind of

tender mercy Jesus showed must come first if we are to

follow Jesus' example--as difficult as that sometimes is.

     (A note to our Protestant friends: Protestants may not apply the term Reformation [a concept we greatly value—and rightfully so] to Catholic tradition.  We forget that Martin Luther never wanted to split with Catholic tradition and that there were those who managed to do what he could not: to reform and yet stay within the tradition.  One way to reform was either to reform an order or to start a new order.  The latter is what St. Ignatius of Loyola [Pope Francis’s spiritual forebear] did: he started a new order in which he taught great fidelity to Christ.  That order is the Jesuits.  St. Francis of Assisi had done something similar before him—launching the Franciscan order.  St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross were reformers by renewing their order, the Carmelites.  Certainly, there were others who took a similar path.  And, more recently, Vatican II (1962-1965) was a reform movement.  Today, Pope Francis has become known as The Great Reformer[37]—especially in terms of attitudes.  There is refreshing newness in his “revolution of tenderness”: he calls for a transformation of spirit, heart, soul, and approach.  And he laments and acknowledges that “God weeps” deeply regarding any institutional wrongs of the

past.[38]) 

* * *

We close with thoughts for meditation, prayer/poetry/proverbs:

“HOME (a Meditation)”  

                                       

    (With reflection upon Mt. 18:3; Ps. 131; Lk. 15:12-24.  Pope Francis 

mentioned above that “God treats us as [God’s] children, he understands 

us” and treats us with a parent’s love.  Our response can also be in terms 

of this metaphor.)

* * *

“Respect (meditating upon Revelation 3:20)”

                                 

“God is always courteous and does not invade the privacy of

the human soul.” – Attributed to St. Francis of Assisi 

Gentle Lord, I love You!

You tiptoe ’cross my heart.

You sit beside me quietly and wait. 

For years I lost track of You,

but in some silent hours

I heard Your tender footsteps at my gate.

And even when I opened

the gate to let You in,

You entered in with absolute respect—

hoping not to scare me

or make me see too soon

the wondrous . . . awesome . . . grandeur

of my Guest!

How do I know You love me?

It is the quiet peace,

the patient way that You will work with me—

a Sovereign who tiptoes

and treats with full respect

the one who could be . . . simply . . .

property!

* * *

An opening to prayer/meditation:

     We quoted Pope Francis above: “It is the Spirit …who spurs us to say to God:

“Father” or, rather, “Abba!”, which means “papa” ….  Our God is like this: he is

a dad to us… [note Lk. 15:20].  And this is the greatest gift….”  (For “Protector”

see Ps. 121:5, CEB.)

(Similarly, when speaking of the opening line of the prayer Jesus taught, the

Lord's Prayer, Helmut Thielicke (quoting Martin Luther) says: "[Our Father]

enables us to say these 'friendly, sweet, and tender words,' as Luther called

them: "Our Father.... [K]now the secret that the Father's voice is really and

truly calling our name in the dark ... and that we can answer as beloved

children: 'Abba! Father!'"[39])

                                                          * * *   

Prayer at a difficult time:

Your "Tender Loving Care" pursues me,   

in spite of my restlessness and silly lack of faith.

Each day You seem to put the exact right “reading” into my hands.*

I cannot doubt its aptness—

nor the surprising place I might find it.  

Yes, Your Tender Loving Care!  

Why is that not enough for me?

Why do I flutter away

to the land of unbelief ?—

from which You must pull me back again

with unfailing TLC,                                                       

with TENDER . . . LOVING . . . CARE!

       (With reflection upon Psalm 25, which speaks of God’s TLC: i.e., 

“tender mercies,” “lovingkindness” and care throughout [see ASV, 

KJV, AMP]. See other biblical reference to TLC in our notes.[40] )                                 

*“As you grow ready for it, somewhere or other you will 

find [just] what is needful for you in a book or a friend 

[scripture, etc.] …”- George MacDonald [41]  

                                                          * * *

“Tender Touch (meditation upon Luke 10)” 

                                 

“Martha, Martha, ... you worry and fret about so many  things, and yet few are needed, indeed only one." * 

- Jesus, Lk. 10:41-42, NJB

    * To learn at Jesus' feet. He was right there with her!

                                                       

     (With reflection upon Rev. 3:20.)

* * *

     (Many ask what it would be like to be touched by God.  The

famous St. John of the Cross gives us one answer[43]--with similarity

to some of Pope Francis's comments above.)

Meditating upon (quoting) St. John of the Cross’s inside view of

God’s tender [“gentle”] love:

(See additional blog posts after the “Notes” in “Older/Newer Posts.”)

…………………………

Notes:

1. Austen Ivereigh, The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope
(New York: Picador, Henry Holt and Co., 2014), p. 378.

2. “Pope Francis: ‘Be silent, so we can hear the tenderness of God’” (homily),

12/12/2013, Vatican Radio;
http://en.radiovaticana.va/storico/2013/12/12/pope_francis_be_silent%2C_so_we_can_hear_the_
tenderness_of_god/en1-755064.

3. E.g., see Ivereigh, The Great Reformer, pp. 168-169, 378-380.

4. E.g.: Cindy Wooden, “Pope calls for 'revolution of tenderness' in Cuba,” Catholic

News Service, 9/22/15;

http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2015/pope-calls-for-revolution-of-tenderness-in-cuba.
cfm.

5. See Pope Francis, The Joy of the Gospel: Evangelii Gaudium, (New York: Image,

2013), pp. 66-67 (No. 88).

6. Ibid., p. 21 (No. 24).

7. Emer McCarthy, “Pope [Francis] at Mass: The science of tenderness,” Vatican Radio;
http://en.radiovaticana.va/storico/2013/06/07/pope_at_mass_the_science_of_tenderness/enl-699289.

8. Ivereigh, The Great Reformer, pp. 168-169.  

9. Carol Glatz, “Seek, share God’s mercy with the lost, unwanted, pope tells priests,” 

Catholic News Service, 6/15/15; http://ncronline.org/blogs/francis-chronicles/seek-share-gods-mercy-lost-unwanted-pope-tells-priests.

10. See our earlier post: “‘Love First’ or ‘Law First’ (and God’s Tender Love)”; https://sacred-tenderness-christian-tradition.blogspot.com/2015/04/law-first-or-love-first-and-gods-tender.html

11. Eun Kyung Ki, “Pope Francis named Time’s 2013 Person of the Year,” Today News,

Dec. 12, 2013; www.today.com/news/pope-francis-named-times-2013-person-year-2D11723759.

12. “Homily of Pope Francis” (Inauguration mass), Mar. 19, 2013; www.w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/homilies/2013/documents/papa-francesco_20130319_omelia-inizio-pontificato.html.

13. Glatz, “Seek, share God’s mercy with the lost, unwanted, pope tells priests,” Catholic
News Service, 6/15/15.

14. Deborah Castellano Lubov, “Pope Francis: ‘No One is Excluded from The Mercy of

God!’” (homily), ZENIT: The world seen from Rome, 3/13/15;
www.zenit.org/en/articles/pope-francis-no-one-is-excluded-from-the-mercy-of-god.

15. Carl E. Olson, “Pope Francis, Romans 8, and the theme of theosis” (homily), The

Catholic World Report, 5/8/13:

http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Blog/2242/pope_francis_romans_8_and_the_theme_of_theosis.as

(Regarding “Abba,” see Mk. 14:36. Many scholars believe this intimate Aramaic

address must have been used more frequently by Jesus, since it shows up in

usage by the early church, as in Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6).  

16. Pope Francis, The Joy of the Gospel: Evangelii Gaudium, p. 184 (No. 274).

17. Ibid., pp. 125-126 (No. 178); quoting in turn: John Paul II, “Message to

the Handicapped,” Angelus, 11/16/80: Insegnamenti, 3/2 (1980), 1232.

18. “Pope Francis: ‘Be silent, so we can hear the tenderness of God’” (homily),

12/12/2013, Vatican Radio.  

19. Ibid.

20. Linda Bordoni reporting, “Pope [Francis]: we can’t be book-keepers of God’s love”
(homily), Vatican Radio, 12/11/14;
http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2014/12/11/pope_we_cant_be_book-keepers_of_gods_love/1114379.  

21. Ibid.

22. Yonat Shimron, “‘How do we welcome the tenderness of God?’ Pope Francis’

Christmas Eve homily,” Religious News Service, 12/24/14;
http://www.religionnews.com/2014/12/24/welcome-tenderness-god-pope-francis-christmas-eve-homily/.

23. Pope Francis, “Never be afraid of tenderness,” interview with Andrea Tornielli,

Vatican Insider, 12/16/13;

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/the-vatican/detail/articolo/30620/.

24. Francis@Pontifex, 5 May 2013;
https://twitter.com/Pontifex?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor.

25. Pope Francis, “Homily for inaugural Mass of Petrine Ministry”; Vatican Radio:
http://en.radiovaticana.va/storico/2013/03/19/pope__homily_for_inaugural_mass_of_petrine_ministry_
[full_text]/en1-674758.

26. McCarthy, “Pope [Francis] at Mass: The science of tenderness,” Vatican Radio,

6/7/13.

27. Pope Francis, The Name of God is Mercy, trans. Oonagh Stransky (New York:

Random House, 2016), p. 34.

28.  Pope Francis, The Joy of the Gospel: Evangelii Gaudium, p. 181 (No. 269).

29. Ibid.

30. Pope Francis, Homily for Third Worldwide Priests’ Retreat, Vatican radio,
6/12/15; https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/homilies/2015/documents/papa-francesco_20150612_
omelia-ritiro-mondiale-sacerdoti.html.

31. Ibid.  

32. Ibid.

33. Lubov, “Pope Francis: ‘No One is Excluded from The Mercy of God!’” ZENIT,

3/13/15.

34. (A Note added several years after all the rest.) See “Audience with the

participants in the Conference on ‘The theology of tenderness in

Pope Francis’, 13.09.2018”, SUMMARY OF BULLETIN, Holy See Press Office;

https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2018/09/13/180913a.html 

35. See Note 10.

36. See "We Love (Extend Mercy & Justice) Because God First Loved Us" and

especially Note 11 there;

https://sacred-tenderness-christian-tradition.blogspot.com/2018/06/we-love-extend-mercy-and-justice.html

37. Ivereigh, The Great Reformer.

38. E.g., see Scott Neuman, “Pope: ‘God Weeps’ For Victims of Sex Abuse,”
The Two-Way, NPR, 9/27/15;
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/09/27/443896866/pope-to-end-his-u-s-visit-
with-million-strong-mass-in-philadelphia.  

39. Helmut Thielicke, Our Heavenly Father: Sermons on the Lord’s Prayer, trans. John 

W. Doberstein (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1960), p. 29. 

40. We speak of God’s TLC as “tender mercies,” “lovingkindness”

and care as in Ps. 25, KJV, WEB. Also see "loving kindness" in Titus 3:4,

NRSVCE and Lk. 1:78, The Holy Bible: Confraternity Version. For

"care" and "tender mercy," see 1 Pet. 5:7 and Lk. 1:78 respectively;

NRSVCE.  The latter are versions in Catholic tradition.

41. George MacDonald, Knowing the Heart of God, ed. Michael R. Phillips

(Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1990), p. 190 (from The Marquis’ Secret).   

42. Meditations, prayer/poetry/proverbs by Lorraine B. Eshleman (exception,

see Note 43).

43. From “The Living Flame of Love by St. John of the Cross” (Stanza 2,

Exposition), trans. David Lewis, quoted in Bernard McGinn, The Essential

Writings of Christian Mysticism (New York: Modern Library Classics, 2006),

p. 220.  (I've taken the liberty of replacing “you” with “YOU” when St. John

addresses God, replacing "most" with "MOST," and of putting his words into

"shape poetry form," even though this selection should be considered a

meditation, as it is introduced.)