263 Mercy Can Be Hard to Accept

Transcript Speaker 1: Once you were no people. But now you are God's people. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Speaker 2: Welcome back to Scripture for your inner outcasts. It's May 28th, 2026, Thursday of the eighth week in Ordinary Time. Today's guest is Lisa Barrett, a psychotherapist in private practice based in Sydney, Australia, and a member of Souls and Hearts Resilient Catholics community and the formation for Formators community. Speaker 1: Once you were no people, but now you are God's people. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. One Peter 210. Perhaps you feel like nobody overlooked, unseen, forgotten, inside and out. God's message is for you, even if you don't fit in or are excluded by others, treated unkindly. Wherever you turn or worse, just ignored, God tells you that you are his and he gives you his mercy, regardless of how much you have lacked mercy. He has it for you now. He has always had it for you. Since before you were born, you were among the chosen people of God. What is it like to hear this directly from His Word? Maybe it's hard to accept having felt so alone and disconnected for so long. That's okay, because the quality of mercy does not change. It is ever present for us from God. He is not going anywhere. This may sound unbelievable or feel unfamiliar. Perhaps you are very well versed with abandonment being on the receiving end. You have been no people, no person. It's okay if it takes some getting used to. Transitions can be challenging sometimes. We have experienced such a strong sense of lacking identity. Belonging to no one, feeling unimportant to everyone. It's difficult to imagine that it can be any different if that is the case for you. Take your time. Mercy does not rush you. It sees you and meets you where you are at. In the pain. In the void of nothingness. Mercy. God's mercy sees into the depths of your being. He fills the place of emptiness inside you and allows you to experience your being, your personhood. In his light you see and experience yourself the reality and fullness of your identity and how welcome you are. You are being called out of the darkness, out of exile, to receive God's healing love. Speaker 2: Like today's guest, if you are a Catholic Formator, you are invited to check out the formation for Formators community at Souls and hearts.com slash. Speaker 1: John the Baptist pray for us. Mother Mary and tire of knots. Pray for us. Saint Joseph, pray for us.