Even after achieving our most lofty goals, we are sometimes left confused by the emptiness we feel. We check the boxes. We fill our calendars. We get the promotion. We buy the bigger house. Yet there is still an unquenchable longing deep within us.
Simple Mercies: How the Works of Mercy Bring Peace and Fulfillment offers an alternative. You can be the person God created you to be by loving and serving others through the works of mercy. By doing so, we are assured the peace and fulfillment that doesn't come from the world, but from love of God and neighbor.
With her accessible, everyday approach to life, writer, mom, and volunteer, Lara C. Patangan helps us realize that our everyday compassion makes a difference in exponential ways and that mercy always matters. Practicing mercy isn't a passive way of renewal; rather, engaging in transformative acts of service empowers us to fulfill our purpose to love and serve God, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
"Simple Mercies touches your heart and funny bone in equal measure and demonstrates through Lara Patangan's experiences as a wife, mother, and Catholic that the call to serve is answered through encounters of mercy in everyday life, 'amidst the pots and pans.'"
- Jim Towey, former legal counsel to Mother Teresa
"Lara C. Patangan does not just write about mercy; she lives it. Simple Mercies is her personal testimony to the peace and fulfillment that she has found through the works of mercy. As she testifies, meaning in life is best found not by doing, having, and achieving, but by loving our neighbors and caring for those in need."
- Most Reverend Felipe J. Estevez, Bishop of St. Augustine
"Simple Mercies: How the Works of Mercy Bring Peace and Fulfillment, is so much more than a guide to understanding the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. It is an invitation into the power of what extended mercy looks like. With humor on one page, tears on the next, Lara Patangan offers us a simple way to apply each work of mercy to our own life, but she doesn't leave us there. She holds our hand and takes us deeper by offering questions that leave us pondering what mercy looks like in our life, and then she caps each chapter off with a prayer. The perfect book to read alone or in a group, Simple Mercies will not only open you up to the mercy extended by our heavenly Father, but it will surprise you as you slowly discover your own need for mercy. No matter your season of life, I am confident that as soon as you put this book down, you will find it impossible to not get up and serve."
- Laura Phelps, speaker, ministry coordinator, and author of Victorious Secret: Everyday Battles and How to Win Them
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lara C. Patangan earned her undergraduate degree in public relations from the University of Florida. She has written for a variety of news publications and Catholic blogs. Previously she worked in fundraising for various nonprofits, including a domestic violence shelter, an AIDS service organization, and Children's Hospital of New Orleans. She lives in Jacksonville, Florida, with her husband and their two sons.