Fifth Sunday in Lent, March 29
Jeremiah 31:31-34. This is the covenant which I will make after those days, says our God. I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God and they shall be my people…All from least to greatest, shall know me, for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.”
| The quality of
mercy is not strain’d, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes: ‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown; His scepter shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; But mercy is above this sceptred sway; It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, It is an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God’s When mercy seasons justice. Therefore,… Though justice be thy plea, consider this, That, in the course of justice, none of us Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy; And that same prayer doth teach us all to render The deeds of mercy. - William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice |