Happy Friday! Time for this week’s installment of Five Minute Friday!

I cherish this exercise. which gives me a chance to shut off the world and focus on a specific word prompt. It gives my mind a chance to ponder the word and send the thoughts cascading through my fingers onto the screen for all to see. But the best part is visiting the community at fiveminutefriday.com and join with others in our special tribe of writers. It’s always exciting — and often informative — to see how my fellow FMF friends develop their thoughts in a variety of different genres. If you get a chance, stop by.

I’ve been sharing snippets taken from Five Minute Friday: A Collection of Stories Written in Five Minutes Flat compiled by Susan Shipe. They are a testament to the value of the exercise. This week, I’ll share some perspective from Helen who I hope inspires you to check us out … and maybe join in?

“I’ll always have a place in my heart for FMF; it — and the wonderful community surrounding it — *literally* brought me safely through a very, very tough time in my personal life; I re-found amongst the FMF community, the joy and beauty of life and I’ll always be thankful for that. I’m constantly amazed by the quality of the writing from the FMF community and the breadth of ideas presented; every Friday, reading everyone’s posts, is like a workout for my soul. It’s one of my favorite parts of the week.”

This week’s challenge is MERCY. My thoughts are short and ended up as a litany. The timer is set for five minutes so let’s GO …

God of power and might, we recognized Your authority, yet we often usurp that authority and put ourselves in control. Kyrie eleison (Lord have mercy).

God of love and compassion, we know You came Yourself into this world through Your Son Jesus Christ to rebuild a bridge from our earthly portal to eternity. Yet we don’t always follow His lead. We often don’t pass along that love or compassion abut instead follow our own needs. Christie eleison (Christ have mercy).

God of comfort and guidance, You are here in our midst through the great Comforter, the Spirit. Yet we don’t often listen to the proddings and tugs and feel we know a better way. Kyrie eleison

Lord of all, forgive us our transgression — those  moments when we  turn away from You when we … STOP

… demand justice while acting unjustly; when we seek reparations from old hurts and disappointments; when we slide into stereotyping by refusing to acknowledge Your creations as just that, Your unique creations; when we make ourselves gods (lower case) and ignoring God (upper case); when we fail to speak and act from Your love.  Kyrie eleison. Christie Eleison.

Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen. (Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.)

THOUGHT TO REMEMBER: You don’t always have to swing for the fences to reach your goal.