The grace of salvation

"O Lord, salvation is your gift and your blessing is upon your people; what else is your salvation but receiving from you the gift of loving you or being loved by you?" - William of Saint-Thierry
 
This idea that we have that the love of God is our birthright, by virtue of our being basically good people, is the chief obstacle to our practice of mercy. We think of ourselves as good people who make our questionable choices for good reason; others are asses. 

Insofar and in such ways as we are good, this is the gift of God to us, too. Let us then be steadfast in sharing the mercy and grace we receive from God with those around us, and exercise that mercy in our thinking toward them, recalling even in the midst of our frustration that they, too, are God's precious sons and daughters.