Shown is the “The Pocket Guide to the Works of Mercy,” which is part of Ascension Press’s Pocket Guide series. COURTESY OF CLAIRE COUCHE
With ‘solidarity, love of neighbor,’ local author collaborates on works of mercy guide
BY ELIZABETH WONG BARNSTEAD, THE WESTERN KENTUCKY CATHOLIC
The works of mercy are a great way to “guide our daily choices” according to a local author who recently contributed to Ascension Press’s “Pocket Guide to the Works of Mercy.”
“We all like practical guides,” said Neena Gaynor, who resides in Hancock County and with her husband and sons joined the Catholic Church in 2017. She said this new book is “an invitation to live like Christ in a suffering world.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes the works of mercy as “charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our neighbor in his spiritual and bodily necessities.”
The spiritual works of mercy are instructing, advising, consoling, comforting, forgiving, and bearing wrongs patiently; whereas the corporal works of mercy are feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead.
Gaynor said this guide details all 14 of the works and provides tangible ways to live them out. For example, when it comes to the work of “burying the dead,” even if one does not literally bury the deceased, “you can attend funerals, offer to help a grieving family,” she said.
For “visiting the imprisoned,” Gaynor explained that “we can write letters” to the incarcerated, and when it comes to “feeding the hungry,” she cited St. Teresa of Calcutta, also known as Mother Teresa.
“Our world is hungry and thirsty in a lot of different ways,” said Gaynor, alluding to Mother Teresa’s awareness of the “loneliness and ache and emptiness” in the people she encountered, whether they were poor or wealthy.
The “Pocket Guide to the Works of Mercy” came to be in a roundabout way, which Gaynor now realizes was through the Holy Spirit’s guidance as she collaborated with co-authors Claire Couche and Elizabeth Marcolini.
Originally, Couche, Marcolini and Gaynor intended to write a book on modern etiquette.
“We were seeking to debunk the myth that etiquette is a ‘champagne-drenched white glove affair,’” said Gaynor. “Etiquette has always been about kindness.”
As the three friends – all of them Catholic wives and moms – brainstormed about the best way to present their material, they sought an answer to the question of where etiquette first originated.
“We were searching for an answer, and of course the answer was Christ,” said Gaynor, explaining that their search led them to Matthew 25:35-36, “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.”
The book had grown into something even greater than they imagined. They ultimately connected with Ascension Press to form the project into the eighth Pocket Guide (whose series includes other topics like the rosary, Adoration, and novenas).
Living out the works of mercy deepens “our compassion, which starts from a prayerful life,” said Gaynor, adding that this leads to “solidarity and love of our neighbors” and “connects us deeper to Christ… trying to be his hands and feet.”
“The world is desperate for relationships, people are lonely and seeking for more,” said Gaynor. The answer is “not to see others as problems, but as our brothers and sisters who need to be known and loved.”
Ascension Press’s “Pocket Guide to the Works of Mercy” is available at ascensionpress.com and wherever Catholic books are sold.
Neena Gaynor, a local author who contributed to Ascension Press’s new book, “The Pocket Guide to the Works of Mercy” is seen in a recent photo. Gaynor and her family reside in Hancock County. COURTESY OF CLAIRE COUCHE
Originally printed in the October 2025 issue of The Western Kentucky Catholic.
