Dear Susi:

The Spiritual Works of Mercy are:

• To instruct the ignorant
• To counsel the doubtful
• To admonish sinners
• To bear wrongs patiently
• To forgive offences willingly
• To comfort the afflicted
• To pray for the living and the dead

The Corporal Works of Mercy are:

• To feed the hungry
• To give drink to the thirsty
• To clothe the naked
• To shelter the homeless
• To visit the sick
• To visit the imprisoned
• To bury the dead

The work of mercy is to comfort those who are afflicted (physical, mental, emotional). Comforting a child who is sick or in physical or emotional distress, is a work of mercy.

How you choose which works of mercy to perform depends upon your interests, talents, and gifts. A Catechist is performing the Spiritual Work of Mercy of "instructing the ignorant."

You ask how to do more corporal works. You can help in a soup kitchen or homeless shelter, volunteer in a hospital, visit the sick on your parish.

Giving donations to organizations that do these things is also a Work of Mercy. The Catechism states, "giving alms [donations] to the poor is one of the chief witnesses to fraternal charity: it is also a work of justice pleasing to God."

Do whatever you feel led to do.

Here is the Catechism on Works of Mercy:

2447. "The works of mercy are charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our neighbor in his spiritual and bodily necessities. Instructing, advising, consoling, comforting are spiritual works of mercy, as are forgiving and bearing wrongs patiently. The corporal works of mercy consist especially in feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead. Among all these, giving alms to the poor is one of the chief witnesses to fraternal charity: it is also a work of justice pleasing to God.

2448. "In its various forms—material deprivation, unjust oppression, physical and psychological illness and death—human misery is the obvious sign of the inherited condition of frailty and need for salvation in which man finds himself as a consequence of original sin. This misery elicited the compassion of Christ the Savior, who willingly took it upon himself and identified himself with the least of his brethren. Hence, those who are oppressed by poverty are the object of a preferential love on the part of the Church which, since her origin and in spite of the failings of many of her members, has not ceased to work for their relief, defense, and liberation through numerous works of charity which remain indispensable always and everywhere."

It is the same as to whether or not you go back to teaching. Do what you are led to do. Pray about all these things and follow your heart.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary