Reddit mentions of The Name of God Is Mercy

Ultimately the decision of whether or not you want to get between your parents and brother, at the risk of your relationship to your parents is up to you.

No matter what please make sure your brother knows 100% you support him.

Even if you think he knows that, please tell him often that you love him, accept him, are so happy and proud of him, that you would love to go to any Pride stuff with him, and that he can always confide in you.

As for how to handle your parents, you could try finding churches in their area that are LGBT friendly. Perhaps you can call that church and explain the situation with your parents, and that you would like help with your mom.

Then you can tell your mom that you found a Priest or whatever at XYZ church who's willing to help counsel your family over this issue. Your mom might take advice better from someone who she feels is a spiritual authority, as far as actually changing her mind to be able to accept this.

You can also remind her of the Church's current views of homosexuality:

• “God made you like this and loves you like this.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2018/may/21/the-pope-says-god-made-gay-people-just-as-we-should-be-heres-why-his-comments-matter
  
  
• “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” https://www.newwaysministry.org/2013/07/29/pope-francis-offers-respect-for-gay-priests-signaling-a-new-papal-direction/
  
  
• “Nobody spoke about homosexual marriage in the synod, it didn’t occur to us. What we spoke about was how a family that has a homosexual son or daughter, how can they educate him or her, how can they raise him or her, how can this family be helped to move forward in this situation which is a little unprecedented. So in the synod they spoke about the family and homosexual persons in relation to their families, because it is a reality that we encounter many times in the confessional. . .We have to find a way to help that father or that mother to stand by their son or daughter.” https://www.newwaysministry.org/2014/12/08/pope-speaks-of-parents-of-lgbts-as-video-series-examines-family-experiences/
  
  
• February 18, 2015: At the Ash Wednesday papal audience in St. Peter’s Square, a group of 50 LGBT and ally pilgrims from New Ways Ministry are given V.I.P. seating. https://www.newwaysministry.org/2015/02/19/new-ways-ministrys-lgbt-catholic-pilgrims-get-vip-seats-at-papal-audience/
  
  
• “His holiness is grateful for the thoughtful gesture and for the feelings which it evoked, hoping for an always more fruitful activity in the service of young generations and the spread of genuine human and Christian values.” on Little Egg, a book that features some LGBT characters https://people.com/celebrity/pope-francis-praises-gay-childrens-book-in-letter-to-author/
  
  
• “I would love to visit and talk to gay and lesbian people and please tell the gays to pray for me and I shall pray for them.” https://www.newwaysministry.org/2015/09/23/pope-francis-i-would-love-to-visit-and-talk-to-gay-and-lesbian-people/
  
  
• “On that occasion I said this: If a person is gay and seeks out the Lord and is willing, who am I to judge that person? I was paraphrasing by heart the Catechism of the Catholic Church where it says that these people should be treated with delicacy and not be marginalized. I am glad that we are talking about ‘homosexual people’ because before all else comes the individual person, in his wholeness and dignity. And people should not be defined only by their sexual tendencies: let us not forget that God loves all his creatures and we are destined to receive his infinite love. I prefer that homosexuals come to confession, that they stay close to the Lord, and that we pray all together. You can advise them to pray, show goodwill, show them the way, and accompany them along it.” From his new book The Name of God is Mercy https://www.amazon.com/Name-God-Mercy-Pope-Francis/dp/0399588639
  
  Basically if your mom wants to claim a moral high ground and reject your brother because of her Catholicism, she needs to fall in line with her religion's leader.

Romans 8:38-39: For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Lewis has a good passage on failure in Mere Christianity:

>We may, indeed, be sure that perfect chastity—like perfect charity—will not be attained by any merely human efforts. You must ask for God’s help. Even when you have done so, it may seem to you for a long time that no help, or less help than you need, is being given. Never mind. After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. For however important chastity (or courage, or truthfulness, or any other virtue) may be, this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still. It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God. We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven. The only fatal thing is to sit down content with anything less than perfection.

I'd also recommend The Name of God is Mercy by Pope Francis.

That said, some fear of God is okay. What is not okay is despair. You believe in Him, and that puts you in His household as it were. A father may still disapprove of a disobedient son, and may even punish him, but the bottom line is that He desires you to be saved, so keep going back to Him in repentance and He will cleanse you.

Brother I will pray for you, that you may be freed of despair and that you will approach Him again with your contrite heart (which pleases Him greatly).