Category Archives: Liturgy

Would God understand?

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Over at the study group (www.ofgraceandfaith.blogspot.com) two weeks ago we spent a long time discussing passage CCC 1387 from the Catechism of the Catholic Church : ‘To prepare for worthy reception of this sacrament (ie the Eucharist), the faithful should observe the fast required in their Church. Bodily demeanor (gestures, clothing) ought to convey the respect, solemnity, and joy of this moment when Christ becomes our guest.’ Every so often the comment would be made – in reference to less than perfect behaviour – ‘But surely God would understand’, and I’m not totally sure that this is the case.

In times past people would dress up to go to Mass, and especially when preparing for Sunday Mass. Afterwards you would change into ordinary clothes, play clothes or work gear. They were full of the awareness that they were going to worship God and that God, being God, deserved the very best they had to offer. They went to Church primarily to be with God, and used the moments before and after Mass to talk to Him in their hearts. In plenty of our churches these days it seems that going to Mass is primarily a social occasion, to catch up with friends and obtain the latest news, and that worshipping God is somewhere down the list of motivations.

‘Well, at least they are at Mass’. Yes, that is a minimum start. But wouldn’t we be horrified by someone who came to interview an important celebrity without doing background research, preparing questions to ask, and dressing in a professional manner?

Why are we so reluctant to set standards of dress when attending the Eucharist? To get into an RSL club there are minimum dress regulations (wear something with a collar, no shorts or thongs), and people abide by them. If you came to a performance of Opera talking loudly, chewing gum and playing a noisy game on your smart phone, the usher would soon escort you elsewhere. We dress up to go and see a performance of Shakespeare. So how is it that ‘anything goes’ is good enough for God, and ’surely He’ll understand that I didn’t bother to look my best for Him because ……. I was running late / remembered to go at the last moment / it’s just one of many things I’ve got to do today’.

Would God understand? When Jesus saw the Temple turned more into a marketplace than a place for worship, He was angry and drove out the money changers and their wares. He was full of zeal for God’s house and for God’s glory. So much did He want His heavenly Father honoured that He gave us ‘Hallowed be Thy Name’ in the Our Father. Honouring God and giving Him our best was a top priority for Jesus, so how is it that we don’t follow Him in this?

Would Jesus understand the ‘Come as you are’ mentality? Given the evidence above, I don’t think so. The popular song of that title was primarily about not delaying our return to God by repentance. It definitely wasn’t about how to dress when going to Mass, and yet those thoughts have seeped in to the collective psyche.

Currently we are collectively shaking our heads over a faith-filled mother who is permitting her teenage daughter to come to Mass in short-shorts and thongs. For all we know there may have been major arguments at home, and the ‘at least she’s here’ argument won the day. These are the teachable-moments that God gives us to remind our children and others that He is both worthy and deserving of our very best, and that offering Him our dregs is insulting to His majesty and glory.

One of the prayers of St Thomas Aquinas captures the attitude of heart that should inform our dress, demeanor and gestures in God’s presence :  ’I give You thanks, Lord, Holy Father, everlasting God. In Your great Mercy, and not because of my own merits,  you have fed me, a sinner and Your unworthy servant, with the precious Body and Blood of Your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ.’

While we are unlikely to have much success persuading people with words to prepare for Holy Mass more consciously, leading by example is likely to be far more effective. It could be as simple as making a commitment to wear closed-in shoes each time you go to Mass. It could be as simple as putting on a collar and tie for gents and a skirt of ample length for the ladies together with necklines which show no cleavage. It could be as simple as setting aside a good outfit or two for ‘Sunday best’ and choosing when you have new clothes to wear them for the first time when going to Mass. It could be as simple as always putting on clean, fresh clothes before going to Church. It could be as simple as taking off all distracting ear-rings, bangles and jewellery and leaving all mobile phones in the car. When there is a choice between something flamboyant and something less flamboyant to wear, choose the one which will distract fellow worshippers the least. Such simple commitments would powerfully prepare our own hearts for the Eucharist and help us to value it more highly. Then should someone comment or ask why you are making an effort to be presentable at Mass, have your answer ready and give that answer with both truth and love.

In essence it is all about removing ‘practical atheism’ – all of those habitual actions in our lives which fail to mirror the faith we profess. eg If we believe that God is truly present in the consecrated hosts within the tabernacle, then we will behave reverently and prayerfully in Church, relishing that presence, and not exiting Mass as fast after Holy Communion as we can.

Particularly let us take the Solemnity of Christmas as our starting point for showing the good God greater honour in the way we dress and behave at Mass.

Divine Infant Jesus, protect and bless us, and guide us into true worship of the Heavenly Father. Amen.

 

 

 

The prayer book of the Saints

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The end is in sight. Psalm 144 and counting. For the last couple of weeks I’ve been reading the Book of Psalms sequentially, reading around two pages worth each night. Strange to say, it is the first time I have ever done it. Here’s what I have learned from this interesting spiritual exercise…

Going in I knew that the Psalms are the prayer book of Israel, and they are also the prayer book of the Church. Anyone who prays the full Liturgy of the Hours (Morning prayer, Evening Prayer, Night Prayer, the three sets of Prayer during the day, and the Office of Readings) will pray through most of every Psalm during a 4-week liturgical cycle. I say ‘most of’ because the blood-thirsty bits are routinely left out. 

The first overriding impression is that the majority of the Psalms contain pleas for God’s help against foes and enemies. Quite striking, it is. Logically, if the vast majority of Psalms contain cries for help, then at any one time the vast majority of Jews and Christians are going through difficulties; and not just ordinary difficulties but ‘people hate my guts and want to kill me’ type of difficulties. This should be profoundly disturbing, but it is actually rather consoling, because it indicates that going through a rough patch with work, relationships, health and other things is quite normal. 

Somewhere in the book of ‘The Life and Revelations of St Gertrude the Great’ it talks about praying all the psalms once through, together with some small additional prayers, as a penitential practice that is beneficial towards the holy souls in purgatory. 

At regular intervals, and in surprising places in the Psalms, there are lines that remind us of what Jesus suffered in His Passion. All of these lines were prophetic in the years that Israel waited for Jesus, and now they help us to enter into the inner life of Jesus during His Passion eg ‘In return for my friendship, they denounce me, though all I had done was pray for them ; they pay me back evil for kindness and hatred for friendship. ‘Give him a venal judge, find someone to frame the charge ; let him be tried and found guilty, let his prayer be construed as a crime!’ Psalm 108 (109) 4-7. These bits are the gold nugget rewards sprinkled among the Psalms, just waiting to be found and appreciated. 

In the works of private revelation about the public ministry of Jesus, we read quite frequently that Jesus and the Apostles prayed and sang the Psalms as they journeyed from place to place preaching. Also in the Gospels we read that Jesus left for the Mount of Olives ‘after Psalms had been sung’. (Matt 26:30) I’ve always wondered which Psalms they sang, and which ones were their favourites.

Perhaps it was like those of us who grew up using the ‘Living Parish Hymn Book’, some of the hymns were so familiar that we knew which one it was as soon as we saw the number on the hymn board, others were reserved for special seasons of the liturgical year and feast days, and there were always a few that we’d never heard sung and were unlikely to. Did they always go for the easy Psalms that could be sung in rounds, or were memory games because they were based on the alphabet? Did they ever do the long and complicated ones, like the lengthy Psalm 118 (119) ? or was that one reserved for Temple use when books could be used?

While I’ve been going through all the Psalms and getting acquainted with the ones we rarely use liturgically, I couldn’t help comparing the content of the Psalms to the hymns we sing regularly at Sunday Mass. The Psalms are always addressed to God, some of our hymns are more about us that about God. On reflection it seems to me that the better hymns have a high Psalm content or a good part of the content taken from other places in Scripture. 

As for the blood thirsty bits, they make sense if you substitute evil spirits as the entities that that you’d like to have smashed against a rock, Psalm 136(137) or see red hot embers poured upon. Psalm 139 (140)

The Church values the Psalms highly because they were the prayer book of Jesus, Mary, the Apostles and all of the holy people of the old Testament. That is why holy Mother Church gives us copious helpings every day: The Liturgy of the Word at Mass always contains segments from the Psalms, and the Liturgy of the Hours is the Church’s own prayer book containing Psalms at every Hour.

We need to value them more highly in our own prayer lives, because the Psalms truly are the prayer book of the Saints ; old testament, new testament and all the centuries between then and now. The Psalms, because they are inspired by God, teach us how to pray the way that God wants us to pray. We ignore them at our peril.

If you would like to learn more about the Liturgy of the Hours,  http://www.liturgy.co.nz/ofthehours/introduction.html gives a good simple introduction and http://www.ewtn.com/library/curia/cdwgilh.htm gives a much more involved one. Chapter I in the latter is profound and something every follower of Jesus should read and seek understanding about in prayer.

May all of the Saints who delighted in praying the Psalms, pray for us that we may discover the spiritual treasures they did.

The value of asking ‘Why?’

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Today, 20 May 2012, throughout Australia we are celebrating Ascension Sunday. In numerous other parts of the world they celebrated it a few days ago on Ascension Thursday. Have you ever wondered why this event in the life of Jesus was deemed so important that we mention it each time we pray the Creed? And why some countries where respect for Holy Days of obligation is weaker than others make sure a Feast Day like this is remembered by everyone who comes to church on Sundays?

These questions only raised themselves a few years back when, as part of the preparation of a small group of First Communicants, I was studying side by side the prayer immediately after the Consecration in all four Eucharistic prayers. In Eucharistic Prayers I, III and IV the Ascension is deliberately mentioned, but not in quickie No. II. It’s worth typing them out, so as to get the full impact.

I. Therefore, O Lord, as we celebrate the memorial of the blessed Passion, the Resurrection from the dead, and the glorious Ascension into Heaven of Christ, Your son, Our Lord, we, Your servants and Your holy people, offer to Your glorious majesty from the gifts that you have given us, this pure victim, this holy victim, this spotless victim, the holy Bread of eternal life and the Chalice of everlasting salvation.

III. Therefore, O Lord, as we celebrate the memorial of the saving Passion of Your Son, His wondrous Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven, and as we look forward to His second coming, we offer You in thanksgiving this holy and living sacrifice.

IV. Therefore, O Lord, as we now celebrate the memorial of our redemption, we remember Christ’s Death, and His descent to the realm of the dead, we proclaim His Resurrection and His Ascension to Your right hand, and, as we await His coming in glory, we offer You His Body and Blood, the sacrifice acceptable to You which brings salvation to the whole world.

How come, I asked myself, I was conscious that at this point in the Mass that we offer to God the life, death and resurrection of His Son, but had failed to listen to the Ascension? It’s in all three Eucharistic Prayers, so it has to be far more important than I realise and on a par with ‘life, death and resurrection’ and not an optional extra.

Resolved to understand the importance of the Ascension better, I studied how the Church Herself saw it by looking at the the Office of Readings; the prayers and antiphons for Morning and Evening Prayer; the Opening prayer and other Proper prayers for the Mass of the Ascension, and what the Catechism of the Catholic Church had to say (passages 659-667).

One of the Opening prayers speaks of the Ascension being ‘our glory and our hope’.

Pope St Leo the Great helped us to understand this when he wrote, ‘When the Lord departs for heaven, they (the Apostles and disciples) are not saddened but filled with joy. And did they not have great cause for joy? As the disciples looked on, man was ascending beyond the angelic orders, beyond archangelic heights. Having been united to God’s nature in His Son, man now shared the Son’s glory at the Father’s throne.’

St Augustine put it this way, ‘Christ descended from heaven out of mercy to us, and though He alone ascends, we also ascend, for we are one with Him through grace. We are not claiming for the Body the dingity of the Head, but we are assured that the Body is inseparable from the Head’ and ‘ Though He is there, He is also with us; though we are here, we are also with Him. He is with us though divine power and love; we have no divine power, but we can be with Him through love.’ 

The Catechism, referring to one of the Prefaces for the Ascension, paragraph 661 says, ‘Left to its own natural powers humanity does not have access to the ‘Father’s house’, to God’s life and happiness. Only Christ can open to man such access that we, his members, might have confidence that we too shall go where He, our Head and our Sources, has preceded us.’

The Reading for Evening Prayer 1 is from Ephesians 2:4-6 gives us a glimpse of the greatness of the promise that Jesus has given us in His Ascension. ‘God’s Mercy is so abundant, and his love for us is so great, that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience He brought us to life with Christ; it is by God’s grace that you have been saved. In our union with Christ Jesus He raised us up with Him to rule with Him in the heavenly world.’

So the Ascension truly is our glory, our hope and cause for great joy. I remain ever so thankful to God for raising the ‘Why?’ question in me, because the answers continue to blow my mind with God’s love, providence, generosity and mercy; and because I will never celebrate the Ascension in a ‘ho-hum’ way ever again.

Thank you, Jesus for remaining with us, as you promised, to the end of days through Your presence in the Blessed Sacrament and in Your priests.

Our Lady, and all the holy Apostles and early disciples who witnessed the wonder of the Ascension of Jesus, pray for us.

May the Mercy of God be praised!

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Today, Divine Mercy Sunday 2012, all over the world men, women and children have responded to the appeal of the Mercifiul Heart of Jesus and have venerated His immense Mercy and implored this same Mercy to be poured out upon countless souls. Let us thank Him for the oceans of grace that have been granted to souls, and for all the answers that God is granting our prayers for His Mercy, today.

What happiness for those who were able to take part in celebrating God’s Mercy today! What sadness and loss for those were not given this opportunity or who chose not to take part! Who wouldn’t want to take the Lord Jesus up on His promise?……

‘My daughter, tell the whole world about My inconceivable Mercy. I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially poor sinners. On that day the very depths of My tender Mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day all the divine floodgates through which grace flow are opened. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. My Mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity. Everything that exists has come forth from the very depths of My most tender Mercy. Every soul in its relation to Me will contemplate My Love and Mercy throughout eternity. The Feast of Mercy emerged from My very depths of tenderness. It is My desire that it be solemnly celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter. Mankind will not have peace until it turns to the Fount of My Mercy.’ Jesus to St Faustina, ‘Divine Mercy in my soul’, passage 699

Which priest would not want to resolve to spread the messages of Divine Mercy far and wide after reading what Jesus told St Faustina about Fr Sopocko who worked to spread the news about the Divine Mercy revelations?….

‘He is a priest after My own Heart; his efforts are pleasing to Me. You see, My daughter, that My Will must be done and that which I promised you, I shall do. Through him I spread comfort to suffering and careworn souls. Through him it pleased Me to proclaim the worship of My Mercy. And through this work of Mercy more souls will come close to Me than otherwise would have, even if he had kept giving absolution day and night for the rest of his life, because by doing so, he would have laboured only for as long as he lived; whereas, thanks to this work of Mercy, he will be labouring till the end of the world.‘ ibid. passage 1256.

‘Tell My priests that hardened sinners will repent on hearing their words when they speak about My unfathomable Mercy, about the compassion I have for them in My heart. To priests who proclaim and extol My Mercy, I will give wondrous power; I will anoint their words and touch the hearts of those to whom they will speak.’ ibid. passage 1521

Today the Easter octave is crowned with explosions of grace emanating from the Merciful Heart of Jesus. Today souls are invited to taste and see the fruits of the redemption that Jesus won for us. Today souls that were as corpses have been raised to glorious life through the wondrous Sacrament of Penance. Today graces of conversion have been poured out in abundance. Miracles of healing, and of the reconciling of spouses and other family relationships, have abounded. Let us give thanks to God. Let us praise Him for each and every miracle of Mercy granted today!

Our task now is to live in full response to the Mercy that we have received and venerated. 

‘…I demand frrom you deeds of mercy, which are to arise out of love for Me. You are to show mercy to your neighbours always and everywhere. You must not shrink from this or try to excuse and absolve yourself from it. I am giving you three ways of exercising mercy towards your neighbour: the first—by deed, the second—by word, the third—by prayer. In these three degrees is contained the fullness of mercy, and it is an unquestionable proof of love for Me. By this means a soul glorifies and pays reverence to My mercy. Yes, the first Sunday after Easter is the Feast of Mercy, but there must also be acts of mercy, and I demand the worship of My mercy through the solemn celebration of the Feast and through the veneration of the image which is painted. By means of this image I shall grant many graces to souls. It is to be a reminder of the demands of My mercy, because even the strongest faith is of no avail without works.’ ibid. passage 742.

Thank you Lord Jesus for all that You have taught us through these grace filled days of the novena leading up to the Feast of Divine Mercy. Grant that we may make Your intentions our intentions. Your Mercy can transform our mediocrity into sanctity, and all of our mourning into dancing. Please do so.

Jesus, I trust in You. 

 

 

Those most in need of His Mercy

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In the Fatima prayer at the end of each decade of the Rosary (O my Jesus, forgive us sins, save us from the fires of hell, and bring all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of Your Mercy.) we pray for those most in need of God’s Mercy. Today’s intention for the Divine Mercy novena reveals a massive group of souls that we don’t usually consider as needing God’s Mercy – but according to the Sacred Heart of Jesus they are who we need to pray for most.

Who do you think it is? It’s not the atheists. It’s not the big sinners. It’s not those who have messed up their lives big-time. It’s not the tyrants and the dictators. They certainly need the Mercy of God, and usually respond quite well to it. However, it is those who do know Jesus and yet only let Him into the periphery of their lives who need His Mercy most. Let’s find out why.  

Jesus calls them lukewarm souls. In any weather, only food and drink that is cold or hot is satisfying – but anything lukewarm is repulsive. If souls are cold, there is good hope of conversion, or at least dialogue that leads to conversion. If souls are fervent (hot) they edify everyone. It is those who know that Jesus died for them and yet only think about praying when they are in difficulty; those who are vitally interested in working out the bare minimum they have to do to get through the pearly gates, those who go to church but live their lives without any reference to the teaching of Jesus at all, those who show up for Christmas and Easter to keep their membership current but could never be accused of being Christians for the 363 days of the rest of the year; they are the lukewarm.

The frightening thing is that we are all horribly lukewarm. We know ‘The servant who knows what His Master wants, but has not even started to carry out those wishes, will receive very many strokes of the lash.’ Luke 12:47 . Hanging our heads in shame we know that we have not put our all into resisting sin, serving those in need and working to bring the Gospel to others. We need His Mercy. With it positive change is possible.

The problem is that we don’t look at things from Jesus’ perspective. Looking at our lives through our own lenses will always produce an attractive result. Think of Jesus. He went through agony, betrayal, terror, rejection, scourging, tortures and crucifixion to win us the ginormous gifts of pardon for our sins and eternal happiness in heaven. In return what do we do? – we fidget our way through Mass, get there late, leave as soon as we have received Holy Communion and forget about Him as soon as we are in the carpark outside. When Jesus was in agony, He prayed all the more intensely. We have trouble setting aside 10 minutes a day for prayer. Bruised and bleeding, Jesus answered the Sanhedrin with the truth that He was the Son of God even though He knew it would lead to his death. A conversation about abortion or euthanasia starts up in the workplace and we cowardly say nothing. Our response to His great love and mercy is so paultry – and He ardently desires that we respond to Him generously and with passion.

May He show us His Mercy and grant us the power to move from lukewarmness to fervour.

Just as the intentions for the two Fridays within the Divine Mercy Novena are in contrast (Sinners, Those in Purgatory) so are the intentions for the two Saturdays of the novena are in contrast (Those of big commitment , Those of very small commitment.) and the intention for the lukewarm is in the most important place of all – the final preparation before Divine Mercy Sunday begins. This intention gets us into a much needed humble place prior to us celebrating His mercy.

The liturgical readings for today help us enter into this intention more deeply. Presented to us in the Acts of the Apostles are the rulers, elders and scribes of the time of Jesus who know the Old Testament backwards and who regularly read of God’s miracles there. However, when faced with the cripple healed through the name of Jesus they have no answer. They believe to some point, but refuse to take the next step. Being not cold (total unbelievers) nor hot (eagerly spreading the news of the miracle God has performed), they are in-between, and far closer to cold than to hot. It is for souls like these that Jesus bids us pray today.  

Even in the Gospel, we see Jesus Himself speaking to the Eleven. They have spent three years side by side with Jesus, and have been privileged to hear the fulness of God’s message through Him. If your children have gone in the wrong direction, to sweep their actions under the carpet is not going to help them go in the right direction. So Jesus, with great love admonishes His beloved Eleven for refusing to believe the eye witness reports of His resurrection. They, of all people, who knew His divine power and heard His predictions of His resurrection, should have been able to believe without having seen. He offers them pardon and lovingly invites them to be His witnesses throughout the whole world. As with them, so with us, we need the Mercy of Jesus to forgive us our mediocre response to Him and to empower us anew to be His witnesses.

All holy Apostles, transformed by God’s Mercy and the power of the Holy Spirit, pray for us.

Jesus, I trust in You.

Dear Jesus, please change us from lukewarm disciples into fervent ones.

 

 

My song is of Mercy and Justice

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This line taken from the beginning of Psalm 100 (101) is easily applied to the Holy Souls in Purgatory – for whom we pray particularly on this Easter Friday of the Divine Mercy novena. While they wait and suffer, eagerly longing to enter the fulness of heaven, they are in continual praise and adoration of God’s Mercy as they willingly adore and satisfy the requirements of God’s Justice.

Only those souls totally purified of sin can remain in the presence of God. To be in God’s heavenly presence and to be stained with sin is agony. So the Mercy of God prepared a place of purification; the experience we call Purgatory. The good Lord grants us many opportunities on earth to become completely converted to Him before we die, because He knows that any converting we didn’t do in this life will have to be done in the next life. Each one of us is on a different stage on the journey of conversion and each one of us takes a different amount of time to get from one stage to the next.

Think, for example, about how long it has taken you to see the necessity of forgiving your enemies. Some people might take a year to get to that point, others could take 20 years to get there. A further step on the journey of conversion would be willingly praying for your enemies and an even more advanced step would be to love your enemies. See what Jesus said about this to St Gertrude the Great….“I desire my close friends to follow Me by showing greater affection for their enemies than for their benefactors, because they will derive incomparibly more benefit from their enemies.” You need to get to each step before the good Lord can lead you to the next step.

Understanding this will help you comprehend why some souls will spend a few years in Purgatory and others will spend many decades. By the way we live we choose how much of our conversion continuum happens on earth and how much happens in Purgatory. 

That is why it makes perfect sense to me that on Good Friday the Divine Mercy novena asks that we pray for sinners, and on Easter Friday the same novena asks us to pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. In the first we are praying for the conversion of the living and in the latter we are praying for the conversion of the dead. They are two sides of the same coin.

How great the Mercy of God is! He is always seeking ways to reduce the amount of time that souls spend in Purgatory. With this Divine Mercy novena intention the Lord Jesus has created a new day especially dedicated to aiding the Holy Souls in addition to the Feast Day of All Souls (2nd Nov). In my books, today is a day of joy because it is a day set apart for the relief of the Suffering Souls.

The Scripture readings for today’s Mass don’t lend themselves to the novena intentions as much as on the other days. The closest we come to is having Peter and John in prison for healing the lame man (Acts chapter 4). Prisons and Purgatory have a lot in common. In the Gospel we see God’s loving care for the disciples, preparing them breakfast on the beach – even though they seem to be more interested in counting fish. It is a reminder, however, to trust the judgement of Jesus, -not our own – and to trust His judgement particularly with those things that we cannot see (like Purgatory).

So important is this Novena intention for the Holy Souls that Jesus used it to impart quite a bit if teaching. He invites us to ask Him to send torrents of His Blood upon the Holy Souls and reminds us how much we can bring relief these Holy Souls if we pray and offer indulgenced prayers for them. Immensely loved by Jesus, He acutely feels the delay in being united to them even worse than they do. Praying for the Suffering Souls is one way to show Jesus Himself Mercy.

Here are some prayers that you might like to use….

Eternal Father, I offer You the Holy Wounds of Your Son, and His Precious Blood, for the conversion of sinners and for the relief of the souls in Purgatory. Amen.

Eternal Father, by virtue of Your generosity and love, I ask that You accept all my actions, and that You multiply their value in favour of every soul in Purgatory. Amen.

O gentlest Heart of Jesus, ever present in the Blessed Sacrament, ever consumed with burning love for the poor captive souls in Purgatory, have mercy on the soul of Your departed servant ……………….. Be not severe in Your judgment, but let some drops of Your Precious Blood fall on him (or her), and send, O merciful Saviour, Your angels to conduct him (or her) to a place of refreshment, light and peace. Amen.

O Holy Souls in Purgatory, who are the certain heirs of heaven, souls most dear to Jesus as the trophies of His Precious Blood and to Mary, mother of mercy, obtain for me through your intercession the grace to lead a holy life, to die a happy death and to attain to the blessedness of eternity in heaven. Dear sufferings souls, who languish in your prison of pain and long to be delivered in order to praise and glorify God in heaven, by your unfailing pity help me at this time, particularly in ………………… that I may obtain relief and assistance from God. In gratitude for your intercession I offer to God on your behalf the satisfactory merits of all my works and sufferings of this day (week, month, or whatever space of time you wish to designate), Amen.

Jesus, I trust in You.

(P.S. following on from yesterdays blogpost, you might be interested in reading about a near death experience…. www.catholicherald.co.uk/features/2012/04/09/as-i-lay-dying-a-voice-said-lets-go/ )

Witnessing to His Mercy

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On this Easter Thursday the intentions of the Heart of Jesus for the Divine Mercy Novena turn to those who witness to His Mercy. Through this intention Jesus reveals His special tenderness towards those who venerate and extol His extraordinary Mercy and Compassion, and fills them with encouragement. The promises Jesus gives to those who spread the news of His Mercy are worth pondering, because their immensity escapes our understanding.

Before you read the promises – reread the account of what being before the judgment of God is like according to St Fursey. To be made aware of all of our unconfessed sins and faults and of all the good we have failed to do is a terrifying thing that waits us at death. It is then that we have most need of God’s Mercy. He knows our needs better than we do, and most of us try to forget about the reality of God’s judgement even though we are reminded of it in the Creed each Sunday. Here are the promises…..

Passage 1075, ‘Divine Mercy in my soul’, Jesus to St Faustina. ‘Souls who spread the honour of My Mercy I shield through their entire lives as a tender mother her infant, and at the hour of death I will not be a Judge for them, but the Merciful Saviour. At that last hour, a soul has nothing to with which to defend itself except My Mercy. Happy is the soul that during its lifetime immersed itself in the Fountain of Mercy, because justice will have no hold on it.’

Passage 1540, ‘Divine Mercy in my soul’, Jesus to St Faustina. ‘…All those souls who will glorify My Mercy and spread its worship, encouraging others to trust in My Mercy, will not experience terror at the hour of death. My Mercy will shield them in that final battle…‘

Passage 1224, ‘Divine Mercy in my soul’, Jesus dictating the intention for the 7th day of the Divine Mercy novena to St Faustina. ‘Today bring to Me the souls who especially venerate and glorify My Mercy, and immerse them in My Mercy. These souls sorrowed most over My Passion and entered most deeply into My Spirit. They are living images of My compassionate Heart. These souls will shine with a special brightness in the next life. Not one of them will go into the fire of hell. I shall particularly defend each one of them at the hour of death.‘

O yes, I desire to receive the fruits of these promises myself, but that is not the motivator. Spreading the news of the Mercy of God is the most effective way of inviting souls to return to Him. Each time we do, as God’s ambassadors, we offer to souls an invitation to hope.

I’ve always been greatly touched that Jesus dedicated a whole day’s intention to those who venerate and spread the news of His Mercy. It has always seemed singularly appropriate that it falls on a Thursday, the day that our hearts naturally turn to the remembrance of the Last Supper, and His Agony in the garden. One of the greatest acts of His Mercy was giving us the Holy Eucharist and the Priesthood.

On this Easter Thursday, it therefore comes as no surprise that the readings of the Church’s liturgy speak strongly of witnessing to Jesus. In the reading from the Acts of the Apostles St Peter proclaims that he is a witness to the resurrection of Jesus and implores his listeners, (most of whom were guilty of complicity in His death) to repent so that their sins can be wiped out and they can receive all of God’s blessings. We, too, are complicit because of our sins, and are in great need of His Mercy. The more we understand the consequences of even the least sin, the more we are convicted of our burning need for His Mercy. 

Reading the Gospel shows us the Risen Jesus appearing to His frightened disciples, reassuring them of His bodily presence and generously opening their minds to the understanding of the Scriptures. He does this in order to send them all out as His effective witnesses. Their task? To preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. They are to witness to His Mercy, and to invite as many as possible to receive His Mercy. That task hasn’t changed. It is still our mission as members of His mystical Body. 

We are not just to invite souls to come to Jesus. We are to invite them to meet His personal Mercy for them in the Sacrament of Penance. In that holy Sacrament they will experience the joy of having their sins wiped away completely, the joy of hearing those precious words of absolution. In that holy Sacrament they will experience healing of soul and body; they will experience Divine help that comes from outside of themselves to help them resist temptation and to conquer addiction. The priest, representing both Jesus and the Church, listens to all the sins and faults we have committed and is the conduit through whom Jesus gives us words of advice, encouragement, solace and most of all – pardon.

This sacrament is so amazing, and souls are so frightened of it. They needn’t be. The most Merciful Heart of all is waiting to receive them and to set their hearts dancing with joy and grace. Our sins are heavy. They weigh us down and rob our lives of joy. He, Jesus, can take them all away. All we have to do is to acknowledge all of the times that we have failed to love before His priestly representative and tell Him that we are sorry. He does all the rest.

Dear Merciful Jesus, please grant us the grace to be more effective witnesses of Your immense Mercy. Please grant Your graces so that souls may receive the courage and trust they need to kneel before Your representative, and to pour out the sad tale of their sinfulness in order to receive the fulness of Your personal Mercy towards them. Please grant that they may find worthy and generous priestly hearts to receive them in Your Name. Please grant that enormous numbers of Your priests will become true and fervent Apostles of Your Divine Mercy.

St Peter and all of the holy Apostles, pray for us.  

Jesus, I trust in You.

Make our hearts like Yours

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The Divine Mercy novena intentions for today, Easter Wednesday, offer us insight into the merciful Heart of Jesus. He is more loving and full of tenderness than we ever give Him credit for. Yesterday we looked at some of the things that bring great sadness to His Heart. Today we look at what brings happiness to His Heart.

So what brings joy to heaven and earth? Meek and humble souls, and the souls of little children; humility and innocence. Jesus tells us that souls like these resemble His Heart most closely, that they strengthened Him during His bitter agony and that He favours them more than any other group of souls.

When we read through the special antiphons for the Paschal Truduum we often gloss over the humility of Jesus in his Passion (Holy Thursday : ‘Christ humbled Himself for us, and in obedience, accepted death.’ Good Friday: + ‘even death on a Cross.’ ; Holy Saturday: + ‘Therefore God raised Him to the heights and gave Him the name which is above all other names.’. This intention puts that humility back into the spotlight. Our redemption was only possible because Jesus humbled Himself.

When Jesus tells St Faustina, ‘I favour humble souls with My confidence’ it is no idle statement. The Scriptures tell us that Moses was the most humble of men, (Numbers 12:3) and that as a result God spoke with him face to face. Gabrielle Bossis, St Gertrude the Great, St Therese of Lisieux and St Francis of Assisi are more modern examples. When Saints are questioned on their death beds about the best way to please God, invariably they answer ‘Humility’.

The more humble a person is, the greater is their understanding of the majesty and immenseness of God ; and the greater is his or her awareness of the smallness and meanness of their own being. Such people live in loving dependence and utter trust in God – and frequently obtain miracles of grace. Humility leads naturally to true worship of God.

In this intention, Jesus shows us the depths of His gratitude towards the humble and the innocent for the strength they gave him to endure the Passion. He also lovingly invites us to join their number. Asking us to pray thus, Jesus reveals how much humility and innocence is threatened in our world today, and how much His mercy is neeeded for them to preserve those virtues in our world today. 

From the First Reading today we ponder St Peter and St John on their way to worship in the Temple. St John is the Beloved because of his innocence and purity. St Peter has been transformed by Jesus forgiving him for his 3 denials. Remembering his weakness in those moments of terror brings St Peter to whole new levels of humility. So the humble one and the innocent one walk together, and God works through them to bring about the healing of the cripple.

Within the Gospel today we hear the sublime story of the two gents on the way to Emmaus who are met by Jesus in disguise. That Jesus favours them with such generous explanations of the Scriptures and stays with them over those seven miles tends to indicate that they must have been men of rather rare humility. If normal walking pace for a mile is around 15 minutes, then Jesus was wiith them around 2 hours – or so, assuming that they weren’t in a hurry.

Jesus meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto thine. Help us to seek and to value humility and to treasure innocence and protect it. 

Redeemer, full of Mercy, please pour out your graces upon the humble and innocent souls of the world today. We owe them so much for the graces they obtain for the whole Church. Please preserve them in these choice virtues and cause them to grow. Grant that the number of humble and innocent souls make always increase over the face of the earth.

Jesus, I trust in You.

 St Peter, St John, St Cleopas and the other disciple, pray for us.

Sharing the concerns of Jesus

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On this Easter Tuesday, the Lord Jesus continues to shares with us the concerns of His Heart through the intentions of the Divine Mercy Novena. Today is the only day of the whole Novena where He directs our prayers towards a particular category of sinners – so it must be very important.

The orginal version of this intention mentioned heretics (those who teach doctrine contrary to the teaching of the Apostles) and schismatics (those who cling so much to heretical doctrine that they split away from the Church). Anyone who does these things does serious harm to the People of God and that harm can continue for centuries and draw immense numbers of souls away from God. Desperately they need God’s Mercy – to lead them to repentance and to help them undo the damage. Jesus Himself said, ‘Anyone who is an obstacle to bring down one of these little ones who have faith in Me would be better drowned in the depths of the sea with a great millstone round his neck. Alas for the world that there should be such obstacles! Obstacles indeed there must be, but alas for the man who provides them!’ Matt 18:6-7 

How often do we pray for the conversion of people like that in our world today – for people doing such harm today? It is within the top 9 on Jesus’ list. Where is it on our prayer intentions list? He is motivated both by love and mercy towards the sinner and by protective love towards His Body, the Church.

The later version of the prayer intention for today is for all of our separated brothers and sisters in Christ. The purpose of the intention makes far more sense within the earlier version (‘During My bitter Passion they tore at My Body and Heart, that is, My Church.’). With the newer version, however, a whole new avenue of God’s merciful love opens up and bids us take on His Heart towards our separated brothers and sisters in Christ.The newer version also lends itself to greater harmony with today’s liturgy: St Peter is urging his listeners to respond to the Good News by receiving baptism and becoming members of the Church founded by Jesus Christ and under the earthly leadership of St Peter and his successors. In the Gospel is the haunting image of St Mary of Magdala searching for the body of Jesus.

Our separated brothers and sisters in Christ have a lot in common with St Mary of Magdala at this point in the resurrection narratives. Like them, she loves Jesus and does her best to serve Him with all of her resources of heart, mind, strength and temporal goods. Like them, she believes in many promises of the Lord, but some elude her – like, in her case, His promise of the resurrection. She is looking for a dead body, He wants to reveal to her the fulness of the active power and wonder of His resurrection.

Our separated brothers and sisters in Christ comprise all of those, for whatever reason, are living their faith without visible unity with the successor of St Peter. They are good, holy and dedicated people who often put us to shame with their Christian zeal. But those who have swallowed the notion that miracles ceased with the Apostles are looking for a dead body. And those who are unable to accept the channels of grace that are the Sacraments (especially the Body, Blood,Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ truly present in the consecrated bread and wine)- are unable to experience for themselves the risen life that Jesus died to give us. Doesn’t it make you weep?

There is so much, so much more, that Jesus wishes to offer our separated brothers and sisters in Christ, and like St Mary of Magdala He makes them aware that there is something missing in their lives -something not quite right – a nagging awareness that there must be something more to the Christian life – and He calls them lovingly by name to recognise Him fully. It is our privilege to pray and to offer sacrifices that they may be given the grace to truly recognise Him and follow Him into the fulness of His Body, the Church. It is our priviledge to echo His loving invitations to investgate the claims made by the Church founded on the rock of St Peter’s faith.

Dear Jesus, waiting patiently with so many treasures of grace, whole arsenals of A-grade spiritual weaponry, with all the power and spiritual nourishment necessary for extraordinary holiness, please pour out your great Mercy upon each and every one of our beloved separated brothers and sisters in Christ and grant to them all the precious gift of the Journey Home to the Catholic Church.

Jesus, I trust in You.

All holy Apostles and especially St Peter, pray for us.

St Mary of Magdala, pray for us.

We have a mission

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If you were at Holy Mass this morning, you would have heard in the Gospel the mission that the Risen Lord gave to the holy women, ‘Go and tell My brothers…’. In the reading set down from the Acts of the Apostles, you would have heard the beginning of St Peter’s profound proclamation of the Resurrection of Jesus – issued on the day of Pentecost. If our faith has been renewed during the Paschal Triduum, then naturally it leads to this mission to tell others of the salvation won by Jesus Christ and how to receive it.

This mission dovetails perfectly with the prayer intentions of the Divine Mercy Novena today. (I will get back to this thought)

From time to time I have heard from the lips of the clergy that ‘this Divine Mercy stuff is alien to the liturgy’ – even after Holy Mother Church gave it her highest recommendations possible. To answer an objection like this takes more time than the average priest has time to listen to on his way after Mass. So that is why over the past few days, today, and for the rest of the week I am going beyond the ‘I know from the bottom of my heart that this Novena helps me to live these holy days better than I did in pre-Divine Mercy days’ and discovering the basis for why it is indeed so. 

‘The Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy’ issued by the congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in 2002 has some interesting things to say. From paragraph 91, ‘Popular piety is the first and most fundamental form of the faith’s ‘inculturation’, and should be continually guided and oriented by the Liturgy, which, in its turn, nourishes the faith through the heart.’ Where I live, sadly, anything to do with popular piety ( Rosary, devotions, Divine Mercy etc) are treated like bad smells – but the Church, in the quoted paragraph, indicates that popular piety is the interface for us between our everyday lives and the Liturgy whereby we offer worship to God. To take out popular piety, and to only promote Liturgy then does a grave disservice to souls. Our Catholic faith is a ‘both/and’ and not an ‘either/or’ religion – for spiritually healthy communities we need both popular piety and Liturgy in signficiant helpings.

Later on in paragraph 154 The Directory says ‘Since the liturgy of …Divine Mercy Sunday… is the natural locus in which to express man’s acceptance of the Redeemer’s mercy, the faithful should be taught to understand this devotion in the light of the liturgical celebrations of these Easter Days.’ With God’s help, hopefully this series of blogposts will assist that understanding.

….Back to the mission. The Divine Mercy novena intention for today is to pray for all of those living without Jesus in their lives (which is the essence of a pagan existence) and for all those who do not know Him. True love is distinguished by its fruitfulness. To have re-committed to Jesus with our ’I Do’s’ and then to not introduce Him to others just doesn’t make sense. The Church exists to evangelize.

‘Go and tell the brothers…’ is the first taste of the Great Commission that is given a few verses later in St Matthew’s Gospel, ‘Go, make disciples…’. It is the invitation that gets the believers to the mountain in Galilee where the Great Commission will be given. And to open hearts to receive the truth of the Resurrection that St Peter witnesses to in that first reading requires prayer.

In this context, it is worth expanding our concept of ‘brothers’ with this excerpt from Chapter 35 of Book 1 of St Augustine’s ‘City of God’ : ‘The City of God must bear in mind that among these very enemies are hidden her future citizens ; and when confronted with them she must not think it is a fruitless task to bear with their hostility until she finds them confessing the faith. In the same way,while the City of God is on pilgrimage in this world, she has in her midst some who are united with her in participation in the sacraments, but who will not join with her in the eternal destiny of the saints…We have less right to despair of the reformation of some of them, when some predestined friends, as yet unknown even to themselves, are concealed among our most open enemies.’

Yesterday we prayed for all of our devout and faithful brothers and sisters in Baptism – today we pray for all those who will be our brothers and sisters in Baptism at some time in the future and we pray that those happy days are hastened. To encourage us, Jesus told St Faustina ‘Their future zeal comforted My Heart.’ 

Our mission, then, is both to pray for these future brothers and sisters in Christ and to bring the Good News of Jesus to them. Once again, it is a ‘both/and’ mission, not an ‘either/or’ mission if the Risen message of Jesus has truly made an abiding home in our hearts.  

Jesus wants us to share in the joy of extending His Mercy to the souls who have never experienced Its fulness. Let us trust that our prayers in union with this intention of Jesus will result in abundant torrents of graces of converson for souls.

Jesus, I trust in You.

St Peter, all of the Apostles, and the Holy Women Disciples, please join your prayers to ours, that the number of future citizens of Heaven may be greatly increased today.