Tag Archives: Divine Mercy

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.

 

The novena of Divine Mercy begins

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Today, Good Friday 2012, the novena of Divine Mercy begins. The Lord Jesus promised us through St Faustina that through the novena of Chaplets of Divine Mercy He would grant souls whatsoever graces they ask. By praying this Novena, together with the prayer intentions of each day, we come to understand the concerns closest to the Sacred Heart of Jesus – and we live out these holy days in a much deeper way.

The best website for the Chaplet of Mercy, the Novena intentions, and so much else about Divine Mercy devotions is at www.ewtn.com/devotionals/mercy/index.htm .

Today the Lord asks us particulary to pray for the whole of humanity, and especially for sinners. On this day when we recall His great sacrifice on the Cross to win mercy for our sins, the only means of our forgiveness, it is appropriate that we pray for all souls – because it was to give all the chance of redemption that He underwent His agony, tortures and death.

Jesus tells St Faustina that the loss of souls plunges Him into bitter grief. That any soul would refuse His mercy, purchased at such immense cost of blood, wounds and tears, is so dreadful to contemplate. Hell is eternal. It results from a totally ruptured relationship with God. An analogy of how this happens is when there is a falling out between parent and child. One party will not budge. There is nothing the other party can do because all communication channels have been shut off. The only hope in such a case is a third party, willing to be a go-between. Unless such a third party is found, the parent and child will be forever astranged.

That is how it is with sinner souls and God. Unless a third party, like you and me, prays and offers sacrifices for a sinner soul, they cannot be reintroduced to the Mercy of God. It is within our power today to bring gladness to the Heart of our suffering Saviour – pray for sinners, implore His great Mercy for them.

Praying a Divine Mercy Chaplet doesn’t take long (about 6-7 minutes if you have someone to pray with, a little longer if you are on your own), but it will bring joy to all of Heaven if you pray it today for all souls, and especially all sinner souls. It is prayed on ordinary Rosary beads, and is very easy to learn by heart. (refer back to the recommended website above for details)

Jesus, I trust in You. 

 

 

 

 

An invitation to hope

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As human beings we are amazingly good at stuffing up our lives, our health, our minds, our relationships – just about anything that crosses our paths. As human beings we are also amazingly good at forgetting where to go to get our stuffed lives fixed. Thankfully our Creater understands us better than we understand ourselves, so He regularly issues us invitations to hope. If we answer an invitation our lives can begin to get repaired and the gloom on our horizon can give way to optimism.

Most of us have come into contact with someone whose marriage is in trouble, or whom we are pretty sure has an addiction to alcohol, gambling, narcotics etc, or whom we suspect are having a difficult time making ends meet or trying to cope with a toxic relationship. Until that person can admit that there is a problem, and then come to the point of desiring to be free of the problem, there is very little that anyone can do to help them. Up until then, he or she is unable to listen to any helpful advice. The catalyst for change generally comes only after hearing the story of someone who has been in the same sorry pit and how they got out of it. It might take a long time for the seed of that story to ripen into action in the troubled person, but it will happen. Such stories are the invitations to hope that God gives us, and which He expects us, as His ambassadors (2 Cor 5:20) to pass on to others. 

How often we forget that the name ‘Jesus’ means ‘Saviour’! The angel of God instructed St Joseph to give the unborn baby in Mary’s womb the name of Jesus, ‘because He is the one who is to save His people from their sins.’ (Matt 1: 21). It is sin that lies at the heart of all the misery in our lives. To get out of that misery we need the power to forgive, or the power to seek forgiveness; the power that heals, restores and makes new (Rev 21:5). Such power comes only from God and was purchased at the immense price of the blood, sorrows, tortures and death of Jesus.   

Here is an invitation to hope issued by Jesus through St Faustina (passage 1602 ‘Divine Mercy in my Soul’): ’Today the Lord said to me, Daughter, when you go to confession (ie. the sacrament of reconciliation), to this fountain of My mercy, the Blood and Water which came forth from My heart always flows down upon your soul and ennobles it. Every time you go to confession, immerse yourself entirely in My mercy, with great trust, so that I may pour the bounty of My grace upon your soul. When you approach the confessional, know this, that I Myself am waiting there for you. I am only hidden by the priest, but I myself act in your soul. Here the misery of the soul meets the God of mercy. Tell souls that from this fount of mercy souls draw graces solely with the vessel of trust. If their trust is great, there is no limit to My generosity. The torrents of grace inundate humble souls. The proud remain always in poverty and misery, because My grace turns away from them to humble souls.’

To access this power requires admitting that we have stuffed up our lives. The reason why pride is so bad is because it stops people admitting that they need help and it also stops them from admitting that they want to change. 

Going to Confession is a lot like going to the doctor, only better. For the Divine Physician to help us we have to tell Him all that is wrong with us, and show Him all of our inner wounds – the self inflicted ones as well as the hurts received from others. He has the power to heal us. Through His intermediary He gives us advice and the medicine of penance (be it prayer, service, restitution or some form of self denial). Afterwards the uplift of grace comes, which helps us resist temptation and helps us to forgive and seek forgiveness of others.

The season of Lent is a time when lots of invitations to hope are issued. Sadly some priests only go as far as talking about the need for conversion, but never talking about what we need to be converted from (sin that leads to misery) and what we need to be converted to (getting out of the pit and living a much happier life under God’s smile). Unfortunately these priests who speak about the need for conversion don’t understand that we in the pews need a far more direct approach. We need to hear that the major step in the conversion journey is going to confession. If we want to kick start our spiritual lives and ask God for a second chance, we need to go to confession – because that is where the grace, healing and bounty of God’s love is found. That is where the Mercy of God meets us right where we are in our sinfulness, heals us, cleans us up, and sets our souls singing for joy with His personal care and attention.

The biggest invitation to hope is issued by God on Divine Mercy Sunday, the Sunday that comes after Easter Sunday. On this day the flood gates of God’s Mercy are wide open. This day is meant to be the great altar call day; the day when God’s priests challenge God’s people to take hold of the transforming power of the Passion, Death and Resurrection in their own lives by making a whole new start with Jesus through the Sacrament of Penance (Confession). On this day miracles of Divine Mercy should superabound to the glory of God. Sadly the great majority of priests have never really taken Divine Mercy Sunday seriously. To paraphrase a famous quote, it hasn’t been tried and rejected because it has never been truly tried. 

Here are some of the promises that Jesus gave through St Faustina: (passage 49b,50a ibid) ‘I desire that there be a Feast of Mercy. I want this image, which you will paint with a brush, to be solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter; that Sunday is to be the Feast of Mercy. I desire that priests proclaim this great Mercy of Mine towards souls of sinners. Let the sinner not be afraid to approach Me. The flames of Mercy are burning Me—clamoring to be spent; I want to pour them out upon these souls.’ (passage 570 ibid) ‘No soul will be justified until it turns with confidence to My Mercy, and that is why the first Sunday after Easter is to be the Feast of Mercy. On that day, priests are to tell everyone about My great and unfathomable Mercy.’ (passage 1521 ibid) ‘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 speak.’

How I have longed to hear a priest speak about God’s Mercy on Divine Mercy Sunday! That has yet to happen. The most I have heard is a tiny brief acknowledgement as Mass begins or a small announcement about parish devotions at the end. To some it is of no consequence that the Magisterium of the Church has both approved and strongly recommended it. Others want to preach about what they want to preach about that Sunday and won’t consider that they happily talk about God’s love on the Feast of the Sacred Heart and about the marvel of the Eucharist at Corpus Christi. It has to be the priest that preaches of Mercy and leads the faithful in Divine Mercy devotions that Sunday because the priest is the witness par excellence of the Mercy of God in the sacred Tribunal of Penance. He is the one who knows how great God’s Mercy really is because He has absolved so many sins in God’s name. During the homily is when he needs to preach it. We all know that at the Divine Mercy Devotions those that come are already convinced of God”s Mercy and are leading regular sacramental lives. Jesus wants to reach those who are on the fringe, those whose souls are at risk. In the pews on any given Saturday vigil and Sunday Mass there are plenty of them. That’s why the homily that Day is so important, because it is supposed to be the biggest invitation to hope of the whole year of grace.

Even then, should you be so fortunate as to come across a priest who actually preaches about God’s Mercy on Divine Mercy Sunday, they don’t go far enough. To preach of God’s Mercy and then to not offer the Sacrament of Penance to those whose hearts have been touched is plain stupidity. It is a mighty rare priest who tells his congregation that he will be available after Mass for any who want to avail themselves of the Sacrament of God’s Mercy. Multiply them Lord!. If they only preached on His Mercy and generously made themselves available in the confessional afterwards they would see stupendous miracles of grace. If they were really convinced that these promises of Jesus to St Faustina are real, they’d have an assistant priest already in the confessional ready and waiting for pentitents as soon as the homily of Mercy begins. Particularly with the grace of returning to the Sacrament of Penance, if you don’t strike while the motivation is there, and red hot, that motivation dissipates rapidly and may never ever come to fruition. 

So, if you haven’t experienced God’s personal Mercy towards you for some time, get along to the Sacrament of Mercy this week.

If you have experienced God’s Mercy for yourself, tell someone about it – issue them with an invitation to hope. If needs be, change names, dates and places, but get your story of God’s Mercy out there online – on a facebook page, on a Catholic online forum, as an xt3 personal blog.

If there is a priest that you know who might benefit from reading this, send him a copy. They need invitations to hope, too.

Divine Mercy, I trust in You.

St Faustina, pray for us

Father Sopocko, pray for us.