Divine Mercy - Our Popular Post

Since we started the parish blog, the most popular post (with over 3,000 hits) is this one from 2011 about Divine Mercy Sunday.

Divine Mercy

We are entering special days of grace and blessing.

During Holy Week we can unite ourselves with Jesus as He gives Himself to us in the Eucharist and through his passion and death. Then we can rise with Him in the Resurrection.

Through these events the mystery of Divine Mercy unfolds. They continue through the Easter Octave -- one glorious day God extends into eight, ending with Divine Mercy Sunday on April 27.

One way to partake more fully in our Lord's merciful love is through a Divine Mercy novena -- nine days of prayer -- which many people begin on Good Friday. We can meet Jesus in the confessional during this time for a more complete outpouring of His mercy.

More information on the Divine Mercy devotion, including its history and some prayers, can be found online or in Catholic bookstores.

This year, on Divine Mercy Sunday, we'll have a bonus gift of two new saints, Popes John XXIII and John Paul II, who, fittingly, will be canonized that day.

We truly have been blessed through God's mercy.

All praise Him!

Inspired by the Year of Faith, Susan Szalewski began writing weekly columns for us. Although that year is over, we liked them so well that we asked her to keep writing. Thankfully, she said yes. So watch for these on Thursdays and see the Year of Faith Blog here.

Divine Mercy & Easter

"God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ."

Ephesians 2: 4-5

It is no coincidence that we cap the Easter octave with Divine Mercy Sunday.

Jesus -- through his words and actions, life and death -- shows us the merciful love of the Father. But our Lord’s revelation of His Father’s mercy is not complete without the Resurrection. Jesus’ suffering and death revealed the depths of God’s love and mercy; His Resurrection shows us the power of that love and mercy, even over sin and death.

“He is not God of the dead, but of the living.”

Mark 12:27

Our Resurrected Lord could be considered the very definition mercy, according to Pope John Paul II, who instituted the universal celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday.

“Christ confers on the whole of the Old Testament tradition about God's mercy a definitive meaning. Not only does He speak of it and explain it by the use of comparisons and parables, but above all He Himself makes it incarnate and personifies it. He Himself, in a certain sense, is mercy. To the person who sees it in Him -- and finds it in Him -- God becomes ‘visible’ in a particular way as the Father who is rich in mercy."

During this Year of Faith we, too, are called to make God visible through our mercy to others. It is the best way to pay homage to the Divine Mercy we have all received.

“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy endures forever!”

Psalm 118:1

Inspired by this Year of Faith we will be posting columns like this from Susan Szalewski about exploring and/or deepening our faith. Watch for it on Thursdays.

Trust

One definition of faith, or at least a component of it, is trust

Throughout the Bible, especially in the Psalms, we are urged to trust God, even in the direst circumstances. In exchange for our trust, God gives us His mercy. That mercy, in turn, helps us trust God more. In the Gospels, we see how Jesus rewards our faith with His miracles.

During the 20th Century, two people helped us learn more about the relationship between trust and mercy: St. Faustina, a Polish nun who received messages from Jesus about His Divine Mercy, and her spiritual director, Blessed Father Michael Sopocko.

"The decisive factor in obtaining God's mercy is trust," Sopocko wrote. "Trust is the expectation of someone's help."

Our faith depends on our perception of God, the college professor said. If we are adopted sons of God, we should have a childlike trust in our Father. A lack of trust prevents God from lavishing His mercy and blessings on us. "It is like a dark cloud impeding the action of the sun's rays, or a dam cutting off one's access to spring water."

"We must put our whole trust in God," Sopocko said.

"Trust in God should be strong and enduring, without doubts or hesitations. Such was the trust of Abraham, who was ready to offer up his son in sacrifice. And such was the trust of the martyrs. On the other hand, the Apostles, during the storm, were found wanting in this virtue, and Our Lord reproached them with the words: 'Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?'"

Our humility, knowing our own faults, will strengthen our trust and reliance on God. Our trust should be our homage to God's mercy, the priest said. He added that trust in our Lord brings us joy, miracles, inner peace and opens the way to all the virtues.

Jesus, in the message he revealed to St. Faustina, described His Sacred Heart as as an infinite fountain of mercy from which anyone, even the most hardened sinner, can draw. All we need is a vessel.

"The graces of My mercy are drawn by means of one vessel only and that is trust," He said. "The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive."

"But there is more to trust than just believing that God is trustworthy," according to the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception, who preach about Divine Mercy.* "We have to act upon that belief. Trust involves a turning back to God, a real conversion of our whole lives to God, repenting of our sins and forgiving others. Trust is a living faith.

"Trust means that we agree to let God be God, instead of trying to be God ourselves. (Trust is the antidote to the first sin of Adam!) It means that we agree that God can write the script of our lives, instead of insisting on our own script. It means that we agree with the great pledge we make in the Our Father: 'Your will (not mine) be done on earth as it is in Heaven.' It means that even in our moments of agony we agree with the cry of Jesus in the Garden, 'Not my will, but Yours be done.' (Luke 22:42).

"God is Mercy Itself, and we are called to practice the ABCs of mercy (Ask for His Mercy, Be merciful to others, Completely trust in Jesus). As we do, our trust in Jesus is the vital ingredient. We don't simply ask for mercy, nor do we simply try to be good to other people. We ask with complete trust, and Our Lord fills us with grace so that we can be merciful as our Heavenly Father is merciful."

Again, Jesus speaks through St. Faustina: "I am Love and Mercy Itself. When a soul approaches Me with trust, I fill it with such an abundance of graces that it cannot contain them within itself, but radiates them to other souls."

*from the Web site "The Divine Mercy"

Inspired by this Year of Faith we will be posting columns like this about exploring and/or deepening our faith. Watch for it on Thursdays.

Testimony on Divine Mercy

7:00 p.m. tonight

in the church

Stanley Villavicencio, who feels called to spread the message of Divine Mercy, will make a presentation tonight at St. Columbkille. Stanley was an ordinary man in the Philipines who experienced a healing miracle and this calling.