MERCY, MERCY, AND AGAIN MERCY!!!
God’s mercy is his greatest
attribute! St Faustina, St. Pope John Paul II and the angelic Doctor Saint
Thomas Aquinas agree on this unanimously! Mercy is nothing other than God’s
love forgiving the sinner.
God longs to inundate the entire world
with His infinite mercy; it is like a burning fire consuming Him that He
desires so ardently to bestow on all, but all too few know of His mercy and
even less want to receive this free gift.
May we be among those who understand
God’s infinite mercy, receive it and also try to promote it. May we be living Apostles of God’s great mercy.
God rejoices in those who trust in His mercy and those who promote it to the
entire world!
God chose Saint Faustina Kowalska to
be His Secretary of Divine Mercy and ardent promotor of this most sublime of God’s
virtues, in the most widely diffused manner through the classic: “The Diary of mercy in my soul.”
How then can we understand, embrace,
live and promote God’s infinite mercy in our own lives and in the concrete
circumstances in which we are living right now? We will offer fifteen ways to
fall in love with divine mercy so that we can be heralds and apostles of divine
mercy so that one day in heaven we will be praising God’s mercy for all
eternity.
1.
READ THE DIARY OF DIVINE MERCY IN MY
SOUL—ST. FAUSTINA! All of us should have this spiritual classic and masterpiece
and get in the habit of reading, meditating, contemplating, praying over,
loving and living this most simple but sublime message that God has given to
the modern world. What the world needs
today more than ever is to understand and to live the Gospel of mercy. Every day get into the habit of reading for
five minutes or at least a number of the 1820 entries in this gift from God!
Start today! One more suggestion: try to
put into practice what you are reading.
2.
ENTHRONE THE IMAGE AND HONOR IT! Purchase a beautiful image of Divine mercy
and enthrone it in your home in a prominent place. Then formally enthrone it
through the ministry of the priest. Honor the image frequently. Let those who
enter your home be keenly aware of the fact that Jesus the King of Mercy is the
King of this home, the King of all those who enter this home. God promises very
special blessings upon those who honor this image in time and for all eternity!
Promote the enthronement of the Divine Mercy images in other homes. Teach
children and young people about God’s infinite mercy! This will bring great joy to the Sacred Heart
of Jesus.
3.
CHAPLET OF DIVINE MERCY. Get into the habit of praying the Chaplet of
Divine mercy as often as possible; it only takes about five minutes. It can be
prayed in church, at home, in the car, on the supermarket line, at any time and
in any place. Jesus exhorted Saint Faustina to pray it often. This prayer
appeases the anger of God and has the power to convert the hardest of sinners. “Through
the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.”
4.
MERCY HOUR. Try to be more and more
aware of the mercy hour; this is 3:00 p.m. every day. Jesus asked Saint
Faustina to pray the Way of the Cross at this hour, or to visit the Blessed
Sacrament of the altar, or at least to unite herself with the passion, agony
and death of Jesus on the cross at the mercy hour which was the hour and minute
that Jesus died on the cross for the salvation of our souls. In your case, try at least to remember the
mercy hour and to unite yourself with the last agony and death of Jesus on the
cross and then beg of the Father for any grace you so desire. Especially
pleasing to God is to beg for the conversion of deathbed sinners. In this moment God the Father is
contemplating the agony, suffering and death of His beloved Son Jesus and can
deny us nothing! I will often beg the Lord Jesus through His most bitter
passion for the conversion and salvation of all those who will die that
afternoon and that night. God loves the salvation of souls and so should we.
5.
NOVENA OF DIVINE MERCY. Very pleasing to God is to do the novena of
divine mercy. This novena starts on Good Friday and lasts for nine days up
until the Solemnity of Divine Mercy, which is the Sunday after Easter Sunday.
Each day there is a special prayer intention to be prayed that God inspired
Saint Faustina to write in the Diary. The intentions are very inspiring and a
model for prayer of petition! This novena can also be prayed any time during
the course of the year, but most especially from Good Friday to Divine Mercy
Sunday.
6.
MERCY SUNDAY. Live out to the fullest extent possible Divine
Mercy Sunday. As said above this Sunday follows Easter Sunday and it was
instituted as a formal Liturgical Feast in the year 2000 (April 30), on the
Sunday after Easter by Saint Pope John Paul II. On that same day, the Holy
Father, Pope John Paul II canonized Saint Faustina Kowlaska; she was the first
saint to be canonized in the new millennium.
The great Pope of divine mercy, Pope John Paul II declared with
heartfelt emotion that this was the happiest day in his life. He felt himself
to be a true apostle of divine mercy and to start off the new millennium instituting
this Solemnity and canonizing the saint that God used as a key instrument of
bringing to the world this extraordinary grace!
7.
OBTAIN THE DIVINE MERCY PROMISE.
Among the most extraordinary promises of divine mercy is that promise that we
can receive on Divine Mercy Sunday. It is this! If we make a good sacramental
confession in the time of Lent or even Easter week, and then receive Holy
Communion and Mercy Sunday with great faith, devotion and love then all of our
sins of the past are totally forgiven. Not only are our sins forgiven but also
the temporal punishment due to these sins are totally forgiven. ”Though your
sins be a scarlet, I will make them as white as the snow.”(Is. 1:18) In
concrete, this means that we have our baptismal innocence restored to our
souls. If we were to die after receiving this privilege then we would go straight
to heaven. What an extraordinary grace that we should long to receive every
year on mercy Sunday! Spread the Good News to the whole world.
8.
GOOD CONFESSIONS. Another concrete
manner that we can live out mercy is to have frequent recourse to the reception
of the Sacrament of Confession, also known as the Sacrament of God’s infinite
mercy. Every time we make a good sacramental confession the loving Father of
the Parable of the Prodigal Son embraces us with the most tender love and there
is rejoicing and feasting in heaven among the angels and the saints. (Luke 15)
Make it a habit to go at least once a month to the Sacrament of God’s mercy and
bring your whole family. Be an apostle of the Sacrament of Confession; this is
very pleasing to God. A good sacramental confession inundates us with an ocean
of God’s mercy!
9.
BE MERCIFUL AS YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER
IS MERCIFUL! Mercy indeed is a two-way street, not a one way! If we want to
receive God’s mercy in our lives then we must be constantly ready and willing to
be merciful to those who have wounded and offended us. The most famous prayer in the world is the
OUR FATHER, in which we pray: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those
who trespass against us…” These words of Our Lord are unambiguously clear: if
we want God to forgive us then we must necessarily be willing to forgive
others, always, and at all times! Remember the words of command from the Heart
of Jesus: “Be merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful.” Let us take these
words seriously to heart!
10. DO ACTS OF MERCY ON A
DAILY BASIS. Jesus also told Saint
Faustina that He desires us to practice at least one act of mercy every day. There are three different ways that this can
be carried out: 1) Words—Say a kind word or words to anybody; this can lift
their tired, afflicted and wearied spirit; 2) Deeds—Carry out some concrete
deed or action of mercy; you might even look up the 8 Corporal or 8 Spiritual
works of mercy and try to live out at least one of these on a daily basis; 3)
Prayer—to pray for some person is pleasing to God and then falls under the
category of doing an act of mercy towards someone. By the way Jesus reminds us that
whatever we do to others we actually do to Him. (Mt. 25: 31-46)
11. DYING AND THE
CHAPLET. Of the greatest importance with
respect to the salvation of souls is to pray the Chaplet of Divine mercy
especially when some person is in his last hours, last moments, and his last
agony. These are moments of great trial, tribulation and at times temptation.
Jesus promised that if anyone is praying this Chaplet when the person is dying
then that soul will be saved. Therefore let us, as Saint Paul reminds us, to
fill up what is lacking in the Passion of Christ by striving to save souls by
praying the chaplet at the bedside of the dying.
12.DISTRIBUTE DIVINE MERCY
CARDS. Another simple but very pleasing practice in the eyes of God is to
purchase a packet of 1000 divine mercy cards and simply to distribute them
freely. Prayer meetings, funerals, weddings, first Communion Masses, in the
park and even in the grocery store—give them out freely and abundantly. God
will reward you abundantly!
13.THE EUCHARIST AND
DIVINE MERCY. Get into the habit of
visiting the most Blessed Sacrament. In fact every time we are kneeling or
praying in front of the most Blessed Sacrament we are in the presence of the
most Sacred Heart of Jesus and in contact with His divine mercy. May the rays
of His Divine Presence transform your heart into a heart filled with the most
noble sentiments of mercy!
14.HOLY COMMUNION AND
MERCY. Still greater is that of assisting at the Holy sacrifice of the Mass and
receiving Holy Communion. The truth is that every Holy Communion contains the
Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. That means we actually receive
His most Sacred Heart; in a real sense we have a spiritual HEART-TRANSPLANT
every time we receive Holy Communion with faith, devotion and love.
15.OUR LADY AND MERCY. It would
be all but incomplete if we did not invite Our Lady to help us to understand,
love and live the message of divine mercy. Saint Alphonsus states that we
should never fear approaching Our Lady. In God there are two opposing
attributes—mercy and justice. However in Our Lady there is pure mercy. At the end of every Rosary we pray the Hail
Holy Queen…. “Hail Holy Queen, mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness
and our hope…” May Our Lady attain for us a deeper and deeper understanding of
God’s infinite mercy for souls, of God’s infinite mercy for our family, of God’s
infinite mercy for you and me individually!
Conclusion: May the prayer of the
Psalmist be the prayer that overflows in our hearts and lives now and forever: “Give
thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His mercy endures forever.” Let us
praise God’s mercy in time so that in heaven we will praise His mercy forever
and ever.
