It's Divine Mercy Sunday: Please Pray St. Faustina's Chaplet for Our Poor Church

Guest Post: Was Jorge Bergoglio St. Faustina's Greatest Cross?

By David Martin

On December 17, 1936, the renown mystic St. Faustina, known for her role in establishing the devotion to the Divine Mercy, penned two entries into her diary which warrant close examination today. Entries 823 and 824 appear to be closely related and occur chronologically without interruption. Without further ado, the first part of her statement [entry 823] is as follows.

"Love, love, and once again, love" God!

Pray today that God's divine mercy will fall on this vale of tears.

"God has given me to understand that there is but one thing that is of infinite value in His eyes, and that is love of God; love, love and once again, love; and nothing can compare with a single act of pure love of God. Oh, with what inconceivable favors God gifts a soul that loves Him sincerely! Oh, how happy is the soul who already here on earth enjoys His special favors! And of such are the little and humble souls."                                      
                                                                   Sr. Faustina's Diary #778

What will you do today for love of God?

(Note: This is the original image of Divine Mercy painted by E. Kazimierowski in Vilnius in 1934. I prefer it to the more modern image because it has more of the look of an icon and Jesus is more masculine in appearance.)

Divine Mercy Sunday - Take Advantage of It!

God's mercy is infinite and we ought to be humbled and grateful for that. Who could be saved if God hadn't sent his own Son to save us from our sins? And yet how many will miss the opportunity today to immerse themselves in His ocean of mercy?

I know many people who don't think they need God's mercy. "I'm a good person" is the mantra of the worldly. They don't murder anybody and who can avoid a little innocent hatred toward the neighbor who lets his dog defecate on the lawn? They don't cheat on their spouse, and the subscription to Playboy is all about the articles. It's unrealistic to expect people to avoid looking at those in-your-face ads from "Holly" or "Patti" or "Sheila" that pop up on the internet? And, after all, it isn't really being unfaithful is it?

Today, a woman I know, asked me about her marriage. Her husband left her and after remaining single for over 20 years she remarried even though her first husband was still alive. She asked me if it was wrong. I told her the Catholic Church teaches the indissolubility of marriage and that the Church recognizes the validity of marriages between two baptized persons contracted before a minister in a Protestant Church. I reminded her of Jesus' response to the pharisees about Moses allowing divorce because of the "hardness of your hearts."

But I also told her it was Divine Mercy Sunday and that none of us could be saved without the mercy of God. I'll see her next week and give her a rosary and booklet on how to pray the chaplet of Divine Mercy. Living up to the demands of the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes is impossible without God's grace and even with it how often we fail? I thank God I'm a Catholic and have the blessing of Confession. I always listen carefully to the words of absolution and thank God for them.

Pray for God's mercy on everyone you know today, especially those living in objective serious sin. How easy it is to get ourselves in situations that put us between a rock and a hard place. This dear woman is obviously troubled by her situation. I can't tell her breaking promises is good, but I can remind her of God's infinite mercy and the need to try to conform our wills to His.

St. Faustina, pray for us.