Monday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
“For greater things you were born.” (Ven. Mother Luisita)
MONDAY OCTOBER 5th Lk. 10: 25-37 Feast Day of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska
Parable of the Good Samaritan: Jesus asked, “Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” He answered. “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus said, “Go and do likewise.”
Today we honor Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska—Secretary of Divine Mercy—known today the world over as the Apostle of the Divine Mercy and numbered by theologians among the outstanding mystics of the Church.
Following Fr. Broom’s Commentary, we conclude with Faustina’s Prayer to Be Merciful.
MERCY, MERCY, AND AGAIN MERCY!!! By Fr. Ed Broom, OMV
God’s Mercy is His greatest attribute! Saint Faustina, Saint 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 too few know of His mercy, and even less want to receive this free gift.
May we be among those who trust in 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 promote it to the entire world!
God chose Saint Faustina Kowalska to be His Secretary of Divine Mercy and the ardent promoter of this most sublime of God’s virtues in the most widely diffused manner through the classic: Divine Mercy in My Soul – Diary of St. Faustina Kowalska.
How then can we understand, embrace, live, and promote God’s Infinite Mercy in our own lives – 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 DIVINE MERCY IN MY SOUL – DIARY OF ST FAUSTINA KOWALSKA. All of us should own 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 one 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 and blessing of a priest. Honor the image frequently, by such means as saying, “Jesus, Mercy!” when you see it. Let those who enter your home be keenly aware of the fact that Jesus, the King of Mercy, is King of your home and King of all those who enter your 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 image in other homes. Teach children and young people about God’s Infinite Mercy! There is no sin, that God’s Mercy is not greater! This will bring great joy to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
3. CHAPLET OF DIVINE MERCY. Learn and 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, in the supermarket line, waiting at the doctor’s office, 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. “For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.” Even better, in addition to praying the Chaplet yourself, buy Divine Mercy Pamphlets and pass them out to family, friends, co-workers, and even strangers, in the hope that they too will pray it!
4. MERCY HOUR. Try to be more and more aware of the Mercy Hour which is 3:00 pm every day. Jesus asked Saint Faustina to pray the Way of the Cross at this hour, or visit the Blessed Sacrament, or at least to unite herself with the Passion, agony, and death of Jesus on the cross at the Mercy Hour, which was the very hour and minute that Jesus died on the cross for the salvation of our souls! In your case, pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy at the 3:00 pm hour, or at least try to remember the Mercy Hour by uniting yourself with Jesus’ last agony and death on the cross, and then beg of Him any grace you so desire. He has promised to answer those prayers. Especially pleasing to God is to beg for the conversion of deathbed sinners. At the 3:00 pm hour, when God the Father is contemplating the agony, suffering, and death of His beloved Son, Jesus, He can deny us nothing. Nor can Jesus. 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 on 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. You can find this Novena in the Divine Mercy Pamphlet.
6. MERCY SUNDAY. Live out to the fullest extent possible Divine Mercy Sunday. As stated 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 canonized Saint Faustina Kowalska; she was the first saint to be canonized in the new millennium. This great Pope of Divine Mercy declared with heartfelt emotion that this was the happiest day in his life. He felt himself to be a true Apostle of Divine Mercy, starting off the new millennium instituting this Solemnity of Divine Mercy and canonizing the saint whom God used as a key instrument in bringing to the world this extraordinary grace!
7. OBTAIN THE DIVINE MERCY PROMISE. Among the most extraordinary promises of Divine Mercy is the Promise that we can receive on Divine Mercy Sunday. It is this! If we make a good Sacramental Confession anytime in Lent or even Easter week, and then attend Mass and receive Holy Communion on Mercy Sunday with great faith, devotion, and love, all of our sins of the past are totally forgiven. And not only are our sins forgiven, but also the temporal punishment due to these sins is totally forgiven. “Though your sins be as 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 the moment we receive this privilege, we would go straight to heaven!!! No time in Purgatory! What an extraordinary grace that we should long to receive every year on Mercy Sunday! For each year our past sins are forgiven and the temporal punishment due for those sins is wiped out. Let us spread the Good News to the whole world!
8. GOOD CONFESSIONS. Another concrete manner in which 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 in 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! (Lk. 15:11-32) Make it a habit to go at least once a month to the Sacrament of God’s Mercy and bring your whole family with you! Become 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 street! 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 unambiguous and 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 and beg for the grace to put them into practice!
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 someone; 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 Eight Corporal and Eight Spiritual Works of Mercy and try to live out at least one of these on a daily basis; 3) Prayer—Praying for some person is pleasing to God and 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 when some person is in their last hours, last moments, and last agony. These are moments of great trial, tribulation, and at times temptation. Jesus promised that if anyone is praying the Chaplet when the person is dying then that soul will be saved. Therefore, let us, as Saint Paul reminds us, 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. (cf: Col. 1:24)
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 holy cards and simply 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. Let us beg our Eucharistic Lord to help us love others with His Heart of Mercy! A prayer He never fails to answer if prayed earnestly!
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—His Mercy and His 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 and appreciation of God’s Infinite Mercy for souls, of God’s infinite Mercy for our families, 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.” (Ps. 136:1) Let us praise God’s Mercy in time, so that we may praise His Mercy forever and ever in heaven!!!
PRAYER TO BE MERCIFUL… (Saint Faustina’s Diary #163)
O Most Holy Trinity! As many times as I breathe, as many times as my heart beats, as many times as my blood pulsates through my body, so many thousand times do I want to glorify Your mercy.
I want to be completely transformed into Your mercy and to be Your living reflection, O Lord. May the greatest of all divine attributes, that of Your unfathomable mercy, pass through my heart and soul to my neighbor.
Help me, O Lord, that my eyes may be merciful, so that I may never suspect or judge from appearances, but look for what is beautiful in my neighbors’ souls and come to their rescue.
Help me, that my ears may be merciful, so that I may give heed to my neighbors’ needs and not be indifferent to their pains and moanings.
Help me, O Lord, that my tongue may be merciful, so that I should never speak negatively of my neighbor, but have a word of comfort and forgiveness for all.
Help me, O Lord, that my hands may be merciful and filled with good deeds, so that I may do only good to my neighbors and take upon myself the more difficult and toilsome tasks.
Help me, that my feet may be merciful, so that I may hurry to assist my neighbor, overcoming my own fatigue and weariness. My true rest is in the service of my neighbor.
Help me, O Lord, that my heart may be merciful so that I myself may feel all the sufferings of my neighbor. I will refuse my heart to no one. I will be sincere even with those who, I know, will abuse my kindness. And I will lock myself up in the most merciful Heart of Jesus. I will bear my own suffering in silence. May Your mercy, O Lord, rest upon me.
You Yourself command me to exercise the three degrees of mercy. The first: the act of mercy, of whatever kind. The second: the word of mercy – if I cannot carry out a work of mercy, I will assist by my words. The third: prayer – if I cannot show mercy by deeds or words, I can always do so by prayer. My prayer reaches out even where I cannot reach out physically.
O my Jesus, transform me into Yourself, for You can do all things.
Copyright 2020 Oblates of the Virgin Mary
St. Peter Chanel Church, Hawaiian Gardens, CA
