Divine Mercy.  An invitation.

Please consider praying a special Novena:  the Divine Mercy Novena, which begins on Good Friday and ends with Divine Mercy Sunday. 

We are in Holy Week and about to enter the church’s most holy days:  Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter. 

If only we could understand God’s tremendous love for us.  Who can imagine the incomprehensible suffering of Our Lord’s Passion?  … And He would have suffered it for each one of us, even if we were the only one.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, mind, and strength.  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.                          

We muddle along, judging others, criticizing, complaining, and hurting others in our words and actions and neglect.  He forgives us over and over again!                                             

If we could truly understand this unbelievable gift, our only response can be a heart full of thanksgiving and a desire to pass this gift to others.   With hearts full of gratitude, we respond to the ABC’s of Divine Mercy:                                      

Ask for His Mercy.  God wants us to approach Him in prayer constantly.                                       

Be Merciful.  God wants us to receive His Mercy and let it flow through us to others.                                    

Completely trust in Jesus.  God wants us to know that the graces of His Mercy are dependent upon our trust.                                   

This is a special time of grace for all of us.  Our Lord chose St. Faustina to be His special apostle to help us understand His gift.  She lived in the first part of the 1900s, and she was the first person to be canonized in our twenty-first century.                                                         

Pope Saint John Paul II established Divine Mercy Sunday to always fall on the Sunday after Easter.  (Note:  he died on the evening of April 2, 2005 – a first Saturday and after the evening Mass in celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday.)  He was beatified on Divine Mercy Sunday in 2011, and he was also canonized on this day - Divine Mercy Sunday in 2014!   

So many graces are associated with this Novena and this Holy Day.                  

Please see the Divine Mercy Chaplet and special Novena Intentions:

http://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/mercy/novena.htm

Or, in case the previous link is down:  

https://www.thedivinemercy.org/message/devotions/novena

See, also, regarding special plenary indulgences:

https://www.thedivinemercy.org/articles/vatican-grants-emergency-plenary-indulgence-divine-mercy-chaplet                                                                               

We trust in Him always!