Bl John Paul II - Feast Day 22nd October

St. Faustina's Prayer to be Merciful

Is a great help to making a good examination of conscience also before Confession.

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 O Lord 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 my self the more difficult and toilsome tasks.

Help me O Lord 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 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 our 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 there where I cannot reach out physically. O my Jesus, transform me into yourself, for you can do all things.

Humility to Turn back to God's Mercy

Julian of Norwich: The Humility of a Sinful Soul is a Lovely Thing

Our good Lord showed me the enmity of the fiend, from which I gathered that everything opposed to love and peace comes from the fiend and his set.

Inevitably we fall because of our weakness and stupidity – and just as surely we get up with even greater joy because of the mercy and grace of the Holy Spirit.

Even if our enemy gains something from us when we fall (this is what he likes!), he loses very much more because of our love and humility when we get up again.

This glorious rising up gives him such sorrow and pain (he hates our soul so much) that he burns and burns with envy.

[...] The remedy is to be aware of our wretchedness, and to fly to our Lord. The greater our need, the more important it is to draw near to him.

Let our meaning be, ‘I am well aware that my suffering is deserved. Our Lord is almighty, and may punish me mightily; he is all-wise, and can punish me wisely; and he is all-good, and loves me most tenderly.’

And with the sight of this we have got to stay. The humility of a sinful soul is a lovely thing, and is a work of the Spirit’s mercy and grace, when we consciously and gladly accept the scourge and punishment given by our Lord himself.

It even becomes gentle and bearable when we are really content with him and with what he does.

[...] This was shown, with particular and loving emphasis, that we are to accept and endure humbly whatever penance God himself gives us, with his blessed passion ever in mind.

[...] Our Lord is with us, protecting us and leading us into fullness of joy. For it is an unending source of joy to us that our Lord should intend that he, our protector here, is to be our bliss there – our way and our heaven is true love and sure trust!

This is the message of all the revelations, and particularly in that of his passion where he made me wholeheartedly choose him to be my heaven.

Flee to our Lord, and we shall be strengthened. Touch him, and we shall be cleansed. Cling to him, and we shall be safe and sound from every danger.

For it is the will of our courteous Lord that we should be as much at home with him as heart may think or soul desire.

But we must be careful not to accept this privilege so casually that we forget our own courtesy.

For our Lord himself is supremely friendly, and he is as courteous as he is friendly: he is very courteous.

Julian of Norwich (1342-1416): Showings, 77, 6); from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Friday of Week 28 in Ordinary Time, Year 2

St. John Chrysostom on Gods Infinite Mercy

"Suppose that a believer who once was pleasing to God becomes full of wickedness and commits grievous sins that exclude him from the kingdom. I will not allow even a person like that to despair, although he may have grown old practicing his unspeakable wickedness.

"Now if the wrath of God were a passion, a person might well despair of quenching the flame that his many sins kindled. However, because the divine nature is passionless, God never punishes nor takes vengeance with wrath, but with tender care and much lovingkindness. So we must be of much good courage and trust in the power of repentance.

God does not punish for his own sake even those who have sinned against him, for nothing can harm that divine nature. Rather, to our advantage he acts to prevent our perverseness from worsening by our habitually neglecting him. Even a person who places himself outside the light inflicts no loss on the light. But shut up in darkness, he suffers the greatest loss himself. Similarly, he who habitually despises that almighty power, does no injury to the power, but inflicts the greatest possible injury on himself. And for this reason God threatens us with punishments—and often inflicts them—not as avenging himself, but by way of drawing us to himself."

The Reality of Hell.......Do you Believe it exists ?

St. Faustina - May Become a Doctor of the Church

The hatred of satan for Divine Mercy

From the Diary of St. Faustina 

1405   -   November 30, 1937. When I was going upstairs this evening, a strange dislike for everything having to do with God suddenly came over me. At that, I heard Satan who said to me, "Think no more about this work. God is not as merciful as you say He is. Do not pray for sinners, because they will be damned all the same, and by this work of mercy you expose your own self to damnation. Talk no more about this mercy of God with your confessor and especially not with Father Sopocko and Father Andrasz." At this point, the voice took the appearance of my Guardian Angel, and at that moment I replied, "I know who you are: the father of lies [cf. Jn. 8:44]." I made the sign of the cross, and the angel vanished with great racket and fury. 



When we think of the power of Divine Mercy for souls, do we ourselves ask in our hearts, what are we doing to save souls, so many who are now in danger.  If we hear of a person who is ill, dying or suffering with addiction problems, or a person in prison on death row, do we pray for them sincerely the Chaplet of Mercy to enable that soul to receive God's Mercy at the hour of death.  We can offer our daily sufferings in union with Christ Crucified for the sake of others, as well as offering our prayers.  Every interior act of self giving is valuable to Jesus and let Him do as He wishes with it.  Our lives are short on this earth.  The sufferings in hell will never end.  Think about that ...do we want anyone to suffer eternal damnation ?  The Saints fought hard for souls, offering their sufferings in union with Jesus Crucified.  We have been given a great grace in the Devotion of Divine Mercy for these times, a grace unparalleled in any other time in history.  

How are we responding to this request from Christ Himself ?  How will we answer to God for the souls lost if we pay no heed to His Pleas to pray the Chaplet of Mercy for souls, to respect the Sunday of Divine Mercy and to spread the Message of this great indulgence to as many souls as possible, to get His Image into as many Churches and homes as possible.  We do not know what lies ahead of us, but Jesus does know, He is preparing us for the most difficult times in our Church which lay ahead.  Perhaps the Image of Jesus will be our only consolation in the times to come, where many Churches may be closed, Priests persecuted or martyred....remember this is happening in some countries now, where Catholics and Christians are under persecution and Churches destroyed and Priests killed....let us pray for Gods Mercy as now the Church is entering into its Calvary..but it will be triumphant as the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.  

St. John Eudes

Soul of Christ - Anima Christi

Feast of Divine Mercy

The Feast of Divine Mercy was celebrated with joy yesterday in Parishes throughout Ireland and the whole world.  We give thanks to God for His great Mercy which is unfathomable.  We pray that next year on the 7th April 2013 we may celebrate it in many other Parishes.  In the meantime let us go forward and continue to promote this devotion properly and go deeper into the meaning of Mercy and the Message of St. Faustina.  This is a devotion which is hated much by the evil one but it is important to remember to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and not on the problems or difficulties.  He will help us to overcome our own weaknesses and sins if we truly rest on His Most Merciful Heart.  

Words from Bl. John Paul II

Bl. Pope John Paul II said in his address which he gave when he visited the tomb of Sister Faustina at the convent of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Lagiewniki, Poland, back in 1997.

 “There is nothing that man needs more than Divine Mercy. … And it is a message that is clear and understandable for everyone. Anyone can come here, look at this image of the merciful Jesus, his heart radiating grace, and hear in the depths of his own soul what Blessed Faustina heard: ‘Fear nothing; I am with you always.’ And if this person responds with a sincere heart: ‘Jesus, I trust in you,’ he will find comfort in all his anxieties and fears. ...

On the threshold of the third millennium I come to entrust to him once more my Petrine ministry: ‘Jesus, I trust in you!’ “The message of Divine Mercy has always been near and dear to me. It was an inexhaustible source of hope for the Polish people during World War II. This was also my personal experience, which I took with me to the See of St. Peter and which, in a sense, forms the image of this pontificate. I give thanks to divine Providence that I have been enabled to contribute personally to the fulfillment of Christ’s will, through the institution of the feast of Divine Mercy [in Poland]. … I pray unceasingly that God will have ‘mercy on us, and on the whole world.’”

The Saints on Gods Mercy

St. Athanasius (d.373) wrote, "It is the great Mercy of God that He becomes the Father of those to whom He is first the Creator."

St. Ambrose (d.397) stated, "Mercy, also, is a good thing, for it makes men  perfect, in that it imitates the perfect Father. Nothing graces the Christian  soul so much as mercy."

St. John Chrysostom (d.407) explained, "Everything that God does is born  of His Mercy and His clemency."

St. Augustine (d.430) prayed, "I confess, O Lord, that Thou art merciful in  all Thine acts. And this Saint explained that "God's 
Mercy is not lacking to  any of His works" Also he wrote that "Man, created in the image of God,  is not of the same nature as God, and therefore is not His true son, but he  becomes His son through the grace of Divine Mercy." St. Augustine  speaks of mercy "flying" after him as if on wings. This same Saint referred  to the Holy Eucharist as the "Sacrament of Mercy."

St. Benedict (d.547) taught that one should "never despair of God's  mercy."

Pope St. Gregory I (d.604) asked, "Are you a sinner? Then believe in His  [God's] mercy, that you may rise."

St. Bernard (d.1153) taught that "God is not the Father of Judgement, but  only the Father of Mercy, and punishment comes from our own selves."