Sunday, May 1st, 2011
Ave Maria Meditations
Veneration of the Image
The image of Jesus, The Divine Mercy, is to have a special place of honor on the Feast of Mercy, a visual reminder of all that Jesus did for us through His Passion, Death, and Resurrection … and a reminder, too, of what He asks of us in return ? to trust Him and be merciful to others:
“I want the image to be solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter, and I want it to be venerated publicly so that every soul may know about it” (341).A Special Promise of Mercy
Our Lord’s promise to grant complete forgiveness of sins and punishment on the Feast of Mercy is recorded three times in the Diary of Saint Faustina, each time in a slightly different way:
“I want to grant a complete pardon to the souls that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion on the Feast of My mercy” (1109).
“Whoever approaches the Fountain of Life on this day will be granted complete forgiveness of sins and punishment” (300).
“The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion will obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment” (699). (more…)
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Tuesday, October 5th, 2010
One Minute Meditation
“My Heart overflows with great mercy for souls, and especially for poor sinners…it is for them that the Blood and Water flowed from My Heart as from a fount overflowing with mercy. For them I dwell in the tabernacle as King of Mercy. (Diary, 367)
words of our Merciful Savior to St. Faustina, feast day October 5th
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Monday, April 19th, 2010
Ave Maria Meditations
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| The Divine Mercy: PREPARING FOR THE SECOND COMING
Our Lord makes it very clear to Saint Faustina that this need to proclaim His message of mercy is urgent, because the world needs it as a preparation for His corning again: Speak to the world about My mercy…It is a sign for the end times. After it will come the Day of Justice (848) …You will prepare the world for My final coming (429) … Tell souls about this great mercy of Mine, because the awful day, the day of My justice, is near (965).
Repeatedly the Lord tells Saint Faustina that He is offering sinners the “last hope of salvation.” No matter how great our sins, He wants us to come back to Him, but we must respond now, while it is still the time of mercy: Before the Day of Justice, I am sending the Day of Mercy (1588)… I am prolonging the time of mercy for the sake of sinners. But woe to them if they do not recognize this time of My visitation (1160)…While there is still time, let them have recourse to the fountain of My mercy (848) … He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice (1146).
Our Lady, too, speaks to Saint Faustina about the urgency of the message of mercy: You have to speak to the world about His great mercy and prepare the world for the Second Coming of Him who will come, not as q merciful Savior, but as a just Judge. Oh how terrible is that day! Determined is the day of justice, the day of divine wrath. The angels tremble before it. Speak to souls about this great mercy while it is still the time for granting mercy (635).
Pope John Paul II seems to have a strong sense of this urgency. In 1981, at the Shrine of Merciful Love in Collevalenza, Italy, he stated that from the very beginning of his ministry he has considered the message of mercy as his “special task,” assigned to him by God “in the present situation of man, the Church and the world.” In four of his encyclicals he speaks repeatedly of the year 2000 as the “new Advent” and stresses that we are now living in a special time of preparation for the new coming of the Lord. He urges us “to implore God’s mercy for humanity in this hour of history … to beg for it at this difficult, critical phase of the history of the Church and of the world as we approach the end of the second millennium” (Rich in Mercy, 15). |
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Saturday, April 17th, 2010
Ave Maria Meditations
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| The Divine Mercy: MARY, MOTHER OF MERCY
”Hail Holy Queen, Mother of mercy … ” For centuries people have invoked Mary under this title, and now, in modem times, Pope John Paul II has presented it to us again to emphasize the unique role Mary plays in God’s eternal plan of mercy. In his encyclical letter Rich in Mercy, he devotes an entire section to Mary, the “Mother of Mercy.” She is the one, he explains, who has the deepest understanding of God’s mercy, the one who, more than anyone else, deserved and received mercy. Called in a special way to share her Son’s mission to reveal His love, she continues to proclaim His mercy “from generation to generation” (9).
For Saint Faustina, Mary was a constant source of God’s mercy, as mother, guardian, teacher, and intercessor. From Mary she received a special gift of purity, strength in suffering, and countless lessons on the spiritual life. “Mary is my Instructress,” she writes, “who is ever teaching me how to live for God (620) ‘” The more I imitate the Mother of God, the more deeply I get to know God (843) … before every Holy Communion, I earnestly ask the Mother of God to help me prepare my soul for the coming of her Son (114) … She has taught me how to love God interiorly and also how to carry out His will in all things (40) ‘” 0 Mary, my Mother, I place everything in your hands (79) … You are joy, because through you God descended to earth and into my heart” (40). |
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Thursday, April 15th, 2010
Ave Maria Meditations
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| The Eucharist: THE PRESENCE OF MERCY
In His great love for us, the Lord Jesus gave us a great miracle of mercy: the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist
Christ’s Resurrection into glory was not the final reason for the Incarnation, when God became man. The Incarnation looked forward to Jesus remaining with us to the end of time in the Eucharist. By this greatest miracle of His love, Jesus remains with us under the form of bread and wine, not only for our spiritual nourishment, but to be kept company by us as well.
In the Eucharist, Christ is fully present as He is in Heaven. The Eucharist, explains Pope Leo XIII, contains, “in a variety of miracles, all supernatural realities” (Encyclical Mirae Caritatis).
The Eucharist is central to devotion to the Divine Mercy, and many of the elements of the devotion are essentially Eucharistic – especially the image, the chaplet, and the Feast of Mercy. The image, with its red and pale rays, presents the Eucharistic Lord Jesus, whose Heart has been pierced and now pours forth blood and water as a fountain of mercy for us. It is the image of God’s sacrificial gift of mercy made present in every Mass. (more…) |
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Tuesday, April 13th, 2010
One Minute Meditation
“Jesus, I trust in you…You are burning with the desire to be loved and those in tune with the sentiments of Your Heart learn how to build the new civilization of love. A simple act of abandonment is enough to overcome the barriers of darkness and sorrow, of doubt and desperation. The rays of Your divine mercy restore hope.”
(Homily, JPII – Mercy Sunday, April 22, 2001)
O God, merciful Father, in your Son, Jesus Christ, you have revealed your love and poured it out upon us in the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, We entrust to you today the destiny of the world and of every man and woman. Bend down to us sinners, heal our weakness, conquer all evil, and grant that all the peoples of the earth may experience your mercy. In You, the Triune God, may they ever find the source of hope. Eternal Father, by the Passion and Resurrection of your Son, have mercy onus and upon the whole world!
(Act of consecration of the world to Jesus of the Divine Mercy by His Holiness, John Paul II on August 17, 2002 in the Shrine of Divine Mecy, Cracow, Poland)
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Sunday, April 11th, 2010
Ave Maria Meditations
Prayer to be merciful
Written by St. Maria Faustina
“O Lord. I want to be completely transformed into Your mercy and to be Your living reflection. 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 myself 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 (…) May Your mercy, O Lord, rest upon me” (Diary # 163).
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Thursday, February 4th, 2010
One Minute Meditation
For Holy Church and for Priests
O my Jesus, I beg You on behalf of the whole Church, grant it love and the light of Your Spirit and give power to the words of priests so that hardened hearts might be brought to repentance and return to You, O Lord.
Lord, give us holy priests. You Yourself maintain them in holiness. O Divine and Great High Priest, may the power of Your mercy accompany them everywhere and protect them from the devil’s traps and snares which are continually being set for the souls of priests.
May the power of Your mercy, O Lord, shatter and bring to naught all that might tarnish the sanctity of priests, for You can do all things. I ask You, Jesus, for a special blessing and for light for the priests before whom I will make my confessions throughout my lifetime. Amen.
~ St. Faustina
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Monday, October 5th, 2009
Ave Maria Meditations
With all the many things that could be said about the Apostle of Divine Mercy, St. Maria Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament, let us look at this beautiful litany of love to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament composed by the Saint.
Prayer of St. Faustina While in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament:
O Blessed Host, in whom is contained the testament of God’s mercy for us, and especially for poor sinners.
O Blessed Host, in whom is contained the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus as proof of infinite mercy for us, and especially to poor sinners.
O Blessed Host, in whom is contained life eternal and of infinite mercy, dispensed in abundance to us and especially to poor sinners.
O Blessed Host, in whom is contained the mercy of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit toward us, and especially toward poor sinners.
O Blessed Host, in whom is contained the infinite price of mercy which will compensate for all our debts, and especially those of poor sinners.
O Blessed Host, in whom is contained the fountain of living water which springs from infinite mercy for us, and especially for poor sinners.
(more…)
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Monday, May 4th, 2009
Ave Maria Meditations
O Mary, Immaculate Virgin, Pure crystal for my heart,
You are my strength, O sturdy anchor!
You are the weak heart’s shield and protection.
O Mary you are pure, of purity incomparable;
At once both Virgin and Mother,
You are beautiful as the sun, without blemish,
And Your soul is beyond all comparison.
Your beauty has delighted the eye of the Thrice – Holy – One.
He descended from heaven, leaving His eternal throne,
And took Body and Blood of Your heart,
And for nine months lay hidden in a Virgin’s heart.
O Mother, Virgin, purest of all lilies,
Your heart was Jesus’ first tabernacle on earth.
Only because no humility was deeper than yours.
Were You raised above the choirs of Angels and above all Saints.
O Mary, my sweet Mother,
I give you my soul, my body and my poor heart.
Be guardian to my life, Especially at the hour of death, in the final strife.
St. Faustina
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Saturday, April 18th, 2009
“BE MERCIFUL EVEN AS YOUR FATHER IS MERCIFUL”
(Lk 6:36)
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Thursday, April 9th, 2009
Ave Maria Meditations
The Divine Mercy Novena
Divine Mercy Devotionals at EWTN
Jesus asked that the Feast of the Divine Mercy be preceded by a Novena to the Divine Mercy which would begin on Good Friday. He gave St. Faustina an intention to pray for on each day of the Novena, saving for the last day the most difficult intention of all, the lukewarm and indifferent of whom He said:
“These souls cause Me more suffering than any others; it was from such souls that My soul felt the most revulsion in the Garden of Olives. It was on their account that I said: ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass Me by.’ The last hope of salvation for them is to flee to My Mercy.”
In her diary, St. Faustina wrote that Jesus told her:
“On each day of the novena you will bring to My heart a different group of souls and you will immerse them in this ocean of My mercy … On each day you will beg My Father, on the strength of My passion, for the graces for these souls.”
The different souls prayed for on each day of the novena are:
(more…)
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Sunday, October 5th, 2008
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Ave Maria Mediations
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O Blood and Water,
which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus
as a fount of Mercy for us,
I trust in You!
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O Blessed Host
O Blessed Host, in whom is contained the testament of God’s mercy for us,
and especially for poor sinners.
O Blessed Host, in whom is contained the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus
as proof of infinite mercy for us, and especially for poor sinners.
O Blessed Host, in whom is contained life eternal and of infinite mercy,
dispensed in abundance to us and especially to poor sinners.
O Blessed Host, in whom is contained the mercy of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit towards us, and especially towards poor sinners.
O Blessed Host, in whom is contained the infinite price of mercy which will compensate for all our debts, and especially those of poor sinners.???
(more…)
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