Hi everyone! Welcome to this lecture as we prepare to celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday at the three o’clock hour which is 3:00 o’clock today. We will be reciting the Chaplet together; Jesus makes a promise to St. Faustina that every person that makes the Chaplet at least once in their life, they’re pretty much guaranteed of God’s mercy and entrance into heaven.
I’m going to tell you a little bit more about this but if you wouldn’t mind, please like this, share it on your timeline, do a Facebook watch party on whatever to get more and more people to hear this message of Divine Mercy because what Jesus asks is that we can get this message out to the entire world. If you saw this lecture yesterday, I’m going to give the same lecture today and prepare people for this Divine Mercy Chaplet that we’re going to pray at 3:00 o’clock today.
While I’m doing that, I’m going to share it on a couple Facebook groups that I’m a part of so if you would like to join there’s one group called Friends of Father Michael Denk and that’s just people that know me and like me. Whenever I want to share something with them, of course if you can, like our Holy Family web page, so if you go to Facebook and click Holy Family Stow and like our web page, you’ll be notified about anytime that we go live. You may have noticed at Mass that we have a beautiful recording and sound. We just get really good sound and audio; thank you Carl for all your help with that. I am going to scroll down and all you do is click the little share button there. Click share and then you can pick whatever group that you want to share it to and it’ll go to that group.
Right now, I’m just going to take a moment and share that with different Facebook groups here. One of them that I like to share obviously is our parish website and then I also like to share with a couple of groups that I’ve created called Friends of Father Michael, The Prodigal Father. So, we’ll take a moment just to share before we begin with the prayer. Right now, I’m sharing it on our Holy Family page Holy Family Parish in Stow and then I’m going to share it with Friends of Father Michael Denk because the cool thing is if you join a group you’ll be notified when something happens. A lot of time if you’re just friends with me, we have 5000 Facebook friends, and you’re not going to get notified anytime that I do anything, but you will if you join one of the groups. So again, I’m just sharing that on the groups right now, and if you wouldn’t mind sharing it on any groups that you are a part of, or if you could just share it on your timeline, that’s going to help more people come to know about the message of Divine Mercy. If you’re afraid to share it, just click the like button or the heart button and that will help us out as well too.
Alright, is anybody on the Holy Family Facebook page? Could you see if I shared it with that group? I’m going to do one last share, and then we’re ready to go. Alright, we should be good to go.
I love the opportunity to talk about Divine Mercy most of all, because Jesus said to Saint Faustina that the priests are supposed to speak of His mercy. I just spent the last 2 1/2 hours hearing confessions that we decided to do confessions today from noon to 3:00 PM; So, it was wonderful just to celebrate the sacrament of confession. Especially people that have been away from their faith for a long time that really got to experience the mercy of God.
Jesus says that Saint Faustina’s nickname is the Apostle of Mercy. St. Faustina the Apostle of Mercy. Wouldn’t it be cool to have like a nickname like that after you die? We will find out that she’s continuing to live and intercede for us. Jesus tells her, “Run through the world and tell them of my infinite mercy. If sinners recite this Chaplet only once, they will be saved.”
That’s a pretty amazing promise, “If sinners recite this chaplet only once, they will be saved.” That means if you’re a sinner and you recite this Chaplet only once in your life you will be safe. But imagine all the people in your family right now, your brothers or sisters or parents or children, maybe there are people away from the faith, if you could share this with them right now and have them recite the Divine Mercy Chaplet, Jesus gives us this promise that if they recite it only once they will be saved. So, share the message, go out to the whole world. Literally you can do this on the whole world right now through social media, sharing on your timeline, share it on Twitter, share it on Instagram. Whatever you can do to help people know about this wonderful opportunity that we have at 3:00 PM today to pray that Divine Mercy Chaplet together.
She says, “Tell my priests that hardened sinners will crumble beneath their words when they speak of my mercy.” I love that because I just trust. I trust in Jesus, and I trust that what He said to Divine Saint Faustina that even the most hardened sinner will crumble beneath the words that I speak as a priest. It says nothing about me, but it says everything about the eternal priesthood of Jesus Christ that Christ can speak through my words, through my mouth, through my face, through my heart, and help even the person that is so stuck in their sin crumble before Him. And that’s really in a good way because if you look at something that has becomes so hard and people that have become so hard usually there’s a lot of anger, there’s a lot of resentment, there’s a lot of fear, there’s a lot of shame. All of that just hardens a person up and Jesus is saying right now that that person will crumble whenever a priest speaks about the mercy of God.
So again, if you could share this with the people that you love especially people that may be away from the faith or people that may have a hardened heart. During this hour, as we prepare for Divine Mercy, their hearts can crumble, and they’ll become the people that God has always wanted them to be. God is so gentle; He’s so gentle when he crumbles the heart. It is done in such a way that is gentle and so beautiful that the person will come out with new life and they’re going to be thanking you forever for sharing this message with them. He promises her, I will give them wonderful powers and we will touch the hearts to which they speak.
He’s going to give me, because I’m a priest, wonderful powers to touch all of your hearts during this time together. I have great trust in that and great faith in that again not because of me but because of my priesthood, because of who I am in my ordination.
In her conversations with the merciful God, she talks about the merciful God and the despairing soul. I want you to think about well maybe you are. Maybe you feel like you’re a despairing soul, but if you’re not, people in your life that might be despairing right now. Jesus says this to the despairing soul, “Oh soul steeped in darkness do not despair all is not yet lost. Come confide in your God who is love and mercy but the soul death even to this appeal wraps itself in darkness.” Jesus calls out again, “My child, listen to your Merciful Father.” I love this because it’s kind of like a really sad movie or a horrible movie where it ends tragically and badly and there’s no redemption but you hear Jesus say, “Oh my soul steeped in darkness and despair all is not lost it’s not all lost.”
Maybe in your life, you’ve been caught in sin and addiction, and you’ve lost your job and you’ve lost your family and you’ve lost the people closest to you. Maybe you’ve lost your children. You’ve lost it all, you’ve lost everything, and He says, “Do not despair all is not yet lost.” I love that after He says that, He says, “The soul wraps himself in darkness.” So, the soul hears it a little bit and then says it wrapped itself in darkness, and Jesus calls out again, “My child, listen to the voice of your Merciful Father.”
I want to talk throughout this about that phrase, Merciful Father. When we had the Year for Mercy back in 2009, maybe 15 years ago, that was the theme of Merciful Father. We all know how much I love the image of the Prodigal Father. The image of God the Father’s love is that He is so prodigal in His love that He wants to just give His love, He wants to give His mercy. He wants to give us more than we ever could imagine or experience in giving to us. The whole idea is Jesus came to show us who God really is. That God is not this judge that’s waiting for us to do something wrong. I think there’s a whole generation of, we’ll call them the World War II generation, which is that’s what they’ve learned or comes to know of God, that he’s just this God that is a wrathful God that’s waiting to come down on his children. And Jesus says, “No my child; listen to the voice of your Merciful Father.”
In discerning the spirits, there are three voices that operate on us:
- The voice of God
- The voice of the enemy
- The voice of ourselves
The voice of God is always the voice of love. Always the voice that increases our faith, our hope, and our love. If we’re on course sometimes, we’re going to hear a voice that is not loving, a voice that is kind of jarring, a voice that kind of is disturbing. God will do anything that He can to get to you because He loves you and so if He needs to use those measures until we’ve converted until we’ve kind of been turned to Him, we don’t experience that love in that mercy. He is love and mercy but we experience it in a different way because we are turned away from Him. Jesus continues on with Faustina and He says, “My daughter, tell the whole world about my inconceivable mercy.” Inconceivable means we can’t even conceive of the idea of His mercy: “And tell the whole world about it.”
It’s interesting because when Faustina received these messages, she was in a convent, and she wanted to tell the world and she was unable to go out and proclaim it. Even after she died, and her Diaries were compiled they began to be distributed and there was a sensor on them. They weren’t allowed to go out, and it took time after time and trial after trial for them to get out. Now the Diaries are out, the messages are out but the funny thing is a lot of people still don’t know about it. A lot of priests still don’t know about it and so we have to continue to take this message out. Jesus says, “My daughter, tell the whole world about My inconceivable mercy. I desire the Feast of Mercy to be a refuge in a shelter for All Souls.” That means that this feast of that Divine Mercy is a refuge and a shelter for All Souls. If you think about it right now, we’re taking refuge where we have stay-at-home orders. Well, the Divine Mercy is a kind of come-home moment for All Souls. Especially a refuge, a safe place where we’re looking for ways to be safe right now this feast day is a refuge; it’s a refuge in a safe place where souls can go to be with our Lord and to be safe.
“On that day, the very depths of My tender mercy are open.” That’s today. The very depths of His mercy are open. “I poured a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of my mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishments. On that day, all the divine floodgates through which the graces floor opened let no soul fear to draw near to me even though its sins be scarlet. My mercy is great that no mind be it of man or Angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity.”
We’re never going to be able to wrap our minds around how merciful our Father is and Jesus is. “Everything that exists comes forth from the very depths of my tender mercy; every soul in its relation to me will contemplate my love and mercy through all throughout all eternity.” We’re going just to be contemplating His love and His mercy throughout all of eternity.
“My love and My mercy, the feast of mercy emerged from the very depths of My tenderness.” Where does this mercy come from on this feast day? It comes from the tenderness of our God. Think of Jesus when He said when He was teaching the disciples how to pray, and he, said, “Call God ABBA, Father, daddy.” God is the tender daddy that we’re all looking for and searching for and He says, “It is My desire that it be solemnly celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter. Mankind will not have peace until it turns through to Divine Mercy.” Divine Mercy Sunday is the first Sunday after Easter which is today the first Sunday after Easter.
There’s a neat story about this in her diary because when Jesus revealed this to her and said that I want this to be celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter. He told her to go and tell the Bishop this, that He wants this Feast of Divine Mercy. She goes and she tells her Bishop this, and by the way her Bishop was not really happy about these messages and revelations. Bishops rarely are for some reason. She goes to the Bishop, and tells him this message and she says, “Jesus told me that the first Sunday after Easter is supposed to be Divine Mercy Sunday.” And the Bishop says, “Well it already is. We already have it.” She returns to Jesus and says, “The Bishop told me that we already have Divine Mercy Sunday.” Jesus looked at Saint Faustina and He said, “Who knows about it? Who knows about Divine Mercy Sunday?” She goes back and relays the message to the Bishop.
We didn’t have Divine Mercy Sunday actually declared to be Divine Mercy Sunday I think until the year that the Holy Father, Pope Francis, declared Divine Mercy Sunday or was it John Paul II? Any of you know when we celebrated the first Divine Mercy Sunday? It was in the last 5-10 years that it became Divine Mercy Sunday.
All these years later we’re finally getting at this message of Jesus. He says, “Mankind will not have peace until it turns to the font of My mercy.” He’s saying, we’re not going to experience peace. We’re not going to experience peace politically in our country. We’re not going to experience peace in our world. We’re not going to experience peace in our families. We won’t experience peace in our hearts until we really celebrate this Divine Mercy Sunday and the reality of His mercy.
Jesus reveals that it pains God so much that we don’t trust Him and experience Him as merciful, causes him so much pain that we don’t experience God is merciful, that we don’t experience God and trust. So, it pains Jesus. The whole reason he came into the world was to show us that we have this loving Father, we have this daddy. God is merciful. There are two types of people, the older generation that says, “I wasn’t brought up that way. For me God is the judge, He’s condemning, He’s making sure you do everything right. If you’re not He’s going to punish you.” That’s the image they have. Then we have this other image. I think nowadays that is all I know God’s loving, I know he’s love. God is love. Do you really know it? Have you experienced His love for you, or do you just know it by knowledge? I know that God is love. Because until we’ve experienced God as loving and merciful, we have a distorted image of who God is and if we have a distorted image of who God is that will distort what we know of love and how we love those who are before us.
So, this Divine Mercy is calling us to experience and encounter God the Father as tender, gentle, loving, and ABBA. A daddy who delights in you, He’s wild about you. You can do no wrong in his eyes. We have to really come to know God the Father in this way.
Why am I speaking about mercy so much? For one I’m supposed to. So as a priest, I’m called to spread this message of Divine Mercy but I’ve also in my life experienced mercy and I’ve been privileged to sit in what’s called the front-row seat of the theater of God’s grace. I sit in the front-row seat to the theater of God’s grace and see God merciful to his people. Most especially through Confession. I get to experience God being merciful through me through His Father to His people and I get to see what that does to the people before me. It’s absolutely amazing.
I’ve loved going to Confession. I’ve loved going since the time I was a child. Those are my happiest days as a child going to Confession and then riding my bike back home after Confession and feeling the weight of the world lifted off me. I loved going as I went into the seminary and had a huge conversion and confessed all the sins that I’ve ever done in my grade school, college, high school years. I love going to Confession now. I love the opportunity when I get to go to my confessor and just lay it all out there and be totally honest, and I experience unconditional love and mercy from him. And I hope that I do that as a priest for people and they hope that you’ve had that experience and Confession. You’ve experienced this tenderness of God the father through His priests. If you haven’t, I would just encourage you to try again and maybe try with a different priest or just know that sometimes priests have bad days; we’re human, but give God another chance.
There are two tips that I always like to say about Confession. First of all, don’t be afraid to confess, and I would encourage you to confess the deepest darkest most shameful thing that you can think about. That sin that you’re so afraid to bring to God or so afraid that anybody would find out about or so embarrassed or so ashamed by. Whatever that sin is deep down to bring it to Confession, and you’ll feel His freedom and experience. The second thing is there’s no unforgivable sin. There is no sin that will not be forgiven. He’s so merciful. No matter what you have done or what you have failed to do whatever that is in your life it can and will be forgiven in the sacrament of Confession. I want you to hear that again. Whatever the deepest darkest sin is that you have in your life, bring it to the light confess it; you’ll be freed from it. Secondly there’s no unforgivable sin so there is nothing that you have ever done or could do that cannot be forgiven in the sacrament of Confession. That’s amazing. I think sometimes the devil gets to us and makes us think that there’s some sin that is so bad, we better never speak about it. We better never bring it up and that’s him keeping you trapped. Because if you bring it up in the light, it loses all its stronghold for you all the darkness and just like that the hope and that joy and all of the life, the light in your eyes will come back. There’s no unforgivable sin so don’t ever think there’s anything that you can do that can’t or won’t be forgiven in Confession.
On April 11, 2015, this is the year that we had of Divine Mercy, but this was that Divine Mercy Sunday that the Holy Father stood before the holy doors of Saint Peter’s Basilica and announced this historic and extraordinary event Jubilee Year of Mercy Jesus. Christ is the face of the father’s mercy; it was Pope Francis where he says in the opening of his papal bull, you’re recording the face of mercy in this light; merciful like the father is the motto he chose for the jubilee year and it comes from Luke: 6:36, be merciful just as your father is merciful; God is your father, and God is merciful and He is tender and He loves you. An ordinary year of mercy would kind of highlight Pope Francis’s message, and that is of mercy; that’s what he’s from the very beginning and throughout his pontificate, it’s always been a message of mercy.
Saint John Paul the second, wrote in one of his books that the limit imposed upon evil of which man is both perpetrator and victim is ultimately Divine Mercy. The limit imposed upon evil. God for some reason permits and allows evil in our world but he says that there is a limit to it and the limit that is imposed upon it of which man is both perpetrators, so sometimes we cause it and sometimes it happens to us, is ultimately Divine Mercy. Divine Mercy is what stops the evil and Pope Francis explains here, then, is the reason for the jubilee because this is the time for mercy; it’s the favorable time to heal wounds, the time not to be wary of meeting all those who are waiting to see and touch with their hands the signs of the closeness of God, the time to offer everyone the way of forgiveness and reconciliation. Over and over again we hear in the diary that the father is merciful and if you ever doubt God the Father’s mercy, if you ever doubt that He could forgive your sins or even the reality of you being a Sinner, there’s a sin that you can’t let go of, read The Diary, read her diary straight through and you’ll see. It’s thick right, you’ll see over and over and over again His mercy; trust in his mercy. God’s mercy is greater than your sin. Jesus, I trust in you.
For me as a seminarian, I didn’t know about Divine Mercy. Maybe I did from my mother, I probably did but when I went into the seminary, I was given my first copy of Saint Faustina’s diary. Now, St. Faustina’s diary is pretty big and in the seminary you have a lot of reading so often, I just put the book on my shelf because I was kind of reading all this stuff and this looked really big and and over the years people would just keep handing me Diaries so before you knew it I had like four or five or six Diaries of her stacked up in my shelf at the seminary. Now you think it would have been like, listen Michael, I want you to read this, you know, but I just didn’t listen; I stacked the diary up and I never read it. Well, it wasn’t until this Jubilee Year of Mercy in 2015, I’d already been a priest for four years, that I finally read the Diary. And when I read her diary, it just so blew me away, and instilled in me the reality of God the Father’s love. And so, God the Father had been revealing it to me in the image of the Prodigal Father over these years, God the Father’s love for both of his children, but this
Divine Mercy message really helped me to rest concretely in that reality, that that’s who God is; He is a merciful Father. And that title and image of God is one that we can hold onto above all the other attributes that God has. Merciful Father is the attribute that He is revealing and wants us to know in the revelations that He gave through Saint Faustina.
He said to Saint Faustina, “Today,” He told her, “I’m sending you with my mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My merciful heart.” So, do you hear that? I want to read that again. He tells Saint Faustina, “I do not desire to punish.” Ok, so if you have the image of God, the Father being a punishing God, can you let that go? Can you trust that Jesus is revealing something different to us? Even though we have all these stories in the Old Testament and all these, and these are all ways in which we experience God on different levels and we need to…but right now He wants you to experience Him as merciful. So, He does not desire to punish aching mankind. He knows that mankind is aching; He knows the pain of His children. So, I don’t desire to punish mankind but to heal it, pressing it to my merciful heart. I want you to just for a moment to think about that image. He wants, instead of punishing you, to heal you, and He wants to press you to His heart. And so, I just want you to do that for a moment. Picture Jesus, or picture God the Father, seeing your sin that you are caught up in; He knows it. And He doesn’t want to come down heavy-handed on you, and He doesn’t want to punish you; He just wants to take you to Himself and hold you close to His heart. Isn’t that beautiful? Can you really believe that that’s how God wants to be with you?
I just want you to rest for a moment in that. So, He says that, “You are to be my secretary, of my mercy. I have chosen you for that office in this and the next life.” So, He has made Saint Faustina the secretary of this office of Divine Mercy in this life and in the next life. He is revealing to her and us that we have this Saint that will continue to reveal this message of Mercy to us. That this reality that we believe in our Catholic faith, that life after death has changed not ended. So, we continue to have relationships with those that have gone before us in eternal life and Saint Faustina, she’s a Saint, and able to do that, she’s able to relate to you and to bring this message of mercy to you and will continue to do it so don’t be surprised if you end up with a diary on your doorstep.
So, finally, for me, I read this Diary over and over and over again and I just loved it. So, He says, “to make known to souls the great mercy that I have for them and to exhort them to trust in the bottomless depths of My mercy.” So, to exhort is a strong teaching. He wants her to proclaim the strong teaching that we must trust in the bottomless depths of His mercy. His mercy is so deep, it’s deeper than any sin that we have and we are to trust in that. I just invite you and I ask you, do you trust in the depths of His mercy?
He says, “no soul will be justified until he turns with confidence to my Mercy.” So, there’s no other way to get to heaven except through His mercy.
“And that is why the first Sunday after Easter is to be the feast of Divine Mercy, and that that day, the priests are to tell everyone about my great and unfathomable Mercy.” So, I’m telling you His great and unfathomable Mercy!
Whew!! I got that done! I did what I am supposed to do as a priest. I love being able to do that, but it’s my obligation, and all of our priests’ obligations to tell about His great and unfathomable Mercy.
So, God the Father is so merciful; His mercy will go beyond anything you have ever done, and you can trust Him. Not only can you trust Him, you need to trust Him; you need to trust in His mercy; that’s the only way out of sin. So maybe you thought you would get your way out of sin. Maybe you thought you would be the one to repair your broken relationship. It’s only through His mercy, through His love, that that will come about.
Then Jesus says to her, “My daughter, do you think that we have written enough about mercy?” Now, remember I told you, her diary is this big. I love Jesus because he is so darn funny. Like Jesus, whenever you pray or talk to Him, He’s human, and Has a great sense of humor. So He asks Faustina, “Do you think you have written enough about My mercy?” And Faustina has written now, you know, well the diary was probably written much more and written over and over again and compiled until its finally in its final form. And then He says to her, “What you’ve written about my mercy is but a drop in the ocean.” So, imagine dedicating your whole life to the Divine Mercy message, writing this amazing diary that’s this big, and the He says that’s just a drop of my mercy. I am Love and Mercy itself. So, He’s not only the qualities of love and mercy; that’s His identity. I am Love and Mercy. When Jesus says I am, He’s revealing who He truly is. You know that the I am is the ultimate God the Father, but He is saying, I am love and mercy. God the Father, I am love and mercy, that who God is, so if you think of God as anything other than love and mercy, you got the wrong God or you got the wrong image of God.
Isn’t this great, this message? “What you have written about me is but a drop in the ocean. I am Love and Mercy. There is no misery that can be a match for my mercy. Neither will misery exhaust it because it is being granted. It increases. The soul that trusts in my mercy is most fortunate because I Myself will take care of it.” That is so beautiful. “No misery can be a match for My mercy.” There is no shameful, despicable, horrible, awful thing you have ever done that could match His mercy. That’s the reality. “Neither will misery exhaust it.” So even if you keep doing it, even if you keep living in this misery of sin, it won’t exhaust His mercy. Because “it is being granted, it increases,” so His mercy increases. He continues to be more and more and more merciful to us. So maybe you’ve had some experience of conversion, maybe you’ve experienced His mercy so far in this life. Well, there’s only going to be more, and there’s only going to more in this life, but not only in this life but in eternal life; we’re going to continue to experience more and more and more of His love and Mercy. I mean, that’s heaven, right? If you’ve experienced even a little bit of it on earth, imagine how much we will experience in heaven. And He says, finally, the soul that trusts in my mercy is most fortunate because I myself will take care of it. If you trust in His mercy, He is going to take care of you; He’s going to take care of the situation.
Actually, that’s all He is asking you to do. He is your dad; let Him take care of you; let Him take care of the situation you’ve gotten yourself into. You know, as a parent, I think one of the most painful things as a parent has to be watching their children get into a bad situation but refusing to come to them for help. The parent wants nothing more than to help the child. God, the Father wants nothing more than to take care of you. And He says, “The soul that trusts in my mercy is most fortunate because I myself will take care of it.” He’s not even going to send an angel, not even other people; God Himself is going to take care of that misery.
So, He’s giving Faustina this retreat, and He says in this retreat, “that I am giving you not only peace but also such a disposition of soul that even if you wanted to experience uneasiness, you could not do so. My love has taken possession of your soul and I want you to be confirmed in it. Bring your ear close to my heart, forget everything else, and meditate upon the wonders of my mercy; my love will give you the strength and the courage you need in these matters.”
I hope this last time we’ve shared together has been a little retreat for you. A time for you to grow in understanding God’s mercy. I want to repeat that phrase: “bring your ear close to my heart.” So, I want you to put your ear close to the Father’s heart and Jesus’ heart and forget about everything else right now. And just meditate now on my wonderous mercy. (pause) Has anything during this talk so far stirred up a good image of mercy for you? Just meditate on that. “My love will give you strength and courage that you need in these matters.” (pause) I want you to spend just a moment of silence, I want you to put your ear close to the Father’s heart, who is merciful and loving, and I want you to meditate on what you’ve heard of this mercy. Is there anything new that you’ve come to know and experience of God; is there anything about it that has brought you, Peace and Joy? I just want you to hold onto that for a moment. (pause)
We’ve got just a couple of minutes here as we prepare to celebrate and to pray together the Divine Mercy Chaplet. I want you to be in a place of great peace and trust. Just try to rest there. (pause) Now let me know in the comments section, is there any part of this that’s been good for you. Is there any part of this that has helped you to come to know and trust in the mercy of God the Father? In just a moment, we are going to pray the Chaplet together. And then, after we pray the chaplet together, I will read to you a little bit more about things to observe on this Divine Mercy Sunday and how you can observe them at this time. I will grab my Rosary really quick.
And again, this is the last time you’ll have to share it on your timeline because if a person prays this Divine Mercy novena at least once in their life, Jesus is promising their salvation. So, this is a wonderful opportunity right now, on Divine Mercy Sunday at three o’clock hour.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.
“You expired, Jesus, but the source of life gushed forth for souls, and the ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world.
O Fount of life, of unfathomable
Divine Mercy, envelope the whole world and empty yourself out upon us.
O blood and water which gushed forth from the heart of Jesus, as a fount of Mercy for us, I trust in you.
O blood and water which gushed forth from the heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us, I trust in you.
O blood and water which gushed forth from the heart of Jesus as a fount of Mercy, I trust in you.”
Our Father, Who art in Heaven,
Hallowed by Thy name,
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done
On Earth, as it is in Heaven,
Give us this day our daily bread and
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those
Who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil. Amen.
Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with Thee,
Blessed art thou amongst women and
Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners now and
At the hour of our death. Amen.
I believe in God, the Father Almighty
Creator of Heaven and Earth,
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
Born of the Virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilot
Was crucified, died, and was buried
He descended into Hell
On the third day, He rose again from the dead,
He ascended into Heaven
And is seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty
From there, He will come to judge the living and the dead
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church
The communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins,
The resurrection of the body
And life everlasting. Amen.
Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood,
Soul and Divinity of your dearly beloved Son,
Our Lord, Jesus Christ. In atonement for our sins
And those of the whole world.
For the sake of His sorrowful passion.
Have mercy on us and on the whole world.
Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, Have mercy on us and the whole world.
Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, Have mercy on us and the whole world.
Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One. Have mercy on us and the whole world.
Eternal God in whom mercy is endless, and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us, and increase Your mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair, nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your Holy Will, which is Love and Mercy itself.
The Lord Be With You.
And With Your Spirit.
May Almighty God Bless You in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I (Father Denk) just want to read the essentials you observe on Divine Mercy Sunday. These are the seven observations, and certainly, this may be a time when it is difficult (during Covid) for you to do these, but we are going to do these as best as we can. So Divine Mercy typically involves large numbers of people gathering to celebrate Holy masses with God’s mercy and proclaimed by the priests. Obviously, we can’t get together in large gatherings, and so to fittingly observe the feast of mercy itself, we should:
- Celebrate the feast on Sunday, and the first Sunday after Easter, or its vigil
- Sincerely repent for your sins. If you haven’t been to confession, take some time today to sincerely repent for your sins. Repent means to turn away, which is a good thing; it’s not just a harsh reality, but repent means a turning toward God. So, can you do that today? Sincerely repent for your sins and turn towards God, the merciful Father.
- Place your complete trust in Jesus. Jesus, I trust in You! Place your complete trust in Him with everything. And as you look at this image, Jesus asked Saint Faustina, when it was painted, to have it in the bottom there to say, Jesus, I trust in You. So, on every Divine Mercy image at the bottom of it or below it, you will see that phrase, Jesus, I trust in you.
- Go to confession, preferably before the feast, so hopefully, you’ve gone to confession already in the last couple of weeks. That would count, if you did that. If you haven’t been able to do that, go to confession as soon as you can. If you cannot make it to confession, maybe you are unable to get out of the house, or you don’t feel safe, make a good act of contrition.
- Receive Holy Communion on the day of the feast or its vigil. If you cannot receive Holy Communion, at least here in the parish or diocese of Cleveland, but maybe you are somewhere else in the world, we can also receive by Spiritual Communion. So, if you ever go to mass and you cannot receive communion, maybe because it’s your state of life or a sin that you are in or mortal sin, or divorce, you can always receive a Spiritual Communion. And you can do that now. If you’ve done that at mass or if your priest led you through a Spiritual Communion, that’s good. If you cannot do it or missed mass, you can make a Spiritual Communion on your own; just ask Jesus to be united to you, and that’s a Spiritual Communion.
- Venerate the image of Divine Mercy. That’s why I have the image shown here; to venerate means to look upon, to gaze upon, so just to take some time looking at it, to gaze upon it. You can also kiss it or reverence it. Spend some time venerating the image. Put it in a place of prominence today, so that your whole family can venerate it. Many people are putting a Divine Mercy image on their front door, and the glass of their front door so that everybody that sees their house will see the Mercy of God. It’s kind of like the blood of the lamb being put on the door to guard them against the angel. This could be what you do, put Jesus, who is the lamb whose only way out of evil is Divine Mercy, on your door. He said that in the Diary, that’s kind of like the stop gap; it ends with His Divine Mercy.
- Be merciful to others through your actions, words, or prayers on their behalf. If you can see someone in person, do that, some kind of action of mercy. Maybe it’s reconciling with somebody, and maybe it’s doing something kind, even though you just want to wring their neck. Or its words, say kind words, give them affirmation. And finally, prayers. To pray on their behalf.
So, this has been a wonderful day of God’s Mercy, and may it continue to be Mercy. My hope is that you will continue to dwell on His Mercy and Love. There is also more that you can find out if you go to divinemercy.org You can find out more too, but there’s the ability to receive a special indulgence today as well. And with an indulgence, there are a few conditions that apply, and you can do these somewhat easily, some are very hard.
- The first condition is to repent and to turn away from any sin, even venial sin, in your life.
- Secondly, celebrating what you just celebrated with me, the Divine Mercy Chaplet
- Thirdly, confession is a requirement
- Finally, to offer prayers for the Holy Father and our Holy Father, Pope Francis.
That’s what I want to end with, to pray for our Holy Father. We will do that with a simple Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be, and then you’ve met all the requirements for a plenary indulgence. So, we pray now for Our Holy Father, Pope Francis. We pray that he may continue to be a merciful sign of God the Father’s Love; we pray for his wisdom, for your guidance, and that you give him all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, that he can truly be a Holy Father for us. We pray for him and his intentions:
Our Father, Who art in Heaven
Hallowed be Thy name
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done
On Earth, as it is in Heaven
Give us this day, our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against us
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil, Amen
Hail Mary, full of Grace.
The Lord is with Thee
Blessed art Thou amongst women
And blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus
Holy Mary, Mother of God
Pray for us sinners
Now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son
And to the Holy Spirit
As it was in the beginning
Is now and ever shall be
A world without end. Amen.
The Lord Be With You.
May Almighty God Bless, you, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Come down upon you and remain with you forever. Go in Peace and continue to spread this wonderful message that we have of Divine Mercy. Please feel free to like this video, to share this video on your timeline because I would just love for more people to know about our merciful Father.
