We have departed the Lent season and have fully entered the Easter season which is the season of the Holy Spirit! God gave us Jesus, the Word made flesh. Jesus became the Lamb of God and was sacrificed to pay the price for our souls. Jesus was resurrected and brought to us the Holy Spirit, the Helper, who would stay with us and help us as we make our way along the path that Jesus forged for us to follow.
The Spirit gives us understanding, strength, determination and fills us with the light of God’s love! How awesome is THAT? It is important for us to pray to the Holy Spirit daily and ask that He give us a new heart, a heart of flesh not stone, so that we may love more fully and deeply, and ask Him for wisdom to understand what God is saying, or asking of us. Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the "advocate". An advocate is someone who supports you in need, urges you to do good things, defends you against bad things and pleads for your issues. Gives a whole new and glorious understanding to the critical nature of the Holy Spirit, doesn't it?
This Sunday, the 2nd Sunday of Easter, is also Divine Mercy Sunday adding to the season of the Holy Spirit, the season of Grace. Divine Mercy Sunday came about through the urgings of St. Faustina, a polish nun, who lived near the beginning of the 20th century and who experienced many divine revelations from our Lord. In her diary, she wrote how Jesus had told her: “I will pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of my mercy… . Let no one fear to draw near to me, even though their sins be as scarlet” (Diary, 699).
Pope John Paul II instituted the Divine Mercy Sunday:
“Throughout the world the Second Sunday of Easter will receive the name Divine Mercy Sunday, a perennial invitation … to face, with confidence in divine benevolence, the difficulties and trials that humanity will experience in the years to come.”
Pope John Paul II used these words to inaugurate Divine Mercy Sunday, a feast to be celebrated every year on the second Sunday of Easter.
There are two things above that just reach out and grab at me! 1) “…a perennial invitation…to face, with confidence in divine benevolence,…” and 2) “Let no one fear to draw near to me, even though their sins be as scarlet”. It leaves me speechless, actually. The unfathomable mercy, the eternal mercy of our God…the incredible love outpouring for us. I encourage you to experience the Divine Mercy Chaplet. To me it is the best of both worlds (The Cross and the Resurrection) because you immerse yourself in the Passion of our Lord and approach the fount of His mercy, the blood and water that gushed forth when His heart was pierced by the spear while on the cross. What is so wonderful about the Divine Mercy devotion is this: repeatedly Jesus told St. Faustina that people who turned away from Him caused him great sorrow and pain, but those who approached Him and took from the fount of His mercy gave him great happiness and filled Him with joy, instead of sorrow. The mantra of the Divine Mercy devotion, given to us by Jesus through St. Faustina, is “Jesus, I trust in you”. I encourage you to at least learn about Divine Mercy Sunday and St. Faustina and the Divine Mercy Chaplet even if you do not become devoted to this adoration. There is a link on the CLOTW site.
The responsorial psalm (Psalm 118: Give Thanks to the Lord) ends with “This is the day the Lord has made, let us be glad and rejoice in it.” During this Easter Season of grace, what are the things that you are rejoicing in?
In Christ through Mary,
Elaine