Contemplative Haven

15 Apr 2007 gabrielle

22 Responses to “Divine Mercy Sunday”

on 15 Apr 2007 at 11:58 am 1teresaanawim

Today at mass the only mention of Divine Mercy Sunday was made by a few sentences in the bulletin!

This week I went to confession and to a group chaplet at a shrine in preparation for today. I, and I can only guess how many others in the congregation , observed it quietly in our hearts today. Feeling sorta sad about that right now.
on 15 Apr 2007 at 4:02 pm 2gabrielle

I would be feeling sad about that too, teresa. I am blessed, because in my parish we’ve had a Divine Mercy Hour for several years now on Divine Mercy Sunday. I just got back a little while ago. We have Adoration, veneration of the Divine Mercy Image, prayer, song, and at the end, we have a first class relic of St. Faustina (a bone fragment) which we can venerate. It is always a very beautiful hour. Maybe next year you could find a parish near you which has a Divine Mercy Hour.
on 16 Apr 2007 at 12:32 am 3Carol

Wow, Gabrielle! You are so blessed there. Yes, Teresa, I too heard only, “And today is also Divine Mercy Sunday”– the extent of acknowledgement.

But it was Divine Mercy Sunday in our hearts 100%. I guess that’s what really matters. The utter gratitude that falls woefully short when compared to the Gift.

Incredible.
on 16 Apr 2007 at 6:34 am 4forget me not

They didn’t even mention it in my parish.
on 16 Apr 2007 at 7:53 am 5gabrielle

It seems there is still much work to be done in terms of getting the Divine Mercy message out. But it really has to start at the parish level, I guess. It’s not really that difficult to organize a Divine Mercy Hour between 3 and 4 pm on Divine Mercy Sunday. The first year we had ours, only a few people came; now, several years later, the church is fairly full.
on 16 Apr 2007 at 9:20 am 6forget me not

In our parish we’d have to convince the pastor first….
on 16 Apr 2007 at 6:25 pm 7Carol

I had a pastor like that once, FMN. Threw a big ol’ burlap bag over him and put him in the mommy van with two toddlers and a drooly dog ’til he said “ok.”

No, really, I ended up with the wrong guy — bagged the mayor instead. He said “ok” but we never found out to what.

Our pastor required being approached on holy, humble cat’s feet, so obviously, others approached him. He wasn’t just being “The Boss,” he was genuinely concerned with liberalism infiltrating the Church. He’d say “no” even when he spotted anyone but the Council coming to him… the Assoc. Pastor nominated me for a seat, and it happened. So I annoyed from within the Council after that.

When our next Pastor came along, praise God.. oh, praise God and a half!.. I approached him with the same honesty regarding Tabernacle disrespect, etc. He ended up hugging me (after discerning the real reason I had come forward, which was exactly as I’d said), and he tried to fix things a little better.

Even if it only plants a seed, the seed is planted. Doesn’t matter whether vinegar or bitter tears waters it. If it’s a holy seed, it’ll grow.
on 17 Apr 2007 at 2:51 pm 8JohnT

I am convinced that Divine Mercy should be the focus of a lot of our attention. The word Mercy comes to mind quite frequently in my internal life. I take it as a message.
on 17 Apr 2007 at 3:53 pm 9forget me not

A burlap bag, eh? Thanks for the tip…
on 17 Apr 2007 at 5:19 pm 10gabrielle

Hello, JohnT. The focus of a lot of our attention in our own spiritual lives, or in our spreading of the message, or both?

fmn, don’t you go getting yourself into trouble now. Carol’s full of the blarney, you know…and by the way, didn’t anybody like my Thrice Holy Hymn?
on 18 Apr 2007 at 11:21 am 11Carol

I did. It’s beautiful. But I’m not yet a softened soul, Gabrielle, and I still like the music of the world. I am still so far removed from images of mercy and Trinity, I feel as if a donkey happening upon a Nativity in which my breath is invited, but it startles me. And unfortunately, I speak more than I ought, when others are quieter than they ought to be. The more we reverse that, the better, please God.
on 18 Apr 2007 at 11:29 am 12Carol

Startles me into a holy and humble hush, I mean. I know that I am beast of burden, and I know my Creator, but as a donkey, I need for others to muse His unknown-to-me beauties; I welcome that without being able to say so. I basically can only stand here, dumb.

(Don’t kindly dissuade me of this.. it’s fact.)

So, get cookin’, people. Sing Him!!
on 19 Apr 2007 at 1:08 am 13gabrielle

Well, softened soul or not, I too like “the music of the world”; pretty much everything, except heavy metal and some rap As for you being a donkey, okay, I won’t bother trying to argue. Now, if you had said ass, that would have been another story.
on 20 Apr 2007 at 12:30 pm 14FruitLoopCity

Oh, that I most certainly am, but I knew folks –at least one, lol–would say, No no no! Not atall! And now I’m the one heading out for work, but I was just thinking how interesting it is lately for aging eyeballs to read without glasses. I am misreading all sorts of things, like reading “abortion” as “abandonment,” and I just read the Divine Mercy text as “Jesus, I miss you.” Even if misread, both are true.

Have a wonderful day, all. I’ll have moments wherein I pray for this one and that one from here throughout the day. It will be a rather sad day, too, for my lady Marion has been moved to a hospice, and so, I have lost two whole feet to lotion.. and I ask your prayer for her.

Thank you. I’ll look forward to looking in here later tonight..
on 21 Apr 2007 at 12:10 am 15gabrielle

I’m sorry about Marion. I’ll say a little prayer for her before I go to bed.

I do hope you wear your glasses at work. I really hope you do.
on 21 Apr 2007 at 11:27 pm 16OnTheMove

:-p — a gypsy doesn’t do glasses! I’ll just go on squinting and sticking my tongue out and holding newspapers at arms’ length, etc. Heck, my middle name is sublet. I mean, subtel. Wait.. subtle.

Poor Lady Marion. She only has days to live. That pisses me off. Why - I don’t know. She has had 97 years’ worth of days, after all.. But she doesn’t want to go, yet I know she’s being a big ol’ 4′7″ stoic over there at the hospice, and it just all pisses me off.

But thank you for prayer for her, and for Lady Janet. I can’t even talk about Janet.. she’s far worse off.

So much suffering in the world. Too much. Always.
on 21 Apr 2007 at 11:36 pm 17gabrielle

I have been wondering about Janet. I’m sorry.
on 22 Apr 2007 at 6:40 am 18Carol

I never dreamed anyone could fall through every possible crack there. It is more tricky than ever how to think of things in the medical world, like the medical prowess that saves soldiers’ bodies in Iraq to be shipped back here with many formerly fatal injuries to deal with now for life, and also the meds that keep an elderly body going for 15 years after it hits the bed completely dependently. Not that anyone should draw the line.. I don’t believe in that, but these folks languish in the interim until human life gets used to being saved well beyond where it used to. Thank you, tho’, for all your prayers for the aged.
on 22 Apr 2007 at 1:20 pm 19forget me not

So sorry about Janet and Marion, Carol (or “fruitloop city” …I’ve always loved fruitloops but can’t get any over here beyond the horizon… )
I agree, science has practically turned us into supermen, and God has been moved unceremoniously out of the picture. We need to keep in mind that science is sometimes our kryptonite as well.
An aunt of mine died in October, after a stroke that had her in the hospital for 2 months. She said she wanted to die in peace and did not want to be disturbed by aggressive therapies when it was her time to go. When she had another stroke, she was transferred to what I presume was a hospice room, where there were soft lights, and her family could be with her the whole time. She was never alone in her last days and received only whatever medicines were necessary to keep her comfortable. God did the rest. I think we need to let God do more in these cases. Like Sandra. They did a tracheotomy about 4 months ago when it seemed she was about to die of suffocation. She’s in a rest home now, because her family really can no longer carry this burden alone.It’s so sad, but what could her husband do? The doctors insisted it had to be done and he didn’t have the courage to take that responsiblity. She’s 38 years old and has a strong heart, still. Even the young need our prayers,and all too often.
on 22 Apr 2007 at 7:58 pm 20Carol

I’ll pray for Sandra. She’s younger than Peter was, I think, or maybe the same age.. I’ll ask Peter to intercede.
on 23 Apr 2007 at 10:54 pm 21Carol

Marion passed yesterday.

She leaves nieces and grand-nieces/-nephews. And her friends. We’ll take Marion off our lists, now, ‘k? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure she never sinned, and with those sparkling eyes, I’m sure He gathered her up and said, “Oh, you!! Finally!!”

God bless.
on 24 Apr 2007 at 4:01 am 22gabrielle

May her soul rest in peace.