Saturday, April 26, 2014

Mary TV Daily Reflection 4/26/2014

   
(c) Mary TV 2014

 
J.M.J
April 26, 2014
Easter Saturday
Divine Mercy Novena Day 9
 
Dear Family of Mary!

On this last day of the Divine Mercy Novena, we encounter the saddest of all Christ's requests of St. Faustina. He shares with her His most painful wound, a wound caused by the hearts of people who should understand His love and their great debt to Him, but instead treat this love with tepidity and sloth.

Denis and I wondered today about Catholics and Mass attendance. It seems that in the US only about 30% to 40% of all Catholics go to weekly Sunday Mass. In Ireland the numbers are similar. We know in Europe it is even less. This little statistic demonstrates the reality of lukewarm souls. For all those who may not yet "know" the love of God, we pray today, and for souls who have lost their taste for God or maybe have never really tasted Him! Especially on this day when the celebration begins of the Canonization of two powerful Popes of our times, who set evangelization as a top priority, we pray with great hope that these souls will be awakened to the love that knocks upon the doors of their hearts.

Ninth Day

"Today bring to Me the Souls who have become lukewarm, and immerse them in the abyss of My mercy. These souls wound My Heart most painfully. My soul suffered the most dreadful loathing in the Garden of Olives because of lukewarm souls. They were the reason I cried out: 'Father, take this cup away from Me, if it be Your will.' For them, the last hope of salvation is to run to My mercy."

Most compassionate Jesus, You are Compassion Itself. I bring lukewarm souls into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart. In this fire of Your pure love, let these tepid souls who, like corpses, filled You with such deep loathing, be once again set aflame. O Most Compassionate Jesus, exercise the omnipotence of Your mercy and draw them into the very ardor of Your love, and bestow upon them the gift of holy love, for nothing is beyond Your power.

Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon lukewarm souls who are nonetheless enfolded in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. Father of Mercy, I beg You by the bitter Passion of Your Son and by His three-hour agony on the Cross: Let them, too, glorify the abyss of Your mercy. Amen. 

Let us pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy!
 
Our Lady once said:

"Dear children! I look at you and I see in your heart death without hope, restlessness and hunger. There is no prayer or trust in God, that is why the Most High permits me to bring you hope and joy. Open yourselves. Open your hearts to God's mercy and He will give you everything you need and will fill your hearts with peace, because He is peace and your hope. Thank you for having responded to my call." (November 25, 2010)


Pope John Paul II wrote in "Dives In Misericordia" n. 8:

Christ, precisely as the crucified one, is the Word that does not pass away,  and He is the one who stands at the door and knocks at the heart of every man,  without restricting his freedom, but instead seeking to draw from this very freedom love, which is not only an act of solidarity with the suffering Son of man, but also a kind of "mercy" shown by each one of us to the Son of the eternal Father. In the whole of this messianic program of Christ, in the whole revelation of mercy through the cross, could man's dignity be more highly respected and ennobled, for, in obtaining mercy, He is in a sense the one who at the same time "shows mercy"? In a word, is not this the position of Christ with regard to man when He says: "As you did it to one of the least of these...you did it to me"?  Do not the words of the Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy,"  constitute, in a certain sense, a synthesis of the whole of the Good News, of the whole of the "wonderful exchange" (admirable commercium) contained therein? This exchange is a law of the very plan of salvation, a law which is simple, strong and at the same time "easy." Demonstrating from the very start what the "human heart" is capable of ("to be merciful"), do not these words from the Sermon on the Mount reveal in the same perspective the deep mystery of God: that inscrutable unity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in which love, containing justice, sets in motion mercy, which in its turn reveals the perfection of justice?

The Paschal Mystery is Christ at the summit of the revelation of the inscrutable mystery of God. It is precisely then that the words pronounced in the Upper Room are completely fulfilled: "He who has seen me has seen the Father."  In fact, Christ, whom the Father "did not spare" for the sake of man and who in His passion and in the torment of the cross did not obtain human mercy, has revealed in His resurrection the fullness of the love that the Father has for Him and, in Him, for all people. "He is not God of the dead, but of the living."  In His resurrection Christ has revealed the God of merciful love, precisely because He accepted the cross as the way to the resurrection. And it is for this reason that-when we recall the cross of Christ, His passion and death-our faith and hope are centered on the Risen One.

How can a soul remain lukewarm, when Christ knocks on the door of his heart? When a soul perceives the great mercy Christ has shown, how can that soul not have "mercy" on Christ, by loving Him in return?  May the merciful Savior knock and knock, until all hearts have been set on fire with His love. Dear St. John Paul II and St. John XXIII, pray with us for these souls!!

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
© Mary TV 2014

PS. We will pray one more time, this powerful novena, tomorrowSunday, April 27, in honor of Divine Mercy Sunday, and also to thank the Lord for St. John Paul II and St. John XXIII! 3:00 pm EDT!!






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Blessed John Paul II
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