Happy Divine Mercy Birthday!

Marcel and I love feasts of every kind. Kind of like a homeschooled kid hoping for the day off, we're willing to celebrate just about anything! 

Interestingly, one of our birthdays is April 7, and that is the very day the historian Daniel Rops fixes on for the first Good Friday! What a beautiful conjunction of days! And mercifully, in my lifetime these two high liturgical feasts (birthday and Good Friday) had never actually coincided. Until last year!

I thought Jesus thought I was old enough to handle it as the honor and privilege it was, but like the child I am, I had a rough day . . .

Happily, the Heavenly Father had this planned from all eternity and Jesus was ready to apologize this year so the adorable Blessed Trinity put together the Solemnity of The Birthday and the Solemnity of the Octave of Easter - better known, thanks to our beloved Papa John Paul II as Divine Mercy Sunday!

So happy birthday to one of us on the day when we are all celebrating big time!

I am such a silly that in the excitement over this birthday I forgot (as we are so prone to do, but Marcel definitely remembered!) the birthday of a dear godson named John Louis. Will you join me in praying for him today to make up for my forgetfulness?

Dear Father, Son, and Holy Spirit of Love, please bless John Louis with every possible grace You have hidden in Your Mysterious Trinitarian Oneness, including health, peace, joy, love, and union with You. 

Dear Blessed Mother, watch over your own John Louis. Bless his mom and dad and sister, his grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and godparents. Send angels to be with him always, guiding and enlightening him to become the great saint the Holy Trinity has called him to be from all eternity.

St. John, beloved apostle, St. Juan Diego, faithful lover of Our Lady and Our Lord, St. Louis, King of France, friend of St. Thomas, and wise and gentle leader, obtain great graces and miracles for your namesake John Louis and help him every step of his life to Heaven.

Dear guardian angel of John, dear Padre Pio and your angel, dear Marcel and Therese and your angels, thank you for all you've done already, and with the powerful love of God that fills all your being, love John every second of every day of his life on earth and then all through eternity in Heaven.

And last but not least, good St. Joseph and St. Andre, your herald, do that amazing thing you do and shower blessings and protection and healing upon John and his loved ones to bring glory and honor to little Jesus who obeyed you, dear Joseph, on earth and so loves to continue obeying you now in Heaven.

Amen!

+  +  +

And now a word from St. Faustina, who loves this day more than any of us can!

From her Diary, 205 - 206, also marked as (99):

+The Resurrection. Today, during the [Mass of the] Resurrection, I saw the Lord Jesus in the midst of a great light. He approached me and said, Peace be to you, My children, and He lifted up His hand and gave His blessing. The wounds in His hands, feet and side were indelible and shining. When He looked at me with such kindness and love, my whole soul drowned itself in Him. And He said to me, You have taken a great part in My Passion; therefore I now give you a great share in My joy and glory. The whole time of the Resurrection [Mass] seemed like only a minute to me. A wondrous recollection filled my soul and lasted throughout the whole festal season. The kindness of Jesus is so great that I cannot express it.

The next day, after Communion, I heard the voice saying, My daughter, look into the abyss of My mercy and give praise and glory to this mercy of Mine. Do it in this way: Gather all sinners from the entire world and immerse them in the abyss of My mercy. I want to give Myself to souls; I yearn for souls, My daughter. On the day of My feast, the Feast of Mercy, you will go through the whole world and bring fainting souls to the spring of My mercy. I shall heal and strengthen them.

*   *   *

I am so bowled over by this passage!
I opened Faustina's Diary (and might I recommend the leather bound, bible paper edition? It is not clunky, it fits nicely in a purse or pocket, it feels inspired, and the binding doesn't fall apart. In short, it's a winner, and I think our father St. Alphonsus would agree, since he cared a lot that his books - those he wrote, and no doubt those he read too - were of a size and shape to be easily enjoyed) . . . but when I opened the Diary at random, I was hopeful to see what Faustina herself would say. How goofy I am not to remember that what JESUS says is the really good stuff! 

No matter. He knows our goofiness, our silliness, our forgetfulness, and most of all He knows our need for Him because He created it to match His desire to give Himself to us! And here He is, giving us peace by wishing it to us (because He's God, so His words are always efficacious, which means what He says HAPPENS), and He is giving us joy and glory because hey, you can't deny it, we've all shared His Passion whether we wished that or not! And then, how sweet that He instructs us in the easy way to save all souls today:

"Gather all sinners from the entire world and immerse them in the abyss of My mercy."

If you're like me, you might wonder how to do that. I have the answer! Let's simply ask our angels to help! They know how!

Dear angels, our guardians and friends, please gather all sinners from the entire world, including us, and immerse the whole enormous all of us into the abyss of our Jesus' mercy!

And now, it's time to go eat, pray, eat, pray, eat, pray, and eat! Wow, that's a lot of eating. Maybe some will be just snacks, but don't forget to keep your strength up for the praying, and most of all don't forget to celebrate the Love of our Merciful Savior! Happy Divine Mercy Birthday!

The best way I know to celebrate (okay, besides cupcakes!) is by gaining a plenary indulgence for a soul in purgatory, and that's so easy today. It's Sunday, so we'll all be going to Mass, and when you're in church, you can say an extra prayer and viola! If you're able to go to a special Divine Mercy Holy Hour, all the better, but in a sense, due to Jesus' excessive (infinite, even!) mercy, it's actually just the same as if you can't! What in the world do I mean? I'm really looking forward to our parish's Holy Hour today, but here is the official explanation of how to get the plenary indulgence today:


. . . the Supreme Pontiff, motivated by an ardent desire to foster in Christians this devotion to Divine Mercy as much as possible in the hope of offering great spiritual fruit to the faithful, in the Audience granted on 13 June 2002, to those Responsible for the Apostolic Penitentiary, granted the following Indulgences. . .  

a plenary indulgence, granted under the usual conditions (sacramental confession [within 20 days before or after], Eucharistic Communion and prayer for the intentions of Supreme Pontiff [Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be are often suggested but any prayers will do]) to the faithful who, on the Second Sunday of Easter or Divine Mercy Sunday, in any church or chapel, in a spirit that is completely detached from the affection for a sin, even a venial sin [not hard; just ask God: in this moment please grant me to be completely detached from sin so I may gain the indulgence Holy Mother Church offers] take part in the prayers and devotions held in honour of Divine Mercy, or who, in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament exposed or reserved in the tabernacle, recite the Our Father and the Creed, adding a devout prayer to the merciful Lord Jesus (e.g. "Merciful Jesus, I trust in you!").

There it is then! If you can't make it to a special holy hour, you can recite the Our Father and the Creed and "Jesus, I trust in You!" at church today in the presence of the tabernacle!

Thank You, Jesus, for Your infinite mercy and kindness!

Draw me, we will run!

p.s. The story behind the picture at the top is HERE. Thanks be to God for His Divine Mercy and all those who share it with us!