The Mercy Door Never Closes

Today is the end of the Jubilee Year of Mercy in the Catholic Church and Pope Francis has closed the Jubilee Door at the Vatican.  Other basilicas will do the same.  During the past year, the faithful were encouraged to make a pilgrimage to a cathedral with a Holy Door and walk through in God's mercy.

During our trip to Rome last winter, my family was able to walk through the holy doors at every major basilica in Rome, as well as Assisi and Pompeii.

St. Peter's Cathedral

 Pompeii

St. Paul in Chains (St. Paul Outside the Walls) 

In the beauty of all of those magnificent churches, we steeped in the early Church - the tradition and the history.  In the enormous grandeur of these holy places, we were repeatedly reminded of the role of God's mercy (misericordia) in our faith.  It's great to believe in God, but so humbling to know His mercy.  "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ." Ephesians 2: 3-5.  We don't deserve the love of God through Christ, it is a gift.

So does the closing of the mercy doors mean God's mercy ends?  Of course not!  "My mercy is established forever; my faithfulness will stand as long as the heavens."  Psalm 89: 3-4.  It is always there, in every age.  As Pope Francis said today in his homily of the Solemnity of Jesus Christ, King of the Universe:

So many pilgrims have crossed the threshold of the Holy Doors, and far away from the clamour of the daily news they have tasted the great goodness of the Lord.  We give thanks for this, as we recall how we have received mercy in order to be merciful, in order that we too may become instruments of mercy.  Let us go forward on this road together.

CC

Morning by Morning New Mercies I See

Great is Thy faithfulness!  Great is Thy faithfulness!

Morning by morning new mercies I see

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!

This has to be my favorite Protestant hymn (although there are so many beautiful ones!), but my favorite line goes with today's feast of Divine Mercy.  Yes, every morning I see new mercy from Jesus, but sometimes I need to focus my eyes and see it.  

Today is Divine Mercy Sunday and a recent addition to the Catholic Sunday feasts.  It was declared by St. Pope John Paul II at the canonization of St. Faustina in 2000.  Sister Faustina Kowalska was a Polish visionary who lived in the 1930s and wrote a diary of her visions and revelations from Jesus Christ, who appeared to her with rays extending from His Sacred Heart (see below).  Click here for more information about the feast, the Divine Mercy chaplet and the devotions specific to Divine Mercy.

When this feast was first declared, I remembered thinking how inconvenient that it was placed on the Sunday after Easter.  At my parish, that was traditionally the day we had First Communion.  However, Jesus asked that the feast be celebrated on this day.  Fourteen times in her visions, Jesus asked St. Faustina for a celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday on the octave of Easter.  In addition, in the very earliest liturgical documents of the Church, The Apostolic Constitutions, the apostle Thomas asked "after eight days let there be another feast observed with honor, the eighth day itself on which He gave me, Thomas, who was hard of belief, full assurance, by showing me the print of His nails, and the wound in His side by the spear." 

Oh, now that makes sense!

The Lord's mercy is boundless and an essential component of our salvation.  His mercy endures forever. (Psalm 136).  But it wasn't just a "one shot deal".  That is abundantly clear today.  Wasn't it enough that Jesus came to us as a man, died a humiliating and unjust death and then rose again?  Evidently not.  Just one week after the glorious Resurrection Day, we see Thomas, doubting it.  Jesus was so patient, so merciful!  Thomas' experience was so personal, because Jesus loves each of us and His Mercy extends to each us, just as we are.  Just reach out like Thomas and touch Him.  His mercy is new every day.

Alleluia!

cc

9 Days to Life - Day Eight

Now that the March for Life in Washington DC and Walk for Life West Coast are over, it's time to think about the practicalities of what can be done to address the needs of the women who find themselves in the difficult position of an unwanted pregnancy.  Faced with the seemingly simple choice of abortion on demand versus the unknown answers to the long term social and economic difficulties of continuing a pregnancy and making hard choices for the baby after birth, is it no wonder millions of women choose abortion?

We need to support those who offer specific and reliable services to these women so the unknown future has a light at the end of the tunnel.  Gimme Shelter is a movie that opened Friday about the journey of a pregnant teen - from a drug addicted mother and foster homes to the dramatically different affluent lifestyle of her father.  Surprisingly, neither is suitable for the teen's choice to have her baby.

While some reviewers have panned the movie as unrealistic and heavy-handed, it is trying to convey a lot of messages simultaneously:  Kids are abused by parents and a foster care system that keeps shuffling them; wealthy families see teen pregnancy as a matter to be "taken care of"; the Church has guidance available with real answers about the morality of abortion; and there are places where women can find shelter.  These are all messages that need to be heard and to get a movie made about any of these topics is difficult at best.

I can't give a laundry list of services that are available, but there are crisis pregnancy centers throughout the United States that can give referrals to the many independent privately run shelters that offer a place to stay and education and job counseling.  In Phoenix, the best known is an organization called Maggie's Place.  It offers all of the above in a family atmosphere supported by private donations - no government support.  Shouldn't every city have at least one Maggie's Place?  If we call ourselves pro-life shouldn't be support these places where mothers and children get a start at a new life?

As noted in today's reflection: "There is absolutely nothing and no one outside of the power of God's loving embrace.  Today we remember the children, the mothers, fathers, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles and all those who have been involved in or affected by abortion.  We entrust them to the unfathomable healing mercy of God, recalling the words of Jesus to St. Faustina: 'The greater the misery of a soul, the greater its right to My mercy.' (Diary, 1182).  Go HERE to see today's novena prayers and complete reflection.

Thanks for your continued prayers.

CC