St. Faustina and The Divine Mercy Message and Devotion - Fr. Chris Alar, MIC

first of all st. Faustina's life in many ways was dull it was average he was ordinary but is that surprising no because that's exactly the kind of person that Jesus always our God always works through you today is the feast day of st. Faustina and so we're all here to learn about the message she wanted to give to the world and through a new devotion well anyway welcome everyone I'm father Chris I'm one of the priests here with the Marian's of the Immaculate Conception and it's an honor to have you all here my cell father might Gately and a couple of the other priests go around the country speaking on a regular basis about divine mercy and about st. Faustina now I'm going to try to give you a two hour talk on st. Faustina and at 3:00 our talk on Divine Mercy in 50 minutes so I'm going to be like those Chipmunks who talk v you know 100 miles an hour I try to get it all in know I'll do my best sorry to summarize some of these important things so I apologize because obviously I won't be able to get to everything but we're going to try to do our best to get as much as we can to give you an idea of what this special feast is about who st. Faustina was and more importantly what is this message and devotion of divine mercy so let us begin with a prayer in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit amen Heavenly Father we actually sent the Holy Spirit down upon us to open our minds and open our hearts to receive the wisdom that you wish us to to have and to carry out these works of mercy in our daily activities and to embrace this message that God you gave through st. Faustina the apostle of divine mercy through her intercession on this very special day we ask for the graces which you gave her to distribute and we ask all this through the intercession of Mary and all the saints in through the passion death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ amen in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit amen we have on a daily basis we have regular devotional activities in addition to the talk today at one o'clock we have a duration at 1:30 we have the Rosary for life at two o'clock we have the Holy Mass and three o'clock we have the chaplet of divine mercy followed by the blessing of all the religious articles that you might have and a blessing with the relic first-class relic of st. Faustina it's her toe bone that's a crazy Catholic thing isn't it you should see what non Catholics come to the shrine and see us kissing st. Faustina's toe bone they really never understand that but it's a beautiful opportunity for you to get a blessing with the relic now in between that if you have an opportunity you can also do a walk around the grounds if you're unable to walk we got golf carts that are running around but you want to see a couple special places first of all our Stations of the Cross which are up on the hill on the other side of our monastery this is a brand new life-sized Stations of the Cross and what did Jesus tell st. Faustina to do every day at the three o'clock hour if she could I hear pray the chaplet no he told her to walk the Stations of the Cross he said if you can do the Stations of the Cross try to do that then if you can't step into a chapel if you can't do that then stop and meditate not my passion now why do we pray the chaplet at three o'clock because it's about his passion the passion of our Lord right okay so now what we also have an across the thing is is on the other side of the property is our gift shop if you would like to be able to see any is one of the largest Catholic gift shops in Massachusetts you can pick up some things on st. Faustina or about Divine Mercy we also have several shrines here right up over the over here is the Holy Family shrine you can light candles over at the Marian helper center we have the Our Lady of Mercy oratory and candle shrine where you can light candles we have behind us in this building that we're at right now and down below the shrine of the Holy Innocents which is a memorial to Lost Children if any of you have known someone which you may have or yourself have experienced the tragic loss of the death of a child I just met a woman a couple days ago that lost a 24 year old daughter in a car wreck and and so our heart and our prayers go out to her to her family and and and whatnot so we we have that shrine behind us now on the other side to the left in down the hill is a little bit of a walk down the hill not far is the Our Lady of Lourdes grotto and there is a replica of Our Lady of Lourdes there's a candle shrine down there as well and you know most people that I've talked to would have visited the shrine have I've always asked them when they over mentioned to us that they've had a miracle or that they've prayed and received a great miracle I always ask them two questions if you don't mind my asking first of all what did you pray and secondly where did you pray it and almost always it's really interesting almost always they tell me at Our Lady of Lourdes grotto so there's something going on there okay and I think it's called the Blessed Mother right so so anyway that's one other place for you to stop so there's just many places that you can go and be part of the special day today okay so let's get started now usually we do a talk just on Divine Mercy but today being safe Faustina's viste i think it's important that we had a few more things now first of all st. Faustina's life in many ways was dull it was average it was ordinary but is that surprising no because that's exactly the kind of person that Jesus always our God always works through right even the Apostles you know Jesus could easily picked Herod or Caesar right to be the leader of the conversion of the Hall the hearts of the world but he doesn't do that he picks people you wouldn't expect he picked Twelve Apostles that didn't fit the mold they were tax collectors and zealots and fishermen and so what's interesting is the people that he picked were not your normal like it well today does God pick Hollywood movie stars most of the time now does he pick great athletes sometimes but then they get shunned like Tim Tebow it not fair in many Hollywood stars get picked to do this kind of work one of them comes to - Kirk Cameron he was basically shunned right out of Hollywood so God picks people you don't expect and that's what he did was st. Faustina and so we'll talk a little bit about her today now she was she grew up basically here's the facts of her life she was born in August 25th of 1905 and she was born Halina Koval Scott - her two parents Mariana and Stanislaus now she was the third of ten children she had five sisters and two brothers and then two who died there was ten children total and all the other sisters who lived she was the third one after Lee and their life was difficult they were raised on a farm and on the farm they had a horse a cow a couple chickens and whatnot but she left home early to help raise money and keep the family going and it was funny because later she also ran away from home to become a nun we'll talk a little bit about that but in a lot of ways her life was dull she never travelled more than about 400 miles from her home she worked as a nanny and as a housekeeper and she was extremely well respected amongst the people that she worked with because of her her pleasant demeanor always smiling she always had a great and loving presence about her now what was interesting was she was only known to have gone to two dances in her whole life and one dance that she went to she came home late and you know what she said to her parents I am so sorry I have brought shame and humiliation to my family and I will never do it again you imagine hearing that from a kid today I mean I offered to myself I used to go out when I was in high school when I could finally dry right and saw his driving around and I'd get home late and I'd get mad at my mom and dad if they were still up because I felt like they were waiting for me how sad is that hi chastised my parents for waiting up for me because I didn't feel like that that was showing me any adult respect how ridiculous they loved me they wanted to stay up just to make sure I got home okay and I chastised them for that I look back at dad and I'm ashamed I'm ashamed and you know st. Faustina got home late and she told her father how ashamed she was and she would never do it again she only went to one other dance that we know of in any of her records and this was a dance when she was close to 19 years old she was there with one of her sisters and a friend and our Lord appeared to her and he appeared to her as the crucified Christ not as what we would expect sometimes as he's appeared like the man Margaret Mary Alacoque or others he appeared as Christ crucified and he was there bloodied suffering crucified and does anybody know what Jesus said to Saint Faustina that day he said how long are you going to make me wait so she took that to mean right away - she was to join a convent now here's what's interesting her parents didn't want her to join a convent you know why because in those days you needed a dowry what's a dollar rate it's where the people had to pay money right to the convent to be able to pay for the expense of the sister now her parents didn't want her to join the convent because you would have to pay a dollar ring and they'd have to sell their only cow they only had one cow left because at the time it was Soviet occupied Poland and they had confiscated their horses and took all the one cow so the one cow that they took or didn't take was one that they were afraid they'd had to give up for a dollar in dowry so the parents didn't want her to become a nun it's kind of funny because I'm the same way when I when I announced to my family that I was going to come to the Marian's because I felt called to the priesthood my mom cried for three days and said grandchildren I want grandchildren said mom you're going to get a million of them now and my dad got so angry because he said you're walking away from a million dollar business I started to business down in Charlotte he said you're a fool and then at my family dinner I announced to my family that I was going to be entering into seminary and my 82 year old aunt aunt Helen god bless her I said I'm going to become a priest she goes are you gay and I said no and Helen you've met Gina you've met Julie you've met Jill why would you ask that question so it really is understandable that even Faustina faced these difficult times right and people not understanding why she wanted to do what you needed to do so st. Faustina took this message from Jesus that how much longer you're going to make me wait and she got out of packed her bag and got the next bus to Warsaw the next morning was an 85 mile trip now she didn't know anybody she didn't know anybody she didn't know anybody from Adam but she took it upon herself to do this you know she did when she got there now okay if you're like me sad I have to admit this and probably a lot of you are the same way when she got there instead of doing what I would have done which would have went around trying to ask directions try to get food try to understand the people there try to find out where everything is she didn't worry about any of that the first thing she did was look for a church to go to Mass and I look at that and I say wow that there's your heart that's what's important right and so she did and she went she went to Mass at st. James and worse on which I got to go to last year then this is the funny part she started going around convent to convent knocking on doors asking if they would take her and everybody told her no they said we don't serve maids here so even the sisters have a little bit of pride right because see she was a maid she was torn and Taggard to her her clothes fact when she was growing up all the sisters that she had had to share only one dress they only had one dress with which to share all the sisters to go to Mass so st. Faustina only got to go to Mass every five weeks because they would share and rotate the dress and then amazing now today people don't even care what they wear to Mass and they don't care and and most would be happy that they could get out of mass right because I don't have an address to learn st. Faustina was devastated that she couldn't go to Mass because they didn't have a dress so they had one dress for the whole family and so she would wear this one dress was the only time she could wear a every five weeks as she rotated it with her sisters then when she would go to school at school the kids didn't even want to sit next to her because she was in such extreme poverty that she was ragged and tattered and and kids would make fun of her and and and so you know you can see from the very beginnings for humbleness having to experience that being rejected from the very beginning that nobody to be friends with her because she was in such poverty you know probably wasn't always bathed or wearing clothes that were decent you know and this is what she experienced so now she's going door to door asking the convents to take her and all said no and then she comes to you guessed it the sisters of Our Lady of Mercy now that's so perfect like us were the Marian's of the Immaculate Conception spreading the message of divine mercy you can't separate them Mary and divine mercy go together they can't be separated what's God single greatest act of mercy ever bestowed upon a human being the Immaculate Conception the Immaculate Conception is God's greatest act of mercy ever bestowed upon a creature and so she went around she goes to the door at the sisters of Our Lady of Mercy and the Mother Superior answers the door and she says okay she's just trying to brush her off I will let you come in for trial if you can pay for your habit they beautiful habits you've ever seen the habits that same fuss do you see at the Hyneman you always see these sisters and we you know mother excuse me sister faustina but they're sisters of Our Lady mercy in Boston and so she has a community sisters here a community in Boston and I used to go out there a couple times and you'd always recognize as soon as you saw them and then we had a couple of them here for Divine Mercy Sunday and you see them from a mile away this beautiful habits well anyway the Mother Superior tells her if you get enough money to raise for the habit I'll let you in so Saint Faustina goes about and goes back to work as a nanny and a housekeeper to raise the money to pay for her habit so after she raised the money she came back and knocked on the convent door Mother Superior didn't even remember she didn't even know who she was and st. Faustina said remember me she's like huh and she's like you promised that I would be able to come if I raise the money for the habit and here it is so the mother honored her word and let her in now that was just the beginning of the tough tough times for st. Faustina so you see when she was little she used to acknowledge the fact that she would have mystical experiences her first mystical experience was 87 in adoration and her mother told her it was nonsense and so she really didn't talk about it much after that and when she got to the convent she started to talk a little bit about it again and the sisters shut her down how would Jesus appear to a lower level nun like you see they had two choirs of nuns in the convent they had the higher choir and the lower choir and it was all based on wealth and education so these are things we don't really realize so see Faustina fell into the lower choir she got all the tough jobs and duties right she was assigned as a porter portress to open the door a cook to cook the meals gardener to take care of the garden now she was really good at gardening because she grew up right on a farm you know what her job was on the farm her job was a dirt clod break her up her her job when she was on the farm as a little girl she would break up dirt clods in her hand to make plowing in the planting easier she started when she was barely able to walk I guess because she was real little I reminds me of my mom she comes from a European family and my mom said the earliest member she has of her whole life was on Hawaii tomatoes in Toledo Ohio and so we we see in st. faustina that same humble beginning so the nuns put her to work as a gardener like I said a cook and as a portress and she started to talk about Jesus and she kind of gives some alluding to the fact that Jesus was appearing and she had some of these experiences and she was shot and so she basically stopped really talking about it now what's interesting though is Jesus was with her the whole way even though he hadn't appeared to her yet and finally then one day in February of 1931 she has the first we would call it cook call an apparition or a vision but I wouldn't call it that and here's why you know most of the people who have experienced Christ or Mary or whatnot it's an internal vision right nobody else sees it like the mission or the visionaries at Fatima right three children but did anybody else other than them see Mary no metric Orianna you got the visionaries there does anybody else see Mary and set the visionaries know what happened was st. Faustina she goes back into herself could you imagine this you finished dinner you're going down the hall you walk into your room you close the door you turn around and there's Jesus and he was not a vision he was actually physically there and he appeared to her as well I'm sorry right above us as the image of divine mercy with the Rays of red and light now other people saw the bright lights you know in fact many people reported seeing the bright lights coming from Faustina's room this wasn't an internal vision he was actually physically there now little kids dumb down below came the door and said that it was like an airplane light other sisters reported that the super-bright light was coming from Faustina's room I greater than any oil lamp and so people realized that something was going on now what did Jesus tell st. Faustina when he appeared to her Jesus told her that I want this image painted of the pattern that you see before me what is that pattern well you see it right up here it's Jesus the divine mercy now he also told her I want to feast a feast in honor of my mercy now then he tells her you are responsible for spreading this around the world could you imagine I mean let's face it you're a little farmer coming from Nowheresville in Poland and in fact john paul ii said this it was precisely to this poor girl a girl from nowhere that God entrusted the mission of announcing to the whole world the most important message of the twentieth century so this is basically what he told him he said you are responsible for spreading this around the world I would have been like Lord are you serious how in the world but did he not do this with 12 apostles he did it he did it back then when there was no communication whatsoever at least by the time of Faustina he had radio and you had other he had mass media you had printing press you had these things that the Apostles didn't have so our Lord is working with her as his tool now this daunting task that was given to her was something that he called her my apostle of divine mercy and so basically she was in task entrusted with spreading this message around the whole world now what is this now here's we're going to get into a little bit of an explanation now Don mercy is interesting because a lot of people don't really necessarily refer when they say to my mercy to the same thing if I say to you what is divine mercy what would you say some people would say it's being nice to other people okay some other people would say it's doing good deeds okay some people would say it's the devotion praying the chaplet and as a bunch of prayers begging God for His mercy on us okay other people would say it's the message of the gospel that's true but what is that divine mercy it's Christ himself this is why we say the devotion to the Divine Mercy its devotion to Christ this is why when the priest says I mean we've talked to a lot of priests and a priest says we don't need another devotion we already have a devotion to st. Terez we already have a devotion to st. Joseph we already have a devotion to st. Anthony what they're not understanding is this is not just another devotion this is devotion to Christ himself this is why it makes it different than all the other st. devotions which are still good they're still necessary they're still wonderful and very important but that the volume mercy is Christ himself God incarnate so when we say the devotion to the divine mercy we're seeing devotion to God does that sound optional okay now here's how it boils down when somebody asks you is divine mercy optional your answer is yes and no here's why it is true that in the Catholic Church devotions that come from private revelation have always been optional so for instance do you necessarily have to pray the chaplet of divine mercy in order to get to heaven not technically we strongly suggest you do because that's the way God gave us to attain salvation now here's where it all comes together you see divine mercy is different than almost all the others because the mind mercy is not just a devotion divine mercy is both a message and a devotion now if you're going to negate one thing out of today with you home take this divine mercy the message of divine mercy is the heart of the gospel Pope Benedict the 15th said the message of divine mercy is the nucleus of the gospel the message of divine mercy is easy to remember as a B C a ask for God's mercy we cannot get to heaven unless we repent an ask of God's mercy be be merciful to others Matthew 25 the sheep and the goats what does Jesus say he says at the end of time he will all be separated into two groups on the right will be the Sheep when I was hungry you gave me food when I was thirsty you gave me drink enter into the kingdom of your heavenly Father to this side sorry guys the sheep for the goats he says when I was hungry you did that giving me food when I was thirsty you did not give me drink her naked clothe me and they said Lord Lord when did we see you hungry thirsty or naked and he said you did not do for the least of my brethren you did not do for me away with you into the fire the eternal fire you see without being merciful to others we can't make it to heaven Jesus tells us that if we love God but not our neighbor we are a liar we have to love our neighbor to the Jews this was radical because who were the neighbors to the Jews only other Jews they weren't the Sumerians or the Canaanites or the Babylonians or the Assyrians those weren't their neighbors those were their enemies so that's why Jesus told them love your enemies and in this year of Mercy which Pope Francis has declared what is the biggest message forgiveness and love of your enemy it's very difficult for us to do that but Jesus told st. Faustina we most resemble him when we forgive when we forgive is when we most resemble Christ so Jesus is telling us to st. Faustina so we must be merciful to others what is si completely trust in God's mercy now we didn't trust a lot of times in God when we try to do things our own way when we know better right my own sister she struggled so much in her marriage of contraception she said I don't get this this doesn't make any sense this is outdated this is impractical I'm not following it I said Pam have you ever read Humana vitae it was really little too deep for her she's not a very theological person but when we sat down and talked over it together she finally got it and she says you know what I realize the church of 2,000 years knows better than I do and she did understood so you see completely trusting in God as a seventh grader once told me is knowing that God is God and you are not right okay so completely trust now the message of divine mercy that I just told you ABC this is an optional this is mandatory and it goes back to the very beginning Adam and Eve what did Adam and Eve do there was such a problem they sinned right yeah but that was only the beginning of their problems that wasn't the main problem the problem of Adam and Eve was after they sinned they never asked for God's mercy they weren't merciful to each other in fact Adam blames the woman sound familiar right it's his fault my mom does this all the time my dad doesn't all the time in fact I laugh I don't laugh because it's precious but in the confessional a lot of times I'll have the little old ladies come in and they'll confess all their husband's sins I'm like May out now this is wonderful you're here but this isn't your husband's confession this is your confession okay and no okay father you're right you're right then they'll see a few things and then the right back on their husband again so so Adam and Eve they missed the boat they were blaming each other Adam so that's the woman you gave me and then what about see they didn't trust God what did they do they ran and they hid they ran and they hid so instead of trusting they ran and hid this is why God gives us Mary you know father might Gately did one the most incredible talks I ever heard when we were in the car driving to Boston I was the sole audience I said Mike that is the greatest talk I have ever heard you give and you wasted it on me and he talked about this he said you know this is why God gave us Mary he realized that we were going to fear Him we weren't gonna trust him what do we do when we get ourselves in trouble we Miri is one of us in some ways better than us in most other ways but she's a human she's a creature and we can trust her a little bit more and that little little bit of trust will lead us to a greater trust in God you know most of us went to our mother when we were little I'll never forget my dad got this brand-new Eagle Claw fishing pole and I just saw that thing and I all that with it was over I had to try that fishing rod and we lived on a river so my dad says nope you got your fishing rod this one is mine he was trying to teach me a lesson of course it didn't work because soon as he went off to work and my mom went shopping I grabbed that rod and I was so excited to be able to go fishing that I grabbed the rod and I grabbed the lures and I was all excited and the rod was over my shoulder and I ran through the door and closed the door snap went the fishing rod I tried to tape it up thinking he'd never notice thinking that he would just think well that's a piece of tape left on from the manufacturer I will bother to take it off I'll leave it on there and he got home and I did the same thing with his pool stick also - sigh I even think I'd learn my lesson and the first thing is I did I ran to my mom mom please don't let dad get mad at me please don't let dad get mad at me the dog broke it right now no I was hard enough to admit that I broke it but I went to my mom and she was the gift that Jesus gave us on the cross right and so we have this and C is completely trust in God and we don't do it but merely was a gift for us to turn to she's one of us we can trust her a little bit and then she leads us to Jesus to Jesus through Mary that's what the mirroring consecration is all about that's what the Marian missionaries are out spreading as they work with the homeless in the poor and so it's so beautiful of taking that message to the street so they're asking God to be merciful to them they're being merciful to others as they go out work with the poor and the homeless and then they're trusting in God now when somebody says is Divine Mercy optional you say yes and no the Divine Mercy is both a message and devotion I just explained the message it's the heart of the gospel it's ABC now what was the problem with Adam and Eve I just said they didn't know their ABCs Adam and Eve did not know their ABCs they failed that was the problem so God has been trying since day one to get us to understand those three things those are the heart of the gospel those three things as for God's mercy be merciful to others completely trust in God he's been trying to drill this in our heads from the very beginning he's brought us the profits he's brought us all of the Gospels in the scripture and finally his son it's like the parable of the man with the the vineyard right he finally says I'll finally send my son and this is what we're trying to understand this is the message of mercy it is not optional the message of divine mercy is not optional but wait a minute private revelation is optional this is the devotion of divine mercy the devotion to the divine mercy these are five new ways that Jesus gave Saint Faustina with which to bring the same message of mercy back to the world so the message of mercy has always been their ABC but the world is forgotten it so jesus said to Saint Faustina I'm giving you these new channels of grace these five new channels with which to bring my message of mercy back to the world the message of mercy is an optional so Jesus gave five new ways to bring the message to the world again and that is the devotion of the divine mercy you can remember this as easy as Finch the Finch like the little bird F I n CH what is F the feast of divine mercy right eye is the image of divine mercy right C is the chaplet of divine mercy no debt forget n n is the novena by Kenyan spell n is the novena of divine mercy see is the chaplet of divine mercy and H is the hour of divine mercy which is when what time 3:00 o'clock every day right father Mike weeks ago yes dripline father Mike also makes a great point that every day is like Divine Mercy Sunday between three and four o'clock is a little mini hour of mercy right and this is what's so important so now Jesus gives these five new devotional aspects with which to bring the same message back to the world now technically the devotion of divine mercy was given through private revelation and technically is optional but why is it important that why is the Feast of the my mercy important the image of divine mercy important the novena of divine mercy important the chaplet and the hour of mercy why are all these things important if they are in technical terms optional they're important because the devotion of divine mercy helps us to a deeper living of the message of divine mercy right does everybody understand that that is so so important so in the feast of divine mercy I don't have time to explain all these and I need to give talks on each of these elements but we'll just kind of summarize everything the F is the important very important because the feast of divine mercy is one what is the feast of divine mercy Sunday after Easter right now Jesus told Saint Faustina then it has to be on that day why does the feast of divine mercy have to be on the Sunday after Easter anybody you get for your seminary degree if you can answer this one right okay now it's important there's extreme significance now in the church since going back to our Jewish roots we have always celebrated feasts now the feasts the Jewish celebration of a feast they have levels right we have levels of the feast now within the levels the most and the biggest feasts were so big they couldn't celebrate them in one day they would celebrate up over eight days and they would be called and now an octave means eight and this is when you would have the big Jewish celebration over eight days they were all celebrated as if it were one day kind of like a wedding feast they would celebrate over multiple days now in the church we still have octaves do you know that there's an octave of Christmas right did you all know that what is the octave of Christmas it's eight days right and it starts on December 25th that's the first day right the 25th the 26 27 28 29 30 at 31st the first what big feast is on January 1st the Feast of a happy new year now just kidding just kidding this is what everybody thinks it is I grew up in through my college years thinking we went to Mass on January 1st if you could get up and and not been an idiot the night before to go to church and pray for a happy new year this is sadly what most Catholics believe has nothing to do with it I mean of course we should pray for a happy new year blessings upon our nation which by the way please pray for our nation right you know on gel G Jesus told st. Faustina that um you know she had to pray for her country and and we got a pray for our country and you know there was an account in the diary that an angel was going to strike at one of the cities in Poland and he was going to strike and bring chastisement great chastisement upon a major city in Poland we believe from the writings you see this picture over here of this priest this priest is blessed Michael suppose Iike this is the Confessor of st. Faustina very important man and in fact when Saint Faustina suffered Jesus told her you're only bearing a portion of the rings of this priest can you imagine how much she suffered and she was only bearing a portion of the punishments of that priest that's phenomenal how much that man bore on his shoulders that's him well anyway we know from his writings or we should say we know we believe from his writings that that angel was going to strike that city in Poland for abortion that particular city in Poland was one of the European capitals for abortion and this angel was coming down to strike and Saint Faustina fervently prayed the chaplet of divine mercy and she kept praying it and praying it and guess what happened the angel was rendered helpless he couldn't carry out the chastisement that was coming to that city in Poland now I think of our nation we've legalized abortion for over 40 years and how or who are we to think that we don't believe that same chastisement is coming I personally believe because the Lord's mercy is so great and so many times god bless these mothers they're just confused they're hurt they're scared they don't know what to do they need our love they need our embracing and they need our prayers and I think that these chaplets that we're offering up every day we pray the rosary for life I honestly believe that one of the reasons God has been so merciful and hasn't done that is because of the prayers that come out of that trying every single day every single day there are hundreds of people in that shrine praying the rosary for life and an end to abortion and I believe that that is why Jesus is so merciful I don't know but that's one of the things I believe so anyway Jesus told Faustina to pray for a country so please pray for our country well anyway this transmen never came that particular moment because of her prayers of the chaplet but anyway in this octave that we have is eight days of prayer eight days of celebration of one feast now the feast that we celebrate on January 1st is Mary the mother of God right now why do we celebrate that feast that feast is so important because Mary bookends the great feast of the Incarnation the Christmas is the Feast of the Incarnation and then eight days later we celebrate Mary you can't separate all eight days are celebrated as one they're two of the most important feast in the church you have on Easter and Christmas the Incarnation and on January 1st Mary the mother of God this is why we can celebrate that as one feast you can't separate them we have one other active in the church left today that we actively celebrate that used to be many more at the cost and others but we still celebrate one other octave is the biggest octave in the church what is it Easter Easter now what is the octave of Easter begin Easter Sunday alright day 1 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday the 8th day it's the bookend of the most important time of the year this puts the feast of divine mercy on a whole nother level and Jesus told st. Faustina it must be on the eighth day now let's look at this for a minute why would Jesus say that because you see on Easter Sunday Jesus opened the door to heaven now why wouldn't we celebrate the feast over seven days what's the perfect number in the Bible son but what does seven represent in the Bible time creation right in the Jewish tradition eight represented eternity eternity so you see on Easter Sunday Jesus opened the door to heaven and redeemed all of mankind yes or no was all of mankind redeemed at the passion at the resurrection of Jesus Christ yes will all of mankind be saved no because you see on Easter Sunday Jesus opened the door to heaven the next seven days are symbolic of what our pilgrimage here on earth time creation on the next seven days you're wandering in the desert looking for that door don't forget to grab Mary she's the ultimate GPS she will lead you lead you home then on the eighth day you go into heaven for all eternity this is what's so beautiful but what do you have to do before you enter heaven you have to be cleanse and spotless when you have the feast of divine mercy Jesus Christ gives us the promise that on this feast day all sin and all punishment due to sin are wiped away as long as you have some rectification of the will you see on when you go to confession normally you're forgiven of sin right as long as you have a valid confession but are you forgiven of the punishment the eternal punishment you are hell but temporal punishment purgatory probably remains unless you have perfect contrition perfect perfect contrition it probably remains but you can't get into heaven if have any stain a sin or punishment so on Divine Mercy Sunday Jesus offers us something special all sin and all punishment is wiped away all of it so that you're ready to enter into heaven and what did every Jewish man want his bride to be before they entered into heaven I'm sorry before they got married what did every Jewish man want his bride to be before he took her home to meet his father spotless every Jewish man wanted his bride to be spotless when he took her home to meet his father now Jesus is the groom we are the bride and in the mass he's taking you home through the mass that he's taking you home to meet the father at the end of time it is mass is outside of time so in through the mass we go home Christ brings us back to the Father that's what our whole faith is based on it's a circle called exit - shreddy tous Thomas Aquinas all comes from God all will return to God all came from God creation the first great act of mercy we felt we got broken Jesus came redeemed that's the second great act of mercy by the second person of the Trinity creation was the first great act by the first person of the Trinity we felt got broken redemption was the second great act of mercy by the second person of the Trinity then by the power of the third person of the Trinity the Holy Spirit all of creation will be reconciled back to the Father for all creation for all time will be reconciled back for all eternity this will be on the eighth day and we need to be Stylus this is the meaning of the Mass when you go to Mass this is what's happening you know we tell our kids when I have catechism I tell them I said why did Jesus died on the cross they see because He loves us yes he could have loved you heaven though to forgive our sins yes but he could have forgiven your sins in heaven the reason Jesus died on the cross was all those but specifically because the penalty for sin is death when you sin when I sin we deserve the death penalty we deserve to die we owe our life because of it because it's such a heinous crime it's a crime against God so when we die we Road the death penalty so I say to my seventh graders all the time guys what happens if you commit a crime you're old enough to understand this they said you get arrested yeah then what you go to jail no you forgot something you go before the judge and what happens when you go before the judge the judge says you're guilty of the worst crime sin is the worst crime we all are going to be for that judge all of us and that judge has the right to say to every one of us you're guilty of the worst crime possible sin that crime against God me the Father and then the judge the father says your penalty is death right wrong because in through the backdoor comes a man in a beard and a robe and sandals and he says your honor I will pay this person's debt I will pay their debt and the judge says the honor your honor says okay you will pay this debt the man in the robe and the hair long hair and the beard says yes but the judge looks at you and he says do you accept this and you say yes or no you'd be out of your right mind if you didn't say yes this is why the Protestants have it right I accept Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior they have it right now the judge says one more thing before I let you go in order to work out the details we all got to come back here in me on Sunday morning at 8 10 or 12 what happens Sunday morning at 8 10 or 12 the mass because when you are at man is when this debt is being paid who in the right mind wouldn't come back if Jesus Christ is going to pay your debt at that moment in time and you're free to go oh no no you got a football game to go to but if you're in Fargo a hockey game to go to right so we do this or guilty of this but we're not understanding the important message the important message is it's there at the message your debts being paid when you go to master outside of time when you go to masted Benedict says in the spirit of the liturgy the roof of the church opens up in heaven and earth connect and the angels descend in time our time tick-tock historical time ends it doesn't matter anymore God is outside of time sacred time and in safer time there's no past there's no future it's all one big eternal now so you and mass are at the foot of Calvary you are there at the foot of Calvary you're not recruit a fiying Christ is why the process god bless them but they say to us all the time why do you keep recruit a fine we don't you're there at the foot of Calvary you're there present at the crucifixion we live in time God doesn't he puts you outside a time when you go to Mass you're transported to the foot of Calvary you're there as Christ is paying your debt as he's being nailed to the cross that's when the priest lifts up the hosts now who are the prayers in the mass addressed to the Father they're not addressed to Jesus they're addressed to the father because the prayer is Christ's sacrifice he's being sacrificed back to the Father this is the circle we all came from God in creation then he redeemed us in the cross now he wants to bring us back to God the Father this is what's happening at the mass at the mass Christ is being sacrificed and the prayers of the mass say eternal father accept the sacrifice so we are there miss the bowl Jesus is going back to the Father and he's begging you to grab on go with him this is the mass so the mass culminates all of this and on the feast of divine mercy Sunday we're ready to enter Heaven we're there we're part of it when did John Paul to die everybody says he died the night before Divine Mercy Sunday do you all know when the liturgical calendar the day starts the Feast starts the night before Cardinal Jeevan - I met a couple months ago said that when john paul ii was very ill and the last thing of his life they had already celebrated saturday Mass and he had already celebrated Mass for that Saturday and he had been to confession he was feeling very weak and Cardinal G which was his right-hand man for 40 years in Carmel G which said he got this inspiration in his heart to celebrate Mass for Divine Mercy Sunday because now it was after five o'clock right because after five o'clock on the saturday you're celebrating the Sunday Mass so it was like 5:30 and he got in his heart to celebrate the mass for Divine Mercy Sunday he ignored it about an hour later the heart said it again celebrate Mass for Divine Mercy Sunday again he ignored it a third time is that sound familiar like Peter gray a third time and he said that's it he imagined the Cardinals rummaging around the sacristy looking for the key grabbing the chalice getting the purification in the Paul getting the host poured the wine getting the alves getting the book setting the missile getting the lectionary looking at the readings he did all of this because something was on his heart to celebrate the mass for Divine Mercy Sunday which john paul ii wasn't going to do to the next day he had already celebrated Mass that morning for saturday it was not the Divine Mercy Sunday Mass but now that it's after five o'clock he could celebrate the mass for the mercy Sunday and this kept on his heart do it celebrated celebrated he ignore did he order finally he gave in he set up a celebrated mass he was nine o'clock at night unheard of for them to do this he set up the mass John Paul to received Holy Communion he had been to confession what are the two requirements Jesus asked us to do on Divine Mercy Sunday go to confession if you can it doesn't have to be on that day can be a couple days before as long as you're the state of grace and receive Holy Communion and if you have rectification of the will and you ask for that grace everything is cleansed everything is given up everything is wiped clean it's like a second baptism and john paul ii received Holy Communion in died 28 minutes later 25 28 or 30 minutes later he received that grace of Divine Mercy Sunday coincidence I don't think so grace absolutely a grace that God rewarded him with for spreading this message and devotion around the world and dedicating his pontificate to it you know one of our priests overheard John Paul to say on the day of st. Faustina's canonization in 2000 the first Saint canonized in 2000 john paul ii said this is the happiest day of my life so if that doesn't tell you the importance of this feast and the importance of this message nothing will so god bless you all thank you so very much we're so very grateful that you could join us thank you thank you very much

Channel: Divine Mercy

Views: 123,900

Rating: 4.8822999 out of 5

Keywords: Saint Faustina, The Divine Mercy, Fr. Chris Alar MIC, Shrine of Divine Mercy

Id: GY3Ukwgzxhc

Length: 59min 46sec (3586 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 05 2015