Jesus, I trust in You.

This weekend we finish the Octave of Easter, or the eight days, the first week of the Easter Season. Our celebration of Easter, along with Christmas, is so important that the Church continues to celebrate it not just one day, but for an entire week. This whole week is a continual celebration of the greatest events of human history. Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God has risen from the grave and conquered even death itself for our sake.

This wonderful week concludes with another celebration, that of Divine Mercy Sunday. This is a relatively new feast day. It was instituted by Pope St John Paul II and focuses on the incredible mercy that God offers us. In Holy Scripture, Jesus is the one that talks about the judgement of God more than anyone, but he is also the one who talks about the mercy of God more than anyone, and they are always tied together. This feast day is based on the writing of St Faustina Kowalska and her vision of Jesus who came to her. This is what she wrote in her diary: "In the evening, when I was in my cell, I became aware of the Lord Jesus clothed in a white garment. One hand was raised in blessing, the other was touching the garment at the breast. From the opening of the garment at the breast there came forth two large rays, one red and the other pale. In silence I gazed intently at the Lord; my soul was overwhelmed with fear, but also with great joy. After a while Jesus said to me, 'paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the inscription: Jesus, I trust in You.'" This image that came to St Faustina is one that she painted and is now known all over the world with the red and the white representing the blood and the water that came from His side.

Last year, we started to do one celebration with OLIH here and this year we will be celebrating the Divine Mercy of God with Adoration and Confessions starting at 1:00 PM at Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart Church, and lasting until just before 3:00 in which we will pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy followed by Benediction and Reposition of the Blessed Sacrament. So, we will not be celebrating it here this year, but at OLIH and there will be a number of priests available for the sacrament of Reconciliation, including myself.

This is a wonderful time to just sit and reflect in front of the Blessed Sacrament and give the greatest sacrifice that we can offer to God: our time with Him. His mercy is far greater than anything that we can imagine and Jesus wants us to leave our sins with Him. He reminds us the same things that he tells the woman caught in adultery: ‘I do not condemn you of your sins, but go and sin no more.’ I would invite everyone to spend some time this Sunday, with our Lord and Savior reflecting on His Divine Mercy.

God bless,
Fr. Ken