Divine Mercy Cenacle w/Fr Mike & Jay Hastings

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  If you missed previous days of the Cenacle, scroll down, they are all posted, so you can catch up at your convenience. Each Day has it's own message and meaning.  

Day # 7 

1. Let us begin: Pray the Our Father- All  

Still in the Easter season, we reflected on The Divine Mercy Novena. The Divine Mercy Novena can be said anytime. We have a Perpetual Divine Mercy Novena everyday 3-4pm Holy Hour of Mercy at the St Faustina Shrine.

Jesus specifically wanted it said from Good Friday to Divine Mercy Sunday. He gave St Faustina an intention for each day. Here we talked about the first intention to reflect on why Jesus gave this and if any of these intentions are about us. Day 1 of the Novena is: 

The Chaplet of The Divine Mercy Novena

Today bring to Me ALL MANKIND, ESPECIALLY ALL SINNERS, and immerse them in the ocean of My mercy. In this way you will console Me in the bitter grief into which the loss of souls plunges Me.

Most Merciful Jesus, whose very nature it is to have compassion on us and to forgive us, do not look upon our sins but upon our trust which we place in Your infinite goodness. Receive us all into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart, and never let us escape from It. We beg this of You by Your love which unites You to the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon all mankind and especially upon poor sinners, all enfolded in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. For the sake of His sorrowful Passion show us Your mercy, that we may praise the omnipotence of Your mercy for ever and ever. Amen.

https://www.thedivinemercy.org/message/devotions/novena

2. Next we had our Divine Mercy Sunday Celebration. We received the image at our St Faustina Shrine a Life- Size High Resolution Digital scan of the Original Image of The Divine Mercy. As our Lord wanted, we had it solemnly Blessed on Divine Mercy Sunday at 3pm; See video link: 

https://youtu.be/8uE5E2OGjNA

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The we reviewed the meaning of what was painted in the image.

3. Then you can go to this link where it explains the History and explanation of

 different things in the image. 3 pages including a chart which explains. Very informative. Review and meditate. Send me any questions or thoughts. Jay sfshrine@msn.com

https://images.marianweb.net/archives/pdfs/momm/worksheets/Image_History_and_Explanation_Basic_B_K2-HS.pdf

Meditate and ponder all you have read and then end with a Prayer, the Our Father.

  If you missed previous days of the Cenacle, scroll down, they are all posted, so you can catch up at your convenience. Each Day has it's own message and meaning.  

Day # 5

Let us begin: Pray the Our Father- All  

Recap of Day 4: What we learned: 

Diary Reading 61-68;

1. Relationship and looking for God's movement in your life

2. Jesus assigns St Faustina her spiritual director himself and notices His personal relationship with Fr Sopocko.

3. The Christian life is never dull but in the paradox of the Cross is exciting and life giving and promoting. Fulton Sheen wrote a book: " The Thrill of Monotony." 

Discuss what this means after reading last week's diary excerpts:

O life so dull and monotonous, how many treasures you contain! When I look at everything with the eyes of faith, no two hours are alike, and the dullness and monotony disappear. The grace which is given me in this hour will not be repeated in the next. It may be given me again, but it will not be the same grace. Time goes on, never to return again. Whatever is enclosed in it will never change; it seals with a seal for eternity. (Diary 62)

4. Diary 64 Jesus guides St Faustina's activities and doesn't want her to go on a trip because it is not good for her soul. Have you noticed this in your life, when things don't go your way, maybe God doesn't want that for you because it's not good for your soul? 

St Faustina responds with trust.

            Next morning the weather was beautiful, and my companion was filled with joy at the prospect of the great pleasure we would have in getting to see everything. But as for me, I was sure we would not go, even though there were no obstacles so far.

We were to receive Holy Communion earlier and leave right after the thanksgiving. But during the time of Communion, all of a sudden, the weather changed. Clouds covered the sky, and the rain came down in torrents. Everyone was astounded at such a sudden change in the weather.

Mother Superior said to me, "I am so sorry you cannot go, Sisters!" I answered, "Dear Mother, it doesn't really matter that we cannot go; it was God's will that we stay home." However, no one knew that it was Jesus' express desire that I stay home. I spent the whole day in recollection and meditation, thanking the Lord for having kept me home. That day, God granted me many heavenly consolations. (Diary 64)

5. Diary 68 In relationship to Jesus, what to do when life becomes difficult. St Faustina's attitude and responses and what our responses may be and how we can change that to be more like her. 

      But all these conferences with Mother Superior brought me no relief, nor did they clarify anything for me. Rather, even greater darkness hid God from me. I looked for help in the confessional, but not even there did I find it. A saintly priest wanted to help me, but I was so miserable that I couldn't even define my trouble, and that vexed me even more. A deathly sadness penetrated my soul to such an extent that I was unable to hide it, and it was apparent to those around me. I lost hope. The night was growing darker and darker. The priest to whom I went to confession said to me, "I see very special graces in you, Sister, and I am not worried about you at all; why are you torturing yourself in this way?" But at that time I did not understand at all what he was saying and was extremely surprised when, by way of penance, I was ordered to say the Te Deum or the Magnificat, or to run fast around the garden in the evening, or else to laugh out loud ten times a day. These penances were very surprising to me; but even with that the priest was not able to give me much help. Evidently, God wanted me to give Him glory through suffering. (Diary 68)

That priest consoled me, saying that in my present situation I was more pleasing to God than if I were filled with the greatest consolations. "It is a very great grace, Sister, "he told me, "that in your present condition, with all the torments of soul you are experiencing, you not only do not offend God, but you even try to practice virtues. I am looking into your soul, and I see God's great plans and special graces there; and seeing this, I give thanks to the Lord." But despite all that, my soul was in a state of torture; and in the midst of unspeakable torments, I imitated the blind man who entrusts himself to his guide, holding his hand firmly, not giving up obedience for a single moment, and this was my only safety in this fiery trial. 

+O Jesus, eternal Truth, strengthen my feeble forces; You can do all things, Lord. I know that without You all my efforts are in vain. O Jesus, do not hide from me, for I cannot live without You. Listen to the cry of my soul. Your mercy has not been exhausted, Lord, so have pity on my misery. Your mercy surpasses the understanding of all Angels and people put together; and so, although it seems to me that You do not hear me, I put my trust in the ocean of Your mercy, and I know that my hope will not be deceived. Diary 69

Only Jesus knows how burdensome and difficult it is to accomplish one's duties when the soul is so interiorly tortured, the physical powers so weakened and the mind darkened. In the silence of my heart I kept saying to myself, "O Christ, may delights, honor and glory be Yours, and suffering be mine. I will not lag one step behind as I follow You, though thorns wound my feet." (Diary 70)

Meditate and ponder all you have read and then end with a Prayer, the Our Father.

  If you missed previous days of the Cenacle, scroll down, they are all posted, so you can catch up at your convenience. Each Day has it's own message and meaning.  

Day # 4

Pray the Our Father- All  

1. Primacy of Prayer:

Mary Full of grace - Model of the Church at Prayer 

Pope Benedict XVI: Prayer is the wellspring of every action:

To announce the Word of God, and at the same time to help the needy. This is the problem -- spoken of in the sixth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles -- faced by the early Church, which Pope Benedict XVI explained in his catechesis at his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square. Benedict XVI spoke about the need for balance between prayer and works of charity, emphasizing the primacy of prayer. The pastoral problem that induced the Apostles to choose and to impose hands upon seven men charged with the service of charity, that the Apostles might dedicate themselves to prayer and the proclamation of the Word, indicates to us the primacy of prayer and of the Word of God. For Pastors, the Pope said, this is the first and most precious form of service to the flocks entrusted to them. If the two lungs of prayer and the Word of God do not feed the breath of our spiritual life, we risk suffocating in the midst of a thousand daily concerns. 

Prayer is the breadth of life and of the soul in relationship to God and in listening to His Word in dialogue with Him, even when we are in the silence of a church or in our room, we are united in our Lord with our brothers and sisters in Faith. Like an ensemble of instruments each retaining their own individuality but nonetheless raising great symphony of the intercession, thanksgiving and praise to God. 

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Let's read: 

Pope Benedict XVI said the Church has the "primary need" to proclaim the Word of God, but it also has "the duty of charity and justice": between the two there is no opposition, because charity "must be permeated by the spirit of contemplation of God", "without daily prayer our action is empty, it looses its deep soul, resulting in a simple activism that eventually leaves unsatisfied".

1. St Faustina writes:– A soul arms itself by prayer for all kinds of combat.

In whatever state the soul may be, it ought to pray. 

A soul which is pure and beautiful must pray, or else it will lose its beauty; 

a soul which is striving after this purity must pray, or else it will never attain it; 

a soul which is newly converted must pray, or else it will fall again; 

a sinful soul, plunged in sins, must pray so that it might rise again. 

There is no soul which is not bound to pray, for every single grace comes to the soul through prayer. ( Diary 146) 

2. Our own Fr Bill Parham says "a prayer life restores the awe and wonder to your faith." 

Prayer is the place of refuge for every worry, a foundation for cheerfulness, a source of constant happiness, a protection against sadness.' St. John Chrysostom 'Prayer is the inner bath of love into which the soul plunges itself.'

Jesus told St Faustina: Let no one doubt concerning the goodness of God; even if a person’s sins were as dark as night, God’s mercy is stronger than our misery. (Diary 1507)

An ancient Christian writer wrote that, "of all divine things, the most divine is to share with God in the saving of souls."
 

(Interestingly, God and Souls was the motto of St. Faustina, whose revelations in the 1930s led to the modern Divine Mercy movement.)

(St Faustina wrote: "Oh, dying souls are in such great need of prayer! O Jesus, inspire souls to pray often for the dying" (Diary, 1015).)

3. Oct 22 we celebrated the Feast Day of St John Paul ll, the great mercy Pope.

Pope John Paul II died on Saturday, April 2, 2005, at the end of the vigil Mass of Divine Mercy Sunday, the feast that he himself instituted five years earlier for the universal Church. A few minutes before his death, at 9:37 p.m. Rome time, a Mass had been celebrated in the Pope’s private apartments, during which he was given the Holy Viaticum and the Anointing of the Sick.

But what a lot of people don't know is that Pope John Paul II had prepared a short homily from his deathbed that was to be read on Divine Mercy Sunday.

In this excerpt from that Homily he said to the people of the world:

This mystery of love is at the heart of the liturgy today, the Second Sunday of Easter, dedicated to the devotion of Divine Mercy. 

As a gift to humanity, which sometimes seems bewildered and overwhelmed by the power of evil, selfishness and fear, the Risen Lord offers his love that pardons, reconciles and reopens hearts to love. It is a love that converts hearts and gives peace. How much the world needs to understand and accept 

Divine Mercy!  Lord, who reveals the Father's love by your death and Resurrection, we believe in you and confidently repeat to you today: Jesus, I trust in you, have mercy upon us and upon the whole world.

Meditate and ponder all you have read and then end with a Prayer, the Our Father

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Ongoing Divine Mercy Cenacle with Fr Mike Morgera and Jay Hastings- Content from many sources including EADM Cenacle Book, 51 Days with St Faustina and more. For total list contact Jay sfshrine@msn.com

They can be viewed in order or each be itself.   

Day 1: Divine Mercy Diary Exerpts: Topic: Love

Pure love ... knows that only one thing is needed to please God: to do even the smallest things out of great love - love, and always love. (140)

The third attribute is love and mercy. And I understood that the greatest attribute is love and mercy. It unites the creature with the Creator. This immense love and abyss of mercy are made known in the Incarnation of the Word and in the Redemption, and it is here that I saw this as the greatest of all God's attributes. (180)

I desire that you know more profoundly the love that burns in My Heart for souls, and you will understand this when you meditate upon My Passion. Call upon My mercy on behalf of sinners; I desire their salvation. When you say this prayer, with a contrite heart and with faith on behalf of some sinner, I will give him the grace of conversion. This is the prayer: "O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of Mercy for us, I trust in You." (186 - 187) 

I did not know that the Lord had put so much happiness in these drab little corners. Now I understand that even in prison there can burst forth from a pure heart the fullness of love for You, O Lord! External things mean nothing to pure love; it cuts through them all. Neither prison doors nor the gates of heaven are strong enough to stop it. It reaches God himself, and nothing can quench it. It knows no obstacles; it is free like a queen and has free access to all places. Death itself must bow its head before it... (201)

Once, when I returned to my cell, I was so tired that I had to rest a moment before I started to undress, and when I was already undressed, one of the sisters asked me to fetch her some hot water. Although I was tired, I dressed quickly and brought her the water she wanted, even though it was quite a long walk from the cell to the kitchen, and the mud was ankle-deep. When I re-entered my cell, I saw the ciborium with the Blessed Sacrament, and I heard this voice, 

Take this ciborium and bring it to the tabernacle. I hesitated at first, but when I approached and touched it, I heard these words, Approach each one of the sisters with the same love with which you approach Me; and whatever you do for them, you do it for Me. A moment later, I saw that I was alone. (285)

When a soul loves God sincerely, it ought not fear anything in the spiritual life. Let it subject itself to the action of grace, and let it not impose any restraints on itself in communing with the Lord. (292) 

It is enough for me to know that I am loved and that I love. Pure love enables me to know God and understand many mysteries. (293)

Great love can change small things into great ones, and it is only love which lends value to our actions. And the purer our love becomes, the less there will be within us for the flames of suffering to feed upon, and the suffering will cease to be a suffering for us; it will become a delight! By the grace of God, I have received such a disposition of heart that I am never so happy as when I suffer for Jesus , whom I love with every beat of my heart. (303) 

There is but one price at which souls are bought, and that is suffering united to My suffering on the cross. Pure love understands these words; carnal love will never understand them. (324)

Nothing can compare with love. I see that the smallest things done by a soul that loves God sincerely have an enormous value in the eyes of His Saints. (340)

...souls living in love are distinguished in this: that they are greatly enlightened concerning the things of God, both in their own souls and in the souls of others. And simple souls, without an education, are outstanding for their knowledge. (1191)

Oh, how painful it is to Me that souls so seldom unite themselves to Me in Holy Communion. I wait for souls, and they are indifferent toward Me. I love them tenderly and sincerely, and they distrust Me. I want to lavish My graces on them, and they do not want to accept them. They treat Me as a dead object, whereas My Heart is full of love and mercy. In order that you may know at least some of My pain, imagine the most tender of mothers who has great love for her children, while those children spurn her love. Consider her pain. No one is in a position to console her. This is but a feeble image and likeness of My love. (1447)

For the sake of your love, I withhold the just chastisements, which mankind has deserved. A single act of pure love pleases Me more than a thousand imperfect prayers. One of your sighs of love atones for many offences with which the godless overwhelm Me. The smallest act of virtue has unlimited value in My eyes because of your great love for Me. In a soul that lives on My love alone, I reign as in Heaven. I watch over it day and night. (1489)

You should not worry too much about adversities. The world is not as powerful as it seems to be; its strength is strictly limited.. Know, my daughter, that if your soul is filled with the fire of My pure love, then all difficulties dissipate like fog before the sun's rays and dare not touch the soul. All adversaries are afraid to start a quarrel with such a soul, because they sense that it is stronger than the whole world...(1643)

..the Lord Jesus began to complain about the ...lack of love in chosen souls.....[Love] has been banished from convents. Souls without love and without devotion, souls full of egoism and self-love, souls full of pride and arrogance, souls full of deceit and hypocrisy, lukewarm souls who have just enough warmth to keep them alive: My heart cannot bear this. All the graces that I pour out upon them flow off them as off the face of a rock. I cannot stand them , because they are neither good nor bad. I called convents into being to sanctify the world through them. It is from them that a powerful flame of love and sacrifice should burst forth. And if they do not repent and become enkindled by their first love, I will deliver them over to the fate of this world... How can they sit on the promised throne of judgment to judge the world, when their guilt is greater than the guilt of the world? There is neither penance nor atonement. O heart, which received Me in the morning and at noon are all ablaze with hatred against Me, were you chosen for this, to give Me more pain? The great sins of the world are superficial wounds on My Heart, but the sins of a chosen soul pierce My Heart through and through..

[Sr. Faustina records her tears which ensued as she reflected on what Jesus had said] Do not cry. There are still a great number of souls who love Me very much, but My Heart desires to be loved by all and, because My love is great, that is why I warn and chastise them. (1702-3)

Consider, My daughter, Who it is to whom your heart is so closely united by the vows. Before I made the world, I loved you with the love your heart is experiencing today and, throughout the centuries, My love will never change...

What a paradise it is for a soul when the heart knows itself to be so loved by God...(1754/1756)