#Divine Mercy

[moethh]

im funny aren’t i

[cheerfullycatholic]

Ladies and gentlemen,

Him

[beloved-of-john]

A silly little thing. Credit to whoever drew the trans autism creature. Edits by me.

I was going through it today regarding my queer identity and my Christian faith, and how difficult it can be to be both at once, especially when church teachings aren't affirming. So I'm posting this silly little thing I made, to cheer myself up. I hope it cheers someone else up too.

[justjudethoughts]

Lessons in Divine Mercy

Necessary Context: Very early on in my journey with Religious OCD, extremely well-meaning mentors would often tell me the story of the Prodigal Son, and end it with "you just need to trust in God's mercy! He wants to forgive you!" But you see, for me, that was never the problem. 14-year-old me KNEW God wanted to forgive her. She also knew that if she committed a mortal sin, she was supposed to go to confession. And, well, um, she thought everything was a mortal sin. Literally skipped brushing my teeth once and thought it was a mortal sin. What scared me the most was the realization I couldn't literally spend 24/7 in confession. And if I was committing a mortal sin every few minutes, then how was I ever supposed to stay in union with God? To me, absolutely none of this had to do with trusting that God was merciful.

I was wrong.

It took a while to come to this conclusion, but I eventually realized that trusting in God's mercy had more to it than simply trusting He wanted to forgive me. It meant trusting that He knew me better than I knew myself. That He saw my heart and my mind and the absolute agony I was going through, and more than that, that He cared. I had to trust that His mercy was bigger than my illness. That He wasn't scared of my scruples. In practice, that meant I had to trust that even if I somehow managed to

— 1) Commit a mortal sin 2) Convince myself afterwards that it wasn't a mortal sin and I was just obsessing and 3) Forgo going to confession in an attempt to not perform a compulsion— that God would not hold that supposed mortal sin against me. Of course, now I realize how unlikely that entire situation is to even happen in the first place, but at the time it was my reality. It was my fear every single day, and that leap of faith was a terrifying one to make. But when I did, I could finally begin to do the things I needed to heal (aka, avoid compulsions, trusting that God is going to take care of it even if I mislabeled and avoided something I actually should have done as a compulsion).

You see, what I hadn't realized at the time is that God's mercy doesn't just mean He forgives your sins— it means He has a tender, bleeding, broken heart for you. For you and for everything you have been through. For you and for every hurt stored in your chest. For you and you alone, as though you were the only one to ever exist. His mercy does not simply say "go and sin no more," it stoops to write in the sand, and while doing so, finds you at eye level. Looks you in the eye, takes your hand, and raises you to your feet. Calls you by name. The Jesus who meets you in the confessional is the same Jesus who wept when Lazarus died. Whose heart was moved with pity for the crowd. Who dropped everything to raise a little girl from the dead, and the first thing He said when she was awake was to make sure she was given something to eat.

Divine Mercy means that God sees where you are, knows where you are, and pursues you there. Meets you there. Why else do you think He came down to earth as a baby? We got ourselves in trouble by trying to build a tower to heaven because that was never what we were supposed to do. God stoops to us. The confusion of Babble was undone by the descent of the Holy Ghost.

He sees you. He knows you. And He cares. Oh, how it hurts His heart to see you hurt! And how much more it hurts to see you scared of Him. Do you not think the Hands that crafted you know every crevice of your heart? Do you not think that the God who became a baby, whose heart was pierced for love of you, could hold anything inside that heart beside tenderness at the thought of you? For all of eternity He has had a simple wish — to wash your feet and kiss your wounds. Will you trust Him enough to let Him?

[ynhart]

Divine Mercy

[tpanan]

Thanks be to Lord Jesus, our God. Amen 🙏

[pol-ski]

The Image of the Divine Mercy - Jesus, I trust in You (1943) by Adolf Hyła (Polish, 1897–1965)

The image of the Divine Mercy is a depiction of Jesus Christ that is based on the devotion initiated by Saint Faustina Kowalska.

Adolf Hyła paint­ed this ver­sion of the Divine Mer­cy for the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Kraków, as a votive offer­ing in grat­i­tude for the safe­ty of his fam­i­ly dur­ing World War II.

[portraitsofsaints]

Blessed Michael Sopocko

November 1,1888-February 15, 1975

Feast Day: February 15

Patronage: Bialystok

Blessed Michael Sopocko was a Polish priest best known as St. Faustina’s spiritual director and promoter of the message of Divine Mercy. In 1933, he became Sister Faustina’s confessor and commissioned the Divine Mercy image to be painted. In 1947 he formed the Congregation of Sisters of the Merciful Jesus. In 1959 the Divine Mercy message was suppressed by the Vatican due to incorrect translations of the Diary, causing Fr. Sopocko much suffering. After his death, the ban was eventually reversed by Pope John Paul II in 1979.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase. (website)

[aure-entuluva-2407]

Cor Iesu Sacratissimum

In honor of the new Encyclical :D

[angeltreasure]

Have a very blessed Divine Mercy Sunday to all of you. ❤️🙏🏻🩵

[gothicapologist]

"I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish. I also promise victory over enemies already here on earth, especially at the hour of death. I Myself will defend it as My own glory." - Jesus to St. Faustina, Divine Mercy in My Soul (Notebook I, Entry 48)

[donnadarling]

"God is Love, and His Spirit is Peace. I see now that my deeds which have flowed from love are more perfect than those which I have done out of fear."

- The Diary of St. Faustina Kowalska

[myremnantarmy]

“𝘛𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘔𝘺 𝘔𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘴𝘩. 𝘑𝘶𝘥𝘨𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴."

[in-his-sacred-heart]

Prayer for the Pope’s Healing

Heavenly Father,

You are the Divine Healer, the One who restores and renews all things. Today, we lift up our Holy Father, Pope Francis, who is suffering from illness. Lord, in Your mercy, place Your healing hands upon him. Strengthen his body as he battles this sickness, ease his suffering, and restore him to full health.

Breathe Your life-giving Spirit into his lungs, clearing them of all infection, and grant wisdom to the doctors and caregivers who attend to him. May his recovery be swift, and may he continue to lead Your Church with renewed strength and faith.

In his time of weakness, be his refuge. Surround him with Your peace, comfort his heart, and remind him that he is held in the prayers of the faithful worldwide. We entrust him to the loving care of Our Blessed Mother, asking for her intercession, that she may cover him with her mantle of protection.

Lord, we trust in Your perfect will, and we ask all this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer.

Amen.

[inspiredbyjesuslove]

[justjudethoughts]

What a Dispensation Taught me about Grace

Throughout the Liturgical year, there are a *lot* of triggers for Religious OCD, but for me the worst one is the Ash Wednesday and Good Friday fast. My entire life I've just whiteknuckled through the intense anxiety, not realizing I was experiencing more discomfort than I was supposed to. Because I'm not physically sick, and I don't have an ED, I never sought a dispensation. I didn't think I was "bad enough." This past Lent, while sharing my struggles with a priest, he told me that he thought a dispensation (from the food fast) would be good for me. Grateful as I was, I wasn't intending to forgo the fast on Good Friday; that is, until dinner on Holy Thursday, where I was already obsessing about how much I should be eating, and I decided Father was right. I replaced the food fast with a different sacrifice.

On Good Friday, I sat in the chapel looking up at the Crucifix, utterly in awe that God would think my meager suffering serious enough to give me an "exception". I found myself asking "But how am I supposed to pay you back? You died on the cross and I can't even go a day without normal sized meals."

The second I had asked the question, I knew the answer. "You can't pay me back." And then it hit me. Much as I know we can't earn God's grace, I'm not good at living like that. It's so difficult to wrap your head around. But this is what I have begun to realize: works and fasting and prayer are very necessary and very important, but they aren't currency. They are sacraments, vehicles of God's grace. They dispose you to better receiving His grace, and they dispense His grace, but they don't "earn" you God's grace. It wouldn't be grace if you earned it.

And it is so, so good that we can't earn it. If we could, we'd never be able to have dispensations, even for the people who really need it. But you see, grace is an unmerited gift from God, and while there are ordinary ways God has chosen to give us grace (the Sacraments, prayer, fasting, etc) an unmerited gift is not bound by those ways. If a person is truly too weak to do one of those things, that won't stop God from pouring out His grace. Christ, in His abundant mercy, in His extreme tenderness, "will know how to come and get you." He is not counting your sacrifices. He is waiting for your love. For your openness. For your surrender. For your premission.

Oh, what a mercy it is that we can't earn grace!