Opening prayer:
Priest: Lord our God, this afternoon, we come into the presence of Jesus Christ, your Son, born of the Virgin Mary and crucified for our salvation. May we who declare our faith in this fountain of love and mercy drink from it the water of everlasting life. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
A reading from the first letter of Peter (1 Peter 1:3-9)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by the power of God are safeguarded through faith, to a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time.
In this you rejoice, although now for a little while you may have to suffer through various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that is perishable even though tested by fire, may prove to be for praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Although you have not seen him you love him; even though you do not see him now yet believe in him, you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, as you attain the goal of [your] faith, the salvation of your souls. The word of the Lord.
Reflection:
From Creation, God has revealed his nature as love itself, in Sacred Scripture and most perfectly in the life, Passion, death and Resurrection of his Son. Many of the saints have also borne witness to God’s unfathomable love in their writings and in their witness.
Humankind’s need for the message of Divine Mercy took on dire urgency in the first part of the 20th Century. In the face of fascist governments, the first world war, and in the years leading up to the second world war, civilization began to experience an “eclipse of the sense of God” and a loss of the understanding of the sanctity and inherent dignity of human life. In the 1930s, Jesus chose a humble Polish nun, St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, to receive private revelations concerning Divine Mercy that were recorded in her Diary. Pope St John Paul II explains: “This was precisely the time when those ideologies of evil, nazism and communism, were taking shape. Sister Faustina became the herald of the one message capable of off-setting the evil of those ideologies, that fact that God is mercy—the truth of the merciful Christ. And for this reason, when I was called to the See of Peter, I felt impelled to pass on those experiences of a fellow Pole that deserve a place in the treasury of the universal Church.”.
John Paul II explains in a message for Divine Mercy Sunday in 2005: “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.”
There is a lot of uncertainty in the world today. There is a lot of struggle and illness and fear. Today, we need the message of Divine Mercy Sunday.
Priest: God is the Father of all mercies. In him we place our faith as we pray the following petitions:
1. For our Holy Father, Pope Francis, Bishop Joseph Kopaca, our bishops, priests, and all the faithful: that in our words and actions, each of us will bear witness to the love and mercy of God.
2. For all who have not been to the sacrament of reconciliation in a long time, that any of their trepidations will dissolve in the face of Jesus’ longing to forgive and be reconciled to them.
3. For those who serve in public office: that they govern with true compassion for the lives of the most vulnerable among us—
especially unborn children, the elderly, and persons with disabilities. We pray that they may reach out to their people in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
4. For parents: that, by their guidance and the witness of their own lives, they will teach their children how to love and forgive when they have been wronged.
5. For the protection of conscience rights and religious liberty,
and that all people of good will may work together
against the increasing threats to these fundamental rights.
6. For peace throughout the world, and especially in areas of open conflict: that ancient prejudices and hatreds will be replaced by a spirit of mercy and unity.
Priest: Almighty and merciful Father, we give you thanks for all of your many blessings, and we ask you to hear these petitions in the name of your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Priest:
Let us pray. O God, who in this wonderful Sacrament have left us a memorial of your Passion, grant us, we pray, so to revere the sacred mysteries of your Body and Blood
that we may always experience in ourselves the fruits of your redemption. Who live and reign for ever and ever. Amen.
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