Sunday, April 11, 2010

Divine Mercy Sunday


For the past nine days I have been praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet Novena. Yesterday I received the Sacrament of Reconciliation and today I attended Mass and received the Eucharist.

Now this allows for me to be open to a great gift from Jesus; that is, a plenary indulgence.

A plenary indulgence wipes clean all past sins committed since Baptism.

Yes, I receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation on a regular basis and I try to do a 10th Step every night in order to examine my conscience and keep my side of the street as clean as possible. However, I am human and I will forget or even rationalize and overlook my culpability, my sin. By participating in the Divine Mercy Novena I can avail myself of the gift of indulgence as outlined by Holy Mother Church.

Col 1:24: Now I rejoice in sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of His body, which is The Church.

If we ignore the fact of indulgences we neglect what Christ does through us, and we fail to recognize the value of what He has done IN us. St Paul used this very sort of language to teach how important our actions can be to help those struggling in sin.

This is why I have asked Christ to give what I have 'earned' through my participation in the Novena to people I love. In particular, I have asked that this indulgence be granted to my brother so that he can find his way home to Holy Mother Church.

2 Mac 12:42-46 - and they turned to supplication, praying that the sin that had been committed might be wholly blotted out.

I am asking - no, I am begging - that the sins of those I love be blotted out through the Divine Mercy of Jesus Christ.

So....how was your day?

1 comment:

Beebo said...

What a selfless and wonderful thing for you to ask.