Each day until Divine Mercy Sunday on April 7th, I will email you one thought from that day’s brief reading from Fr. Michael Gaitley’s fine book, 33 Days to Merciful Love. I render full credit for these thoughts, respecting copyright laws, to Fr. Gaitley. Each reading ends with a prayer, which I ask you to pray with me for this intention: the conversion of our parish.
Day Sixteen
Yesterday Therese confessed that she was not brave enough to endure God’s justice; she could only throw herself into the arms of God’s mercy. She was just a frail little girl, after all. But she had great confidence in God’s infinite mercy because Christ had promised that “it is mercy I desire, and not sacrifice.” We don’t get to heaven on our merits, but on God’s burning love for us. We don’t push our way into God’s heart, but he draws us in. Tout est grâce, Therese said, echoing St. Augustine.
We first receive grace through the waters of baptism, and the Bible’s chosen image of God’s overflowing love is water. One year I hiked the Yosemite Falls trail in the Springtime with a group of friends. Yosemite Creek had overflowed her banks from that year’s abundant snowfall. As it torpedoed over the rim of a rockface, cascading 2000 feet to the valley floor below, the water sounded like five or six 747 engines at full throttle. A standing cloud of spray filled the valley as we ascended, soaking all the excited hikers.
Such is God’s mercy: a waterfall pouring over the face of the earth, a fathomless ocean, a river overflowing its banks, giving life and joy to all who receive it. The Good God soaks us with his grace every morning, and it is ours simply to receive this grace, to believe in His mercy, to quench His burning thirst for us by loving Him in return. When you awaken each morning, thank God for that day’s graces, receive them, and return them to the Good God who never ceases to provide for His children (we call this prayer the “morning offering”).
Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, fire of mercy. Prepare my heart to receive waves of infinite tenderness from the Heart of Jesus.
Day Sixteen
Yesterday Therese confessed that she was not brave enough to endure God’s justice; she could only throw herself into the arms of God’s mercy. She was just a frail little girl, after all. But she had great confidence in God’s infinite mercy because Christ had promised that “it is mercy I desire, and not sacrifice.” We don’t get to heaven on our merits, but on God’s burning love for us. We don’t push our way into God’s heart, but he draws us in. Tout est grâce, Therese said, echoing St. Augustine.
We first receive grace through the waters of baptism, and the Bible’s chosen image of God’s overflowing love is water. One year I hiked the Yosemite Falls trail in the Springtime with a group of friends. Yosemite Creek had overflowed her banks from that year’s abundant snowfall. As it torpedoed over the rim of a rockface, cascading 2000 feet to the valley floor below, the water sounded like five or six 747 engines at full throttle. A standing cloud of spray filled the valley as we ascended, soaking all the excited hikers.
Such is God’s mercy: a waterfall pouring over the face of the earth, a fathomless ocean, a river overflowing its banks, giving life and joy to all who receive it. The Good God soaks us with his grace every morning, and it is ours simply to receive this grace, to believe in His mercy, to quench His burning thirst for us by loving Him in return. When you awaken each morning, thank God for that day’s graces, receive them, and return them to the Good God who never ceases to provide for His children (we call this prayer the “morning offering”).
Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, fire of mercy. Prepare my heart to receive waves of infinite tenderness from the Heart of Jesus.
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