What is Divine Mercy, and why do I need it?

Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, a day set apart in the liturgical year to pay special attention to and give special thanks for God's infinite mercy. I have to pause here for a moment. When I first learned of this special feast day (as they are known in the Catholic Church, though there usually is not an actual feast) I was intrigued. My first thought was, of course we followers of Christ know as a main tenet of our faith that God is merciful, becuase we know He gave His only Son over to suffer and die to redeem us from our own sin and rejection of Him. It seems like common knowledge, similar to saying the sky is blue. But then, maybe it is too common- put on the back burner of our spiritual consciousness where we don't actually reach out for it in our day-to-day struggles when we need it the most.

Fact: I sin pretty often. My response upon realizing it is a harsh self-reprimand, a good inner berating, and a general feeling of condemnation. Mentally I know God forgives me, (again with the blue sky) but I just can't seem to convince myself of it, accept the gift of His love, and keep moving forward. Now, we are told that there is no condemnation for believers in Christ (Romans 8:1) so this has to be coming from somewhere else. Do I counter these feelings with an intentional focus God's mercy towards me? No. So I decided the Divine Mercy deserved some looking into.

Divine Mercy Sunday as an official feast day started with an actual mandate Jesus Himself gave to St. Maria Faustina Kowalska in one of many apparitions she received, during which He also gave her very specific instructions on a devotional image He wanted painted (see end of post) with the words "Jesus, I Trust in You." Three versions were painted based on her description, the latest of which was presented to Pope John Paul II and I've included below.

In her diary (which was later published) Faustina records Jesus saying to her directly "Proclaim that mercy is the greatest attribute of God." When I read this, I immediately stopped to think about what I consider to be His greatest attribute. The first thing that comes to my mind is that God is Love. This is a true statement- in fact, directly out of Scripture (1 John 4:8.) My next thought is, how to pick a single aspect of the One Who is Truth, goodness, beauty and ultimately every other virtue? I guess I just have to seek to understand why God prioritizes His mercy above all other traits.

Another stumbling block is my inability to fathom the infinite. What is literally limitless, unending, unshakable mercy like? I can't even wrap my brain around it. What I can grasp is how desperately I need His mercy, especially in that awful moment when I realize my sin, and how incredible it feels when I hear God whisper to my heart that He still loves me. A LOT. I also know the value of mercy on a much smaller, but still meaningful, level when I wrong or hurt a loved one or friend and instead of treating me justly as my actions deserve, they choose instead to show me love.

So today I'm taking some extra time in my prayers to ask Him for the grace to see the implications of His endless mercy in my own life. It gives me great comfort and hope just to know that no matter how many times I will continue to screw up (and I will,) God will never hold it against me. His patience will never run out. I'll still be His Beloved, sinner though I am, because I can accept Jesus's perfect sacrifice on my behalf. I leave you with a quote from St. Faustina's Diary: Have confidence in God, for He is good and inconceivable. His mercy surpasses our understanding.

Title Origin

Braiding a literal cord of three strands (God, he and I) at our wedding ceremony.

The Patron Saint of Military Wives

It was a special blessing when I stumbled across a brief biography of St. Francesca Romana, also called Frances of Rome, on a blog I frequent. Since my faith has been shaped significantly by my Catholic upbringing and single years (my husband and I currently attend a Baptist church,) the saints are an integral part of my spiritual world.
It's helpful to have a role model, someone who has walked your path before- especially when that vocation was given by God, first to them and then to you. When I try to explain the saints to friends, the best analogy I can give is an older brother or sister, maybe a community member who you admired and trusted. Of course it's crucial to keep in mind that admirable though they may be (Francesca very much so) they were human too, and can never replace Jesus as our ultimate Confidante, Helper, Guide and Friend.
That being said, the saints may be most helpful because they are not angels. They're just like us- except the church has designated their lives as exceptionally holy, and they are dead. (To this world. It's a saintly prerequisite.). There aren't many who were married; most were either consecrated religious, and thus celibate, or were martyred while virgins. So to find one who was a wife, and of a military man at that, is exciting. And that brings us back to Francesca.
Born to a wealthy Italian family in 1384, she discovered her deep love for God as a child and by age twelve had decided to become a nun. But her parents determined that she should be married, and at age thirteen she wed Lorenzo Ponziano, commander of the papal troops of Rome and also from an aristocratic family.
Even though Lorenzo was frequently away (read: deployed) at war, their marriage is said to have been a very loving one, lasting forty years until Lorenzo's death in 1436. Lorenzo loved his wife very much and admired her purity and devotion, as well as her efforts to help those less fortunate. Francesca, though in love first and always with God, loved him deeply as well and faithfully honored and obeyed him throughout their marriage. As ardently as she desired to unite herself completely to the Lord through consecrated religious life, she was able to see and accept that His Will was for her to love and serve Lorenzo as a wife and to be a mother to their children.
During Lorenzo's absences, Francesca opened their home as a makeshift hospital for those wounded by war and distributed food to the hungry. These separations- surely as painful and difficult for her as they are for us- gave Francesca opportunities for exclusive devotion to prayer and reading as well. But when her husband was home, she patiently and obediently put her private spiritual life on hold, recognizing her married vocation as her primary duty from God.
She is quoted as saying, "Devotion in a married woman is most praiseworthy, but she must never forget that she is a housewife. Sometimes she must leave God at the altar, to serve Him in her housekeeping."
Sounds a little harsh at first, but her insight about prioritizing daily life God's way is a revelation to me. It can be all too easy to miss the Forest through the proverbial trees when it comes to seeking God's Will. Yes, I have responsibilities to my husband, and he has needs and desires that I as his wife am required by God to meet... but shouldn't my Bible reading come first? Or church obligations? Doesn't Jesus tell us that we must live Him above all others, including our families?
No, our private spiritual devotions shouldn't come first if our spouse is present and needs us. And yes, Jesus does command us to place our relationship with Him before any earthly one, even our marriages.
So how are we to balance the two?
The attribute that draws me to Francesca as a patron saint, even more than her military vocation, is her discernment of the demands of her married life as God's plan for her individual holiness. When her duty to Lorenzo summoned her away from prayer or spiritual reading, she recognized God's Voice and lovingly set aside her own desires to support him. No doubt this shaped her into the saint she would become, as she persevered in submitting her own will day by day to those of God and the man He had given her.
An often-cited episode in her life, one of many miraculous occurrences, gives a glimpse of how valuable her loving service was in God's sight:
One day while reciting the Divine Office privately, Lorenzo summoned for her five successive
times. At each interruption, Francesca patiently complied before returning to her prayers. After at last she had seen to the fifth request, she found the words of the line she had been reading written in gold. She then was told by an angel, "Thus the Lord rewards the virtue of obedience."
Her unwavering pursuit of God- or rather, her reciprocation of His unwavering pursuit of her- is also worth emulating. Though she loved Lorenzo as fully as she was capable of loving another human being, she never looked to him for satisfaction of the deepest longings of her heart, which she knew could only be met by God.
So whether our husbands are home with us, deployed or away on training, may we strive to love them by giving ourselves completely as Francesca did, while keeping a passionate desire for God always at the center of our hearts.
Her advice, given to oblates of the religious order she founded after Lorenzo's death, is fitting for all to live by: "Love one another, and be faithful unto death. Satan will assault you, as he has assaulted me; but be not afraid. You will overcome him through patience and obedience; and no trial will be too grievous, if you are united to Jesus; if you walk in His ways, He will be with you."


Saint Frances of Rome, help us to see the difference between what we want to do and what God wants us to do. Help us to discern what comes from our will and what comes from God's desire. Amen

[prayer and image are not my own]