Pastor’s Corner — April 24th, 2022
Divine Mercy Service at 3pm Sunday (April 24) in the Church
This Sunday is the Second Sunday of Easter which is the Feast of Divine Mercy. It is truly one of my favorite feasts of the whole year because it celebrates and glorifies the Mercy of God, the very love of God given to us through Jesus. The now very popular devotion of Divine Mercy played a big part in my moral conversion. St. John Paul II instituted the Feast Divine Mercy back in 2000 and it has been celebrated in the Universal Calendar of the Church ever since. According to a Divine Mercy website:
“In her Diary, St. Faustina records a special promise given to her by Jesus. He told her to communicate it to the whole world: My daughter, tell the whole world about My inconceivable mercy. I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy (no. 699).”
It is enough to receive Jesus in Holy Communion worthily on Divine Mercy Sunday to receive these graces. You can read more about how to receive a plenary indulgence on this day here.
One of my favorite quotes of Jesus from the Diary of St. Faustina is: “The graces of My mercy are drawn by means of one vessel only, and that is trust. The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive” (no. 1578). Trust in the mercy of God is so powerful because it allows Jesus to transform our hearts through his merciful love.
To learn more about the Divine Mercy Message and Devotion, please consider coming to our Divine Mercy Service at 3pm on Sunday in the Church where we will sing the Divine Mercy Chaplet with Eucharistic Adoration.
Encounter Healing Service: this Saturday (April 23) at 7pm
As part of the Divine Mercy Healing Conference this week that Encounter Ministries is hosting at the PLC, we will be hosting a public healing service (free of course) in the Church on Saturday at 7pm. Our two special guests Marcin Zielinski and Robby Dawkins are incredibly gifted in healing. If you know someone who is in need of healing, please consider inviting them to come to this event. Unfortunately, I’ll be unable to attend as I’ll be in Florida at a conference. I’ll be back for the Divine Mercy Service at 3 PM.
We Need to Pray for Church Unity
I usually avoid addressing internal issues of the global Catholic Church in the parish bulletin. But when serious news items arise, I usually update the parish about them. This time the news is coming out of Germany in their Synodal Path. In addition to two other letters sent by other groups of bishops in parts of the world, last week an additional strongly worded open letter, now signed by over ninety bishops including our Bishop Boyea, was sent to German bishops about their serious concerns about their “Synodal Path.” Here is an excerpt of what Archbishop Cordelione (San Francisco, CA) wrote in First Things last week about the letter he signed:
Inspired by this teaching we have received from the Second Vatican Council, this week I signed A Fraternal Open Letter to Our Brother Bishops in Germany together with seventy other cardinals and bishops from around the world (and the number of signatories is still growing). Because the German Synodal Path departs radically from settled Church doctrine and ancient and well-established discipline, it threatens to cause a schism in the Church, even beyond Germany itself. Our expression of concern is prompted by this threat, especially when we hear leading voices of the Church in Germany rejecting the authority of Scripture and Tradition, in particular with regard to the unbroken teachings of the Church on matters of sexual morality, gender ideology, the sacraments, and the exercise of authority in the Church.”
Unity is one of the marks of the Church. Catholic unity is not just about governance; it’s about unity of faith and love. So on this Feast of Divine Mercy let us invoke the Mercy of God that he may safeguard the unity of the Church not just in Germany, but in the entire Church. Let’s also pray that the Catholic faithful will always hear the fullness of the Catholic faith as contained in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition and taught by the Church’s magisterium.
Your servant in the Lord,
Fr. Mathias