Sacred Heart of Jesus and Divine Mercy

I've been on a roll recently with reviewing my notes from great talks that I've had an opportunity to hear and then typing them up to share here on this blog.  This is the last of my notes and it's very fitting reading for the Feast of The Sacred Heart of Jesus.  Not only is the topic on The Sacred Heart, but the source is well known for his own personal devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and for sharing and encouraging that devotion in others.  What follows are the notes taken from Fr. James Kubicki's Lenten Day of Reflection for Catholics United for the Faith (CUF).

Sacred Heart of Jesus and Divine Mercy by Fr. James Kubicki, SJ, National Director of the Apostleship of Prayer

Some people may wonder if the Divine Mercy image replaces the Sacred Heart image.  The Heart of Jesus is both merciful and loving.  The two devotions go together.  Saint John Paul II said, “Between the first and second world wars Christ entrusted the message of mercy to St. Faustina.  Those who remember know how necessary was the message of mercy.”  “During the most merciless century Jesus appeared with this message:  Jesus told Faustina that humanity will not find peace until it turns trustingly to Divine Mercy.”  How true those words are today and how much more do we need to hear them!

Saint John Paul continues: “Divine Mercy reaches human beings through the Heart of Christ crucified.  On Easter Sunday when Jesus appeared to the apostles he showed his hands and side.  He points to the wounds of passion, especially the wound of his Heart.”

In the image of Divine Mercy, the two rays represent blood and water-this comes right from scripture as the eye witness observed the soldier pierce the side of Christ and out came blood and water.  The water is the clear pericardial fluid of the heart.

St. Faustina had a deep devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  In her diary she quotes Jesus as saying, “I have opened my heart as a living fountain of mercy.  My mercy is greater than your sins and those of the entire world.  For you I allowed myself to be nailed to a cross.  For you I allowed my Sacred Heart to be pierced.”

His Sacred Heart is present in the tabernacle; he remains present to us.  The Divine Mercy and Sacred Heart are so closely bound up and are inseparable because Jesus has only one heart.  When we approach these devotions the differences between these are ones of emphasis springing from the same heart.  If you’re devoted to Divine Mercy you are also devoted to the Sacred Heart. 

Jesus told St. Faustina, “My divine heart is so passionately fond of the human race that it cannot keep back its charity.  It must be released through you.”

Jesus has indescribable wonders of his pure love for humanity.  Again he tells St. Faustina, “All my eager efforts of their welfare meet with coldness.  Tell aching humanity to snuggle close to my heart and I will fill it with peace.  Oh how painful it is to me that souls so seldom unite themselves to me in Holy Communion.” 

Statistics show that Mass attendance has gone down.  People say, “I don’t get anything out of Mass,” but they don’t know what the Mass is all about.  We need to pray that our faith will increase.

The Holy Trinity is the great mystery of our faith.  The nature of love is to want to share love.  God created human beings in his own image and likeness.  Love has to be free.  You can’t put a gun to someone’s head and say, “Now love me.”  God never does that.  He always invites our love and tries to attract our love.  We have at times rejected God’s loving plan and that’s sin.  So God sent his son to save us.

In Saint Pope John Paul’s Mercy Encyclical he says, “The Church seems in a particular way to profess the mercy of God when she directs herself to the heart of Christ.  Mercy is the most stupendous attribute of the creator and the redeemer.”

His heart is also present in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  God is infinite, there is no limit to his love and mercy.  No human sin can prevail over the power of his mercy.  When we don’t go to confession or carry our old sins long after they’ve been forgiven, we limit God’s mercy. 

There’s nothing we can do to make God love us less.  Saint Francis de Sales reminds us that the sun shines on the flowers in the garden with equal intensity.  Saint Pope John Paul tells us that “only a lack of readiness to be converted and to repent on our part can limit God’s mercy.”  We may come to him with a thimble or with our whole self.  God is always ready to give us his love and mercy but we have to admit that we need it.

Mercy is like a good river-it’s only pure as long as it flows.  When the Jordan River meets the Dead Sea it stops and stagnates.  We are called to let mercy flow through us into the world.

When we sin we make an Act of Contrition and then go through the Church for Sacraments.  Christ is the head and we are the body-we can’t have a body without a head.  The two go together.  Jesus is present in the Church forgiving sins.  We need to hear and accept God’s forgiveness.  The only way our sins are retained is if we don’t give them to the Lord.  James writes, “Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another.”

There is a communal dimension to our lives.  We are part of a body.  We can’t just say it’s enough for me to go to God.  We go through the Church.  We meet Jesus through the priest.  I think the greatest joy that Jesus had was in forgiving sins even more than physical healing.  Jesus’ priority was that it was more important to heal a man deep down.  Physical healings are nice but they don’t last.  Ultimately our bodies weaken and die.  Try to see confession from Jesus’ perspective.  We approach the Sacrament ashamed and afraid but we give Jesus the opportunity to forgive us and heal us spiritually.

Jesus told St. Faustina that confession is a fountain of his mercy.  Blood and water flow from his soul and ennobles the Sacrament.  Pope Francis says that confession is not like going to the dry cleaners.  Our sins are more than stains; they are wounds that need healing.  When you go to confession, think of the great joy you give to Jesus as you give him your sins and allow him to heal you.

Some people say, “What’s the point?  I only confess the same sins over and over again.”  Our sins are just like any habit that we fall into.  Jesus isn’t looking for you to get new sins.  He knows our habits but he wants to take those sins off our conscience and heal us.

Other people say, “Why am I here?  I don’t have any sins.  I don’t know what to confess.” When people go to confession frequently it’s not because they are bigger sinners than the rest of us but because they are more in love with the Lord.  All great saints seem to have so many sins not because they are great sinners but because they are great lovers.  They are sin-sensitive.

Love doesn’t ask for the minimum requirement.  The measure of our love depends on how deeply aware we are of God’s love for us.  Having received mercy in confession we go forth and live our faith.  One of the great works of mercy is to pray for the conversion of sinners, to pray for people who are dead in their sins, who don’t know the mercy of God.  God’s mercy is always there ready to be given.

Last year on Divine Mercy Sunday Pope Francis talked about the need for mercy.  We can feel crushed asking ourselves why humanity’s evil can appear as an abyss empty of life.  How can we fill it?  For us, it’s impossible.  Only God can do it.  When Jesus died on the cross he filled the abyss with the depth of his mercy.  But to receive mercy there has to be conversion.

St. Leopold, a renowned confessor along with St. Pio, was once criticized for being too easy in the confessional.  He replied, “Is it I who is too generous?  I didn’t die for you.  Jesus is the one who is too generous in dying for you.  I am just giving you the mercy he won for you!”

Pope Francis says “May the message of mercy reach everyone and may no one be indifferent to this call.  It is given even more fervently to those whose behavior distances them from God’s grace.  Sooner or later everyone will be subjected to God’s judgment from which no one can escape.  Are we ready?  We pray that all people will be ready.”  God doesn’t send people to hell, people choose it.  It’s their own decision.  The world has to freely accept God’s love.  Eternal damnation is not God’s initiative because God only desires our salvation.  In reality it’s the creature who closes himself to God’s love.

We are called to pray for the conversion of sinners.  This was Mary’s message at Lourdes and Fatima.  It’s Jesus message to St. Faustina as well.  “Pray for souls that they be not afraid to approach the tribunal of my mercy.  You always console me when you pray for sinners.”

What are the greatest obstacles to holiness?  Jesus told St. Faustina, “My child, know that the greatest are discouragement and an exaggerated anxiety.  Have confidence; do not lose heart in coming for pardon because I am always ready to forgive you.”

Jesus desires that we trust in his love and mercy and then we can better share that mercy with the world.  Jesus showed St. Faustina that we can help repair the damage of sin.  We can use our sufferings to offer reparation to God.  As members of the Body of Christ stay close and united to the Heart of Jesus.  We need our hearts to be transformed.

St. Faustina’s diary says: “When a soul approaches me with trust I fill it with such an abundance of mercy that radiates to others. And St. Faustina prayed:  “Most sweet Jesus, set on fire my love for you and transform me into yourself. Divinize me that my deeds may be pleasing to you.  May this be accomplished by the Holy Communion I receive daily.  I want to be transformed into you.”  This is very much like Galatians:  “Now I live not I but Christ lives in me.”

 

Extending forgiveness begins in the heart.  Fr. Lawrence Jenco, a Servite priest who was the director of Catholic Relief Services in Beirut in 1985 was held hostage for 594 days.  He wrote a book called, Bound to Forgive in which he writes about a man that tortured him: “Toward the end of my captivity one of my guards, a man named Sayeed who had at times brutalized me, sat down on my mat with me. He had recently started calling me 'Abouna,' an Arabic name meaning 'dear father.' At first I was Jenco, then Lawrence, then Abouna, indicating by the choice of names and tone of voice that a change of heart was taking place. He asked me if I remembered the first six months of my captivity. I responded 'Yes, Sayeed. I remember all the pain and suffering you caused me and my brothers.' Then he asked 'Abouna, do you forgive me?'

These quietly spoken words overwhelmed me. As I sat blindfolded, unable to see the man who had been my enemy, I understood I was called to forgive, to let go of revenge, retaliation, and vindictiveness.

And I was challenged to forgive him unconditionally. I could not forgive him on the condition that he change his behavior to conform to my wishes or values. I had no control over his response. I understood I was to say yes.

I said: 'Sayeed, there were times I hated you. I was filled with anger and revenge for what you did to me and my brothers. But Jesus said on the mountain top that I was not to hate you. I was to love you. Sayeed, I need to ask God's forgiveness and yours.'”*

There are many people we won’t like or we’ll disagree with but we’ll have to love and forgive them.  In Mass, Jesus offers himself to the Father for the salvation of souls.  What the head has done, we are now called to join.  When we leave Mass we are empowered to live that mercy in our daily lives.  When we meet our judge face to face nothing will hold us back.  

*The full quote from Fr. Jenko was taken from Fr. Jim's Offer It Up blog.

A Very Special Consecration

On Sunday, October 13th, when Pope Francis consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Rome, Roses for Our Lady in Milwaukee, joined the Pope in spirit with our own consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary during our holy hour for vocations with Fr. Jim Kubicki, SJ, the National Director of the Apostleship of Prayer, with nearly 100 Roses for Our Lady members and friends in attendance.

Fr. Jim shared the story of when Pope John Paul II had been shot by a would-be assassin on May 13th, 1981, the 64th anniversary of the original visions of Our Lady of Fatima by Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco in 1917.  Regarding the fact that his life was spared, Pope John Paul II proclaimed that "one hand held the gun and another guided the bullet."  The hand that guided the bullet was that of the Blessed Mother whose intercession kept the bullet from fatally wounding the pope.  Later, the bullet that shot Pope John Paul II was inserted into the crown of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima.  It was a perfect fit, as if the crown, made in 1946, was created to hold the bullet shot in 1981!

Following the picture of the crown below, are the pictures from the holy hour with Fr. Jim in Christ King Chapel at Saint Francis de Sales Seminary.  All of the holy hour photos are courtesy of Mary Anne Urlakis. Below the pictures, you will find the consecration prayer of Pope Pius XII that we prayed at the holy hour, and then the prayer that Pope Francis prayed at the Vatican.

Crown of Our Lady of Fatima (source)

A Solemn Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Most Holy Virgin Mary, tender Mother of men, to fulfill the desires of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the request of the Vicar of Your Son on earth, we consecrate ourselves and our families to your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, O Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, and we recommend to You, all the people of our country and all the world.

Please accept our consecration, dearest Mother, and use us as You wish to accomplish Your designs in the world.

O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, and Queen of the World, rule over us, together with the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, Our King. Save us from the spreading flood of modern paganism; kindle in our hearts and homes the love of purity, the practice of a virtuous life, an ardent zeal for souls, and a desire to pray the Rosary more faithfully.

We come with confidence to You, O Throne of Grace and Mother of Fair Love. Inflame us with the same Divine Fire which has inflamed Your own Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. Make our hearts and homes Your shrine, and through us, make the Heart of Jesus, together with your rule, triumph in every heart and home.

Amen.

~Venerable Pope Pius XII

Consecration Prayer of Pope Francis

Holy Mary Virgin of Fatima,

with renewed gratitude for your maternal presence

we join our voice to that of all the generations

who call you blessed.

We celebrate in you the works of God,

who never tires of looking down with mercy

upon humanity, afflicted with the wound of sin,

to heal it and save it.

Accept with the benevolence of a Mother

the act of consecration that we perform today with confidence,

before this image of you that is so dear to us.

We are certain that each of us is precious in your eyes

and that nothing of all that lives in our hearts is unknown to you.

We let ourselves be touched by your most sweet regard

and we welcome the consoling caress of your smile.

Hold our life in your arms:

bless and strengthen every desire for good;

revive and nourish faith;

sustain and enlighten hope;

awaken and animate charity;

guide all of us along the path of holiness.

Teach us your own preferential love

for the little and the poor,

for the excluded and the suffering,

for sinners and the downhearted:

bring everyone under your protection

and entrust everyone to your beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus.

Amen.

[Translation by Joseph Trabbic]

~source:  Zenit

Am I Not Here Who Am Your Mother?

"Listen, put it into your heart, that the thing that disturbs you, the thing that afflicts you, is nothing.  Do not let your countenance, your heart be disturbed.  Do not fear this sickness nor anything that is sharp or hurtful.  Am I not here, I, who am your Mother?  Are you not under my shadow and protection?  Am I not the source of your joy?  Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms?  Do you need anything more?  Let nothing else worry you, disturb you."  ~Our Lady of Guadalupe's words to St. Juan Diego

Last summer during a time of personal distress, I knelt in a confessional to remove my sins and a wise priest who listened with his heart gave me a beautiful penance.  He told me to spend some time  looking upon the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe and to recall the words she spoke to St. Juan Diego, "Am I not here who am your Mother?  Are you not under my shadow and my protection?"  I'm sure it was the most beautiful penance I have ever received!  And ever since that day when that penance was bestowed upon me in the confessional, I have pondered those words in my heart again and again.  I find them coming back to me whenever I am feeling the pain of trials that seem insurmountable.

And I think about the fact that at the tender age of two weeks old, my own sweet mother brought me to Fr. Claude Leclair at Sacred Heart Church for baptism on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  I understand now that I had been under the shadow of my Mother's protection ever since my baptismal day, but I had not realized it.

The same can be said for all of us; we are all under the shadow and protection of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Patroness of the Americas.  She is waiting ever-expectantly, wanting to give birth to our peace of mind, to our trust in her love for us, and to our understanding of her constant care for our souls.  She is waiting to deliver us into the arms of her beloved Son for all eternity.  Do we realize it and turn to her?

Pope John Paul II's Prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe

O Immaculate Virgin, Mother of the true God and Mother of the Church, who from this place reveal your clemency and your pity to all those who ask for your protection, hear the prayer that we address to you with filial trust, and present it to your Son Jesus, our sole Redeemer.

Mother of Mercy, Teacher of hidden and silent sacrifice, to you, who come to meet us sinners, we dedicate on this day all our being and all our love. We also dedicate to you our life, our work, our joys, our infirmities and our sorrows. Grant peace, justice and prosperity to our peoples; for we entrust to your care all that we have and all that we are, our Lady and Mother. We wish to be entirely yours and to walk with you along the way of complete faithfulness to Jesus Christ in His Church; hold us always with your loving hand.

Virgin of Guadalupe, Mother of the Americas, we pray to you for all the Bishops, that they may lead the faithful along paths of intense Christian life, of love and humble service of God and souls. Contemplate this immense harvest, and intercede with the Lord that He may instill a hunger for holiness in the whole people of God, and grant abundant vocations of priests and religious, strong in the faith and zealous dispensers of God’s mysteries.

Grant to our homes the grace of loving and respecting life in its beginnings, with the same love with which you conceived in your womb the life of the Son of God. Blessed Virgin Mary, protect our families, so that they may always be united, and bless the upbringing of our children.

Our hope, look upon us with compassion, teach us to go continually to Jesus and, if we fall, help us to rise again, to return to Him, by means of the confession of our faults and sins in the Sacrament of Penance, which gives peace to the soul.

We beg you to grant us a great love for all the holy Sacraments, which are, as it were, the signs that your Son left us on earth.

Thus, Most Holy Mother, with the peace of God in our conscience, with our hearts free from evil and hatred, we will be able to bring to all true joy and true peace, which come to us from your son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns for ever and ever.

Amen.

A Love Letter to Pope John Paul II

The following letter appeared in the Milwaukee Catholic Herald on April 7, 2005. With the Beatification of Pope John Paul II on May 1st, I asked Fr. Don Hying, the Rector of St. Francis de Sales Seminary in Milwaukee and the author of the letter which was written while he was still pastor of Our Lady of Good Hope Parish in Milwaukee, for his permission to re-print his heartfelt words here, and of course, he generously agreed.





















Dear Pope John Paul,

I've always wanted to write this letter to you, but somehow never took the time, so here I am saying these things as you lay dying. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, I trust you will know and understand them. Likewise, I always wanted to meet you, yet despite my best efforts every time I was in Rome, it never came to be. It doesn't matter now-you are with all of us in the risen Christ.

Where do I begin? Words cannot begin to articulate what you have done for the church, the world, the poor, the dignity of the human person, millions of people and myself. The pundits will speak of your legacy-the countless trips you made, the saints you canonized, the new catechism you issued and the revision of canon law, your role in the collapse of communism and dictatorships, the indelible stamp you have left on the Catholic Church and this world. It's hard to imagine the church without you, the church before you, the church after you. You've been there through it all with us.

Thank you for your radiant faith in the risen Christ whom you have held up as the center of human history and the answer to all of our questions about life. Above all you are an evangelizer, a proclaimer of the Gospel, someone who wanted to embrace the entire world and tell every single person how much God loves us. Your fidelity and perseverance in this endeavor, year after year, stagger the imagination.

Thank you for your courageous defense of human life-the unborn, the elderly, the poor, the disabled, the dying. You have consistently upheld the glory of the human person made in the image and likeness of God. Race, color, religion, creed, poor, rich, none of it made any difference to you because you saw God in every person that you met-you who saw and were seen by more people than anyone in human history. You spoke and lived the Gospel of Life, regardless of resistance to it.

Thank you for your proclamation of freedom and truth that you spoke to power, whether it was the communist officials in Poland who trembled in your presence, the rich and comfortable in the U.S., the Duvaliers in Haiti, the Marcoses in the Phillipines or the dictatorships in the Americas-you were fearless. That courage broke down walls that seemed impenetrable, crushed oppression that felt unbreakable. You let the splendor of truth shine on the whole world and called everyone to the highest of ideals, never settling for comfort or complacency.

Thank you for your unswerving commitment to social justice. You went to the United Nations, the halls of power, the slums and barrios of the Third World, Mother Teresa's home for the dying, the White House, shacks and palaces to tell everyone that workers and the poor, children and the disabled, the elderly and the sick all had rights which could not be violated. In your vision of the world, there was enough food, medicine, justice and joy for all of God's children-every single one.

Thank you for your belief in young people. I once was one of them who heard your call to the priesthood over the radio one Sunday at 3 a.m. as I scrubbed greasy chicken fryers at my first restaurant job. In many ways, I owe my priesthood to you. The idea of World Youth Day was a stroke of genius and young people by the millions have flocked to your side, seeing in your radical Gospel call an authentic way to live our life abundantly. How many vocations like mine were fathered into being by you? Thank you for believing in us and for calling us to greatness.

Thank you for your joy, your smile, your incredible love for the church, your ecumenical gestures, the saints you have held up for us, your tender devotion to the Blessed Virgin, your love for language and poetry, your courage in the face of constant death threats, your love for nature and sports, your fidelity to the task at hand until the moment of death, your gracious example of how to suffer, age and surrender all into the merciful heart of Christ. The world will never see your likes again.

In many ways, I will find it difficult to go on without your booming voice of love, your courageous example of faith and the confidence that you gave all of us. But you have told us from the beginning of your pontificate to not be afraid but simply follow the risen Christ. With your example and prayers to show us the way, the blazing path of holiness lies before us. Thank you for being you, because you helped me to be me, the me that God wants me to be. As we pray for you, please pray for us before the glory of God's throne. I never talked to you here on earth, but if Jesus lets me into heaven, we'll see each other there. I have so much to say to you. I love you, Pope John Paul!

--Fr. Don Hying