“Drawn to You”: How I found the Image of Divine Mercy
Last night while I was struggling to work on this post (I began it at my Holy Hour on Friday), I was scrolling through my music library and came across the beautiful song by Audrey Assad called Drawn to You (from her 2018 album Evergreen) which every time I listen to it, reminds me of the journey of a Christian. We can’t always see the way ahead yet God offers us graces everyday–we just have to look for them.
One such grace happened to me when I was teaching 7th grade Religious Education. Shopping for classroom supplies in a friend’s Catholic bookshop in 1994, I was checking out when drawn to a poster Casey had hanging behind her register. It was the picture of Jesus below with the words “Jesus, I trust in You.” I added it to my purchases and when I got home a box of “Holy Traders” saint cards (I was big into collecting trading cards since a tomboy loving baseball and football cards all the way to movie cards) showed me there was a saint on my birthday (October 5) Blessed Faustina. To my surprise Blessed Faustina was the nun to whom Jesus appeared to ask for the image of the Divine Mercy and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. Wow! There are no coicidences with our Lord! Since, I’ve been blessed to continue the journey with Divine Mercy with Saint Faustina and Our Lord (I was even born on the same day of the week, Wednesday, that Faustina entered into eternal life on). I’ve been blessed to visit the National Shrine of Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, to see Blessed Faustina canonized the first saint of the new millennium (via EWTN) and when a pair of nuns came to present at our parish, to have the relic of Saint Faustina pressed against my Miraculous Medal while wearing it close to my heart.
So I will be forever grateful to God for drawing me to His Divine Mercy, especially in my understanding of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Trivia for the Day:
A Sacrament is “an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace.” In the Catholic Church, 7 Sacraments are recognized.
- Baptism
- Eucharist (Communion)
- Confirmation
- Reconciliation (Confession)
- Anointing of the Sick (not “Last Rites”)
- Matrimony
- Holy Orders
We place the Sacraments in 3 categories:
- INITIATION (Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation)
- HEALING (Anointing of the Sick and Reconciliation)
- SERVICE (Matrimony and Holy Orders)
A Sacrament of Healing
Going to confession SHOULD NEVER be feared but looked upon as what it is: an opportunity for healing and for grace that only God can give.
That being said, yes when I was younger and naive in my faith, I was at different times scared, embarrassed, and downright discouraged by sins in my life. I also suffer from a mental illness (depression) that does its best to make you feel broken, worthless, unlovable and discouraged from climbing out of whatever hole you may be in.
Also whether you believe it or not we are engaged in spiritual warfare. See Ephesians 6:12 if you need Scriptural proof.
So no matter who you are, where you are in your journey, what you have done or haven’t done, never give up. Look to the Cross of Christ where Blood and Water flowed from His pierced side. This is His Sacrifice of Love to heal each and every one of us. We just have to TRUST in Him.
Next to Jesus’ Real Presence in the Eucharist, Confession is one of my great loves about being Catholic. The grace of needing to climb out of my own self-righteous judgmental attitudes comes with healing through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. On our journey (that work in progress we are to be saints) we must first of all, admit our own faults, failings and sins. It is not time to be like the Pharisee in the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (see Luke chapter 18) and puff ourselves up with “how holy we are” but rather to look at our sins with the humble heart of the Tax Collector of how much in need of God’s mercy we are.
This immense love that Jesus offers us in the Sacrament of Confession leads to the importance of this Sacrament in our life as Catholics and in the message of The Divine Mercy.
Divine Mercy and a Message of Love
To assure us of His Mercy, Christ spoke to Saint Faustina about confession a number of times. The great message of these messages is that NO ONE is outside the mercy of God and we should always pray for salvation of souls, even the person who may seem like the worst and darkest sinner of all. In the end, only GOD knows what is in a person’s soul as that person takes the last breath. Never despair of God’s mercy but TRUST.
Here are just a few of my favorite messages from Saint Faustina’s Diary about the Sacrament of Reconciliation:
- Daughter, when you go to Confession, to this fountain of My mercy, the Blood and Water which came forth from My Heart always flows down upon your soul and ennobles it. Every time you go to Confession, immerse yourself in My mercy, with great trust, so that I may pour the bounty of My grace upon your soul. When you approach the confessional, know this, that I Myself am waiting there for you. I am only hidden by the priest, but I myself act in your soul. Here the misery of the soul meets the God of mercy. Tell souls that from this fount of mercy souls draw graces solely with the vessel of trust. If their trust is great, there is no limit to My generosity. The torrents of grace inundate humble souls. The proud remain always in poverty and misery, because My grace turns away from them to humble souls (Revelatation from Jesus to Saint Faustina: Diary 1602)
- Make your confession before Me. The person of the priest is, for Me, only a screen. Never analyze what sort of a priest it is that I am making use of; open your soul in confession as you would to Me, and I will fill it with My light (1725).
- Tell souls, Jesus spoke about the Sacrament of Reconciliation, where they are to look for solace; that is, in the Tribunal of Mercy. There the greatest miracles take place, are incessantly repeated. To avail oneself of this miracle, it is not necessary to go on a great pilgrimage or to carry out some external ceremony; it suffices to come with faith to the feet of My representative and to reveal to him one’s misery, and the miracle of Divine Mercy will be fully demonstrated. Were a soul like a decaying corpse so that from a human standpoint, there would be no restoration and everything would already be lost, it is not so with God. Oh, miserable are those who do not take advantage of the miracle of God’s mercy! (Diary 1448).
- But God has promised a great grace especially to you [Father Sopocko] and to all those … who will proclaim My great mercy. I shall protect them Myself at the hour of death, as My own glory. And even if the sins of souls were as dark as night, when the sinner turns to My mercy, he gives Me the greatest praise and is the glory of My Passion. When a soul extols My goodness, Satan trembles before it and flees to the very bottom of hell (Diary, 378).
I hope these help you on your journey and inspire you to never give up hope, no matter who you are, where you are or what your current spiritual state is. Always trust in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He’ll never give up on you.
For a great Examination of Conscience, see this link by the Marians of the Immaculate Conception: DivineMercy.org
Have a most blessed Divine Mercy Sunday, my brothers and sisters in Christ!