Collect Second Sunday Eastertide- Mercy Sunday

THE COLLECT SERIES

THE MASS: COLLECT SERIES ICON

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COLLECT

God of everlasting mercy,

who in the very recurrence of the pascal feast,

Kindle the faith of the people You have made Your own,

Increase, we pray, the grace You have bestowed,

That all may grasp and rightly understand

in what font they have been washed,

By whose Spirit they have been reborn,

By whose Blood they have been redeemed.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,

who lives and reigns with You

In the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

In making this prayer tangible, the following reflection questions emerged:

1.  What does God’s mercy mean to me?
2.  How have I experienced God’s mercy in my life?
3.  What grace has God bestowed on me? 
4.  What does my baptism mean to me and how does it affect my daily life?
5.  What does it mean to me to be redeemed by Jesus? 
6.  How can I live a life of mercy?

7.  What does living Easter entail for me during Eastertide and throughout the year?

GOSPEL REFLECTION.

Today we hear the Gospel of the meeting of the Risen Lord  with St Thomas. It has evoked much writing from The Fathers of the Church and has also proven to be a source of inspiration for numerous artists who have in their work tried to represent the reality of the risen Christ to His disciples 8 days after the resurrection.

Perhaps we can see ourselves in the doubting Thomas and so we can identify with his initial unbelief.  He wanted proof. Put ourselves in his shoes for a moment. Imagine being told someone you have loved and had been buried a week before is now alive.  What would really be our reaction.  Probably like Thomas- I want to see this for myself.

And yet what a response from Thomas after he saw His risen Lord. Jesus’ response to Thomas, after he recognized Him as ‘My Lord and my God’, has a mysterious fascination that must relate not so much to the disciples—those who ‘have seen’—but rather to those, like us, who were added to their number afterwards. ‘You have come to believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.’ (Jn 20:29)

The Second Sunday of Easter (the ‘eight days after,’ which is the Sunday after the Resurrection), permits us to tie our reflection to one of the most significant Eucharistic hymns composed by another Thomas, St Thomas Aquinas. In the Adore Te Devote, which refers to the Eucharist, we read: ‘Sight, touch, taste are all deceived in their judgement of you. But hearing suffices firmly to believe’. Combining these words with today’s Gospel we can justly affirm that the experience ‘to see’ was not denied to us, but it is in contrast with the Apostle Thomas’ physical experience, who was able to put his own finger into the holes in Christ’s hands and side, whilst we can only comprehend it in the faith which is guarded and transmitted by the Church, our Mother and Teacher.

That which we ‘have not seen’ is therefore the glorious Body of the Risen One. However, today we have the ability to ‘listen’ to the Word of God and the Magisterium of the Church and so we can ‘see’the real Body of Christ which is the Eucharist. We can ‘see’ His Mystical Body which is the Church. We can ‘see’ Him in our lives and in the lives of our many brothers who, after meeting the Lord in a real but mysterious way, are united to Him in His Spirit!

Like Thomas, Christ calls us to fill the holes left by the instruments of the passion in His Body with our own hands so that our lives and the verbal witness that we give proclaim His Resurrection. Our senses could betray us, but we know that we have met the Risen One and we have recognised Him!

MERCY SUNDAY

 This Sunday is popularly known as Mercy of God Sunday. Between 1930 and 1938 Christ appeared to Sister Faustina, a Sister of Mercy in Poland who initiated the Divine Mercy devotion. She was canonised on April 30, 2000, the Sunday after Easter, the Feast of Divine Mercy. 

On Good Friday, 1937, Jesus requested that Blessed Faustina make a special novena before the Feast of Mercy, from Good Friday through the following Saturday. Jesus also asked that a picture be painted according to the vision of Himself as the fountain of mercy. He gave her a chaplet to be recited and said that it was appropriate to pray the chaplet at three o'clock each afternoon (the Hour of Great Mercy).

Jesus to Sr. Faustina

On one occasion, I heard these words: "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. On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day all the divine floodgates through which graces flow are opened. 

Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity. Everything that exists has come forth from the very depths of My most tender mercy. Every soul in its relation to Me will contemplate My love and mercy throughout eternity. The Feast of Mercy emerged from My very depths of tenderness. It is My desire that it be solemnly celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter. Mankind will not have peace until it turns to the Fount of My Mercy.

"[Let] the greatest sinners place their trust in My mercy. They have the right before others to trust in the abyss of My mercy. My daughter, write about My mercy towards tormented souls. Souls that make an appeal to My mercy delight Me. To such souls I grant even more graces than they ask. I cannot punish even the greatest sinner if he makes an appeal to My compassion, but on the contrary, I justify him in My unfathomable and inscrutable mercy. Write: before I come as a just Judge, I first open wide the door of My mercy. He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice.

"From all My wounds, like from streams, mercy flows for souls, but the wound in My Heart is the fountain of unfathomable mercy. From this fountain spring all graces for souls. The flames of compassion burn Me. I desire greatly to pour them out upon souls. Speak to the whole world about My mercy."

Excerpted from Diary of Sr. M. Faustina Kowalska.