Pope Benedict on Divine Mercy

Pope Benedict on Divine Mercy
..........................click image to read about Pope Benedict's book on Divine Mercy

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Works of Mercy Challenge No. 5: Instruct the Ignorant


Our human limitations can become redemptive suffering

This week, St. Faustina's message speaks very personally to each of us when she reminds us that even our human limitations are a GIFT from God.

They are proof of:

* His might, when we overcome our human limitations (For nothing will be impossible with God Lk 1:37)
* His love, when we embrace them as a way to unite our sufferings to those of Christ Crucified for the salvation of souls. We are allowed a "unique" connection w/Christ that no other created being can boast of


This lesson also reminds us of the necessity for a morning offering, of all we will encounter and hope to overcome during the day, AND an evening Examination of Conscience with which to rate our own performance. What can we improve on? Where are we the weakest?

Here are some of the readings:

Bible Mk 14:32-36

he said, "Abba, Father, 12 all things are possible to you. Take this cup away from me, but not what I will but what you will."


Catechism 1521

Union with the passion of Christ
By the grace of this sacrament the sick person receives the strength and the gift of uniting himself more closely to Christ's Passion; in a certain way he is consecrated to bear fruit by configuration to the Savior's redemptive Passion. Suffering, a consequence of original sin, acquires a new meaning; it becomes a participation in the saving work of Jesus.


Diary, 65

One time during the novitiate, when Mother Directress sent me to work in the wards' kitchen, I was very upset because I could not manage the pots, which were very large. The most difficult task for me was draining the potatoes, and sometimes I spilt half of the with the water..At noon, during the examination of conscience, I complained to God about my weakness. Then I heard the following words in my soul, From today on you will do this easily; I shall strengthen you.

That evening, when the time came to drain off the water from the potatoes, I hurried to be the first to do it, trusting in the Lord's words. I took up the pot with ease and poured off the water perfectly. But when I took off the cover to let the potatoes steam off, I saw there in the pot, in the place of the potatoes, whole bunches of red roses, beautiful beyond description. I had never seen such roses before. Greatly astonished and unable to understand the meaning of this, I heard a voice within me saying, I change such hard work of yours into bouquets of most beautiful flowers, and their perfume rises up to My throne.