49 Angle Road, Walkerville
P.O. Box 378, Walkerville, 1876
Tel: 073 462 4937
walkerville.divinemercy@catholicjhb.org.za
24 April 2016
The Fifth Sunday of Easter (John 13:31-33a, 34-45)
Today Jesus gives us the great Commandment—to love. Fulfilling this command requires more than just loving God and our neighbour as ourselves. He tells us to love one another “even as I have loved you.” How has He loved us? He has loved us to the end, actually laying down His life out of love for us. St. John the apostle summed up the same law when he wrote, “The way we came to understand love was that He laid down His life for us; we too must lay down our lives for our brothers” (1 Jn 3:16).
Indeed, if love doesn’t cost us something, it isn’t truly love. If we love only when it’s easy or convenient, it is truly only ourselves we are loving. To follow Jesus in love means to take seriously His words: “If a man wishes to come after Me, he must (...) take up his cross, and begin to follow in My footsteps. Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Mt 16:24-25). Where there is no cross, no dying to self, there is no genuine love.
St. Faustina wrote: “I know that I live, not for myself, but for a great number of souls. I know that graces granted me are not for me alone, but for souls.(...) Thank You, Jesus, for the graces and the pieces of the Cross which You give me at each moment of my life” (Diary 382).
Prayer: Merciful Lord Jesus, teach me sacrificial love. Help me to forget myself and to see each cross as a special gift You have given to purify me of self-love and to conform me more closely to You. Teach me to lay down my life for my neighbour. I trust in You. Amen.
17 April 2016
The Fourth Sunday of Easter (John 10:27-30)
On this Sunday of the Good Shepherd we hear Jesus in the Gospel talking about us, His sheep. He knows us, He says. And we can be sure that, indeed, He does know us--inside out. He knows each one of us in the way the psalmist describes, “You have probed me, Lord, and You know me” (Psalm 139:1).
Not only does Jesus know us, but He also loves us, and He wants us to spend eternity with Him in heaven. What a consolation for us to understand that He is literally carrying us in the palm of His hand! No one will snatch us out of His hand, or out of the Father’s hand! We are His!
Yes, Jesus knows us, but do we know Him? Do we spend time getting to know Him better in prayer and in reading His Word? Do we pour out our troubles to Him as to a trusted friend?
St. Faustina knew the importance of getting to know the Lord, in order to love Him more. She wrote these words: “O Lord, immerse my soul in the ocean of Your divinity and grant me the grace of knowing You; for the better I know You, the more I desire You, and the more my love for You grows” (Diary 605).
Prayer: Merciful Lord Jesus, how precious it is to me that You know and love me. Give me the grace to work at getting to know You better. Help me grow to love You ever more deeply. You want me for eternity with You in heaven. Help me to become here on earth the person You created me to be. Amen.
10 April 2016
The Third Sunday of Easter (John 21:1-9)
In today’s Gospel the resurrected Lord Jesus appears to the disciples at the same Sea of Galilee, where some three years earlier He had called them to follow Him and become “fishers of men.” Peter, unclear about his vocation now that Jesus is no longer with them, decides to try going back to his old fishing job, and many of the other disciples choose to accompany him. It is exactly here that they encounter Jesus, who after miraculously filling their net with fish, serves them breakfast. After they eat, Jesus gently explains to Peter that fishing now needs to be in the past: He is to feed the Lord’s sheep and to follow Jesus in a death that will glorify God.
Peter’s call to serve and feed Jesus’ sheep and to lay down his life for them is really the call of every priest. Jesus places His seal on His priests at their ordination, and He uses them as channels through which He pours out His mercy on mankind. St. Faustina wrote: “The Lord Jesus greatly protects His representatives on earth. How closely He is united with them (...). I have come to know the great intimacy which exists between Jesus and the priest. (...) O Jesus, through a special grace, I have come to know very clearly to what extent You have shared Your power and mystery with them, more so than with the Angels” (Diary 1240).
Prayer: Merciful Lord Jesus, I praise and thank You for calling men from among us to lay down their lives in Your service as priests. Bless every one of Your priests, and strengthen them to generously fulfil Your holy will. Amen.
3 April 2016
The Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday (John 20:19-31)
In today’s Gospel Jesus appears to the disciples after His resurrection speaking words of peace. He shows them His sacred wounds—not meaning to condemn them for their sins, which caused Him to suffer, but wanting to reveal to them the depths of His mercy. He told St. Faustina: “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” (Diary 1190).
This Mercy Sunday Jesus wants us to implore His mercy for those most in need. “On the day of My feast, the Feast of Mercy, you will go through the whole world and bring fainting souls to the spring of My mercy. I shall heal and strengthen them” (Diary 206). Let us take advantage of the torrents of His grace. Today “all the divine floodgates through which grace flow are opened” (Diary 699).
Prayer: Merciful Lord Jesus, I am in great need of Your mercy. Have mercy on me, a sinner. I bring You my whole family, all my neighbours, my acquaintances, those who are the farthest away from You, and I beg You to embrace each one of them with Your infinite mercy. Draw all of us close to Your Heart and open to us the floodgates of Your mercy. Amen.