49 Angle Road, Walkerville
P.O. Box 378, Walkerville, 1876
Tel: 073 462 4937
walkerville.divinemercy@catholicjhb.org.za
28 September 2014
Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Matthew 21:28-32)
This Sunday’s Gospel is about carrying out the Father’s will. It is not enough talk about doing something; what counts in the end is only what we have actually done. God’s will requires effort; it calls us to do the right thing, even when doing so comes at a price.
Jesus tells about the tax collectors and harlots who changed their lives at the preaching of John. We also are expected to change our lives in response to the Gospel we have heard--to change the focus of our lives, taking it off of ourselves and moving it to God.
We can learn from St. Faustina, who knew it would not be easy to fulfil God’s will, but resolved to do so nonetheless. She wrote: “Whatever God sends me, I accept with complete submission to His holy will. Wherever He puts me, I will try faithfully to do His holy will (...) even if the will of God were to be as hard and difficult for me as was the will of the Heavenly Father for His Son, as He prayed in the Garden of Olives. (...) This is the surest way. If some other way were better, Jesus would have shown it to me” (Diary 1394).
Prayer: Merciful Lord Jesus, how often I run from Your will when I know it will cost me something to fulfil it. Grant me the grace, I pray, to persevere with courage in doing all You call me to do. Amen.
21 September 2014
The Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Matthew 20:1-16)
Through this Sunday’s parable about the day labourers, Jesus shows us the mercy and generosity of our heavenly Father. The landowner in the story, bearing in mind that all of his hired hands, even those who’d laboured for just one hour, had families to feed and financial obligations to meet, did not hesitate to pay every worker a full day’s wage. In the same way, our loving Father never forces us to do anything to earn our keep, but is always ready to take care of all the needs of every one of His children.
God wants to lavish His gifts on each one of us, but often we are so busy grumbling about what other people have received, that we miss out on what He wants to give us. Or, we’re so convinced of what we think we need that we’re unable to recognize a good gift from Him when we see it. St. Faustina wrote in her Diary: “Today I saw the Crucified Lord Jesus. Precious pearls and diamonds were pouring forth from the wound in His Heart. (…) The Saviour said to me, Behold, the treasures of grace that flow down upon souls, but not all souls know how to take advantage of My generosity”(Diary 1687).
Prayer: Merciful Lord Jesus, teach me to take advantage of all the graces and gifts that You desire to pour out upon me, and never let me begrudge any of the gifts that You are pleased to lavish on my neighbour. Amen.
14 September 2014
The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (John 3:13-17)
“For God so loved the world,” we hear in today’s Gospel, “that He gave his only-begotten Son.” And why was it that Jesus came into this sinful world of ours? To show us the way to the Father, and to lay down His life for us in on the Cross.
Love is what gave Jesus the strength to offer Himself in sacrifice, for He came into this world to save us and not to condemn us. We can learn from Him how to live, but also how to die. We must learn to accept and to patiently bear all sufferings, offering them to the Father in union with Jesus. He told St Faustina: “Pure love gives the soul strength at the very moment of dying. When I was dying on the cross, I was not thinking about Myself, but about poor sinners, and I prayed for them to My Father. I want your last moments to be completely similar to Mine on the cross. There is but one price at which souls are bought, and that is suffering united to My suffering on the cross. Pure love understands these words; carnal love will never understand them” (Diary 324).
Prayer: Merciful Lord Jesus, I thank You for enduring Your bitter Passion out of love for sinful me. I offer You my life and my death. Purify the love in my heart, so that I will be able to endure even the most difficult sufferings in union with You, drawing all the strength I need from the fountains of Your mercy. Amen.
7 September 2014
The Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Matthew 18:15-20)
In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus teaches us what to do when someone offends us. As difficult as it may be, we need to tell the person to their face that their behaviour has hurt us or others.
We can learn from the example of St. Faustina. When a woman came to visit, who had caused her a lot of sorrow and abused her goodness by telling many lies, Faustina did not pretend like nothing was wrong. She recounted the incident in her Diary: “A certain person (...) visited me again. When I saw that she was beginning to get entangled in her own lies, I let her know that I knew she was lying. She became very embarrassed and stopped speaking. Then I spoke to her about the great judgments of God, and I also remarked that she was leading innocent souls astray and along dangerous roads. I uncovered before her everything that was in her heart. Since I had to overcome my own feelings in order to talk to her, to prove to Jesus that I love my enemies, I gave her my afternoon snack. She went away enlightened in soul, but action is still far away...” (Diary 1712).
Prayer: Merciful Lord Jesus, give me also the grace that You gave to St. Faustina to be honest with people about the things they are doing that hurt me and offend You. Help me always to speak the truth with love. Amen.