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Canonizations Trump Divine Mercy?

4/30/2014

10 Comments

 
Picture
Color me incredibly disappointed.

INCREDIBLY disappointed.

Agitated might be a better word.  Suspicious, even.

Yet again, there was no real celebration / veneration of Divine Mercy this past weekend.  I specifically went to a parish that I thought stood the best chance of acknowledging this Feast, but I was again (third year in a row) discouraged by a complete lack of time dedicated to calling the faithful to take full advantage of this incredible once-a-year event.

The Feast of Divine Mercy occurs the Sunday after Easter.  Why is this such a special event?  Jesus promised that to those who venerate His Divine Mercy will be forgiven all of their sins and will be granted full remittance of the punishment due as a result of those sins.

That's a clean slate, folks.  Clean as in pristine... a baptismally clean soul that is gift wrapped and handed to you simply because Jesus loves you THAT MUCH and wants you as close as possible to Him.  

That is a MIND-BOGGLING GIFT.  Should you die after reception of the Eucharist (having completed veneration and prayers), you would go RIGHT TO HEAVEN.  No stopping in Purgatory, no fear of Hell... not even if you committed the worst, most heinous sins imaginable.  

And yet for three years now, three different parishes that I've attended have basically ignored this!  THREE!

Is this willful ignorance???  I mean, how in the world do you NOT discuss this with your parishioners???  How do you NOT admonish them to take full advantage of this feast???

Given the mess this world is in, wouldn't you want your people to take full advantage of armor such as this?

Ay.

Everyone was so focused on the canonizations.  I'm fully aware of how historic and cool it is to have such gems added to our Church Canon, but c'mon now.  If St. John Paul II were physically standing here in front of the Church, I guarantee you he'd be smacking us lovingly with a stick and reminding us of the feast day he, himself, approved.  

That was part of why they pushed to have his canonization coincide with Divine Mercy Sunday.  His canonization, though, no matter HOW MUCH everyone loves him, should not have overshadowed Divine Mercy.  I don't care if we were canonizing him and fifty billion others around the world.  No amount of canonizations and no amount of holiness on the part of humans (even humans like JPII) can possibly outshine the dignity, grace and blessings of DIVINE MERCY.

I'm seriously so upset over this.  So flippin' upset.

At the end of our Mass, Fr. John did mention it briefly in passing, but he said something along the lines of "For those of you with a Divine Mercy devotion, this is your Sunday.  I wish you a blessed feast."

My mouth actually dropped open.

The 2nd Sunday of Easter is not strictly for devotees.  It's for EVERYONE who wants to avail themselves of Christ's Mercy.  He doesn't restrict it to those of us who happen to like that particular chaplet or happen to have this image up in our homes.  It is for ALL SINNERS.  To wave it off as a small devotion is such a disservice to the meaning behind this feast.

Ugh.  

It's now Wednesday and I'm still incredibly bummed about this.  I can't imagine St. John Paul II being happy that a party for him and his buddy, Saint John the 23rd, completely overshadowed the most joyous feast that Christ, Himself, gifted to the world.  

I just... wow.  So sad about this.  Please tell me there are those of you out there who had Masses that highlighted this feast.

10 Comments
Nicole P.
4/30/2014 05:20:34 pm

Our church out here in Seaside (St. Francis Xavier) also focused on the canonizations rather than the feast of Divine Mercy, to the point where there were framed photographs of both soon to be saints in front of the altar. But last year I was in Maryland with my parents for Divine Mercy Sunday and I remember the parish (St. John Neumann in Berlin) did talk about the feast. I think you'd actually enjoy that parish. The pastor is very enthusiastic and has used the homily a few times to actually discuss Church Canon and why we do certain things during the celebration.. And the church is ALWAYS full, no matter what time or day of the weekend you go.

Reply
Gina
4/30/2014 06:48:46 pm

You're right... sounds like a parish I would LOVE. I remember having this conversation with you when I lamented this last year. You guys had had a nice homily about DM, and I was complaining (again) that we'd had nothing.

The thing that really drove me up a wall is that my pastor is from Poland. He let the deacon give the homily last year and not one word was mentioned about it. We don't even have the image up in our church anywhere.

In my mind, that's like a Philly church not making any mention of St. John Neumann on his feast day. Mind-boggling.

Reply
Gina
4/30/2014 06:51:01 pm

Which, BTW, is why I tried the other parish this year. I thought they'd have something on it because:

1) they've got the image hanging up in front of St. Joseph's altar
2) their pastor is usually pretty spot on with explaining the reason for feasts or special events. I guess the canonizations trumped DM, though.

That made me so sad. I doubt very much he was doing it to be malicious. I think it was just the media frenzy over the proceedings. Dang media sucked the spirituality out of this weekend.

Nicole P.
5/1/2014 05:55:48 am

Our church has a small shop in the entrance for prayer books and cards and right next to the door are free prayer cards with the image on them and the instructions on how to pray the chalet of Divine Mercy! And yet it was basically passed by. We haven't been here long enough to know if it's always ignored or it was simply excitement over the dual canonizations; I guess we'll find out next year :)

Reply
Gina
5/1/2014 08:45:31 am

That's good. I'm glad the devotion is at least known and spread there. I think a lot of the ignoring of the feast came due to excitement over the canonizations. But again... our priorities are really screwed up if we're putting two humans over God.

It's like getting excited to see Bon Jovi when we completely ignore Christ in the tabernacle, ya know? Just rubs me the wrong way. Makes me sad.

That being said, I'm really glad there are places that actively promote it. :)

Reply
Nancy H.
5/1/2014 07:56:07 am

Well, good news here! My parish had a special time before Sunday evening Mass to celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday. Sadly, I did not make it there in time. I'm kicking myself now, but when I got there for Mass, they had pamphlets, holy cards and large 8 x 10s of a beautiful Divine Mercy picture (can't think of how else to say that). Needless to say, I took one of each! They also had holy cards of the the popes who were canonized. I was thrilled!

Reply
Nancy H.
5/1/2014 07:58:26 am

I also wanted to say the Divine Mercy celebration was over an hour long. When I got to the church, it was still going. I didn't go in because it was so quiet and reverential. In the corner of the church there was a large shrine to the Divine Mercy. I'm pretty sure you would have liked it.

Reply
Gina
5/1/2014 08:40:59 am

Yup, I bet you're right. Sounds like something I would've LOVED. What a great way to celebrate and spread the word. Awesome!

dymphna
5/5/2014 10:38:23 am

I'm wondering if Divine Mercy wasn't a fad that has past. At my parish we had the image out but no mention of the feast or the canonizations. It was a regular Sunday.

Reply
Gina
5/6/2014 08:53:53 am

I can't imagine a feast of the Church being considered a "fad." I guess some folks jumped on the bandwagon when it was considered "popular" because of the attention JPII dedicated to it, but Divine Mercy was, and always will be, something to celebrate.

I sincerely hope folks don't look at it as some sort of fashion trend to be discarded when it wanes in popularity. The thought scourges my heart. :(

Reply



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