Mercy, Mary, and Missionaries
On Monday, October 5th the Church commemorates the Memorial of St. Faustina Kowalska. Many of you are familiar with her story and her message. She was a Polish nun who received remarkable messages from the Lord. Through her, Jesus instituted devotion to the Divine Mercy. This devotion takes many different forms. The Sunday after Easter is known as the Feast of Divine Mercy. The Chaplet of Divine Mercy is a devotional practice growing in popularity. Also three o’clock is the great hour of Mercy. It is the hour when Christ died on the Cross.
One of the other aspects of the devotion is the image of Divine Mercy which is pictured on the cover of the bulletin. The image shows our Lord on a black background with the brightness of hope surrounding him. From his heart come a blueish white ray of light and a red ray of light. These rays symbolize the blood and water which poured forth from Jesus’ pierced side. The Church has recognized these to symbolize the waters of baptism and the Blood of the blessed Eucharist.
The image is growing in popularity amongst the People of God. About a year ago, a family donated an image to St. Joseph Church and it was hung on Divine Mercy Sunday in April. At that time, I invited others to donate an Image of Divine Mercy for their particular parish. People stepped up at each parish. Now we have a Divine Mercy Image hanging near the sanctuary in each parish. Praise God for His abundant mercy and kindness!
Another new item is a new hymn. Since the end of the shutdown, we have sung a Marian hymn at the end of Mass. We have used “Immaculate Mary” and “Hail Holy Queen Enthroned Above.” Since October is a month dedicated to Mary and the Rosary, I thought it would be appropriate to add another Marian hymn to our repertoire. We will add “Sing of Mary,” which is popular in many parishes in the English-speaking world (the hymn was composed by a Canadian). Here are the lyrics to the first two verses
Sing of Mary, pure and lowly,
Virgin mother undefiled,
Sing of God’s own Son most holy,
Who became her little child.
Fairest child of fairest mother,
God the Lord who came to earth,
Word made flesh, our very brother,
Takes our nature by his birth.
Sing of Jesus, son of Mary,
In the home at Nazareth.
Toil and labor cannot weary
Love enduring unto death.
Constant was the love he gave her,
Though he went forth from her side,
Forth to preach, and heal, and suffer,
Till on Calvary he died.
Permission to reprint the lyrics is obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-625864.
Finally just a reminder, next weekend, October 10/11, we will welcome missionaries to share with our parishes about their missionary efforts. Normally these occur in the summer, but they were postponed. Our missionaries are Franciscan priests and we are grateful to have them in our parishes. Please join me in praying for a fruitful visit and a successful mission appeal.
Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Sean Wilson
