Saturday, November 10, 2007

Some Of My Favorite Subjects: Divine Mercy And St. Ignatius

Karen Hall at Some Have Hat's, blogs on the Ignatian/Faustian connection. I visited the Divine Mercy Shrine just outside of Krakow, Poland. I touched St. Faustina's relic at the communion rail inside the church (not the new shrine). There is a penetrating message from St. Faustina just to the left of the main entrance, it is about five languages. I am paraphrasing it, but here goes,
"You will never be fully satisfied until you understand the complete joy found in Jesus Christ, unless you submit to his Divine Mercy found in His sacrament of confession."
 I went to Poland on a Marian pilgrimage with my brother a few years ago, I found Our Lady everywhere I looked and she found me and lead me to her Divine Mercy. I came back from Poland not with trinkets and pictures but a compelling view of Jesus Christ I had never seen before. St. Margaret Mary Alacoque the saint of the Heart of Jesus shares Christ's view of His complete love for us. Jesus of the Divine Mercy asks us to completely love him back, and we show Him our love through forgiveness, contrition and penance. Just outside of the Sisters of Mercy convent there is a two story grey building, that two story building houses the Jesuit fathers whom minister the sacraments to the millions of Divine Mercy pilgrims every year. St. Ignatius continues to live within the mystical Jesuit/Divine Mercy/Sisters of Mercy devotion.


Here is Karen's post:

Awhile back, I promised to unearth the story of St. Ignatius appearing to St. Faustina. I plowed through several books where I thought I'd find it, and had almost given up, but just now I tried Google and I found it. It hadn't occcurred to me to check St. Faustina's diary, "Divine Mercy in my Soul." I found the story there: Notebook 1 Section 448. Here it is:
Feast of St. Ignatius. I prayed fervently to this Saint, reproaching him for looking on and not coming to my aid in such important matters as doing the will of God. I said to him, "You, our Patron, who were inflamed with the fire of love and zeal for the greater glory of God, I humbly beg you to help me to carry out God's designs. "[97] This was during Holy Mass. Then I saw Saint Ignatius at the left side of the altar, with a large book in his hand. And he spoke these words to me, "My daughter, I am not indifferent to your cause. This rule can be adapted, and it can be adapted to this Congregation." And gesturing with his hand toward the big book, he disappeared. I rejoiced greatly at the fact of how much the saints think of us and of how closely we are united with them. Oh, the goodness of God! How beautiful is the spiritual world, that already here on earth we commune with the saints! All day long, I could feel the presence of this dear Patron Saint.
(July 31, 1935)
Wish I could supply more details, but that's, as they say, all she wrote. The link is here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hello. And Bye.