Divine Mercy Novena: First Day
First Day
"Today bring to Me All Mankind, especially all sinners and immerse them in the ocean of My mercy. In this way you will console Me in the bitter grief into which the loss of souls plunges Me."
Most Merciful Jesus, whose very nature it is to have compassion on us and to forgive us, do not look upon our sins, but upon our trust which we place in Your infinite goodness. Receive us all into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart, and never let us escape from It. We beg this of You by Your love which unites You to the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon all mankind and especially upon poor sinners, all enfolded in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. For the sake of His Sorrowful Passion show us Your mercy, that we may praise the omnipotence of Your mercy for ever and ever. Amen.
First day novena prayer focuses on all mankind and sinners in the world. Let us meditate on bringing all mankind to the presence of God. Can we bring all the humanity to God's presence? If so how can we do that? Is it not the salvation is complete in Jesus Christ incarnation, crucifixion, death, and resurrection? What is the significance of bringing all humanity and the sinners to the presence of god's mercy? Like this many rational questions may surface our thoughts. let us meditate these concepts in the light of scripture.
Conversion of souls and salvation of souls belong to God, but everyone of us, who live, and who are baptized in Jesus Christ, has the responsibility to bring fellow souls to Jesus Christ, through our life, words, deeds, and witness. It is because there are oceans of mercy in Jesus Christ's passion, which is freely available for the salvation of all mankind.Immersion in that mercy will secure salvation for the human soul. Choosing to follow Jesus and try to lead a worth life is a choice to be made by everyone who could make choice, and the mercy of God and the will of God will cover the rest of the humanity in His time and in His way for those who can not make choices. Bringing the souls of all mankind to the mercy of God is a mandate given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ. he not only gave us a mandate, but also He promised that He will be with us always. Being a Christian, who has received the baptism, being a catholic, is a call. A call to be lived and realized throughout our life. While writing this, our pastor monsignor's Easter sermon on Easter Vigil mass and on Easter day mass echoes in my head. He explained about the symbols of baptism and the responsibilities of every baptized catholic, and how it should reflect in our life as light to the world. In the scripture we can find the following verses, which depicts the direct mandate to every christian in their life.
"Go, therefore, 12 and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. 13 And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age." Mathew 28/12-13 Accordingly, bringing the souls to the mercy of God and letting them experience Him or immerse them in the ocean of His mercy is our call through our lives.
How can we accomplish this call? Are we all called to travel all over the world? Some of us are called to travel, but the majority of us are called to bring the souls to God by our mere prayers, life witness, and through our very presence in our day today life. Prayer, presence, and lending hand to some one in the name of the Lord are great witnesses, which would move the mountains for the kingdom of God. I reflect back in time, some many many years before, I worked in Malaysia, where I had privilege to undergo evangelization training in our parish there under Father. Raymond's direction. With me we were about 30 in number consisted of the evangelization training group. The process included systematic lectures, seminars, readings, even tests, and projects. The sessions were held once a month weekend training for three years. In this training, majority of the learning we made focused on knowing the scriptures, developing personal relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ, developing daily prayer routine to develop and discern oneself, knowing we all are sinners, knowing Jesus Christ passion saved us, conducting prayer meetings, conducting praise and worship sessions, organizing and conducting laity retreats, learning to live in the presence of trinity, Knowing ones gifts, using the gifts for glory of God, call to evangelization, how to use opportunities for winning souls for God, with spoken words and non spoken manners,how to witness to the baptized and non baptized at the same time. At the end of three years training there was a commissioning ceremony,in which 12 of us who remained throughout three years were commissioned. The training prepares a lay person to know themselves, their gifts, and ignite their natural baptismal call. It was so interesting, intriguing, and self discovering almost like eureka experience for me. This is where, my soul found the purposeful experience of spiritual excitement and peace at the same time. During those three years, I composed about 150 praising poems.I will always reflect and recall, those intimate days with my Lord.
Why we have to evangelize? is it not the salvation is a common blessing for all humanity? I belong to the generation of post second Vatican,particularly my youth days belong to Pope John Paul II time, who was a evangelize pope. Pope John Paul II' words, deeds, and his life reflected evangelization. All his movements had evangelization purpose and the end result to it. He was the Pope who traveled with evangelization zeal, who captured the youth attention towards him. He was youthful, charismatic, articulating gospel, living the tradition, filled with evangelization spirit in his heart, thoughts, and actions. His speeches, writings, and his life reflects the life for resurrected Christ. The church is gifted with many stigmata saints, Pope John Paul II and His papacy legacy with the physical limitations he endured, is worthy of comparison with the stigmata suffering with Christs passion. If I say, he even used his sickness and disability to evangelize, that will not be a overstatement. He is an example our time to teach us how to bring souls to the divine mercy of God.
In our Lord's prayer, we are directed by our Lord, to pray for His kingdom come. Kingdom includes kingship, which is the presence of God in our natural realm and the people who belong to the kingdom.The people who belong to the kingdom are the souls, by souls I mean all living people. The more people believe in the passion of Christ and immerse in the ocean of mercy the more people get saved.While salvation is a free gift, and a natural gift for all those who are baptized, the baptism need to be lived day today in our houses and work places to bring other souls to the mercy. There are multitudes of souls perish in ignorance and without knowing their God. The acts and efforts to bring other people to the mercy of God through our prayers and deeds will become a channel of their blessings. In return we will be also blessed. This action is equal to the friends who carried the lame man to Jesus presence, when Jesus cure the lame man from the sins and healed him, then the lame man got out of his bed and walked. Our prayers will help the needy souls to reach near the mercy of God. Prayer of Intercession is a powerful way to evangelize.
Bringing sinners to the mercy of God is so important and vital for the salvation of God. Blessings comes through many channels but the soul salvation always and only comes through the mercy of God. No one can merit or earn their salvation. So it is our responsibility of those who are baptized to pray for the mercy of God for those who do not know Him and for the sinners.Salvation is accomplished in Jesus Christ incarnation, death, and resurrection and it is freely available to all through His mercy for all mankind. We all are sinners, while we walk towards our salvation through our life, let us pray for a charitable heart to pray for other souls. Yesterday, from the pulpit I heard from the voice of Rev. Fr. Lamb, that there are three evidences to support the Resurrection of the Lord. Empty tomb, mystical appearances of Jesus, and the lif witness of the Apostles and Christians. He emphasized that the later is the concrete and most powerful witness, which is the true Christian life. Christians' life is the most powerful living wittiness of resurrected Lord's mercy for all creation in the world.
Soul of Christ Sanctify me,
Body of Christ Save me,
Blood of Christ Inebriate me,
water from the side of Christ, Wash me,
passion of Christ, strengthen me,
O good Jesus, Hear me,
within your wounds, hide me,
never let me be, separated from you,
from the wicked enemy, defend me,
in hour of my death, call me,
and bid me, come to you,
so that with your saints,
I may praise you ever and ever,
Amen!
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