Divine Mercy Novena: Seventh Day: Today you bring me the Souls

Seventh Day
"Today bring to Me The Souls Who Especially Venerate and Glorify My Mercy and immerse them in My mercy. These souls sorrowed most over my Passion and entered most deeply into My spirit. They are living images of My Compassionate Heart. These souls will shine with a special brightness in the next life. Not one of them will go into the fire of hell. I shall particularly defend each one of them at the hour of death."

Most Merciful Jesus, whose Heart is Love Itself, receive into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart the souls of those who particularly extol and venerate the greatness of Your Mercy. These souls are mighty with the very power of God Himself. In the midst of all afflictions and adversities they go forward, confident in Your Mercy; and united to You, O Jesus, they carry all mankind on their shoulders. These souls will not be judged severely, but Your mercy will embrace them as they depart from this life.

Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon the souls who glorify and venerate Your greatest attribute, that of Your fathomless mercy, and who are enclosed in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. These souls are a living Gospel; their hands are full of deeds of mercy and their hearts, overflowing with joy, sing a canticle of mercy to You, O Most High! I beg You O God: Show them Your mercy according to the hope and trust they have placed in You. Let there be accomplished in them the promise of Jesus, who said to them that during their life, but especially at the hour of death, the souls who will venerate this fathomless mercy of His, He Himself, will defend as His glory. Amen.

Thoughts:
As we meditate today the mercy of God and glorify His everlasting mercy, let us focus on the benefits of contemplating, living, and glorifying the mercy of God. Revelations to St. Faustina depict the benefits of glorifying the mercy of God, as it is stated, "These souls will shine with a special brightness in the next life. Not one of them will go into the fire of hell. I shall particularly defend each one of them at the hour of death." What greater assurance a soul can have than assurance of heaven. There was a great priest, who preached with an authoritative voice in St. Louis Catholic church, Memphis, Tennessee, USA, named Rev. Fr. Gabriel, people called him lovingly as Fr. Gab, he used to preach about death and hell all the time. I remember one of his assertive statement went like this, "people beware of the life you lead, death is not very far,know that you will die as you live." While we do not know, when, where, how our end will be, one thing is certain, if we live by the mercy of God, and if our life aimed in proclaiming the mercy of God, if our decisions reflected the mercy of God, we will die in mercy of God, where we may reap the promise of divine mercy.

The souls those who live by the mercy of God not only will shine in the eternity but also will shine in this earthly life. Mercy of God is visualized and realized in every effort of charity in this earth. Charity includes not just sharing what we have with who do not have, but also charity includes the forgiveness of one another looking upon God's mercy. The greater charities we could do in this world are forgiveness and praying for those who hurt us.

Living by mercy entails forgiving oneself for one's own weaknesses. Mercy includes forgiving the family for their shortcomings. Mercy encompasses forgiving neighbors, community, and all around us and living in peace with everybody. Mercy include looking and highlighting the goodness in everybody and everywhere. Many times we use a saying such as, " for God sake" these words have great meaning, that if one look upon God and what God has done for them they could forgive and accommodate others shortcomings for God sake. The soul which lives by the awareness of God's mercy will find goodness in everything it sees and relates.Such a soul, which is in tune with God's mercy will be able to find goodness even in hardships, heartbreaks, trouble, and even in enemy. mercy is nature of God and it flows from only God, one can reflect mercy, only by looking at God's mercy for oneself. So reflecting and living mercy takes experiencing God's mercy in ones own life, as the first step.

Knowing God's mercy in the natural world is very easy. If we look at God's creations all around us, we can see God's mercy and love for us everyday. If we look at all the love we receive from parents, siblings, family, spouse, children, friends, and relatives, we can experience the mercy of God in them. Many at times we take these love for granted, in fact they all were possible by divine mercy of God. If we recall all the leaders, teachers, and mentors, we have had all along our life, we can appreciate God's guiding mercy through them.

Even if we reflect upon some people, who once hated us, rejected us, or irritated us, who we thought as the trouble makers,or the stumbling blocks, in reality, many of them were planted by God's mercy on our ways to make us to grow or to build our stamina, or to make us to learn our strength,or to distract us from the slippery path ahead, or to protect the soul from falling of vain glory, or to serve as a speed breaker to prevent head on collision, in all the reason for greater purpose, we can count God's mercy in all of them. For this very reason Jesus asked us to forgive the enemies and pray for those who hurt you. It is in prayer we will be able to discern God's will and purpose behind the situations.

If we reflect upon all those who we depend upon at home, at work, or in the community, we can vividly palpate God's mercy. If we reflect upon all the events where we were helpless, in the times of our needs, when we had no where to turn, then some one who is unknown, unexpected, unforeseen people came along to lend help, to rescue, to restorate, and to motivate. Such an experience came from God's mercy in those difficult situations. if we reflect upon all those who have tolerated our shortcomings or even forgiven our mischief, in those situation, we received God's mercy. If we reflect upon the close calls we have had in the past, we can know that the mere existence of our life in itself is God's mercy. Likewise we can go on and on listing God's mercy in day today natural earthly life.

If we reflect upon the our plans and dreams, which we could not achieve, we could say God's mercy was certainly there protecting us from hidden dangers in those unknown paths. God's mercy is present in abundance on this earth, it is everywhere available freely for those who seek through the passion of Jesus Christ. As He said, "I will be always with you" His mercy surrounds us all the time everywhere in every situation.

Presence of our church, universal catholic church, and presence of all the sacraments in the church are the merciful presence of God for the world. Above all God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to the world, which is the highest level of mercy. It is in His mercy, we live everyday and our salvation depend upon His mercy. So let us try our level best to appreciate, experience, and live by the mercy of God in this earthly life. There is nothing impossible for God's mercy.

Is it possible to realize and live by the mercy of God in our lives? Many holy men and women have lived reflecting mercy of God in their lives. St. Francis of Assisi, St. Padre Pio, St. Anthony, Avila Teresa, Catherine of Sienna, St. Clare,St. Francis Xavier,St. John De Brito, St. Dominic Savio, St. Don Bosco, St. Vincent De Paul,St. Damion, St. Maximillan, Mother Teresa of Calcutta,....................the list is endless. These holy people have reflected passion of Christ in their lives and they immersed their life in the mercy of God, so they are shining as stars in heaven. It is the conviction of the encounter of God's mercy by these souls led them in to the holy path, that set examples for our life. They were also ordinary men and women like us, if they could attain that status, it will be worthy for us to taken an attempt to immerse ourselves in the mercy of God in our lives. We didn't bring any thing in to this world to loose, and we take nothing from this world to gain. In between, in this life, everything is from God's mercy. We are just travelers, and Jesus Christ, the Son of God Himself, died for us, when we think of that sacrifice, we will find solace in this life troubles and we will be able to forgive others. Let us pray and proclaim divine mercy in our lives.

Prayer:
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!