#divine mercy

[cheerfullycatholic]

Ladies and gentlemen,

Him

[justjudethoughts]

Lessons in Divine Mercy

Necessary Context: Very early on in my journey with Religious OCD, extremely well-meaning mentors would often tell me the story of the Prodigal Son, and end it with "you just need to trust in God's mercy! He wants to forgive you!" But you see, for me, that was never the problem. 14-year-old me KNEW God wanted to forgive her. She also knew that if she committed a mortal sin, she was supposed to go to confession. And, well, um, she thought everything was a mortal sin. Literally skipped brushing my teeth once and thought it was a mortal sin. What scared me the most was the realization I couldn't literally spend 24/7 in confession. And if I was committing a mortal sin every few minutes, then how was I ever supposed to stay in union with God? To me, absolutely none of this had to do with trusting that God was merciful.

I was wrong.

It took a while to come to this conclusion, but I eventually realized that trusting in God's mercy had more to it than simply trusting He wanted to forgive me. It meant trusting that He knew me better than I knew myself. That He saw my heart and my mind and the absolute agony I was going through, and more than that, that He cared. I had to trust that His mercy was bigger than my illness. That He wasn't scared of my scruples. In practice, that meant I had to trust that even if I somehow managed to

— 1) Commit a mortal sin 2) Convince myself afterwards that it wasn't a mortal sin and I was just obsessing and 3) Forgo going to confession in an attempt to not perform a compulsion— that God would not hold that supposed mortal sin against me. Of course, now I realize how unlikely that entire situation is to even happen in the first place, but at the time it was my reality. It was my fear every single day, and that leap of faith was a terrifying one to make. But when I did, I could finally begin to do the things I needed to heal (aka, avoid compulsions, trusting that God is going to take care of it even if I mislabeled and avoided something I actually should have done as a compulsion).

You see, what I hadn't realized at the time is that God's mercy doesn't just mean He forgives your sins— it means He has a tender, bleeding, broken heart for you. For you and for everything you have been through. For you and for every hurt stored in your chest. For you and you alone, as though you were the only one to ever exist. His mercy does not simply say "go and sin no more," it stoops to write in the sand, and while doing so, finds you at eye level. Looks you in the eye, takes your hand, and raises you to your feet. Calls you by name. The Jesus who meets you in the confessional is the same Jesus who wept when Lazarus died. Whose heart was moved with pity for the crowd. Who dropped everything to raise a little girl from the dead, and the first thing He said when she was awake was to make sure she was given something to eat.

Divine Mercy means that God sees where you are, knows where you are, and pursues you there. Meets you there. Why else do you think He came down to earth as a baby? We got ourselves in trouble by trying to build a tower to heaven because that was never what we were supposed to do. God stoops to us. The confusion of Babble was undone by the descent of the Holy Ghost.

He sees you. He knows you. And He cares. Oh, how it hurts His heart to see you hurt! And how much more it hurts to see you scared of Him. Do you not think the Hands that crafted you know every crevice of your heart? Do you not think that the God who became a baby, whose heart was pierced for love of you, could hold anything inside that heart beside tenderness at the thought of you? For all of eternity He has had a simple wish — to wash your feet and kiss your wounds. Will you trust Him enough to let Him?

[ynhart]

Divine Mercy

[beloved-of-john]

A silly little thing. Credit to whoever drew the trans autism creature. Edits by me.

I was going through it today regarding my queer identity and my Christian faith, and how difficult it can be to be both at once, especially when church teachings aren't affirming. So I'm posting this silly little thing I made, to cheer myself up. I hope it cheers someone else up too.

[pol-ski]

The Image of the Divine Mercy - Jesus, I trust in You (1943) by Adolf Hyła (Polish, 1897–1965)

The image of the Divine Mercy is a depiction of Jesus Christ that is based on the devotion initiated by Saint Faustina Kowalska.

Adolf Hyła paint­ed this ver­sion of the Divine Mer­cy for the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Kraków, as a votive offer­ing in grat­i­tude for the safe­ty of his fam­i­ly dur­ing World War II.

[angeltreasure]

Have a very blessed Divine Mercy Sunday to all of you. ❤️🙏🏻🩵

[donnadarling]

"God is Love, and His Spirit is Peace. I see now that my deeds which have flowed from love are more perfect than those which I have done out of fear."

- The Diary of St. Faustina Kowalska

[portraitsofsaints]

Divine Mercy Sunday

"Humanity will never find peace until it turns with trust to Divine Mercy" Jesus  (Diary, p. 132)

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)

[inspiredbyjesuslove]

[truedevotiondesign]

APRIL Birthstone Rosary // Divine Mercy

[theraccolta]

Miserére nostri, Dómine, miserére nostri. Fiat misericórdia tua, Dómine, super nos, quemádmodum sperávimus in te.

O Lord, have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us. O Lord, let Thy mercy lighten upon us, as our trust is in Thee.

[myremnantarmy]

"𝘋𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘥𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘵."

[conduit-of-grace]

Divine Mercy Prayer

[butterflies-and-bumble-bees]

Jesus is our Hope: through His merciful Heart, as through an open gate, we pass through to Heaven. ~ Diary of St. Faustina Kowalska, 1570

[beloved-of-john]

"We expect to obtain everything promised us by Jesus in spite of all our wretchedness. For Jesus is our Hope: through His merciful Heart, as through an open gate, we pass through to Heaven."

Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska

[essence-of-femininity]

Thoughts from the “Diary” of Saint Faustina.

I want to be a quiet little home for Jesus, where He can rest. I shall not allow anything to awake my Beloved. Concealment allows me to abide alone with my Beloved all the time. I am in contact with creatures only insofar as it pleases my Beloved (Diary 1021).