Write Non Fiction In November : #WNFIN Day 29

In praise and thanksgiving for sacraments, for without them we perish. God in His great mercy even honours our desire for the sacraments. The difference is a bit like gold and silver.
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The Church tells us that there are three ways we can receive baptism, by sacrament/water, by desire and by blood/martyrdom. This baptism by desire is how we can explain grace being active in catechumens and in the non-baptised. What is asking Jesus to become Lord and saviour of our lives if not the desire to live under His Kingship and as members of His family? This desire is a desire for baptism whether it is acknowledge overtly or not.

The ordinary way we receive God's personal forgiveness is through the sacrament of penance. But we know that God does not despise a good act of contrition. The former is much, much greater, but the latter is still powerful. Any good, humble act of contrition is a desire for the fullness of forgiveness found in the sacrament.

How often do we see God pour out the gifts and charisms of the Holy Spirit upon those who hunger and thirst for them – even if they haven't been baptised or confirmed? By desire people such as these have received through desire a portion of the graces of sacramental confirmation – a down payment meant to draw them to the sacrament itself. The sacrament brings with it a fullness and completeness.

God blesses the desires of those who long to receive Him in Holy Communion. It's even got a special name – spiritual communion (as opposed to sacramental communion). Remember this, because it explains how our separated brethren can feel and experience so much during their Communion services. How fortunate we are that God blesses our desires for His holy sacraments! He wants by this to make our desires greater, and to lead us gently onwards to seek the complete fulfillment of those desires.

I won't go on with the other three sacraments – you have the general idea.

What I wanted to say was more along the lines of how incredibly good it is that God gives us a certainty in the sacraments. In these magnificent sacraments God always acts, always. His action is not dependent on the holiness or lack thereof of the priest. His action is not prevented by our ignorance nor by our non-mortal sins.

Each and every time we approach the sacraments, we are 100% sure of encountering Jesus even if we feel no emotional or intellectual response at all. Granted, we are more likely to experience that encounter if we approach the sacraments with more faith and trust.

So when the rest of the world rejects and ignores us, there is always Jesus waiting for us in the sacraments –  no ifs, buts or maybes, He is always there, and always active in our lives. Whenever life has more than its fair share of setbacks, Jesus is still there offering Himself under the appearances of bread and wine at every Mass- to prove His tangible and everlastingly eternal love for us. Often it is that alone which helps us get up off the ground and fight again through another day.

When we have failed, and return to seek His pardon, the holy sacrament of penance assures us that we are forgiven. Those precious words of absolution are so unequivocal. There is no doubt that we have been forgiven. Even if we return over 1000 times with the same failings, still our God will give us His mercy. He encourages our every step towards holiness.

So what can we take home from this?

That we can always ask God to unwrap for us deeper layers of the sacraments that we have already received

We can ask Him to release in us the gifts and charisms of those sacraments that we weren't completely ready to receive and use on the day we received those sacraments

That we can always do better in preparing to receive His holy sacraments, and in thanking Him afterwards.

That God desires that we deepen our hunger and desire for the sacraments, by reminding Him of those desires often during the day
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That God is not bound by human rules and regulations, and that His mercy often surpasses them.

Write Non Fiction In November : #WNFIN Day 21
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It is almost safe to start reading again (rant-wise). Today I'm going to write about the damage that un-replied to emails cause. Yes, I'm guilty of this at times, too.

I'm going to take actual cases, but disguise the locations and suspects.

Case 1: You send an email with a proposal (or invitation) for an event with Christian unity as the aim. The majority of the emails are met with silence. A few say they have prior commitments. A different few just say 'No' and give no reason. Some of the emails bounce because the faith communities they were sent to haven't updated their website contact details in ages.

Damage: It is going to be a long time before the proposal/invitation sender tries again. How demoralising to think that the desire for Christian unity is so feeble! Even discounting for denominational prejudice and concerns about email attachments and going straight to junk folders, it is still demoralising.

Case 2: You send an email with ideas for a different way of running a regular prayer meeting. Silence. Several weeks later you send a follow-up reminder saying that this desire to try something a bit different is still strong. Silence.

Damage: Ignoring someone isn't going to make them go away. If you don't want to put a response in print, you pick up the phone or set up a face to face meeting. Of all the options silence damages the trust relationship the most. No's, No because's, Yes's, Maybe's, Let me pray about that's, at least acknowledge that the message has been heard and let the petitioner know where they stand. Anything but silence at least invites further conversation or negotiation.

Case 3: You send an email to someone you wish to keep in contact with, and include a genuine question that you really want the answer to and which has the potential to open up greater dialogue – which maybe will lead to being able to ask the burning question you have. You get a short response, but the question has been ignored.

Damage: It is hard to escape the conclusion that the person doesn't really want to keep in contact, or has been told not to. At the very least, your email didn't get read properly, and you read properly the emails of the people you care about.

Case 4: You have a burning idea, and you'd like to find out whether someone else shares that idea or whether maybe God has been putting a similar burden on their hearts. Not wanting to prejudice anything, because you want to hear straight from them before sharing your own stuff, you send a message expressing a desire to catch up over coffee and chat about what they've seen God doing recently. The response is either a No, or silence.

Damage: Without this first step of discernment, nothing can happen. God might be leading them a totally different way, and that's OK, as long as you get to find out. You pray for them and hope that everything works out for them. Maybe there's someone else who has the same burden. But if God has been stirring in their lives and you don’t connect, then all those maybes and possibilities become never-evers. And if you follow up at decent intervals with the same connection request, and it gets either continued silence or knocked back, all of those dreams and ideas die. Stepping out of the comfort zone and trying to do the same with someone else is going to be that much harder too.

Case 5: You have had an ongoing exchange of ideas and then the other person says, 'I'm going to shelve this'.

Damage: If the other person doesn't want to push through the areas of conflict and spend the time necessary to listen, dialogue and find resolution, then you are in no man's land. You know that if the other person considered you worthwhile enough, that they'd commit to working through things and not leaving them unresolved. No one likes to feel that kind of pain.

And the hardest part? That these good, God-loving and God-fearing people treat their brothers and sisters in Christ like this -.so much for loving each other.

We have to do better.

If we took Luke 6:30 seriously, 'Give to everyone who asks', we'd acknowledge that asking anything is difficult for most of us, and that it takes real courage to do so. Most of the time we do not know the full story behind the asking, nor the true need behind the asking. We'll only discover it if we take the first step to respond.

So please reply to emails, always, in ways that keep the communication channels open.
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If you do, who knows what amazingly good things God might initiate through them.

Before the keynote address began, conference participants were introduced to the new National Director for the National Centre for Evangelisation, a new entity bringing together the former Catholic Enquiry Centre and the National Office for Evangelisation. Shane Dwyer was very surprised to be considered for this role. 'The task in front of us is daunting. What to do? How to do it? But I don't see that as a problem, rather as an invitation to be responded to. Everything will go right if we stay close to Him, and allow Him to lead us in this task of calling people to come close to Him. Part of this role will be supporting bishops in this ministry. Sadly we often don't support each other in ministry effectively. Yet we are all on the same side. None of us have all the answers, but we can still work towards them together.'

This final keynote address of the conference was given by Bishop Nicholas Hudson, auxiliary bishop of Westminster. You won't find him on social media, but a few YouTube clips of his speeches can be found online.

Bishop Hudson is the 4th of 5 boys, educated at Jesuit schools and studied history at Cambridge. He then studied in Rome and obtained a licentiate in Fundamental Theology. In 1986 he became chaplain to the L'Arche communities. In 2014 he was made auxiliary bishop of Westminster.

His keynote address was entitled, 'Oases of Mercy: Parishes which radiate Christ'.

NB. These notes are rough, they do not contain everything said, and will lack his particular emphases. The full text of his keynote is available at http://proclaimconference.com.au/doc/resources/281016/2016%20Proclaim%20KeynoteBishopHudson.pdf but might not be available online for longer than 2 years.

Good morning. Thanks for the warm welcome
Some parishes are truly Oases of Mercy. The parish of St Egidio in Rome is a good example. Some parishioners back in the 1980s started a prayer group, and over time felt a desire to assist the poor. They began with soup and offering shelter at night. Later on they worked out that the need for literacy and education was just as big as the need for food and shelter, and did something about that too. These days they are feeding around 200 people a day.

Pope Francis used this phrase first when he said 'Wherever there are Christians, everyone should find an oasis of mercy' : Misericordiae Vultus 12

St John XXIII spoke about a parish being like a village fountain to which all have recourse in their thirst.

In Evangelii Gaudium 28 Pope Francis said that a parish is 'a community of communities, a sanctuary where the thirsty come to drink in the midst of their journey, and a centre of constant missionary outreach.'

In Evangelii Gaudium 24 Pope Francis shared this vision of Church, and by extension of parish:
The Church which “goes forth” is a community of missionary disciples who take the first step, who are involved and supportive, who bear fruit and rejoice. An evangelizing community knows that the Lord has taken the initiative, He has loved us first (cf. 1 Jn 4:19), and therefore we can move forward, boldly take the initiative, go out to others, seek those who have fallen away, stand at the crossroads and welcome the outcast. Such a community has an endless desire to show mercy, the fruit of its own experience of the power of the Father’s infinite mercy.

Blessed John Henry Newman spoke about radiating Christ, and penned an inspiring prayer to explain it better:

Dear Jesus, help me to spread Your fragrance everywhere I go.
Flood my soul with Your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of Yours.
Shine through me and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me but only Jesus!
Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as You shine, so to shine as to be a light to others;
the light, O Jesus, will be all from You; none of it will be mine: it will be You shining on others through me.
Let me thus praise You in the way You love best: by shining on those around me.
Let me preach You without preaching, not by words, but by my example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to You. Amen

The way to proclaim Christ in the 21st century is to make our parishes oases of mercy, radiating the face of Christ. When Pope Francis calls us to be missionary disciples, he wants us to be missionaries of mercy. This, in turn, calls for a new way of doing things, and each of us individually and collectively have to ask, 'What more must I do?'.

At the beginning of the millennium St John Paul II invited us to 'put out into the deep'. Now Pope Francis asks us to enter into a 'resolute process of discernment, purification and reform' EG30 in order to find 'new paths for the Church's journey in years to come' EG1.

The first step in this process is to celebrate what we already do that is having a positive evangelistic impact. Discover what you do well, and then ask what more the Lord may be calling us to do.

The next step is to review the evangelistic potential of what we do under 5 headings, Prayer, Caritas, Faith Formation, Marriage & Family Life, and Evangelistic Outreach.

For example, if Prayer is going well, how do you deepen it? How do you unlock its possibilities for evangelisation? What are the prayer needs of our young people? Does the parish have opportunities for genuine forms of popular religiosity, eg processions and rosaries?

'Genuine forms of popular religiosity are incarnate, since they are born of the incarnation of Christian faith in popular culture. For this reason they entail a personal relationship, not with vague spiritual energies or powers, but with God, with Christ, with Mary, with the saints. These devotions are fleshy, they have a face. They are capable of fostering relationships and not just enabling escapism.' EG90a

Under the heading of Caritas, we might be doing well with our care for the elderly and food for the hungry, but how are we doing in the area of inclusion of people with disabilities? You might like to look into setting up a monthly Faith and Light group: a mix of intellectually disabled people, their family and friends, parishioners and young people gathering together for friendship, sharing, prayer and celebration.

There is always a danger that we focus our Evangelistic Outreach inwards instead of looking outwards. While there is some evidence that people with Christian backgrounds are finding their way  to the Catholic Church, our track record with the unchurched is very poor.

Have you heard about Night Fever? The idea behind Night Fever is simple: open a city centre church at night, fill it with candle-light and prayerful live music, and invite passers-by inside.

(Ed. Read about what has happened with Night Fever at Chicago, Saskatoon, Blackpool and Dublin:
https://nightfeverchicago.org/
http://saskatoonrcdiocese.com/news/nightfever-offers-outreach-conversation-prayer
http://www.castleriggmanor.co.uk/faith-and-life-stories/2014/12/13/nightfever
http://irishcatholic.ie/article/nightfever%E2%80%99s-simple-invitation-reaps-huge-response )

We need to think about how to reach out to those who come nowhere near the church threshold. Do you have a Welcoming Group set up to greet those that do cross the threshold?

In your parish communities it is good to make 3 year plans for outreach, and to have a mission activity to focus on in the next 18 to 24 months.

Form evangelisation teams. Discernment about how to evangelize as a parish/team can happen before or after the team is formed. Having an evangelisation team is essential. Do not walk alone, walk together under the leadership and guidance of the bishops. Jesus did not walk alone, He had a team. Like His team, ours should ideally have 12 members.

Again, like Jesus, prayer is essential before choosing the members of the team, and once the team is chosen. You want people with solid prayer lives in the team. You also want the diversity of the parish reflected in its team members, across age, occupations, ethnicity etc. You want membership of this team to be their primary parish role, and not a secondary one.

The purpose of the team is to keep the parish mission-focussed, and to become the 'mission conscience' of the parish. It is their task to discern how to evangelise and how to resource those initiatives.

What exactly do we mean by evangelisation? Just like there is a multiplicity of ways of praying, there is a multiplicity of ways to evangelise. Evangelism is about communicating a relationship with Jesus in word and deed in such a way that people ask, 'Who is this Jesus you love and worship?'

Pope Francis reminds us that the spiritual and corporal works of mercy are the criteria upon which we will be judged. We will be judged on the basis of love, as St John of the Cross puts it.

The corporal works of mercy are:

To feed the hungry
To give drink to the thirsty
To clothe the naked
To shelter the homeless
To visit the sick
To ransom the captive
To bury the dead

We don't have to reinvent the wheel, look at some of the ways others are already doing them:

Mary's Meals https://www.marysmeals.org.uk/# feeding the hungry
Water Aid http://www.wateraid.org/au giving drink to the thirsty
Read http://www.clothingpoverty.com/ about the hidden world of fast fashion and second hand clothes.
St Mungo's http://www.mungos.org/ helps the homeless
Little Sisters of the Poor http://www.littlesistersofthepoor.org.au/ looking after the sick and dying
Prison Fellowship https://www.prisonfellowship.org/ assisting those in prison
Catholic Funeral and Cemetery Services http://cmsmission.org/solutions/cfcs/ burying the dead
(Ed. This last one is best guess, CFC were the initials I wrote down and the screens flashed quickly)

When considering the works of mercy, we are encouraged to look at them by Pope Francis in the context of the story of the Good Samaritan. Jesus told this story to answer the question, 'Who is my neighbour?' and through it we understand that our neighbour is not just someone in a far-off land; our neighbour is more often the person we meet close at hand and whom we find to be in need. The Latin word for mercy is Misericordia, having a heart (cor) for the poor (miseri). Mercy needs to be not only affective (touching our hearts), but effective (bringing real relief). In order to make our parishes oases of mercy, they must become places which have a heart for the poor.

A pathway for discernment could go like this:
Take one of the five headings for evangelistic initiatives eg Marriage & Family Life.
•Ask, what do we already do well in this area?
•What more could the Lord be calling us to do in the light of Evangelii Gaudium?
•Then prayerfully consider each of the works of mercy in the light of that initiative (eg Marriage & Family Life) and the light of Evangelii Gaudium and see what possibilities those considerations lead to.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has very good material on their website about the New Evangelisation http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/new-evangelization/ . In particular there is a practical and feasible list of ways of suggestions for putting the Corporal Works of Mercy into practice http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/new-evangelization/jubilee-of-mercy/the-corporal-works-of-mercy.cfm
These are the suggestions for Visiting the Sick:
•Give blood
•Spend time volunteering at a nursing home – Get creative and make use of your talents (e.g. sing, read, paint, call Bingo, etc.)!
•Take time on a Saturday to stop and visit with an elderly neighbour.
•Offer to assist caregivers of chronically sick family members on a one-time or periodic basis. Give caregivers time off from their caregiving responsibilities so they can rest, complete personal chores, or enjoy a relaxing break.
•Next time you make a meal that can be easily frozen, make a double batch and give it to a family in your parish who has a sick loved one.

Many of these suggestions are already being done by individuals and families in parishes. Have a think about how they could be organised better, to help more families and give a louder proclamation of mercy.

My father taught me about how acts of mercy are meant to be part of family life. He was a school teacher, working Monday to Friday and Saturday mornings. When he came home from work on a Saturday he would take me – and a hot shepherd's pie – in the car to visit old Mr Flood. His flat was so bare, but he would sit day in and day out at his window and smile and wave to us boys. That smile of his, I realise now, radiated Christ to us. We met Christ in Mr Flood. We always receive more than we give. I think what Pope Francis would say is 'Yes, that's what I am talking about. Do more of it.'

The L'Arche movement was founded by Jean Vanier. He spent 10 years in the Navy and then studied philosophy and later taught philosophy. He met a priest who invited him to befriend two men who lived at a local psychiatric hospital. Jean felt a deep call to share his life with these two men, and bought a little house and called it l'Arche (The Ark). He had no idea he was starting a movement; he began just by doing it. The best way to proclaim mercy, is to start doing it. The easiest way to evangelise, is to start doing it.

The vision of L’Arche is found in Luke's Gospel:
'Jesus said to His host: ‘When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not ask your friends, brothers, relations or rich neighbours, for fear they repay your courtesy by inviting you in return. No; when you have a party, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; that they cannot pay you back means that you are fortunate, because repayment will be made to you when the virtuous rise again.'' (Luke 14, 12-14)

Soon after Jesus says, “Do this and you will be blessed.” Jesus doesn’t say they will be blessed. He says you will be blessed. Why? Because in the poor person, to whom you give a welcome, you welcome Jesus. When you reach out to the poor, you touch the wounded body of Christ. In assisting the poor you both meet and proclaim Christ.

But we need to also talk about our faith, and to add words to the mercy. Telling people who the Lord is for us is vital. When visiting Mr Flood we never talked about our faith, we never even said Grace with him. If we had, maybe it could have opened up a gentle conversation about God; either by inviting him to more prayer, or by asking if he minded us praying.

The spiritual works of mercy are:

To instruct the ignorant
To counsel the doubtful
To admonish sinners
To bear wrongs patiently
To forgive offences willingly
To comfort the afflicted
To pray for the living and the dead

The spiritual works of mercy are about expressing our faith in words. Pope Francis speaks strongly about them in Misericordiae Vultus 15:

'We cannot escape the Lord’s words to us, and they will serve as the criteria upon which we will be judged: whether we have fed the hungry and given drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger and clothed the naked, or spent time with the sick and those in prison (cf. Mt 25:31-45). Moreover, we will be asked if we have helped others to escape the doubt that causes them to fall into despair and which is often a source of loneliness; if we have helped to overcome the ignorance in which millions of people live, especially children deprived of the necessary means to free them from the bonds of poverty; if we have been close to the lonely and afflicted; if we have forgiven those who have offended us and have rejected all forms of anger and hate that lead to violence; if we have had the kind of patience God shows, who is so patient with us; and if we have commended our brothers and sisters to the Lord in prayer.'

We need to focus on both the words and the deeds of mercy. With both we need to proclaim Jesus, and we definitely need words in order to evangelise:

'There is no true evangelization if the name, the teaching, the life, the promises, the kingdom and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God are not proclaimed.' Evangelii Nuntiandi 22

The early church used the kerygma to announce the Gospel to others. Kerygma means proclamation. It is the core proclamation of the Gospel. The key to evangelisation is proclaiming who Jesus is for you in a way that leads others to Him. Pope Francis says that it’s simply telling people, 'Jesus Christ loves you; He gave His life to save you; and now He is living at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you.' Evangelii Gaudium 164

Pope Benedict XVI told the Bishops of the Philippines on 18 Feb 2011 : 'Your great task in evangelisation is therefore to propose a personal relationship with Christ as key to complete fulfilment.'

Listen again to St Peter's proclamation in Acts 2:22-24

'Men of Israel, listen to what I am going to say: Jesus the Nazarene was a man commended to you by God by the miracles and portents and signs that God worked through Him when He was among you, as you know. This man … you took and had crucified and killed ... But God raised Him to life … Now raised to the heights by God’s right hand, He has received from the Father the Holy Spirit, who was promised, and what you see and hear is the outpouring of that Spirit.'

How do we share this core message with people? Sometimes opportunities take us by surprise. In Rome I was asked to look after 3 young women, aged around 19. On the way to visit St Peter's Basilica I talked to them about St Peter and the major events of his life with Jesus and his life with the early church and his martyrdom. By the time we got to the Confessio I was just about finished telling the story and said, 'And this is where he was buried. Right here, but about three levels down'. This profoundly affected at least one of these bright young women who said, 'I just don't understand why no one has ever told me this before. How come I've never heard this? I wish I'd known it before!'

Another time the English World Cup rugby team were visiting, and one of them decided that he wanted to play on the College's organ. The music attracted other team members to the College chapel. On the walls of the college were frescoes of martyrs from the time of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. It wasn't long before someone asked me who these people on the walls were, and I started telling them about the stories of the ways they heroically stood up for the truths of the faith and refused to be a part of a church that had broken away from unity with Rome. One of them, with tears, spoke on behalf of the others, 'I don’t understand why no one has ever told us this before. This is all news to me.' Many of our young people could say the same to us: 'You never told us. There's so much about Jesus and our history that no one ever told us.'

This proclamation of who Jesus is, and of how others have testified to that, needs to be present in every homily, every class and every talk we give. When I meet young people preparing for Confirmation, I challenge them, and remind them that when you make these baptismal promises for yourself, you are saying you believe Jesus is who He says He is:

You are saying you believe He was God made human; that He was a historical person; that He was born a little over 2000 years ago in Bethlehem; that He grew up in Nazareth; that, at about the age of thirty, He was anointed by the Holy Spirit and began a ministry of teaching and preaching and healing; He worked many miracles which proved He was divine; but, after three years, His people rejected Him; they had Him put to death by crucifixion. But He had promised them He would rise from the dead. When He returned to the Father, He sent the Holy Spirit upon His disciples. And it is this same Holy Spirit who comes upon you and leads you into the fullness of life.

Now, that’s the kerygma, the core proclamation. It’s what we mean by kerygmatic catechesis.

Every time someone comes along, adult or child, for sacramental preparation dare to ask, 'When you say the Creed at Mass on Sunday, do you believe in everything we say there; or are there some parts you wonder about, would like to discuss, or know more about?' After all, if we can't talk about these things in formal catechesis, then when can we? At all the different stages of faith development we need to revisit this core message of a relationship with Christ, in word and in deed, in such a way that makes people ask, 'Who is this Jesus whom you love and worship?'

Ever thought of changing the world one heart at a time? That's how Jesus began with Peter and Andrew, Matthew, John and James. I do believe it is one heart at a time that we begin to radiate Christ – showing every person whom we encounter not just that our parish is an oasis of mercy but that they will find an oasis of mercy in us, in each of us. To be able to embrace individual hearts this way comes from years of meeting the Lord daily in prayer. Then you begin to radiate Christ. And it is where we need start too: on our knees. As more people do the same: giving themselves daily to the Lord in prayer, giving themselves daily to their neighbour through acts of generosity, self-sacrifice, charity and loving kindness – then, little by little, our parishes will become oases of mercy which radiate Christ. And we will find our Church becomes missionary in ways we never imagined possible.
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My response

It is some months now since this talk was given, but I do remember how after this talk everyone tumbling into the area where food and drink could be found had this upbeat sense of 'Yes, I can do that' about these ideas for evangelisation, or 'now I understand what this kerygma stuff is and how to do it'. We were all grateful for these very practical ideas and explanations.
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What these words cannot convey are the video-clips and photographs Bishop Hudson showed us. We were all deeply moved by a little girl with intellectual disability praying the Our Father and the photographs of parishes including people with all kinds of disabilities in their activities.
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In the next issue will be notes from the workshop on the opportunities and challenges for parishes as they seek to proclaim Jesus Christ.

When a dear friend comes to your home, what do you do? You give them something nice to eat, something pleasant to drink, you fix them up with any clothing they forgot to bring (cardigan, swimming costume, dressing gown etc) and you happily put them up for the night if they need it.
 
That's a warm welcome.
 
They are also the first 4 corporal works of mercy: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, and shelter the homeless.
 
Developing our ability to welcome then, is a prerequisite for becoming merciful like the Father (Luke 6:36).
 
In truth, each and every person we meet is someone God wants us to spend a happy eternity with. Each one has an invitation from God to be a prince or princess in heaven, and we may as well start treating them like that now.
 
That's reason enough for some, but others like a bit more encouragement. So here are 7 biblical reasons to work on your welcome.
 
Hebrews 13:1-2 Continue to love each other like brothers, and remember always to welcome strangers, for by doing this, some people have entertained angels without knowing it.
 
Which would make most people remember Abraham's story from Genesis 18, where he was minding his own business at the hottest part of the day when only fools or those on urgent matters of great significance travel. He ran to meet the three men, and bowed to the ground before them, before offering them food, drink and a place to rest and refresh themselves because 'that is why you have come in your servant' direction'. Abraham also accompanied them in order to show them the way to the city of Sodom.
 
An application: There is always a reason why someone you don't know darkens the door of your parish church, and it is usually a big one. A family member is dying / has just died ; someone close to them is having surgery : they are praying for a job for themselves or others ; a child is going through big exams ; or they are in some kind of need (and that includes the occasional one who is looking for money or looks mentally ill). If they leave without connecting with someone and without at least sharing the burdens on their hearts, then we have failed them and God. It is relatively easy to say, 'Did you know we have a prayer intentions book over here? Every weekend Mass those intentions are prayed for, and you can write them anyway you want, in shorthand, code, in any language.' That tends to have a 95% success rate in getting a prayer intention written.
 
Matthew 25:35 I was a stranger and you made Me welcome.
 
If our ability to welcome is good we will be happy in the kingdom of God forever with Jesus. If we don't have the first clue about how to welcome the stranger, then we could find ourselves deprived of everything that is good for all eternity.
 
An application: Many of the strangers entering your parish church will have travelled there for a funeral, a baptism, a confirmation etc. Anyone who has travelled distance knows that the first burning question is 'Where's the loo?' How easy is it for a stranger to find the answer to that burning question? If we were really serious about welcome we would have teams of people on hand for occasions like these to do like Abraham did, and show them personally to where the toilets are and have a chat on the way. In hot weather cups of cold water should be provided free, and as something we always do as a parish, if we are really serious about the welcome we give to those who travel for special occasions. Perhaps if we start getting that right, we might begin doing that no matter what the weather.  
 
Mark 9:37 Anyone who welcomes one of these little children in My Name, welcomes Me; and anyone who welcomes Me welcomes not Me but the one who sent Me.
 
Little children make noise, they fidget, they are rarely able to sit still. They like kicking their heels on the wood paneling, getting a change of scene by dragging an adult off to visit the toilets, and testing the acoustic qualities of a building with their vocal chords. We are called to see them as a special gift, and not as a hindrance. How well do we welcome children? I suspect they get far less welcome from us than their accompanying adults do, and yet Jesus says they are His representatives. I am reminded of travelling a long distance overseas to listen to someone considered holy, we travelled with two youngsters 2 years 6 months and almost 3 years old. They were very good, and making minimum 'I'm happily occupied' noises. I was asked to take them outside. I stood my ground, but it came at the cost of not being able to truly listen to anything that was said because my emotions were too jumbled.
 
An application: Welcome is far more than pointing out – graciously or ungraciously - where the nearest cry room is. When was the last time an audit was done of the cry room? Is the sound from the microphones outside getting inside the cry room? Is it clean? Is it comfortable? Do the toilets have a baby change table? Are there toys and books in good condition with a faith component to them? Is there a place where an autistic youngster overwhelmed with all the sights and sounds of regular worship can safely go to calm down? Maybe we need to think about specialist greeters for children, who are good at establishing rapport and good at helping the children use their natural joy and sense of fun to enrich the whole community. Our children are God's treasures and our treasures, and we have just got to start treating them like precious treasures and stop treating them as unwanted nuisances. We are called, too, to bridge the generation gap and to make efforts to talk to and include our pre-teens, teens and young adults in conversation and community activities and service opportunities. If we want to welcome Jesus in them, then we have to make special effort.
 
Hebrews 11:31 It was by faith that Rahab the prostitute welcomed the spies and so was not killed with the unbelievers.
 
Rahab's story is found mostly in Joshua Chapter 2, and a little in Chapter 6. She is mentioned too in the genealogy of Jesus. I wonder how many people the Israelite spies sought lodging with before Rahab opened her home to them because she had heard of all the wonders the Lord God had done for the Israelites. She had wisdom, and she had guts to hide these men from their pursuers and to insist upon getting her extended family under God's protection. Welcoming God's people in these foreign strangers saved her life.
 
An application: Most of us haven't yet been called to shelter strangers who put our own lives at risk for the sake of the kingdom of God. But we need to ponder Rahab's example and how highly she is praised not only in the book of Hebrews, but in the letter of James, and being included by name in the genealogy of Jesus. In our own times Pope Francis has been leading by example and welcoming refugees into Vatican city to live. How much do we go out of our way to welcome someone who looks like us and talks like us, and how much do we go out of our way for those whose skin colour is different and whose command of English is poor? Take the time to get to know people in your parish who were born in a different country, so that when someone from Korea or the Sudan comes to your parish you can introduce them to parishioners who are a bicultural match. Anyone who has taken that great leap of faith to leave their own country and come to build a life in another country has courage and great gifts and stories to share. Get to know them, and just like Rahab, you will never regret the effort to do so.
 
3 John 1:5-8 My friend, you have done faithful work in looking after these brothers, even though they were complete strangers to you. They are a proof to the whole Church of your charity and it would be a very good thing if you could help them on their journey in a way that God would approve. It was entirely for the sake of the name that they set out, without depending on the pagans for anything; it is our duty to welcome men of this sort and contribute our share to their work for the truth.
 
So it is our duty to welcome and help support the missionaries that God has sent to us. We might groan at their less than perfect grasp of our language, but we have to get beyond that and treat them as if it were St Paul himself who has landed in our parish for a while. I doubt St Paul's Latin, Greek and Macedonian were as good as his Aramaic, Syriac and Hebrew. But if the communities to which he was sent didn't make an effort to welcome and accept him, what an unimaginable huge loss that would have been for them.  
 
An application: If you have a priest whose mother tongue is not the same as your own, then it is time to quit complaining and time to start appreciating the sacrifices he has made and the special cultural gifts he brings. It does take a lot more effort to converse with someone whose English isn't fluent, and to keep trying, but that is part of the welcome we are called to extend to them. We ourselves would be the losers.
 
Acts 21:17 On our arrival in Jerusalem the brothers gave us a very warm welcome.
 
A bit of context will help. St Paul was called by Tertullus 'a perfect pest; he stirs up trouble among Jews the world over' Acts 24:5 And now St Paul is returning from a long missionary journey, having been warned by the Holy Spirit that trouble awaits him in Jerusalem. Remember too that he used to be a persecutor of Christians, and had a stand-up argument with St Peter, and we begin to get a clue how extraordinary this warm welcome was. The community in Jerusalem welcomed him as a brother and apostle of Jesus, no matter the cost nor the possible repercussions to themselves later.  
 
An application: How well do we support our own troublemakers? Those who have been in the media (or in public life) defending the Gospel and the teachings of the Church, do we welcome and support them, or do we keep our distance? The warmth of our encouragement will help them keep up the good fight, but indifference and avoidance will crush them and the calling God has on their lives. It has to be practical too, not just warm hugs and conversation but donations of money, clothes, equipment and elbow grease. Do you even know who the social media apostles are in your parish? If they are writing good stuff capable of bringing souls back to God, are you liking and sharing it with your own networks? Never underestimate the encouragement that a 'like' or a positive comment can provide to those in this often lonely and besieged apostolate.
 
Mark 4:20 And there are those who have received the seed in rich soil: they hear the word and accept it and yield a harvest, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.
 
It takes time for a seed to produce grain. There is no 'quick fix' for that process, and you don't know whether the payout will be thirty, sixty or a hundredfold. Depending upon your bible translation 'welcomed' and 'received' are interchangeable. It is when we open up our hearts to each other and welcome them in, that our hearts welcome God in too at the same time.
 
An application: Remember Abraham, he was sitting by the entrance to his tent when the three men came. That's where we need to be too, on the outside of our church buildings on the lookout for the prodigals. In fact we need our parish welcomers on the outside, and on the inside of the church doors. But don’t look for quick rewards. It may take many months of smiling and 'Happy Easter!' and 'It's going to be a long one tonight, we've got the choir' before someone might feel comfortable enough to ask a question or respond with more than a one word answer to 'How's your week been?' Persevere, pray, and the good fruit will come.
 
May St Martha, St Mary Magdalene and St Lazarus, who were so good at welcoming Jesus into their hearts, home and family, intercede for us that we may grow in our welcome of Jesus and of all those He sends to us; the needy, the travelers, the children, the strangers, the missionaries, the troublemakers and the prodigals.
 
(prepared as a guest post for Mere Catholicism)   

Because Jubilee Years are infrequent in the Church, it is easy to forget how to celebrate them. So here are a few reminders about how to obtain the special graces available at each Holy Door of Mercy.

Firstly some thoughts from Pope Francis from the Papal Bull announcing the Jubilee Year of Mercy

14. The practice of pilgrimage has a special place in the Holy Year, because it represents the journey each of us makes in this life. Life itself is a pilgrimage, and the human being is a viator, a pilgrim travelling along the road, making his way to the desired destination. Similarly, to reach the Holy Door in Rome or in any other place in the world, everyone, each according to his or her ability, will have to make a pilgrimage. This will be a sign that mercy is also a goal to reach and requires dedication and sacrifice. May pilgrimage be an impetus to conversion: by crossing the threshold of the Holy Door, we will find the strength to embrace God’s mercy and dedicate ourselves to being merciful with others as the Father has been with us.

22b. The Church lives within the communion of the saints. In the Eucharist, this communion, which is a gift from God, becomes a spiritual union binding us to the saints and blessed ones whose number is beyond counting (cf. Rev 7:4). Their holiness comes to the aid of our weakness in a way that enables the Church, with her maternal prayers and her way of life, to fortify the weakness of some with the strength of others. Hence, to live the indulgence of the Holy Year means to approach the Father’s mercy with the certainty that His forgiveness extends to the entire life of the believer. To gain an indulgence is to experience the holiness of the Church, who bestows upon all the fruits of Christ’s redemption, so that God’s love and forgiveness may extend everywhere. Let us live this Jubilee intensely, begging the Father to forgive our sins and to bathe us in His merciful “indulgence.”

What do we need to receive all that God has for us at a Door of Mercy?

• Come as a pilgrim to the Door of Mercy
• Willingness to turn away from all serious sin in our lives
• Receive sacramental Holy Communion that day (Mass or Communion Service)
• Go to the Sacrament of Penance sometime in the week leading up to your visit to the Holy Door, on the day, or in the week following your visit.
• Pray an Our Father
• Re-affirm your faith in God by praying either the Apostles Creed or the Nicene Creed
• Pray for the Pope
• Perform one of the spiritual or corporal works of Mercy

We can choose whether to apply this indulgenced gift of mercy to our own lives or to give it back to God in intercession for a holy soul in Purgatory.

Approaching the Holy Door
To approach any Holy Door of Mercy with pride and without reverence would be very wrong. That is why in Rome, in Jubilee Years, the pilgrims go down on their knees to cross the threshold of the Holy Door. Humility, contrition and trust in God's power to forgive and to heal are what need to fill our hearts as we go through the Holy Door.

(In my diocese there are 5 Holy Doors, one for each deanery which means that everyone in our long narrow diocese is not more than an hour's travel away from a Holy Door: Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral, Waitara; Our Lady of Dolours, Chatswood; St Mary's, Manly; Holy Cross, Kincumber and Our Lady of the Rosary, The Entrance.

Your own diocesan website should contain information about the Holy Doors in your diocese. Every diocesan cathedral has a Holy Door.)

Sacrament of Penance
Where each soul meets the Mercy of God personally, confesses their sins to God through the intermediary of the priest, expresses contrition, receives His merciful forgiveness, and is given a prayer penance or an action penance to assist in repairing the damage done by those sins to his/her relationship with God.

Holy Communion
All of us are utterly unworthy to receive Jesus, body, blood, soul and divinity in the consecrated bread and consecrated wine, but He knowing our frailty mercifully gives us this great gift which unites us to Jesus and to all those who have ever partaken of this one bread and one cup, strengthening us in love and empowering us to become merciful like the Father.

Our Father
This is the prayer Jesus taught us Himself. At the place of pilgrimage, set yourself close to the tabernacle or to a crucifix, and pray this prayer in union with Him.

Our Father, who art in heaven hallowed be Your Name;
Your kingdom come;
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Amen.

The Creed
'Repent, Believe, Receive' has been the pattern of receiving mercy and grace since Pentecost. Praying the Creed is where we reaffirm our faith and trust in God. Most churches with Holy Doors have an image of St Joseph, the man of faith, find that image and pray the Creed there.

I believe in God the Father Almighty,
he Creator of Heaven and Earth,
and in Jesus Christ His only Son, Our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried.
He descended into Hell,
on the third day He rose again from the dead.
He ascended into Heaven
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.
From thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Holy Catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body
and life everlasting. Amen.

Pray for the Pope
Every church has an image of the Mother of Jesus. Find that image at your place of pilgrimage and pray with her for Pope Francis who has such tender devotion to her.

Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy,
Hail, our life, our sweetness and our hope.
To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve,
to thee do we send up our sighs,
mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
Turn then, O gracious advocate,
Thine eyes of mercy towards us,
and after this our exile,
show unto us the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

Work of Mercy
Every church has a patron saint, or at least an image of a favourite saint eg St Mary McKillop, St Anthony of Padua, St Therese of Lisieux. One of the easiest works of mercy is to pray for the living and to pray for the dead. Find an image of a saint in your place of pilgrimage that means the most to you, and in union with this saint, spend some time praying for your loved ones.

While you are there, God may put on your heart a work of mercy He wants you to do, be open to that, and do it cheerfully.

The Corporal Works of Mercy
Feed the hungry ; Give drink to the thirsty ;
Clothe the naked ; Shelter the homeless ; Visit the sick ;
Visit the imprisoned ; Bury the dead

The Spiritual Works of Mercy
Admonish the sinner ; Instruct the ignorant ;
Counsel the doubtful ; Comfort the sorrowful ;
ear wrongs patiently ; Forgive all injuries
Pray for the living and the dead

Don't stop at one
God wants to pour out extraordinary graces during this Holy Year of Mercy. He is only limited by our response.  So don't stop at visiting a Holy Door once, make time in your life to get to a Holy Door at least monthly, more often if you can. The more the Father's merciful indulgence is received, the more you, the whole church and the whole world will benefit.

St Padre Pio, pray for us
St John Vianney, pray for us
St Leopold Mandic, pray for us
St Philip Neri, pray for us
​
Below is a pamphlet which contains most of the information in this blog post, double-sided A4, tri-fold, share it around.

It was in January 1988 that Fr George Kosicki visited the (as it was called then) Pastoral Training School at St Stanislaus College, Bathurst. Though him came my first introduction to St Faustina, the Divine Mercy Chaplet and the messages of Divine Mercy.
 
The good Lord sent him at just the right time, which should come as no surprise. This was during the Marian year of 1987-1988. At that Summer School we had not only the biggest attendance to that date, but also a very high caliber of attendees who were far from being newbies to the spiritual life. After that year, Emmanuel in Brisbane started their own local version of P.T.S, and I think Hephzibah in Canberra did too.
 
Unfortunately I seem to have only started taking detailed Summer School notes from 1989 onwards. So I can only share what my memory has retained. Fr George Kosicki showed us a powerful image on an overhead projector, and then explained that God the Father sees us through the wounds of His Son Jesus. Through those wounds we can draw down His love and mercy towards us. We had the privilege of listening to this holy priest who had both studied and lived out the messages of Divine Mercy in his own life.
 
Explaining to us that we can only receive mercy if we give mercy, Fr George challenged each one present to go out of their way in treating each other with mercy. He promised us that the more mercy we showed to each other, the more mercy we would receive. And so it was. He was only with us for about 2-3 days of the 14 days, but he left a huge impact. Everyone took up that challenge, and the atmosphere of the place became charged with grace. The works that the good Lord did in our souls at that time were the biggest that I had seen to date, and have yet in my experience to be surpassed.
 
Why do I share this now? Because I think in microcosm we experienced then what the good God and Pope Francis want the whole Church to experience during this Year of Mercy.
 
When our parish group studied parts of the Catechism during the Year of Faith, I came to understand this afresh. If we close off our hearts to any person (in anger, indifference, bitterness, resentment, unwillingness to forgive) then that same part of our hearts we close off to God. If we open up our hearts to any person (in love, forgiveness, kindness, compassion, generosity) then we open that same part of our hearts to God, and His grace can flow through that area of our hearts to others.
 
My son's illustration of CCC 2840 explains it better: 

With the Year of Mercy beginning on 8 December 2015, the time is now to start thinking about how to help people in the pews become more active in the corporate and spiritual works of mercy. The most urgent question is: How do you help people get out of their comfort zones and try something new at a gentle level without any commitment strings attached?

My sense is that we need to offer opportunities to do mercy, and that they need to involve hands on personal encounters and definitely not take the easy route of delegating that personal encounter by a donation of money to a registered charity.

One way might be to come up with six different opportunities to practice the works of mercy, and invite parishioners to try one of them in each two month period. With the expectation being a 2 hour time commitment once in every two months of the Year of Mercy. The real challenge, of course, is coming up with six and having enough experienced people around to ease parishioners into each encounter. While being able to offer all six concurrently would be ideal, it is more practical to have the whole parish focus on only one work of mercy for each two month period.

The corporal works of mercy are:

To feed the hungry;

To give drink to the thirsty;

To clothe the naked;

To shelter the homeless;

To visit the sick;

To ransom the captive;

To bury the dead.
 

The spiritual works of mercy are:

To instruct the ignorant;

To counsel the doubtful;

To admonish sinners;

To bear wrongs patiently;

To forgive offences willingly;

To comfort the afflicted;

To pray for the living and the dead.
 

In no particular order, here are some workable ideas.

Clothe the naked

To clothe the naked could be approached like this, especially if the 2 month period leads into the start of the school year. The local St Vincent de Paul Society should be able to identify where the struggling families are. School uniforms are expensive, as are school shoes and the uniforms and gear needed to play team sports. Parishioners could be invited to patron a child from a struggling family, and with parental permission, take the child to get a new uniform (paid for by the parishioner) and go through the whole process of finding the correct size, trying the items on, and bringing them home. Parishioners could then choose to go the next step and be there for the child's first day back at school or at team sport and taking by family photographs to mark the occasion (thus enabling the whole family to be in the photo).

Feed the hungry

Feeding the hungry and giving drink to the thirsty could be approached through local nursing homes and hospitals. In those places – all too frequently – there are people who have trouble feeding themselves. Should they not have family around to help them, or be in a place which is understaffed, they may not be getting enough nourishment. A bit of a group training session with someone who knows how to feed incapacitated people in a patient and respectful manner, and then some hands on experience (with light supervision) would work. In order to go into institutions parishioners might have to obtain police checks first. If that proves to be too much of an obstacle, parishes may know of people recently discharged from hospital who need help like that, or the local Meals on Wheels service may know of people who need extra help.

The same 'police check obstacle to ministry' is likely to prevent any kind of 'providing breakfast to school children' initiative. About the only way of getting around the reams of red tape is to have everyone go through the 'working with children' checks and accreditations and then to set up a free breakfast stall in the front yard of a friendly neighbour who lives near the school.

Instruct the ignorant

Engaging in catechist work through the local schools is a rather obvious answer to 'instructing the ignorant'. A 2 month period where parishioners could be a 'catechist helper for a morning' is one way to do it. Helpers can make a big positive difference to how smoothly the lesson runs. The main thing is that there is no obligation or expectation that parishioners who give it a go for a morning will make a commitment to this ministry. It is enough that parishioners after their day at school with a catechist will have a concrete idea of what goes on rather than an imaginary one. With a concrete idea in the heads of a number of parishioners, the amount of practical and moral support to catechists in the parish should increase markedly. Heading into an 'out of comfort zone' experience like that is easier when you know that lots of other parishioners are giving it a go, too.

Ransom the captive

Ransoming captives may not be practical in the traditional sense of paying money to set free prisoners of war. But anyone who is struggling to pay the expenses of major surgery, funeral costs for a relative, unexpected parking fines, a bigger than usual electricity bill, or mobile phone debts would certainly feel they had been let out of prison if those debts were paid by someone else. In a similar vein paying the course fees for someone who cannot afford to pay for the career training they need to escape the poverty cycle would be on a par with setting them free from prison. Once again the local St Vincent de Paul society should have a good idea about which local individuals and families are in need of that kind of help. Parishioners could be involved both at the fund raising level and at a personal gift level. For larger debts and situations that will take time to resolve, some parishioners could choose to be a moral support through encouragement and celebrating the milestones along the way to freedom. Of course safeguards would need to be in place to make sure the money allocated for a specific purpose is used only for that purpose.

Visit the sick

Visiting the sick can take many forms. Getting parishioners to accompany those who regularly take Holy Communion to the house-bound is one way. Having groups of two parishioners on standby to go with the priest when he is called to anoint the seriously ill, and so be a presence of faith and representatives of the parish and universal Church is another way. These first two can be done in a 2 month period. The next two require ongoing commitment. Becoming aware which elderly parishioners never married, or don't have any family left on earth or who have been irreparably estranged from family, and taking a special interest in their health and welfare is another way. Then when ill health comes along, there is a support network in place. The average nursing home has many residents who don't get any visitors on a regular basis. Knowing that someone other than paid staff is interested in how you are getting along means a lot. Residents who get visitors get better care than residents who are obviously neglected.

Bury the dead / pray for the living and the dead

Funerals are another way we can help parishioners to exercise mercy. Every funeral needs some welcomers; people who can direct those who have travelled distances to the toilets, who can answer questions, and who can introduce the family members of the deceased to the acolytes, organist, cantor and anyone else from the parish who are assisting with the funeral. Having enough parishioners around to pray a rosary for the deceased prior to the start of the funeral Mass is a wonderful tradition. The benefits of having a contingent of parishioners at a funeral cannot be underestimated. 1) it witnesses to the love of the church universal and parish for the deceased 2) it provides people to sing the hymns and say the responses 3) it gives good example of when to sit, stand and kneel 4) the prayers of those with faith are valuable not only in obtaining mercy for the deceased but also in interceding for the conversion of the mourners and 5) it is an invitation to all to live their lives more worthy of heaven. And these benefits are just as relevant if the parishioner knew the deceased well, only a little or not at all. In fact, the blessings that come from attending the funeral of someone you didn't know can be very special. The challenge lies in getting the word out when the next funeral is scheduled. In every parish there are members who for medical reasons are unable to attend morning Mass but who could get to a late morning or early afternoon funeral and who would be very grateful for that opportunity. You need to get the word out especially to them. Going the extra mile would be attending the burial rites as well as the funeral

So there's six ideas.

They are all do-able with a bit of planning and co-ordination.

Now is the time, before the Year of Mercy begins, to encourage parishioners to begin the paperwork for police checks and working with children accreditation. That way, come December 8 with all the paperwork done, parishioners can confidently begin stepping out of their comfort zones and start experiencing the works of mercy at 'taste tester' level.

Now is the time to meet with parishioners who can help make these opportunities happen, and to liaise with representatives from the various institutions (schools, hospitals, aged care facilities).

May St Vincent de Paul, St Mary of the Cross McKillop and Blessed Frederic Ozanam intercede for all those preparing for the Year of Mercy.

As this Divine Mercy Sunday comes to a close, it is a joy to dip again into St Faustina's Diary and to be inspired by her to greater love for Jesus and His infinite Mercy.

Passage 1456, St Faustina's prayer
O most gracious Lord, how merciful it is on Your part to judge each one according to his conscience and his discernment, and not according to people's talk. My spirit delights and feeds more and more on Your wisdom, which I am getting to know more and more deeply. And in this, the vastness of Your mercy becomes more and more manifest to me. O my Jesus, the effect of all this knowledge on my soul is that I am being transformed onto a flame of love towards You, O God.

Passage 1466, St Faustina's prayer
Jesus, lover of human salvation, draw all souls to the divine life. May the greatness of Your mercy be praised here on earth and in eternity. O great lover of souls, who in Your boundless compassion opened the salutary fountains of mercy so that weak souls may be fortified in this life's pilgrimage, Your mercy runs through our life like a golden thread and maintains in good order the contact of our being with God. For He does not need anything to make Him happy; so everything is solely the work of His mercy. My senses are transfixed with joy when God grants me a deeper awareness of that great attribute of His; namely, His unfathomable mercy.

Passage 1468 St Faustina records an experience
For quite a long while, I felt pain in my hands, feet and side. Then I saw a certain soul who, profiting from my sufferings, drew near to the Lord. All this for starving souls that they may not die of starvation.

Dear St Faustina, thank you for being such a faithful witness to and prolific secretary of the Mercy of Jesus. We are covered with shame and sorrow at the thought of how few people on this great Feast Day of Mercy actually heard any words about the Mercy of Jesus from a friend, relative, priest or online source. Please intercede before Jesus that the spiritual attacks against our priests that have been stopping them preach fervently about the Mercy of Jesus may be lifted. May the Lord Jesus in His great Mercy deign to remove all the obstacles in the minds and hearts of His priests that are preventing them embracing their calling to be His Missionaries of Mercy. Amen.

St Faustina, pray for us, pray for His priests and pray for all those most in need of the mercy of Jesus. Amen.  

Yes, it has happened again. Another Divine Mercy Sunday Mass that should have been reaping the spiritual harvest from the previous nine days of grace, and what happened? In the middle of the homily the priest mentioned it was Divine Mercy Sunday. That was it.

It was a far cry from what Jesus confided to St Faustina: 'No soul will be justified until it turns with confidence to My Mercy, and that is why the first Sunday after Easter is to be the Feast of Mercy. On that day, priests are to tell everyone about my great and unfathomable Mercy….Tell the confessor that the Image is to be on view in the church…By means of this Image I shall be granting many graces to souls; so let every soul have access to it.' From passage 570 'Divine Mercy in my Soul'

Maybe they lack homily ideas that enable them to preach about Mercy from the liturgical texts.

If so, here is a sample homily:

First Reading Year B: Acts 4:32-35

Something utterly amazing happened to the first Christians in the days and weeks following the first Pentecost. They were spontaneously generous with each other.

Do you remember the passage in Luke chapter 7 when Jesus tells Simon the Pharisee that the woman who had been weeping over His feet and covering them with kisses must have been forgiven much because she showed such great love? These first Christians were just doing what comes naturally after you have had a life-changing encounter with God's Mercy.

Do you remember how cut to the heart the first Christians were after St Peter told them that not only had they colluded in the death of an innocent man - they had colluded in the death of the only begotten Son of God? Many of them would have been in the crowd that Good Friday calling for the release of Barabbas and the crucifixion of Jesus. Some of them may have been in the group that went to arrest Jesus. Some of them may have taken part in the tortures of Jesus that took place with the permission of the Sanhedrin. They knew they had done serious wrong. They knew they owed God big time. And yet Jesus offered them a place in His Kingdom if they repented and were baptized. For what they had done, major punishment was logically expected. And Jesus offered them peace, forgiveness and an eternal share in His divine life.

These first Christians experienced the unexpected mind-blowingly generous Mercy of God. Therefore they loved much.

And Jesus still offers this today. There is a woman with four grown sons, who back when she was much younger went through four abortions. She knows with certainty that Jesus rescued her from the abyss. Each year Jesus continues to heal deeper layers of her soul. She knows she owes God big time, and her heart is full of love for Jesus her Saviour. Her life she has happily placed at His disposal, generously serving and encouraging all those Jesus brings into her life. Her life still has major challenges, but her trust in the Mercy of Jesus gets her through all of them.

If your life isn't being fueled by constant gratitude to God, then today is the day to have a good long think. How conscious are you that you owe God big time? Because we all do.

Look today at the Image of Divine Mercy. Look at the wounds in the hands, feet and heart of Jesus. They are His promise to us that if we come to Him with all of our sins, wrongdoings, and crimes, that He will forgive us and make us dance with joy. There is nothing that cannot be forgiven through the power of the wounds and blood of Jesus our merciful Saviour. Absolutely nothing that cannot be forgiven.

All we have to do is to humble ourselves, enter the door of the confessional, and in pouring out the miseries of our souls to the priest, encounter the never-to-be-forgotten Mercy of Jesus.

If there is very little joy and generosity in your life, it is a pretty safe bet that you haven't seen the inside of a confessional for quite some time. Jesus is waiting for you there. Do not be afraid. His Mercy is limitless. He wants to heal you. He wants to restore you to full friendship with Him. He wants you to experience the joy and transformation of His forgiveness.

As soon as Mass is over I will be heading straight into the confessional. I will stay there as long as you keep coming. It is not a hardship for me. Every time someone comes to meet Jesus in the confessional, in this wonderful sacrament of Divine Mercy, Jesus shares with me some of the joy He feels when someone seeks His Mercy. It is the joy a junior scrub nurse feels doing her tiny bit to help the great surgeon transform severely mangled bodies into clean healthy bodies.

In Rome, and in many diocesan cathedrals around the world - and hopefully some parish churches as well - preparations are being made for 24 Hours For The Lord at the end of this week (13/14 Mar 2015). It is a wonderful initiative of Pope Francis, to keep the lights on and the doors open for a full 24 hours, and to invite people to come and pray and to return to the Sacrament of Penance. Many generous priests will be giving up sleep over those 24 hours to be used by Jesus to bring His Mercy to all those who seek it. May they be richly rewarded for such service.

In many other churches there will be opportunities to attend the sacrament of Penance under the 2nd Rite of Reconciliation in these final weeks before Good Friday. At those times the community gathers, prays, listens to Scripture and has an opportunity to think about those areas of their lives that are not in harmony with God's love before going up individually to one of the several priests available to confess their sins, followed by a time of prayer and communal thanksgiving.

The big question is: How can we make it easier for people who haven't experienced God's personal Mercy in a long time to take that daunting step into the confessional?

For starters you need a team of well-prepared parishioners outside the doors of the church building. People need a friendly face on the outside of a church as they do the 'Will I or won't I go in?' battle. The courage it takes to get over a church threshold is formidable, and the battle happens outside not inside. They become a visual reminder of the Father waiting for the prodigal child to return home.

You need people outside, so that someone can come up and ask, 'What's going on inside?' 'Why are there lights on at 2am?' and so an answer can be given, 'Pope Francis has asked us to have open house for 24 hours so that people can pray and so they can experience God's Mercy in the sacrament of Penance. If you wanted to go inside, you would be most welcome.'

Then if someone says, 'But I don't know how to pray' or 'I have forgotten how to go to confession' or 'Can you tell me what sin is, so that I know what I need to confess?' your team can help them.

If you can have a similar team on the inside of the church as well, that's even better. You need people on the alert for those who have become emotional before and especially after the sacrament of penance. Do you have a ready supply of tissues? Do you have people on alert for those going through the 'Will I or won't I risk going through the confessional door?' battle who can pray silently, and can encourage when appropriate. Do you have people ready to listen to those who have just experienced God's Mercy? Do you have people who can get up to a microphone every hour or so and give testimony to how prayer and the sacrament of Penance have changed their lives?

In the confessionals themselves, have the priests been supplied with printed material to hand out to penitents? Things like Parish Welcome kits (with information on parish groups, how to contact the parish office, Mass times, Reconciliation times, RCIA and how to enroll a child in a Catholic school etc), How to Pray pamphlets, small booklets of the Compendium of the Catechism and Gospels. Anything that will assist a penitent to keep going forward in the grace they have received help from God's Mercy.

Person to person interaction is best, but even that needs paperwork support, so here are some resources to download:

Sin is when we do not love God and others as Jesus taught us to. That's the answer our children going through sacramental initiation receive. Pondering our lives in the light of the Ten Commandments is valuable when preparing for the Sacrament of Penance. These documents are A4 size, one for adults and one for children.