Divine Mercy Sunday

Sunday after Easter is Divine Mercy Sunday...

Jesus, I trust in you.

Today's Readings and Gospel here.

Divine Mercy novena here.

Chaplet of Divine Mercy here.

Pope Benedict on third stage of journey of love

Loving our neighbour as Christ loves us
Now we have arrived at third stage of our reflection. Christ cried out from the Cross: “I am thirsty” (Jn 19:28). This shows us his burning thirst to love and to be loved by each one of us. It is only by coming to perceive depth and intensity of such a mystery that we can realise the need and urgency to love him as He has loved us. This also entails the commitment to even give our lives, if necessary, for our brothers and sisters sustained by love for Him. God had already said in Old Testament: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Lev 19:18), but innovation introduced by Christ is the fact that to love as he loves us means loving everyone without distinction, even our enemies, “to the end” (cf Jn 13:1).

first stage here, second stage here, full message click here.
hat tip: Chiesa...click here.

Pope's message...2nd stage in the journey of love

“Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (Jn 13:34)

full message here. hat tip: Chiesa...here.

The Cross of Christ fully reveals the love of God
How is God-Love revealed to us? We have now reached second stage of our journey. Even though signs of divine love are already clearly present in creation, full revelation of intimate mystery of God came to us through Incarnation when God himself became man. In Christ, true God and true Man, we have come to know love in all its magnitude. In fact, as I wrote in Encyclical Deus caritas est, “real novelty of New Testament lies not so much in new ideas as in figure of Christ himself, who gives flesh and blood to those concepts - an unprecedented realism” (n. 12). Manifestation of divine love is total and perfect in the Cross where, we are told by St Paul, “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Rm 5:8). Therefore, each one of us can truly say: “Christ loved me and gave himself up for me” (cf Eph 5:2). Redeemed by his blood, no human life is useless or of little value, because each of us is loved personally by Him with passionate and faithful love, a love without limits. The Cross, for the world a folly, for many believers a scandal, is in fact “wisdom of God” for those who allow themselves to be touched right to innermost depths of their being, “for God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength” (1 Cor 1:25). Crucifix, which after Resurrection would carry forever marks of his passion, exposes “distortions” and lies about God that underlie violence, vengeance and exclusion. Christ is Lamb of God who takes upon himself sins of the world and eradicates hatred from the heart of humankind. This is true “revolution” that He brings about: love.

Pope Benedict XVl message to the youth of the world

Pope's message to youth of the world 01/27/07
“Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (Jn 13:34)

Is it possible to love?
Everybody feels the longing to love and to be loved. Yet, how difficult it is to love, and how many mistakes and failures have to be reckoned with in love! There are those who even come to doubt that love is possible. But if emotional delusions or lack of affection can cause us to think that love is utopian, an impossible dream, should we then become resigned? No! Love is possible, and the purpose of my message is to help reawaken in each one of you - you who are the future and hope of humanity-, trust in a love that is true, faithful and strong; a love that generates peace and joy; a love that binds people together and allows them to feel free in respect for one another. Let us now go on a journey together in three stages, as we embark on a “discovery” of love.

God, the source of love

The first stage concerns the source of true love. There is only one source, and that is God. St. John makes this clear when he declares that “God is love” (1 Jn 4: 8,16). He was not simply saying that God loves us, but that the very being of God is love. Here we find ourselves before the most dazzling revelation of the source of love, the mystery of the Trinity: in God, one and triune, there is an everlasting exchange of love between the persons of the Father and the Son, and this love is not an energy or a sentiment, but it is a person; it is the Holy Spirit.

second stage here.

full message click here.

hat tip: Chiesa...click here.

Holy Night of Easter

"Thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem".
Luke 24:46,47