~ January 25, 2021 ~
Most Merciful Jesus, You Yourself have said that You desire mercy;
so I bring into the abode or Your Most Compassionate Heart the souls in Purgatory,
souls who are very dear to You, and yet, who must make retribution to Your justice.
May the streams of Blood and Water which gushed forth from Your Heart
put out the flames of Purgatory,
that there, too, the power of Your mercy may be celebrated.
Eternal Father,
turn Your merciful gaze upon the souls suffering in Purgatory,
who are enfolded in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus.
I beg You, by the sorrowful Passion of Jesus Your Son,
and by all the bitterness with which His most sacred Soul was flooded:
Manifest Your mercy to the souls who are under Your just scrutiny.
Look upon them in no other way but only through the Wounds of Jesus,
your dearly beloved Son; for we firmly believe
that there is no limit to Your goodness and compassion.
Amen.
“The Fear of Hurting the Lord”
Commentary from the Book of Fr Michael Gaitley:
“Consoling the Heart of Jesus”
The fourth obstacle to living out the foundation (which is trusting Jesus and in the mercy of God) is something Fr Michael calls “the sensitivity of the Lord’s Heart”. Since the Lord is asking for complete trust and friendship, it would not take much for us to hurt Him because of our weakness and fickle-mindedness. We might not be able to trust the Lord at all times, and according to St Faustina, that was one of the biggest thing that could hurt the Lord. Since we do not want to hurt the Lord, we pretty much create a safe distance from Him. We can say: “Lord, we can be friends, and I can trust you sometimes, but there are boundaries, and we should keep a distance”. It does not have to be that way.
Fr Micheal suggests a couple of ways to combat this: 1. Seek help from Our Blessed Mother (A Marian Consecration); and 2. A spiritual communion to Merciful love. “Marian consecration basically means giving Mary our full permission (or as much permission as we can) to complete her motherly task in us, which is to form us into other Christs” (113). While the Spiritual communion to Merciful love is the “summit” of St Therese’s spirituality, which is simply seeing the Heart of Jesus and giving him “permission to fill us with all the mercy others have rejected… this gives him great relief primarily because someone has chosen to receive his mercy fully…” – the same mercy which overflows to others (118).
“My Heart overflows with great mercy for souls, and especially for poor sinner. … I desire to bestow My graces upon souls, but they do not want to accept them. You, at least, come to Me as often as possible and take these graces they do not want to accept. In this way you will console My Heart”.
Personal Response: Daily Journal
What are other ways, aside from Marian Devotion & Spiritual Communion to Merciful Love, that you have in order to overcome the obstacle of thinking that we would only hurt the Lord if we come closer to him?
Private comments, reflections, and thoughts are welcomed. Email Fr. JC @ PresentationMedia.
Marian Missionaries of Divine Mercy.
Purchase the book of Fr. Michael Gaitley.