Divine Mercy Sunday

[hedgehog]

I have no objections to renaming Low Sunday Divine Mercy Sunday, and I think it's a good reminder. I do think starting a Novena on Good Friday, running it through Holy Saturday and on Easter Sunday is a bit odd, though. To me, it feels like spending the afternoon of Christmas Day addressing valentine cards. Holy Week and Easter are so central to everything we believe that running a simultaneous novena seems disrespectful.

[DemBones DemBones]

1. I don't like the novena starting on Good Friday, either.

Nor do I like the renaming of Low Sunday. I was really stunned when JP II came up with this as it wasn't as if the Church doesn't have a lot of paraliturgical devotions. Some important feasts, like those of the Sacred Heart and Christ the King, are in ordinary time, so why does Divine Mercy get the Sunday after Easter? Sr. Faustina said Jesus ordered this but. . . I've been reading Sr. Faustina's diary this week and it's rather odd.

[hedgehog]

2. Setting aside the value of teaching people about DIvine Mercy, did you

ever get the feeling that the popularity of this devotion in certain circles has anything to do with trying to turn back the clock on Vatican II?

[theredpen]

3. Yes.

But I get that feeling a lot these days. :(

[pingzing58]

4. It's a Polish feast placed on the calendar by JPII and Mother Angelica.

It borders on heresy to say as Sr. Faustina taught that after having gone through the Highest Holy Days of our Church year the "Sacred Triduum," that Jesus' divine mercy will be poured out on you "if you go to confession, receive communion and pray for the pope's intentions on the second Sunday of Easter," is just not right by any stretch of the imagination. Her teaching negates the effect of the Holy Triduum. My devotion is to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and not his newly publicized Polish devotion. I'm happy for the poles and their devotion but it's not for us.

[hedgehog]

5. Is here the place to say that I think John Paul II was awfully presumptious to add

his Luminous Mysteries to the Rosary?

[pingzing58]

6. I thought the same until I realized that the addition of the mysteries of light make sense.

[tjwmason]

7. I totally agree.

I've never kept the novena for precisely the reason you suggest.

No other feasts are allowed at this point in time - this is why Corpus Christi is kept where it is (Thursday being the day of the Holy Eucharist, and the Thursday after the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity is the first Thursday outside the extended Easter celebration). Unless an event is intimately tied to the actual celebration of Easter, I would prefer it to be kept outside Easter.

[shenmue]

8. I really am surprised by the negative tone on this thread.

If you don't like the feast, then don't worry. No one is forcing you to buy cards.

[hedgehog]

9. Again, it's not that I dislike the feast as such; I'm just questioning the timing.

Maybe a better analogy would be to compare it to bringing your own food to a wedding reception. You may bake a great apple pie, but youi're supposed to eat cake at a wedding reception. There is a time and a place for everything. Easter is one of if not THE central Mystery of our faith.

[hedgehog]

10. As an example of what I feared, today's readings featured

a description of the early Church, Peter's reassurance that we will survive our present trials and the story of Thomas and the Risen Lord. Instead of examining any of this, we had a long discussion of the meaning of mercy.

[pingzing58]

11. JP's gift to his beloved Poland and their devotion. The Church should not cave in to a "private"

revelation! Long live the Sacred Heart of Jesus and St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.