All Saints Day - Nov. 1st

 

Today is the solemnity of All Saints. Its a celebration of all the known and unknown saints, who are in heaven.

The Gospel today gives us the beatitudes, which is a blue print on how to become a saint. I would like to focus on “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”

There are three focal points in St. Faustina’s Diary with regard to mercy. To ask for mercy, to be merciful and to have confidence in God’s mercy.

We ask for mercy from the Lord, when we come to Him with a humble heart seeking forgiveness for our sins. We ask for mercy multiple times during Mass. We pray the Act of Contrition, we then pray, “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy”. Just before we receive Holy Communion, we pray God will have mercy on us, “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.” Three times.

We ask for mercy for ourselves and the whole world when we pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, especially at the 3 o’clock hour, which is the hour of mercy. “For the sake of His sorrowful passion have mercy on us and the whole world.”

We are to be merciful. We know this by the 7 corporal and 7 spiritual works of mercy. To feed the hungry, the give drink to the thirsty, to shelter the homeless, to clothe the naked, to bury the dead, visit the sick and visit prisoners. We are to counsel the doubtful, instruct the ignorant, pray for the living and the dead, to admonish the sinner, the comfort the sorrowful, forgive injuries and to bear wrongs patiently.

We are merciful when we give our shoes or our coat to a poor person who has none. We are merciful, when we smile at a person who is sad. Or say a kind word to someone who is distraught. We are merciful when we pray for the person who cut in line. We are merciful when we don't argue with someone, whose trying to get us angry. We are merciful when we don't correct someone in front of others. 

For children, we are merciful when we share our candy with a friend, who has none. We are merciful when we are happy, when a team mate gets to play in the game and we don't.

In our daily life, if we try to always forgive those who hurt us. We are to merciful thoughts about others, rather than to judge others in our mind, if we try to speak positively about others, rather than to gossip about them or to say negative things, we are practicing mercy.

St. Faustina also spoke about having confidence in God’s mercy, that is to trust the Lord, who is infinitely merciful. No matter the sin, no matter how many times, we are to trust the God will always forgive us.

If we truly tried to live as one who is merciful, we shall obtain mercy in this life, so that when we go to our judgment, the Lord will say to us, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, and enter the kingdom of God”. “For what you did to the least of my brothers and sisters, you did unto me.”

Today, let us strive to become saints, by turning to the Virgin Mary, the Queen of All Saints, the Mother of Mercy, that She may help us to be merciful, and that She would turn thine eyes of mercy on us towards us, so that after this our exile, She may show unto us, Jesus, and so be with Him and gaze upon the face of mercy, forever in heaven.