Divine Mercy, Love’s Second Name

“For everyone to whom much is give, of him shall much be required.” KABOOM! How about that for a Jesus kick to the chest? Now I don’t know about you, but when I take a step back from the canvas of my life to see more clearly all that I have been given, the requirements from the Almighty seem to hit me like a ton of bricks – no, they cut me like a two edged sword.

At the age of 26, I have been actively living my life for Jesus Christ for about two and a half years, and I am struck to the core by taking just a moment to acknowledge all that the Lord has blessed me with (mercy, truth, the Church, community, love, family…did I mention His mercy??). I mean the list goes on and on – literally!

As I write these words, I am sitting before our Eucharistic Lord at the Divine Mercy Shrine in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. As I ponder many of the countless blessings the Lord has bestowed upon me in my lifetime, the greatest of those – by far – is His never-ending Divine Mercy. Before looking at what Divine Mercy is, let’s start with mercy itself. Blessed Pope John Paul II calls mercy “love’s second name.” It’s a particular mode of love when it encounters poverty, injustice, suffering, and sin. Mercy is compassionate love. So, considering God is Love, and mercy is the highest form of love, God definitely loves me a whole heck of a lot!

I realize that none of us are worthy to have the incomprehensible King of the Universe enter under our roof, and He need only say “the word” and our souls shall be healed, but sometimes this basic fundamental fact of our Lord’s humility blows my mind! That The Infinite, The Most High, The Uncontainable…Mercy itself humbles Himself to dwell within this tiny earthen vessel is something no finite human mind can comprehend. As we consume Love and Mercy itself, His body saves us, His blood inebriates us, His fountain of water gushing forth and washes us clean. As I reverently approach this Eucharistic mystery in the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy, a memorial becomes powerfully tangible that we encounter our Crucified Lord hanging, sewn to a piece of wood, where His wounds are fresh and where the mockery and scoffing of the crowds is loud and clear. Love and Mercy itself looks up to his Father in heaven and says, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

As I look back on my life through the eyes of my Savior I can feel him saying those same words, “Father, forgive him for he knows not what he does.” While this does pain me to see what my sins of commission have done to Jesus, I have come to see that it is my lack of trust at times that pierces His most tender and Sacred Heart the most. As Jesus dictates in the Diary of St. Faustina, “Distrust on the part of souls is tearing my insides. “ (Diary 50)

Trust in Jesus is the essence of Divine Mercy. Trust is a living faith. Trust is Faith, Hope, and Love put into action. Trust means that we agree to let God be God, instead of trying to be God ourselves. It means that we agree that God can write the script for our lives, instead of insisting on our own script. It means that we agree with the great pledge we make in the Our Father: “Your will [not mine] be done on earth as it is in heaven.” It means that even in our moments of agony we agree with the cry of Jesus in the garden, “Not my will, but yours be done.” (Lk 22:42)

I will end this reflection with a message prepared by Blessed Pope John Paul II for Divine Mercy Sunday (April 3, 2005), but was delivered as the Homily for the Mass for the repose of his soul as he expired on the Vigil. “As a gift to humanity, which sometimes seems bewildered and overwhelmed by the power of evil, selfishness and fear, the Risen Lord offers His love that pardons, reconciles and reopens hearts to love. It is a love that converts hearts and gives peace. How much the world needs to understand and accept Divine Mercy! Lord, who reveals the Father’s love by your death and Resurrection, we believe in you and confidently repeat to you today:”

“Jesus, I trust in you, have mercy upon us and upon the whole world.”

Team 8: Vocations, Grand Slam, and Valentine’s Day

Hello from Hastings! These past two weeks we have had a lot going on with Lifeline, a team day, and a supervisor visit, all while still continuing with this intentional ministry in Hastings. We took some of the youth here in Hastings to Lifeline at the NET Center with the theme of the night being about vocations. Archbishop Nienstedt first celebrated the Mass. We then separated into men’s and women’s groups where the women had three sisters speak about how they became sisters and entered the convent, and the men had seminarians talk to them about religious life and how they got there. After, they had prayer stations where we were able to pray with seminarians and sisters. The youth received a new insight and seemed to really love it.

Last Monday we had a team day that Josh and Kayla planned. We went to a place called Grand Slam. We had a blast jumping in a giant trampoline area and getting the exercise we’ve all needed. We played miniature golf as well. Cameron and Katerina made a bet: Whoever lost had to memorize each of their family members names (Katerina is one of eleven and Cameron is one of seven). Katerina won. We also enjoyed in some healthy competition with laser tag, where we played women against men. The men won, but the women did give the boys a good run for their money!

We have been having such a great time as a team, with the team day and with sisterhood and brotherhood. The women made heart shaped cupcakes for Valentine’s Day while the brothers made cards for the women. On our supervisor visit in Stillwater, the brothers honored the sisters on Valentine’s Day with a wonderful breakfast.

Of course, we have been doing ministry amongst all of this team fun! We have been going strong with small groups, discipleship groups and meeting with youth weekly helping them in their journey of faith.

Please continue to pray for us as we embark on our own journeys in faith, team life, and ministry.

Team 8

Team 10: Super Bowl Party and a Scavenger Hunt Photo Shoot

Time is flying here in Lakeville!  It is already mid-February and there is so much to do!  We returned from Evangelical Catholic at Madison in Wisconsin with even more of a renewed vigor for the ministry and evangelization.  (Praise God, that is what we were praying for!) We heard very convicting talks about continual conversion and about the process of evangelization.  We were ignited with a renewed zeal for the importance of evangelizing to young people in a one-on-one setting and just how huge of a responsibility we are charged with in sharing the Gospel.

Having said that, we have been having really fruitful one-on-one interactions with the youth.  Our small and DT groups are also going well.  Man Cave and Beloved are still going strong.  Samantha has started a “Princess-ology” small group for middle school girls which looks at the different Disney princesses and how girls can identify with them in their relationship with God.  Dan and Kate are starting their “Competitors for Christ” small group this weekend.  This group will have a two-part format: activity and Bible study.  Each week we will focus on a section of the FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) Competitor’s Creed in relation to various Bible passages and also play some sort of sport.

Our Super Bowl party was a hit!  We had a ton of food, a ton of young people, and a ton of fun at the party that we hosted on Super Bowl Sunday.  Thank you to all of the All Saints families who donated food for our party!  We had a great party and couldn’t have pulled it off without your help!

We participated in a Mall of America Scavenger Hunt Photo Shoot Extravaganza led by Dan and Kate for team day last week.  We rode a roller coaster, tried on fancy clothes, posed with mannequins and on kiddy rides, had fun at the Lego and Apple stores, and enjoyed our favorite mall snacks among many other things.  We had a great time together!

We’ve been involved with a few retreats recently and through them we are realizing how blessed we are to have that time with the youth.  We also have a lot of new ideas that we will be putting into action within the next month.  We are going to start having movie/game nights on the Fridays that we aren’t at Middle School Youth Night.   Also, we are hosting a coffee house the first weekend in March so we are busy planning that.

Thank you for your prayers!  We can assure you that they are heard because we are receiving so much grace!  Our God is faithful!

Until next time,
Team 10: Samantha, Daniel, Kate, John Mark, Stephanie, John, Melissa, and Alex

Team 2: Pray Like a Child, Be Intentional

Greetings from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee!

In this Archdiocese alone we have had 19 retreats and ministered to over 900 young people. Our team just finished a visit from our supervisors where we were able to spend time as a team and also reflect on how much we’ve grown this year. We took a look back to see where we were at the beginning of the year until now by reading a letter that we wrote ourselves during fall training. During the team day with our supervisors we were able to play a round of the game
“sardines”, reflect on how the Lord has worked in our lives and share that with our team by writing our own version of one of the Psalms.

Each retreat that we do is helping young people grow in their faith, whether it is planting a seed or helping them continue a relationship with God that has already been started. With each retreat and each new young person met, the team members find growth as well. Recently, one of the young people on retreat was praying in small group and in his prayer he talked about helping anyone who needs help around the world. After he was done praying another young man in the small group was confused and asked why would we should ask for help for everyone, including thieves. The first young changed his prayer to not include helping the thieves. Through this simplistic and childlike way of praying, it helped one of our team members remember to be intentional with what we are saying, even in our prayers. In team life we talk a lot about being intentional with what we say – saying what we mean and meaning what we say. We learn so much during NET training about different things we should do to help us grow and be a better team. Throughout the year some of it may slip our minds or we may become lax, but in moments like that, God is blessing us with learning from the young people just as they are learning from us.

Please pray for our team as we will soon be traveling to Missouri for more retreats. Also please pray for the health of our team and all of the host families, young people, and parish contacts we will meet.

God Bless!

Team 2 – Todd, Erica, Rose, Charley, Michael, Jenifer, Amy, Tim, Seth, and Katie

Team 11: Only Through Prayer Are We United

Mother Teresa says, “Total surrender to God means to be entirely at the disposal of the Father just as Jesus and Mary were.” Saying yes through the daily struggles is what God intends for us to do as Catholics, and most especially as missionaries. Each member on this PA NET team heard the Lord’s call at different times in our lives. The one commonality is our answer to surrender these months all to bring others closer to loving and glorifying God.

These last two weeks we have grown deeper in the understanding of being molded in the likeness of Christ. After our visit to Madison, WI for the Evangelical Catholic, we were reminded and encouraged to remain fervent in this radical ministry. That is exactly what we did as we joined the upper school winter dance on Saturday night. Through our “sic” moves we exemplified to the young people God’s desire for temperance in our lives, there was definitely a time to laugh and dance! The following day after taking part in the beautiful Mass, Taylor led our team day to one of the most spectacular fun adventure – snow tubing for free! After much fun slipping up and crashing down the slope we headed out to be in great company in the Flanders’ home. There we watched the very eventful Super Bowl game and simply relaxed together as a team. Later on during the following week we completed our retreats for the year with the 3^rd grade retreat. There we were reminded that in simplicity you find beauty, if we continually seek God with childlike faith.

Continual renewal is what we all need from time to time, to be reminded that above all our God loves each and every one of his beloved children. This renewal was instilled to us through our superb team supervisors on their visit with us. We arrived at Three Crosses on Saturday night a bit weary but after some quiet reflection, relaxation, affirmations, and sharing one another’s prayer, we felt renewed and strengthened to walk once again the halls of PA!

We’d like to thank you for each prayer that has been lifted up for our team and we ask that you please continue to send those prayers our way. As Mother Teresa says, only through prayer are we united. Together we can help one another live in God’s love and you will spread the fragrance of his love everywhere. Please help us pray for the following intentions:

• Virtuous growth among all student body
• Zeal within ministry
• That we may have a steadfast Lenten season
• All student groups formed

Blessings!

Team 11