Daily Reflections on Divine Mercy

Reflection 250: Praying Face Down to the Ground

When you pray, how do you go to our Lord?  It’s certainly good to offer Him your entire day in loving devotion and to speak to Him throughout the day as to your closest friend.  But there are other times when our prayer must be intense and should be expressed with intensity.  One way to do this is to literally fall down prostrate before our Lord.  In the silence of your room or in an empty church, look for an opportunity to pray in such a way.  The “intensity” must be one of complete submission to our Lord.  It must be prolonged and self-emptying.  To pray in such a way is a beautiful act of love and is a way of worshipping God as He deserves.  Though we could never offer perfect worship of Him, our attempts at doing so as completely as possible pleases Him and enables Him to draw us close to His Heart which is filled with an abundance of Mercy (See Diary #1279).

Have you ever prayed in a position of prostration before our Lord?  If you have, keep doing it.  Look for an opportunity to do so every day.  If you have not, then this is a good time to start.  Do not worry about what you are to say and do not worry if it feels uncomfortable at first.  Just get down on your knees, bow down to the ground, and express your love for our Lord.  Stay there and try to make an act of total surrender.  The Lord will receive your act of worship and draw you closer to His Sacred Heart of Mercy.

Lord, I do fall down prostrate before You and offer You my entire life as a selfless gift for Your glory.  I give all to You, dear Lord, and I pray that I will hold nothing back.  You are my God and my all.  I love you and surrender my life to You.  Jesus, I trust in You.  

Image: Hieronymus Bosch, Saint Jerome in Prayer, by Frans Vandewalle, CC BY-NC 2.0

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Reflection 249: The Fruit of Suffering

Only after someone has suffered greatly do they begin to understand the good fruits that can come forth from such suffering.  In and of itself, suffering is the result of our fallen human condition.  But because Jesus entered our human condition, embracing all suffering and redeeming it, suffering now has great power when freely embraced by us and united to the sufferings of Christ.  One good fruit that can come from suffering is spiritual knowledge.  When suffering is embraced in Christ and offered to Him as a sacrifice in union with His own Sacrifice, we will find that our suffering clarifies life, puts it in perspective and may even give us the spiritual gift of insight into the souls of others we encounter.  This gift of knowledge of other souls will enable us to see their needs and offer the Mercy of God to them in the particular way they need it.  Do not be afraid to allow your sufferings to transform you and bestow this gift of knowledge upon you along with the many other gifts God wishes to bestow (See Diary #1277).

Reflect upon how you deal with your own sufferings.  Whether it is a small discomfort you feel or an intense interior pain, everything we experience in life can be redeemed and transformed so as to transform us.  If you believe this then try to consciously embrace every discomfort and every suffering you endure as a sacrifice to God.  Offer it to Him and then allow the purifying effects of this free embrace to produce an abundance of good fruit in your life. 

Lord, so often I run from my suffering and deny the redeeming effects that the free embrace of my sufferings can have upon me.  Give me courage to say “Yes” to the crosses I am given and to be open to the spiritual fruits that they can produce in my life.  I give all to You, dear Lord.  Jesus, I trust in You.  

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Reflection 248: Unlimited Resources

Imagine if you found a source of unlimited natural resources by creating a machine that transforms only a small amount of oxygen into an unlimited amount of energy.  All you had to do is turn on the machine you created and the energy is generated endlessly.  That would be quite an invention.  But something like this does exist on a spiritual level.  The “oxygen” it runs on is our misery and sin.  And the “generator” is the Heart of Jesus.  The “energy” it produces is God’s endless Mercy.  If we could only understand this then our world would be flooded with this supernatural resource to an infinite degree.  We must realize that God transforms our misery in life when we offer it to Him.  In fact, this is His burning desire.  His Heart longs to transform your misery into His Mercy so that your own life will be filled to abundance and so that, through you, the world will be filled to abundance.  Give to God your misery and sin and let Him endlessly transform it (See Diary #1273).

What do you think about your own misery and sin?  Do you hide it, cover it up, ignore it and pretend it doesn’t exist?  Do you go through life presenting the illusion of a sin-free and misery-free life?  Some do this and others go to the opposite extreme, wallowing in self-pity and manifesting their misery for all to see as if their misery were a badge of honor.  Neither approach is helpful.  The only helpful approach is to surrender your sin and all misery to the Heart of Jesus.  You can do this.  You simply need to make the choice to do so.  Do it today.  Begin to make this act of total surrender and you will discover the miraculous power in the Heart of Jesus to transform everything into Mercy. 

Oh Heart of Jesus, I run to You with my misery and pain and I surrender my sin to You, dear Lord.  Please transform it into Your Mercy, enabling this gift to become a source of endless grace.  Jesus, I trust in You.  

Image: Christ in the House of the Pharisee Simon, by Dieric Bouts

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Reflection 247: The Blessing of Those with Needs

If someone in your family were seriously ill, or in prison, or in some form of grave need, would that be a burden to you or a blessing?  Think about it.  Do those with special needs make your life more difficult?  If this question were answered on a purely practical level the answer may be, “Yes.”  But if it is answered on a more spiritual level, the answer is that those who “burden” us with their particular needs offer us an opportunity for great holiness.  This is the case because those with special needs call forth from us a response of charity, compassion and the service of Mercy.  If we see them as a burden, we are missing an extraordinary opportunity for grace.  God often allows others to suffer and impose a holy burden upon us so as to allow us to manifest His Mercy.  Seek out these special souls and offer them the love, care and Mercy present in the Heart of Jesus (See Diary #1268).

Who has God placed in your life?  More specifically, who is it that carries a special suffering, illness, weakness or difficulty that requires extra care from you?  It could be a sick child, a depressed spouse, an elderly parent, a manifest sinner or a friend in need.  Whoever it is that comes to mind, try to see them and their needs as a graced invitation from our Lord to manifest His love and Mercy.  They are a far greater blessing to you than you will ever realize.  Allow their needs to evoke the compassion and care in the Heart of Christ through you.

Lord, please give me a heart like unto Yours.  Give me Your perfect Heart of Mercy and compassion so that I may manifest Your perfect love for others.  Help me to see all people as a gift and to recognize their infinite dignity.  And as I seek to love them, I thank You for the blessings I receive in this selfless act.  Jesus, I trust in You.  

Image: St. Peter Healing the Sick, by Jacob Toorenvliet

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Reflection 246: Upon Receiving Holy Communion

What do you do after receiving Holy Communion?  Do you go back to your pew in a distracted way, with your mind wandering, paying attention to others around you, and failing to encounter our Lord on an authentic spiritual level?  Or do you allow that moment to be a moment of true prayer and communion with God?  If the truth is the former, just be honest with yourself and with God and use this realization for an opportunity to reexamine your approach to this most sacred Gift!  The moment after Holy Communion is a treasured moment in which each soul is invited to be consumed by Him who was just consumed.  In other words, the act of receiving Holy Communion is not just the physical act we do, it must also become something God does to us.  We must choose to not only consume our Lord, we must also allow Him to consume us with His Mercy.  There is no better time to do this than the moments after receiving this priceless Gift.  This is accomplished by making your life an oblation to God.  An “oblation” is an offering, and the reception of Holy Communion must become a moment in which we completely offer ourselves to our Divine Lord (See Diary #1264).

Reflect upon the last time you received Holy Communion.  What was that experience like?  Did you have a complete focus on what you were doing?  Did you offer yourself to our Lord as an oblation of love?  Did you place yourself into the hands of our Lord in a sacrificial way?  Did you allow our Lord to consume you with His merciful love?  Ponder these questions and commit yourself to this depth of offering.  If you do, Holy Communion will become the greatest act of Mercy in your life.

My Lord and my God, I give myself to You with total abandon and surrender.  My life is Yours, dear Lord.  I give myself to You without reserve as an oblation of love.  Jesus, I trust in You.  

Image: G.dallorto, Attribution, via Wikimedia Commons

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