Divine Mercy Sunday

In 2000, after declaring Faustina a Saint, Pope John Paul II declared that the Second Sunday of Easter will also be Divine Mercy Sunday.

Throughout the world this is becoming a huge event as people flock to churches for Divine Mercy Sunday services.

Our parish ignores it.

But, fine, we found a local parish that had a service today.

Normally, we try not to make the kids sit through extra church services - but this time we made an exception. See, we've been doing the novena. Every day at 3:00 (or as close to it as we can), since Good Friday, we've said the Divine Mercy Novena. It utilizes rosary beads and the prayers are short, so it's not too hard to get the kids to agree to. In fact, they sometimes were the ones reminding us that it was 3:00.

And since we'd done the novena, and gone to confession on the Saturday before Easter, it seemed logical to see things through with the service today.

The service included Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, and the chaplet of Divine Mercy, and a few others prayers and such. It took about an hour, and the kids were good throughout.

I'm glad we did it - for them as well as for us.

It's important to be reminded of God's Mercy, because we all need it. And it's nice to know that God has promised to be merciful with us.

We should remember to be merciful with each other as well.