Monday, April 24, 2006
DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY
Did your church celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday yesterday?
At mine there was a picture of Divine Mercy in the sanctuary. At the close of the noon Mass the monstrance was brought out for exposition, and incensed, the choir sang "Panis Angelicus" in Latin, then Father read a prayer for an increase of faith. He also talked to us about the nature of private revelation. That revelation closed with the death of the Apostle John, and that private revelations are not articles of faith. We can believe in them or not and still be good Catholics. He stressed that the revelations we embrace should be the revelations that have Church approval.
Our Divine Mercy devotions closed at 3 p.m. with benediction.
I was surprised to see that several people stayed after Mass to kneel in prayer. Some remained in the pews. Others walked up to the sanctuary steps to kneel in front of the picture or the monstrance. One father brought his young children to the picture and stood there with them talking to them for quite a while.
Of course there were ladies who remained. Some men remained with the ladies. One man who was alone also remained to pray.
My pastor has discovered that if devotions are held immediately after the noon Mass people stay around for them. Trying to get people to come back later in the day doesn't work quite so well.
Devotions, themselves, have a knack of drawing people in even perhaps despite their own reluctance. The first time we may stay just because it's not polite to walk out. Next we stay because, well, it's a nice thing to do, or because we have sentimental memories of our childhood. But these reasons fade away. After we participate in devotions for these reasons for a few times, we begin to get a feeling of desire to be around for more of them. They sort of take hold of us, and our presence springs from something internal rather than some outward persuasion.
You wouldn't expect that to happen. It's not logical. I guess that means that it's miraculous.
(Oh, there was one additional bonus at Mass...the choir sang "Roll Away the Stone" before Mass began. I got lucky this year and got to hear it sung twice!)
