Do All Priests/Deacons/Nuns Believe in the Divine Mercy?

[HolySpirit08]

For the third consecutive year (my only three) our local priests and other religious of our community did not attend the DM novena mass. A priest from another parish always celebrates the mass for us. I don’t feel comfortable asking any of our parish priests and sisters why they never participate. My thinking is that if they believe that all of our sins as well as punishment are washed away today, why are they not encouraging the congregation to do the novena, go to confession and attend the service and mass and leading the way there? It’s confusing.

 

[sojo]

No, not all priests are followers of the Divine Mercy. Not one Church in our county mentioned Divine Sunday this week, nor was the Divine Mercy Liturgy used.

In our church, the only compromise is that a small stack of Divine Mercy holy cards are allowed to be left on the information table you pass leaving church. Anything more Divine Mercy oriented (literature, tapes, books) are removed by the priest. He has never spoken out against it – he just ignores it.

Due to our rural nature and being surrounded by grueling mountain passes on the one side that is within a 2 hour driving distance of a parish that celebrates Divine Mercy Sunday, we are just flat out of luck here.

Our priest is otherwise a great guy, though pretty stressed out from running around to 3 different churches in all kinds of weather, no altar servers and no paid staff.

 

[Christine85]

Some clergy and religious are not into it. A couple I have met have said it’s a private revelation and not necessary for belief.
It is a little sad. Oh well, maybe you can make up for them in your own devotion

 

[Sirach2]

No, not all priests are followers of the Divine Mercy. Not one Church in our county mentioned Divine Sunday this week, nor was the Divine Mercy Liturgy used.

I went to a neighboring parish that advertised in our bulletin about having a holy hour and benediction at 3 PM. It was very nicely attended. For the chaplet, however, the priest inserted the three invocations of “Holy God” etc. at the end of each decade, rather than once at the end of the chaplet. It suggested to me that he had never prayed it before. But I am sooooo grateful that he consented to the parishioners’ request to have the service. At the end, we venerated the image of Divine Mercy that came from St. Faustina’s monastery in Poland.

Locally, none of the other parishes mention it. While the Feast Day has been officially designated by Bl. John Paul II several years ago, it cannot be due to unknowing.

 

[aspirant]

A couple I have met have said it’s a private revelation and not necessary for belief.

The private revelations to St. Faustina really are private revelations. But that God is merciful, wants us to ask for and trust in his mercy, and wants us to be merciful is not mere private revelation. Having a feast of Divine Mercy would make sense regardless what one thinks of the private revelation.

 

[Dorothy]

Sister Faustina’s private revelations have been accepted by the Church.

Many do not need it because they are already aware of God’s infinite Mercy!

We don’t need to get hung up on thinking that others do not believe because they do not have an outward show of it.

It is possible that some are not aware of God’s Divine Mercy (priests, nuns, many members of the Church) as much as they should be, so we can pray for them!

I very much am into the Divine Mercy devotion!

 

[aemcpa]

What you have to do to receive the promises of Divine Mercy (according to St. Faustina):

“The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion [on the Feast of Mercy] shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment.”

What you have to do to receive the Divine Mercy indulgence granted by the Church:

"**And so the Supreme Pontiff, motivated by an ardent desire to foster in Christians this devotion to Divine Mercy as much as possible in the hope of offering great spiritual fruit to the faithful, in the Audience granted on 13 June 2002, to those Responsible for the Apostolic Penitentiary, granted the following Indulgences:

A plenary indulgence, granted under the usual conditions (sacramental confession, Eucharistic communion and prayer for the intentions of Supreme Pontiff) to the faithful who, on the Second Sunday of Easter or Divine Mercy Sunday, in any church or chapel, in a spirit that is completely detached from the affection for a sin, even a venial sin, take part in the prayers and devotions held in honour of Divine Mercy, OR who, in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament exposed or reserved in the tabernacle, recite the Our Father and the Creed, adding a devout prayer to the merciful Lord Jesus (e.g. Merciful Jesus, I trust in you!");

A partial indulgence, granted to the faithful who, at least with a contrite heart, pray to the merciful Lord Jesus a legitimately approved invocation.**"

What you DON’T have to do to receive either the promises of Divine Mercy or the indulgence:

• Have a “Divine Mercy Mass”.
• Make the Divine Mercy Novena
• Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet
• Venerate the image of the Divine Mercy
• Have a priest who makes mention of Divine Mercy in his homily

 

[Sirach2]

Sister Faustina’s private revelations have been accepted by the Church.

Many do not need it because they are already aware of God’s infinite Mercy!

We don’t need to get hung up on thinking that others do not believe because they do not have an outward show of it.

Yes, the Church accepted her revelations about Divine Mercy, which really is all through scripture and belongs to the virtue of hope.

With respect to “many” who do not need it, the devotion is rarely for oneself, but for others, particularly the dying - as you well know. During the novena before the feast, each day we present a different group to implore God’s mercy upon them. It is pure charity to pray for them, something very much desired by Christ.

The Church also accepted the revelations of Fatima and those concerning the rosary, which is a devotion that one may practice or not. It is not obligatory, nor is the Chaplet, but of the two, I am more devoted to the latter, especially in our troubled times, while not neglecting the former.

Regarding the two devotions, the Church celebrates Our Lady of the Rosary on a weekday, but the Feast of Mercy was instituted specially to conclude the Octave of Easter, on a Sunday. Does this speak to anyone?

 

[Mrs_Sally]

I think it is very dangerous to begin to gauge someone’s depth of faith on how well they observe a specific devotional practice.

The Church offers many opportunities for us to receive partial and plenary indulgences, your pastor doesn’t have to arrange for all or any one of them to be available outside of offering a regular Sunday Mass and confession schedule.

I am sure that the OP’s pastor does more than that, and has in fact, given permission to the visiting priest to celebrate a special Mass for Divine Mercy Sunday (which I assume was in addition to the regular Sunday Mass schedule).

The fact that the priests and religious don’t *appear *to have a special devotion to the chaplet or St Faustina’s visions, does not mean that they do not believe in the mercy of God.

 

[Sirach2]

The Church offers many opportunities for us to receive partial and plenary indulgences, your pastor doesn’t have to arrange for all or any one of them to be available outside of offering a regular Sunday Mass and confession schedule.

I am sure that the OP’s pastor does more than that, and has in fact, given permission to the visiting priest to celebrate a special Mass for Divine Mercy Sunday (which I assume was in addition to the regular Sunday Mass schedule).

I agree. There is no requirement to have a separate liturgy. Christ’s revelations to St. Faustina already provided that we need only attend our regular parish mass to obtain the plenary … with or without having prayed the novena. And since Bl. John Paul has already designated the Feast of D.M., it would allow any Catholic the opportunity, if they desire to receive it.

What I don’t understand is the complete lack of, nor even honorable mention by the clergy.

 

[RoseMary131]

What you have to do to receive the promises of Divine Mercy (according to St. Faustina):

A plenary indulgence, granted under the usual conditions (sacramental confession, Eucharistic communion and prayer for the intentions of Supreme Pontiff) to the faithful who, on the Second Sunday of Easter or Divine Mercy Sunday, in any church or chapel, in a spirit that is completely detached from the affection for a sin, even a venial sin, take part in the prayers and devotions held in honour of Divine Mercy, OR who, in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament exposed or reserved in the tabernacle, recite the Our Father and the Creed, adding a devout prayer to the merciful Lord Jesus (e.g. Merciful Jesus, I trust in you!");

aemcpa, can you help me understand what this part means?

“in a spirit that is completely detached from the affection for a sin, even a venial sin”

 

[Mrs_Sally]

What I don’t understand is the complete lack of, nor even honorable mention by the clergy.

I don’t really understand that either. Just like I don’t understand parishes that don’t make some mention of The Annunciation, Assumption, or Ascension, etc.

I will say though that our Divine Mercy celebration was spearheaded and is organized by lay people - specifically members of our Legion of Mary chapter. Of course the priest/deacon are involved for the Exposition and Benediction, but all of the planning and organizing - including making the program, advertising, getting the Divine Mercy image, etc. were done by lay people with permission of our pastor.

Perhaps that is why other parishes don’t do more - the priests cannot depend on consistent lay support who are willing to work with the priest’s direction. An special event like we had has to be conceived and organized well in advance. And the people involved need to be obedient to the pastor - willing to work hard and take direction, not be demanding.

I think we also should all be praying more for our clergy and religious.

 

[sowinskija]

The Priest at the Mass that i went to gave an extensive homily on it, mentioning the indulgences and some of the Revelations to Saint Faustina. Our Cathedral also had a Divine Mercy service at 3:30

 

[mountee]

In a little while I will be 62 years old. In all those years up until 2 years ago I had never heard of Divine Mercy Sunday or the Divine Mercy Chaplet. An old friend from high school posted a web-site, PrayMoreNovenas.com on her FB page 2 years ago and I joined in. What a wonderful opportunity. We prayed for several different intentions in the beginning devotions and of course, the chaplet on each day. Whether you have a parish that joins in or not you can participate via the above web-site or others that are easily found with a quick search. I have been blessed over and over again by this and I hate the idea that it would have any controversy at all surrounding it. Our priest did say at the beginning of the Mass that “some people refer to today as Divine Mercy Sunday” but that was the extent of it for him.

 

[maryjk]

Since I am not a devotee of St. Faustina, I was not upset at all when our parish didn’t mention it.

 

[Jaysuitical]

Divine Mercy devotions are a matter of private devotion – no one is obliged to say the chaplet of Divine Mercy.

But visions or apparitions or locutions that occur in the life of a canonized saint are on a different level than those of simply a living person professing to have an urgent message. And the Feast of the Divine Mercy, like the Feast of the Sacred Heart to which it is intimately related, is a feast of the universal church, and the close relation of Divine Mercy to the work & mission of the Redeemer was deemed important enough to place it the Sunday after Easter . . . an importance underscored in the fact that Almighty God took Blessed John Paul out of this world on the vigil of the Feast.

The resistance to Divine Mercy is based on various things – among traditionalists, on dubiousness regarding the beatification of John Paul II and of the number of saints raised to the altars under the quicker procedures he instituted. In the wider Church, I think it reflects Our Lord’s prophecy in St. Matthew:
[11] And many false prophets shall rise, and shall seduce many. [12] And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold.

The fear that true visionaries might prove to be false prophets is, in this case, also compounded with the fact that ‘bare bones Catholicism’, in which many of the bones are missing, is very common still.

 

[Oneofthewomen]

A couple of my priest friends and I have talked about this, as it comes up every once in a while from parishoners.

What they have all said to me is that whether or not the “believe” is not the question. No one is required to believe in a private devotion. The problem, with pastors especially, is that, often times, they feel if they give any “extra time” to one particular devotion, then a person who has a devotion to one of the other many personal devotions may feel slighted, or that Father doesn’t believe, etc, so many of them take a “hands-off” approach to anything that is considered “personal devotion”.

As for me, I am not “into” any of the private devotions. They do not fit into my spirituality, and I have experienced far too many people who become “over the top” in such private devotions, that they seem to forget about everything else.

 

[triumphguy]

But the plenary indulgence is official and is not “private revelation.”.

 

[PJM]

=HolySpirit08;10593536]For the third consecutive year (my only three) our local priests and other religious of our community did not attend the DM novena mass. A priest from another parish always celebrates the mass for us. I don’t feel comfortable asking any of our parish priests and sisters why they never participate. My thinking is that if they believe that all of our sins as well as punishment are washed away today, why are they not encouraging the congregation to do the novena, go to confession and attend the service and mass and leading the way there? It’s confusing.

Not the best catechesis example IMO.

What Order are they?

But I would ask why? It seems like a reasonable question. Maybe there is something we don’t know or understand? And passing judgment W/O knowing is not charitble.

 

[Evan]

But the plenary indulgence is official and is not “private revelation.”.

But there are many plenary indulgences. Especially in this year of faith. Did you want a mention of the indulgence for visiting the church of your baptism, or attending a parish mission, or studying the catechism, or for pilgrimages to special churches?

How about for special devotions, like the sacred heart, or praying the rosary, or praying the angelus, or nine first fridays, or the green scapular, or dedication to the heart of mary?

I can’t keep up with all of them. I just try to have a devotion to the mass and studying scripture and the catechism and the life and teaching of the saints.