Why isn't Divine Mercy Sunday being promoted as it should be?

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irishcolleen45

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I wasn’t aware of Divine Mercy Sunday until I moved to my current parish in 2005. I’m from the northeast and am currently living in the southeast.

I asked my cousin who currently lives in the northeast and she said her parish is not promoting it but my parish is.

Thoughts?
 
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Some pastors and parishes like Divine Mercy Sunday a lot and others not so much.
Some reasons I’ve heard include:
  • the DM chaplet is criticized by some as being “Rosary Lite” and discourages people from saying the actual Rosary
  • some do not like the private revelation on which the devotion is based because we don’t have to believe in private revelation and some priests think that appears all superstitious and looks bad and isn’t scriptural etc. But even if one doesn’t like the private revelation, the Church has established a plenary indulgence which is definitely available because it comes from the Church through its binding and loosing power, not via private revelation from Jesus. But some priests don’t like indulgences either.
  • Also some don’t like the idea that you can be freed of all temporal punishment, because they think it discourages people from Confession. Which is kind of stupid to me given that every time I see a DM Sunday service, the confession lines are out the door.
  • some may remember when this whole devotion was suppressed and not agree with the idea of lifting the suppression
  • I tend to think another reason is it’s just one week after Easter and priests are coming off a super busy time already and may not want to knock themselves out celebrating DM Sunday, which typically requires an additional service and confessions and can’t just be added to the Mass. Also they may think people should still be reflecting on Easter and not rushing to this new devotion just a week later.
As it’s fairly easy for me to find churches that do have a big DM Sunday prayer service, I couldn’t care less if some priest has a problem with it. He will likely eventually be replaced by a priest who is okay with it because DM Sunday devotions are very popular. Everybody wants that freedom from Purgatory.
 
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I am not a big fan of the Divine Mercy chaplet and by extension “Divine Mercy” Sunday. I have tried to read some of St. Faustina’s reflections but they come across to me as (sorry) syrupy and corny (“snuggle close to the heart of Jesus,” stuff like that. Blech). The Divine Mercy chaplet sounds so saccharine and exaggerated to me that I just have no interest in it.
 
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Tis summarized the reasons well. There may be a tiny group of extreme trads who object to anything that got worldwide attention in the last 60 years, whether it be Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary, Charismatic renewal, or whatever.

There’s a larger group of aging liberals who object to anything traditional or devotional. They say the urgent priority is working towards equality, diversity, non violence, community. I have heard grumbling about Adoration, too-frequent confessions, excessive preoccupation with details of the crucifixion, so on. They regard DM as a throwback, or a distraction, to the social goal of today. This group is shrinking but still has a lot of clout, especially in Catholic education.
 
I understand what you’re saying about the revelations. I have had issues with other saints’ revelations as well for being too sickly sweet or in another case just plain miserable sounding. To some extent I think this reflects the age, personality, life experience and culture of the mystic. The one whose revelations sounded miserable was old, had a hard life and was from a culture known worldwide for its pessimism. The more fluffy revelations tend to be from very young nuns.

Howevet, taken at complete face value without thinking about the revelations, the DM chaplet is basically just repeating “Lord have mercy on us all” 53 times. The words of the prayers aren’t “sweet”.

The closing prayer which says, “Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase your mercy in us, so that in difficult moments, we might not despair or become despondent, but submit with confidence to your Holy Will, which is love and mercy itself. Amen” is pretty heavy duty. Especially when you are saying it right after somebody has dropped dead all of a sudden.
 
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commenter said:
There’s a larger group of aging liberals who object to anything traditional or devotional. They say the urgent priority is working towards equality, diversity, non violence, community. I have heard grumbling about Adoration, too-frequent confessions, excessive preoccupation with details of the crucifixion, so on. They regard DM as a throwback, or a distraction, to the social goal of today. This group is shrinking but still has a lot of clout, especially in Catholic education.
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And thank heaven they are shrinking. Their distaste for anything traditional or devotional had the bad effect of turning me off from social justice work. I am sure I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. I struggle for patience with such people.
 
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Good points. If anyone doesn’t like the DM since it was revealed through private revelations, well, so were the various Marian apparitions such as Fatima and Lourdes. At Fatima, Our Lady requested the Rosary to be said but should we not say the Rosary since it was a private revelation?

The last public revelation was from St John.

Yes, I remember hearing about the suppression of DM.

So, JPII was wrong to promote the message? I say not. How can getting people to Confession be so wrong? (A rhetorical question)
 
commenter said:
They regard DM as a throwback, or a distraction, to the social goal of today. This group is shrinking but still has a lot of clout, especially in Catholic education.
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Probably feel the same way about the Rosary.

Regarding too frequent Confessions, a few years ago I had a recently ordained priest tell me I didn’t need to go to Confession so frequently (every two weeks). When he said it a second time, I stopped going to him and mentioned it to the pastor (who has no problem with frequent Confessions) that the younger priest misses the point of frequent Confessions. I go not only to confess my sins but also to receive graces to help me overcome my sins and he agreed that also is a purpose of Confession.
 
Many priests, especially from the generation commenter described, have serious problems with Fatima and the rosary as well. Thank God we got Pope JPII who actively promoted such devotions while simultaneously working hard for the rights of the oppressed. The two things can co-exist. Of course Saint Pope JPII wasn’t wrong. Jesus and Mary guided him every step of the way.
 
So, you don’t like John’s Gospel (the one whom Jesus loves)?
 
Perhaps you should try reading her whole book. There’s nothing syrupy or corny in there.
 
I thinking assigning Divine Mercy Sunday as an optional celebration to the Second Sunday of Easter, or the Octave of Easter, was part of the problem, assuming it is a problem. Given a choice, the priests I’m familiar with seem to focus on the older Octave of Easter celebration, and base their homily on that, rather the newer Divine Mercy option.
 
I agree with this. It is possible to separate the devotion from the revelations of St. Faustina, although not completely (given that the Chaplet emanated from her revelations).
 
I could really do without that group. Or any group that grumbles about Adoration.
 
Our church had DM last year. I liked it and would go again, but we knocked three churches into one parish and lost our young, energetic parochial priest, so I’m pretty sure there won’t be one this year.
 
While Divine Mercy is approved, it is still a private revelation.

Also, just because your friend has not noticed does not necessairlay mean that Divine Mercy Sunday is not being promoted. In a town with many Parishes, likely only one or two will have DM Sunday services.

My job is to promote/advertise for our parish. There are many events or occasions where there is a notice in the bulletin for 3 weeks, an event on the Facebook Page, an announcement on the parish website, we send a blast out (people pick what they want, email/text or phone call) and folks say “I did not know XYZ was happening”.

Our Diocese also publishes a list of all of the Divine Mercy (or Christmas or Lent or Easter) events happening in the whole Diocese.
 
You can always just do the DM devotion on your own. It’s not necessary to have a church service; you will be going to Mass that day in any event since it is Sunday.

Edited to add, here’s all the instructions, for both the private revelation devotion for yourself, and the indulgence which you can choose to give away to a poor soul in Purgatory.


If you want to get the Indulgence as well as the graces, please also click the link for “plenary indulgence” in the article as it has more detailed instructions.
I use one Communion and one Confession to cover both the Indulgence and the graces.
 
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Shasta-Rose said:
I’m pretty sure there won’t be one this year.
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Later this year, have a meeting with your priest and volunteer to arrange the Divine Mercy liturgy for 2020. The parish staff, the priests, are just coming off of the Superbowl and likely still working on 1st Communion and Confirmation liturgies yet to come. Do you know how hard it is just to find a musician who is willing to come to an additional liturgy the week after Easter? They are spent!

If you find a team, 5 or 6 people, you talk about Divine Mercy during the year, maybe run a parish-wide Formed.Org Divine Mercy series, find some musicians who are excited about Divine Mercy (hint, look in the Charismatic Community), even find people to clean up the Church after, you may find that the pastor is happy to give you use of the Church on Divine Mercy Sunday afternoon.
 
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