Rosary #55

Our trust, therefore, is in the love of God, a merciful love that follows after us

and sees our poverty in order to give us what we need. G. Giaquinta

First Mystery: … the Apostles once did, today too humanity must welcome into the upper room of history the risen Christ, who shows the wounds of his Crucifixion and repeats: Peace be with you! Humanity must let itself be touched and pervaded by the Spirit given to it by the risen Christ.

Second Mystery: Christ has taught us that "man not only receives and experiences the mercy of God, but is also called "to practice mercy' towards others: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy' (Mt 5: 7)" and pervaded by the Spirit given to it by the risen Christ.

Third Mystery: His message of mercy continues to reach us through his hands held out to suffering man. This is how Sr Faustina saw him and proclaimed him to people on all the continents when, hidden in her convent at £agiewniki in Kraków, she made her life a hymn to mercy: Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo.

Fourth Mystery: In fact, love of God and love of one's brothers and sisters are inseparable, as the First Letter of John has reminded us: "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments" (5: 2). Here the Apostle reminds us of the truth of love, showing us its measure and criterion in the observance of the commandments.

Fifth Mystery: It is not easy to love with a deep love, which lies in the authentic gift of self. This love can only be learned by penetrating the mystery of God's love. Looking at him, being one with his fatherly heart, we are able to look with new eyes at our brothers and sisters, with an attitude of unselfishness and solidarity, of generosity and forgiveness. All this is mercy!

Jesus told Sr Faustina: "Humanity will not find peace until it turns trustfully to divine mercy" ^[1](Diary, p. 132).

Read as a closing or opening meditation for the rosary

MERCY^[2]

I do not know if you have read the first chapter of St Paul's Letter to the Romans; there is a fearful description of the situation of the time; the world then is touched to its depths by evil, the abyss of every sort of iniquity. Well then, in that situation the omnipotence of God inserts itself in misery, in human poverty. Proud man must know, must recognize, that who saves is not man but God. Right then, when man has used up all his possibilities, when his power is ended, it is there, at that point of tragedy that the omnipotence of God steps in, it is there that the omnipotent mercy of the Lord begins.

We can be sure, therefore, that the deeper we are in a hole, at our most helpless, and we cry out imploring, when our human possibilities have failed, then the infinite, omnipotent love of God steps in. And if there is a situation that in some way reechoes what Paul presented there in the Letter to the Romans, it is ours. As Paul said that that was the hour of the mercy of God, so I say that today is the hour of the mercy of God, because we have too great a need for Him, because now we understand that we cannot save ourselves. Our trust, therefore, is in the love of God, a merciful love that follows after us and sees our poverty in order to give us what we need. When we invoke this Father of ours—"Our Father who art in heaven...."—then He comes to us to resolve our problems. G. Giaquinta

^[1] Canonization Homily of Pope John Paul II, April 30 2000

^[2] Meditation by Bishop Giaquinta on “Hope in the Future”, Dec. 31, 1976