Divine Mercy Sunday
Colleen M. Donohoe was born and raised just North of Boston, the youngest of 7 children. She is the proud “Auntie” to 17 nieces and nephews and 5 great nieces and nephews who bring tremendous joy to her life! For the past 25 years, Colleen has served in a variety of roles in the Archdiocese of Boston, primarily as a Catholic Educator. After spending many years as a theology teacher and campus minister, she currently serves as the Associate Superintendent of Catholic Identity and Respect Life Educator for the Archdiocese of Boston Catholic Schools. It is a great honor and blessing for Colleen to continue little Christina Dangond’s legacy to “Build the Faith” wherever and however God calls.
I can think of no better way to rejoice in Jesus’ Resurrection and to continue the great celebration of Easter than to mark Divine Mercy Sunday with a remembrance of our beloved and beautiful Christina Dangond. Most all of us know Christina’s favorite prayer and one she repeated daily, despite great suffering and hardship, “Jesus, I trust in You!” In doing so, Christina exemplified St. John Paul II’s reflection on God’s Divine Mercy when he said,
Those who sincerely say ‘Jesus, I trust in You’ will find comfort in all their anxieties and fears… There is nothing more man needs than Divine Mercy – that love which is benevolent, which is compassionate, which raises man above his weakness to the infinite heights to the holiness of God.
A young teacher from Colorado, Randi Picket, encourages her students to remember the message of the Divine Mercy using the ABC’s:
A – Ask for His Mercy. God wants us to approach Him in prayer constantly, repenting of our sins and asking Him to pour His mercy out upon us and upon the whole world.
B – Be merciful. God wants us to receive His mercy and let it flow through us to others. He wants us to extend love and forgiveness to others just as He does to us.
C – Completely trust in Jesus. God wants us to know that the graces of His mercy are dependent upon our trust. The more we trust in Jesus, the more we will receive.
Christina’s beautiful life and everlasting legacy serves as a daily reminder for each of us to embrace God’s Divine Mercy, to trust in His plan, whatever comes our way, and always to surrender to His will. In doing so, I invite you to entrust your families to the Divine Mercy each and every day. I offer to you this beautiful prayer composed by a priest friend who heard these words from our Lord while praying before Him in the Most Blessed Sacrament. By God’s grace, this prayer has traveled the globe and has been translated into sixteen different languages.
Act of Consecration of the Family to The Divine Mercy
O Jesus, you showed us your infinite compassionate love
by exhausting the very last drop of blood and water from your body.
From this day forward, with full confidence,
we entrust our families to Your Divine Mercy.
We abandon our past, our present and our future.
We place into your wounds all of our wounds
which are caused by lack of love, understanding and trust.
Jesus, expel Satan and all evil from our families,
free us from the consequence of sin and protect us from further harm.
Heal our wounds. May our families learn to venerate your Divine Image
that they will never perish but experience your loving mercy.
Amen.
Prayer composed by and shared with the permission of Rev. Dermot S. Roache, SMA. Imprimatur +
John J Myers, D.D., J.C.D., Archbishop of Newark, New Jersey 07/12/2013 ©SMA Fathers, Dedham, Massachusetts, USA
