sense of the sacred: St. Faustina, Doctor of the Church?

Thursday, October 6, 2011

St. Faustina, Doctor of the Church?

One of the graces I have received in my pastorate of the Divine Mercy Parish is the opportunity to read the Diary of St. Faustina: Divine Mercy in my Soul. I am really convinced that one day, she will be declared Doctor of the Church on account of this diary.

"In the Old Covenant I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to My people. Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart. I use punishment when they themselves force Me to do so; My hand is reluctant to take hold of the sword of justice. Before the Day of Justice I am sending the Day of Mercy." (Diary, 1588.)

ZENIT - St. Faustina, Doctor of the Church?

2 comments:

Rold NgOctober 8, 2011 at 10:40 PM
No offense meant but I read somewhere over the internet (from a Catholic group) that devotion to the Divine Mercy is something to avoid for the reason that the declarations which were believed to be said by our "Lord" to Sr. Faustina are inconsistent with what the Catholic Church has taught. Here's the link:

http://www.mostholyfamilymonastery.com/41_Dmercy.pdf
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Marian DevoteeOctober 20, 2011 at 12:42 AM
Haynako, MHFM is so unreliable and ridiculous! Stay away everyone.
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We ought to get back the dimension of the sacred in the liturgy. The liturgy is not a festivity; it is not a meeting for the purpose of having a good time. It is of no importance that the parish priest has cudgeled his brains to come up with suggestive ideas or imaginative novelties. The liturgy is what makes the Thrice-Holy God present amongst us; it is the burning bush; it is the Alliance of God with man in Jesus Christ, who has died and risen again. The grandeur of the liturgy does not rest upon the fact that it offers an interesting entertainment, but in rendering tangible the Totally Other, whom we are not capable of summoning. He comes because He wills. In other words, the essential in the liturgy is the mystery, which is realized in the common ritual of the Church; all the rest diminishes it. Men experiment with it in lively fashion, and find themselves deceived, when the mystery is transformed into distraction, when the chief actor in the liturgy is not the Living God but the priest or the liturgical director. - Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Chile, 1988)

Do we still need sacred space, sacred time, mediating symbols? Yes, we do need them, precisely so that, through the "image," through the sign, we learn to see the openness of heaven. We need them to give us the capacity to know the mystery of God in the pierced heart of the Crucified. - Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Spirit of the Liturgy )