Dear Folks,

So we have cleared the halfway point of Lent! Next week we start our added confessional schedule, with as many opportunities to schedule confessions as I could manage to work onto the calendar. I am grateful for the work of Fr. Riley, during our parish retreat as we were able offer hours and hours of extra confession opportunities!

As I was looking for inspiration for this week’s bulletin note, I came across these words of Our Lord to St. Faustina recorded in her diary.

“I am love and mercy itself. … Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. … My mercy is greater than your sins, and those of the entire world. … I let My Sacred Heart be pierced with a lance, thus opening wide the source of mercy for you. Come then with trust to draw graces from this fountain. … The graces of My mercy are drawn by the means of one vessel only, and that is trust. The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive.”

“Let no soul fear to draw near to me.” I was afraid of going to the dentist as a child. One conversation with an older sister brought out that she too was scarred
by our childhood dentist! I sometimes said, “I am an unrepentant dentist hater!” Ouch! But as a priest, I have found a dentist that I trust who is gracious and kind and who doesn’t inflict mountains of pain! I know that so many people have had an unpleasant moment in confession, and are afraid to go back. On behalf of every priest, I ask for mercy for the times we are tired, or grumpy, or just fail to understand! And I exhort you to not be afraid to draw near to Jesus.

More Trust = More Mercy. I was struck there that Jesus says there is only one vessel that can draw his mercy from the fountain of grace: trust. Sometimes I bring my own coffee mug over to the school in the morning, because I want the biggest mug of coffee I can handle! If we want to know how to fill up our souls with His mercy; here he gives us a hint. Put aside doubts, fear, even anxiety to trustingly come to Jesus. By ‘put aside’ I don’t mean eliminate entirely because that is probalby not in your power. I mean don’t let them stop you from choosing to draw near to Jesus, that itself is an act of trust and opens fountains of mercy.

pax,

Father John Mosimann