When I hear the word “magnify,” two things come to mind. One is a magnifying glass. The second thing that comes to mind is Mary’s Magnificat. So let’s look into both today. 

So here we have talked about all the different ways we can see his Mercy and receive it. We have gone through how we can get mercy to be so abundant. But one thing that we haven’t gone over is... his mercy should be rejoiced in. Well, why wouldn’t it be?!

Back in my college days, I had a friend who I thought was the best friend I could ever ask for. But a while after I finished college, things started to change. They were calling me a lot, started saying things that didn’t make a lot of sense, and wanted to isolate me from my family, my friends, and things that I loved.

If there’s one word that summarizes St. Faustina, it’s “trust.” Keep in mind that private revelations are mostly a “take it or leave it” case and that not many saints receive visions. Many of Faustina’s sisters doubted her visions or belittled her as not being worthy of having them

I had a conversation with my co-workers on how some Christians and entire societies lived in a constant state of fear. For some reason or another, some people believed that the world was a horrible place and that all that mattered was stuff relating to the mind or soul. But this idea is completely and emphatically wrong. A certain level of fear is healthy. We need to be cautious and to always fear the Lord. But to fear God doesn’t mean constantly double-checking your every move.

Can you imagine loving someone so unceasingly, and they aren't always 100% in it for you? We are the partner in this relationship that is not necessarily always 100%. You know, our hearts may say that we are 100% in it for the Lord, but the reality is, not everything else is.

Growing up, I knew that I had a heavenly father and an earthly father, my dad. It was crazy to think that I had my dad protecting me day to day on Earth, but then my heavenly father taking care of everything else. Also taking care of me day to day, also taking care of everyone I knew.

The story of the Prodigal Son is a familiar one. For the purposes of this study, I’m going to take you through a form of prayer called the Spiritual Exercises, created by St. Ignatius. I want you to read the whole story of the Prodigal Son and imagine yourself in the story.

I am always fascinated by conversion stories. I envy converts to the faith because they came to the Church out of their own free will. Although I went to Catholic school for most of my life, I didn’t have full knowledge on how awesome being Catholic was until college.

We are supposed to have a natural fear of God. How can fear be natural? Well, when we think about it, God is all-powerful, all merciful, and all giving and mighty. He can do all things. Shouldn’t there be some sort of healthy fear in us of someone that can change our lives in an instant?

You know one of my favorite things about the Lord, is that he isn’t selfish. He never wants to keep everything for himself. I mean think of it like Santa Clause, by all means I know that Jesus is not Santa, but bear with me for a minute. Could you imagine if Santa had all those gifts and decided not to give them away, but just keep them for himself?

Have you ever noticed that we only want change whenever we’re not satisfied with our situation? We always wish that the traffic could go faster, try to fix the flaws in the people closest to us, and endure daily grinds that leave us exhausted in the end.

You know, the sacraments and our faith sometimes just give me chills. When we sit back and look, we can see how they are all intertwined and how they all manifest in each other. They rely on each other and connect us to salvation. Even more so, they show us how His mercy is manifested in our salvation.

Sadly, we live in a world where faith isn’t the first priority. Sadly, we live in a world where many people think that God is a theory and the idea of Him is a hoax. Unfortunately, many people turn to blaming God, rather than turning to him. Instead of finding comfort in the Lord in our hard times, sad times and bad times, we completely turn the opposite way and run. Our world today, is in a very dark place. 

Alright ladies. It’s high time I tell you exactly who St. Faustina Kowalska is. Born Helen Kowalska, St. Faustina lived in Poland. When she was twenty, she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy and took on the name Sr. Maria Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament. She received visions of Jesus throughout her life and in spite of her poor background and lack of education, she kept a diary of her life in the convent and the visions she received. She became devoted to Christ and His Divine Mercy.

What exactly does “compassion” mean? According to dictionary.com, compassion is “a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering

Ever saw the movie Groundhog Day? The basic premise of the movie is that a reporter named Phil relives the same day over and over again, stuck in a time loop until he finally learns to improve himself as a person. Once he finally does that, he is able to literally move onto the next day.

You know we are very fortunate to have the Bible at our disposal to use. We have it at our fingertips to constantly refer to and look to what the Lord has done in the past. I always like to think about Luke 18: 35-40, the story of the healing of the blind beggar

We’ve all had those times that we either had a song stuck in our head for what felt like weeks or loved a song so much, we would put that song on repeat for hours, or even days on end. Either way, it would take a long time for that song to get out of our heads. Today’s verses all sound similar, but they echo a wonderful refrain: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his mercy endures forever.”

His mercy is sure. His mercy is sure. His mercy is sure… what does this mean. We will make an everlasting covenant with the Lord, a promise of salvation. But how can we make a promise to receive something if we do nothing in return. 

I love whenever through scripture and at mass we talk about baptism and new life. I love how at Easter, when we renew our baptismal promise, we too are cleansed, through the sprinkling of the Holy water, and given new life.

There’s a tendency in a lot of Christians to see two different versions of God. There’s the God of the Old Testament who’s all fire and brimstone and rules and punishment. Then there’s the God of the New Testament, who loved the world so much, He sent His only Son to save sinners. But the God of the New Testament in the same God of the Old Testament. It’s not that God changed. God never changes. It’s the perception of who God is that changed over time.

Our lives have high value and quality. We are valuable and worth something to the Lord. Before the Lord came along though, I am sorry to put it so bluntly, but we were worthless. We didn’t have high value and our qualities were poor. We were living in sin, and when we live in sin, we are dead, we have no life, and we are away from God. Sin puts us so far away from God that we can’t live with Him. And when we aren’t living with the Lord, what are we living for? 

He knows that we aren’t perfect. He knows that we make mistakes, and he knows that we are indeed trying our best to serve him. And when we fall flat on our faces, he is merciful.