Divine Mercy

alma73

As many know, this year is a Jubilee dedicated to Divine Mercy. Today we celebrate the 11th Anniversary of Pope John Paul II's death on the eve of the Divine Mercy Sunday. Coincidence that 11 years later during the Jubilee year we celebrate his death on the same day.

noel farrell

Why do you need special years. What more mercy could God have than to send his son to die a horrible death for sin. His mercy is the same today yesterday and forever. Ask and you will receive

mansize

11 years later with 3 leap years means it isn't a coincidence

Speedwell

Well, Jubilee years are mentioned in Leviticus as a sort of "long Sabbath" for worshippers. So there's Biblical precedent at least.

In the Vedic astrology of Hinduism, last week we entered a several-month-long period in which the demigod Shani, the strict teacher and impartial judge who gives out consequences according to your karma and who is represented by the planet Saturn, is in retrograde along with Mangal, the fire demigod of Mars and of aggression, courage, and cruelty. This is considered a particularly inauspicious combination and gives devotees an opportunity to consider their guilt, and reminds them to be careful to be gentle, generous, forbearing, and mindful. I asked a Hindu priest in Houston once a few years ago how his religion regarded atheists like me and whether it was permissible for me to use mantras in meditation. He laughed and told me that there were Hindu philosophers who thought the gods were mere personifications of natural, social, emotional, and intellectual states of being, and if I wanted to choose a mantra to focus my attention on one state of being or another without feeling obliged to literally worship an anthropomorphic god, as far as he was concerned it was fine with him. I'm neither a Hindu nor a believer in astrology, of course, but I could choose to take this opportunity to meditate on nobility of spirit, being charitable, and doing the right thing by other people even if they don't deserve it. In a word, mercifulness.

I think that's a key insight. Certainly God, being timeless and unchangeable, requires nothing at all! But we are not also timeless and unchangeable. Special years are for celebrants, to remind them of, to help them focus on, and to give them an opportunity to praise and emulate, particular divine characteristics. Mercy certainly seems to be a timely topic of focus given the state of world politics today, no matter what your religion or lack thereof.

Manach

Having a regularised time to reflect and recognise the merciful heart of Jesus would act as a counterpoint to the cycles of modern world: akin to a bell amongst the jingles of commericial adverts being played 24x7.

One of the aspects is a promotion of the Sacrament of Confession with emphasis on reflection : this ETWN article looks to have summarised it http://www.ewtnnews.com/catholic-news/Vatican.php?id=13003