NOTE: THIS STORY WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE BOHOL CHRONICLE’S SUNDAY PRINT EDITION.
Tagbilaran City — Catholics celebrated Divine Mercy Sunday by bombarding heaven with prayers to ask God’s mercy to stop the spread of the deadly Covid-19 plague that has so far infected over135 million and killed 2.9 million across the globe as of April 10, 2021, and counting.
In Bohol, devotees of the Divine Mercy trooped to the proposed Divine Mercy Shrine in Dampas district this city where four Holy Masses will be officiated, 6:30a.m., 8:30a.m., 10:00a.m. and a Pontifical Mass at 3 this afternoon.
Holy Mass will be limited to less than 50 percent capacity as one protocol adopted by authorities to prevent the surge of the infectious disease.
People are mandated to wear face masks and face shields when they go out to protect themfrom contact with the deadly virus.
Official records show that there are 135,348,940 people worldwide have been infected of thecontagious disease of which 2,929,594 have died as of April 10, 2021, despite the developmentof several vaccines.
This is the second straight year that religious and other activities – government and private havebeen limited or cancelled because of the lockdown imposed by authorities.
Divine Mercy prayer is every 3 o’clock in the afternoon. It is a powerful prayer that devout Catholics pray daily for salvation and healing.
“The message of The Divine Mercy is simple. It is that God loves us – all of us. And, He wantsus to recognize that His mercy is greater than our sins, so that we will call upon Him with trust,receive His mercy, and let it flow through us to others. Thus, all will come to share His joy,” the Catholic hierarchy said.
Repentance is very important and crucial in praying the Divine Mercy prayer and for man to bealso merciful to his fellow men as God is merciful.
The church also urge the faithful to completely to their trust in Jesus Christ as “God wants us toknow that all the graces of His mercy can only be received by our trust. The more we open thedoor of our hearts and lives to Him with trust, the more we can receive.”
It may be recalled that “this message and devotion to Jesus as The Divine Mercy is based onthe writings of Saint Faustina Kowalska, an uneducated Polish nun who, in obedience to herspiritual director, wrote a diary of about 600 pages recording the revelations she received aboutGod’s mercy.”
It also pointed out that even before St. Faustina’s death in 1938, the devotion to The DivineMercy had begun to spread to various countries.
In the Philippines, many Catholic parishes are named after The Divine Mercy. (Ben Cal)