Being that this is Divine Mercy Sunday I wonder if any of my readers might be able to shed some light on something I recently heard relating this feast. The official English translation renders today "Second Sunday of Easter or Divine Mercy Sunday" making it seem that the celebration today is one or the other. What I heard one priest say was that this not not correctly transcribe the meaning in the Latin which I believe is Dominica II Paschae seu De Divina Misericordia. That the seu means more than a simple or. This to means sound quite plausible since the Apostolic Penitentiary on the indulgence for today calls it "Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday."
I have been to some parishes on Mercy Sunday that don’t mention it at all, and I don’t quite understand why some would want to ignore such a wonderful aspect of God. Though maybe it is the Divine Mercy devotion itself (or devotions in general) they don’t like. I love the Divine Mercy devotion especially the version set to music since I can sing it on my way in to work. It is also probably mercy that there is no one in the car to hear me singing it.
25 comments
“…but the main condition is simply trusting in God’s Divine Mercy.”
Our Lord to St. Faustina:
“I demand from you deeds of mercy which are to arise out of love for me…Even the strongest faith is of no avail without works(742)…If a soul does not exercise mercy in some way, it will not obtain My mercy on the day of judgement(1317)”
“…the most difficult condition to receive a full indulgence which is detachment of all sin, is not required!”
Our Lord to St. Faustina:
“Do all you can for this work of mercy.”(998)
Except for adding “Divine Mercy Sunday” to the title of the day, the Missal (prayers and readings) adds nothing, changes nothing. Everything is still the Second Sunday of Easter.
Absolutely nothing is liturgically different. There is simply a devotion and an indulgence now attached to the day.
The liturgical-theological-scriptural relationship is simply that in the Gospel for this day is (and always was) the risen Lord saying to his apostles, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive they are forgiven them.” THAT’S the Divine Mercy.
It’s the Octave of Easter, Second Sunday of Easter, Low Sunday, Dominica in Albis. It’s been that since the days of Augustine at the latest. The Divine Mercy devotion (which was suppressed as late as the 1970s by the Vatican) is not a replacement for the traditional Octave Day of Easter. It has zero effect on the liturgy for this day.
Jeff–
Love the blog. Indeed, as far as I know, sive/seu can translate “or”, though typically not the mutually exclusive kind, as when we say something like, “We celebrate July 31st either as a memorial OR as a Solemnity of St. Ignatius (which we do if we’re Jesuits or going to Mass at, say, Fordham that day). Latin, which is just bursting with little disjunctive words like aut (which is typically the mutually exclusive “or”) and sive and -ve, etc, is much less ambiguous than English here! OR, as my fellow Latinista Iustinus says here
http://la.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usor:Iustinus/Translator's_Guide
“Sive (or seu) is most commonly used to list synonyms, or alternate forms of the same word. E.g. Mare Nostrum, sive Mediterraneum.”
Thanks so much for posting on this: the same question had been bubbling somewhere in the dark depths of my unconscious. Thanks too to the other posters for clarification. God bless!
APC
From Allen and Greenough’s New Latin Grammar (1888), 202:
“Sive (seu) is properly used in disjunctive conditions( if either … or if), but also with alternative words and clauses especially with two names for the same thing…” (my emphasis)
That seu links two names for the same thing.
From a quick perusal of the context, aut is usually what we computer guys call XOR – the exclusive OR, which is the mom’s OR in “Kids, do you want cake or ice cream?” whereas vel is our inclusive OR, that is the kid’s OR, which includes the AND: “yes, Mom, cake and ice cream!” Though vel also can be “an intensifier with no alternative force.”
Dear Jesus, have mercy on us and on all poor sinners! Happy octave of Easter seu Divine Mercy Sunday!
Jesus have mercy on us indeed.
Wow: two detailed posts on Latin words for “or”! Jeff, you’ll have to admit that this is just too much fun. Well, DT wins for clarity and completeness: it’s hard to go wrong with Allen&Greenough. I don’t know why I didn’t think to reach for mine! Heus, Doctor Iovis Diei, Latinene loqueris/scribis? You seem to have a pretty good grasp of it.
Humbly (but still pedantic),
APC
Someday I will ask some of the above to explain the meaning of “vel” as found in the Roman Missal where there are several options in the text – and its relationship with Sive.
Nevertheless, I don’t understand the hostility (in some quarters) to Divine Mercy Sunday. Admittedly, as noted above by Fr. Stephanos and Picasso, there is no change in the liturgy, but our Lord has revealed to St. Faustina the desire to highlight the “Mercy” aspect of the feast, as referred to in “whose sins you forgive…” but also in the collect, which begins: “God of Mercy…” It is correct, as Picasso states above that the devotion had been suppressed for a time – but that was largely because of a mistranslation and misunderstanding (probably also complicated by a certain iron curtain that fell on Central Europe shortly after WWII – but equally true, the Lord has since called a Pole – a Cracovian devotee of his Divine Mercy to the see of Peter – the confusion/misunderstanding has since been cleared, and there is no good reason a faithful son (or daughter) of the church should object to this feast.
My guess is that those who DO object, do so on the grounds of it being a devotion (as well as private revelation) and not on the emphasis on Mercy. I hope you all were able to attend some observance of the Feast in your own parish – or one nearby!
In my own diocese, the Bishop dedicated a new diocesan shrine to Divine Mercy (housed in an historic church in the city) on this day. I was unable to attend, for we observed the hour of mercy here in the parish with Exposition, the Divine Mercy chaplet, Vespers, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament AND the Blessing of a new confessional! Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His Mercy endures forever!
One more thing….
The acclamation at the end of the “Divine Mercy Chaplet” simply comes from the chants for the liturgy on Good Friday:
“Holy God! Holy Mighty One! Holy Immortal One! Have mercy on us!”
Nothing new on that point either.
“I have been to some parishes on Mercy Sunday that don’t mention it at all, and I don’t quite understand why some would want to ignore such a wonderful aspect of God. Though maybe it is the Divine Mercy devotion itself (or devotions in general) they don’t like.”
I was with a half dozen Catholic bloggers for pizza and chat a couple of weeks ago and the question came up, slightly differently. All of us could be classified as conservative, religiously, but not necessarily so on all the other issues.
One person, making the point that there were hundreds, maybe thousands of conservative Catholic bloggers around the world, noted that you just can’t find a liberal Catholic blogger anywhere.
As she asked the question, I was reminded of 1978 when I was a paid staffer for a Democratic U.S. Senate Candidate (a sitting Congressman), at a time when I was (overly) exposed to political folks.
I realized back then that liberals essentially don’t worry about the liberal-conservative continuum. They want to know how a candidate stands on the “issues.” That’s all that counts. “Where does she stand on _________? is the only standard.
My favorite quote that points that out happened during my attendance at a District Democratic convention during the questioning period for aspirants reqesting endorsement as a future Democratic candidate in an upcoming political contest. One guy grabbed the mike and shouted at one potential candidate “What is your position on __________ [I really don’t recall the issue at all] and how radical are you?”
That’s all that matters to the liberal delegates when it comes to selecting their candidates Anything less than 100% support for the platform(which might have a hundred items) of an interest group or lobby they agreed to represent is suspect and the delegate looks for someone else.
Those same people when they went to the Internet, if Catholic, don’t line up as a liberal Catholic. They line up on “Issues.” Many issues such as Parks & Recreation don’t matter much to the Church as long as the result of legislation is deemed to be fair. But Life Issues, Health Care and the Death Penalty are issues that the Church regularly takes positions on.
Inasmuch as the liberal Catholics aren’t organized as such but take positions by aligning themselves with an “issue” group, the Church loses the ability to convince an entire group to change a postion.
Those same “liberal Catholics” seem to take great umbrage at the Church’s devotional practices. Talking about a Tridentine service, a novena or even the sacraments drives them up the wall.
But if you looked at the roster of those in the Catholic Church who are there all the time in support of the Corporal Works of Mercy, particularly feeding, clothing, providing shelter and caring for prisoners, you’ll find the liberals well represented in the ranks contributing.
Similarly, when it comes to the Sermon on the Mount, being a peacemaker or hungering for righteousness workers are almost exclusively liberal.
But nobody calls themselves “liberal Catholics.
And when the Church does non-liberal things,like Divine Mercy Sunday, they just ignore it. It’s not their “thing.” That’s where the term “cafeteria Catholic” came from.
The Decree establishing Divine Mercy Sunday was issued on 5 May 2000 by Cardinal Estevez. It isn’t on the Vatican website as far as I can see but you can read
the decree in English at Catholic Forum. It makes it clear that the texts to be used at Mass are those already in the Missal for the second Sunday of Easter.
By the way, the Latin tools (as well as Greek) on the Perseus Digital Library are worth checking out. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu
At my Indult parish, the bulletin listed today as “Low (Divine Mercy) Sunday”.
In my archdiocese, we had the regular Mass schedule. Then, in the afternoon, my parish — along with, according to Bishop Allue — other parishes, celebrated Divine Mercy Sunday with Exposition, Holy Hour (the last half hour in which the Divine Mercy Chaplet was chanted), and Benediction. During the Holy Hour, priests heard confessions. After Benediction, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was again celebrated…same liturgy.
(The Novena of Divine Mercy began on Good Friday and ended yesterday, but you guys already knew that!)
The liturgical-theological-scriptural relationship is simply that in the Gospel for this day is (and always was) the risen Lord saying to his apostles, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive they are forgiven them.” THAT’S the Divine Mercy.
And THAT’s a very cool observation. Thanks!
The same Gospel is read in the Tridentine, the Novus Ordo, and the Byzantine Rite, where the day is marked as “Thomas Sunday” for obvious reasons. The icon of the feast shows Thomas and his famous finger and the Lord exposing his side.
The Divine Mercy devotion, to me, is very Eastern. Think about it: the basic prayer is like the Jesus Prayer. You say the “Thrice-Holy” prayer at the end, a prayer used in the Byantine Liturgy and in daily prayer. And, it comes w/ its own icon.
I just heard on EWTN today that Faustina’s vision of Christ requesting the image happened on the First Sunday of Lent. In the Eastern Calendar that’s called the Sunday of the Holy Images, or Sunday of Orthodoxy, commemoratng the defeat of the iconoclast heresy. Fascinating.
And yes, some priests are indiferent or hostile to the Divine Mercy feast. I know of a new pastor who took down the images of Divine Mercy, (and the Shroud, and Guadalupe.) Too devotional/Vatican II blah blah blah. Plus it says “or” blah blah blah.
I don’t think most people who are irritated by Divine Mercy Sunday have a particular objection to the name or even the devotion.
Most of them are just tired of the feeling of constant monkeying with stuff and wish we could just leave the liturgy ALONE for a while and let it settle.
I’m not of this mind myself, but I know a lot of people who think this way and I can sympthize.
Hey Jeff,
Love the site, I too pray the CDM driving to work. It’s the perfect prayer and exact distance to prepare or another day in the world.
Jesus I Trust IN YOU.
In my Sunday Homily, I spoke of Jesus’ Mercy (His mercy endures forever) in that Jesus, knowing of Thomas’ barriers to belief, condescended to return and show himself as he had shown the others so that Thomas might “not be unbelieving, but believe”.
The blood and water of the reading from John has traditionally been understood as the font of the Sacraments of Baptism (water) and Eucharist (blood), which are a testimony to the Mercy of God, and which through the renewable sacrament of Eucharist (as opposed to the one-time Baptism) is a continual reminder and testament to the saving grace given at Baptism, and our life in Christ. The great gift of repeatable Reconciliation in the first part of the Gospel, is a third reference to how God repeatedly offers us Mercy throughout our Christian lives. Hence the Scriptures of the day are rife with the message of Mercy which St. Faustina received and to which she responded as we must: Jesus I trust in you”.
The Opening Prayer or Collect of the day speaks clearly to the ongoing invitation to re-immerse ones self in the original grace of our baptism by means of the gifts unfolded through the Scripture passages of the day, the preface of Easter I, and indeed, the other prayers of the Mass. “Seu” (or-and which also is called) is the appropriate word for the naming of this feast.
In Germany, the first Sunday of Easter is “White Sunday” and usually the day of First Communion. No mention of Divine Mercy Sunday whatsoever here (Baden).
The Divine Mercy devotion is not just merely the praying of the chaplet or the name of the designated Sunday although it does involve these. The devotion calls for us to perform works of mercy as well. Jesus told St, Faustina
“Yes, the first Sunday after Easter is the Feast of Mercy, but there must also be deeds of mercy, which are to arise out of love for Me. You are to show mercy to our neighbors always and everywhere. You must not shrink from this or try to absolve yourself from it.” (Diary 742)
For our priests, would not an act of mercy be to at the very least emphasize the importance of the desires of our Lord as revealed to St Faustina?
“On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment.”(Diary 699)
Although private revelation is not binding in the way public revelation is and there may be nothing liturgically different about Divine Mercy Sunday, priests owe our Lord and the feast of Divine Mercy more then just a brief passing mention in their homily on the day of the feast.
�The words he [Pope John Paul II] pronounced on that occasion�, Benedict mused, �were like a summary of his entire Magisterium, highlighting how the cult of divine mercy is no secondary form of devotion, but an integral dimension of a Christian’s faith and prayer.” (source- Catholic News Agency)
As a young Catholic, its constantly disconcerting to hear that something is integral to the faith from say, the Pope, but to see nothing of the sort (and often the reverse) at the parish level. How is a young man to learn what it means to live as a Catholic when the “pastoral team” (itself a contradiction, being comprised of 5 laypeople and 1 priest) preach and pass on a religion quite differant (and infinitely less appealing) than the words of Scripture, JPG and B16?
Divine Mercy Sunday is such an example. No mention was made at Mass and here we have the Pope supporting its centrality to the faith! What is one to do?
I wonder why no-one mentioned what makes this new feast day in the Church so important. On this day one can receive the forgiveness of sins AND the remission of punishment for sin which truly makes this a new baptism. There are some conditions (confession, communion), but the main condition is simply trusting in God’s Divine Mercy. Only on Mercy Sunday, the most difficult condition to receive a full indulgence which is detachment of all sin, is not required! That should make your day! It sure made mine!
It is unfortunate that (if I remember rightly from last year) every other year in the Novus Ordo lectionary the epistle from 1 Jn 5, with the Blood and Water, isn’t read on Low Sunday. Occasionally there are advantages to the Trid having a one-year cycle of readings! Maybe that epistle should be fixed for Divine Mercy Sunday every year in the NO.
But I might be getting confused about what happened last year… it was an extremely odd time, wasn’t it?!
Rob: “…but the main condition is simply trusting in God’s Divine Mercy.”
Petros: Our Lord to St. Faustina:
“I demand from you deeds of mercy which are to arise out of love for me…Even the strongest faith is of no avail without works(742)…If a soul does not exercise mercy in some way, it will not obtain My mercy on the day of judgement(1317)”
Rob: These statements are all true (of course) but still, to receive forgiveness and remission on that one sunday, God asks us to completely trust in him. All this is not isolated from performing works of mercy. But isn’t that exactly why we need that special grace on that day (which is equal to the grace of baptism!) to be enabled to become more merciful. Please don’t take away from the enormous gift of that day.
Rob: “…the most difficult condition to receive a full indulgence which is detachment of all sin, is not required!”
Petros: Our Lord to St. Faustina:
“Do all you can for this work of mercy.”(998)
Rob: Of course. Proclaiming the power of that day (AND THE FEASIBILITY) is part of doing “all you can for this work of Mercy”.
Agreed, this is not a one-way-mercy. But it is a gift first of all, a gift from God. Our response should be a life of mercy. No doubt.
Divine Mercy Sunday is not an option and more than celebrating Christmas or Easter. Most clerics are not well-instructed in this superb devotion which came to us, through Saint Faustina from Jesus Himself. It is desiged to be a final act of His mercy before He comes again soon as the Just Judge. It is a devotion for our time just as the devotion to the Sacred Heart was when it was promulgated. God always provides a spiritual outlet for His people – for His Name is Holy and is Mercy itself.
By Papal decree, the late Pope John Paul II established the Sunday following Easter as (Divine) Mercy Sunday as Jesus requested of Saint Faustina. As usual, there are Dioceses, Religious Orders and others who totally ignore this fountain of grace which is fine for them as the so-called leaders but keep in mind that they are charged with the spiritual welfare of the faithful. If Divine Mercy Devotions are denied and people do not have access to them somewhere nearby, then these Bishops, Priests and Superiors stand accountable to Almighty God for their negligence. Rampant disobedience and lines drawn in the sand are nothing unusual when it comes to the New Age Catholic Church particular as practised in America. It has been this way since the modernists hijacked Vatican Council II. Vocational decline, disbelief in the Real Presence, worship centers (no longer churches) which look like nightclubs or funeral parlors, confused Catholics searching for anything Catholic. Thank God and Mother Angelica for EWTN – a true lighthouse in a sea of turbulent waters. For many, EWTN has become their ‘parish’ and rightfully, they donate their hard-earned money to EWTN – an excellent idea and choice. At least one is assured their donation is going directly into God’s work and not being used to fund a priests vacation to Aruba or screen in the patio of his condo. Cruises are expensive items also. Canonically, Catholics can worship in any parish they wish…who knows anyway. If one finds a particular parish too off the wall, and there are many to choose from, simply church shop until an orthodox one is found – one in complete compliance with the Magisterium of the Church.
I would not want it on my conscience that I held someone back from all the mercy and forgiveness of punishment due to sin – essentially another Baptismal state – for the Lord say Himself, for many this will be their last opportunity for salvation. This great Feast comes but once a year and so the opportunity for total absolution and remission of all punishment due to our sins is wiped away. If a person would die following this confession and receiveing Holy Communion, they would go straight to Heaven – not passing Go.
The Bishops are to blame for they, for the most part, are once again silent (as they were when Terri Shiavo was being murdered) in enforcing spiritual matters leaving to the local pastors that right. They are afraid to address the real issues surrounding the abuse issues since some of them might be outed by disgruntled Priests under their charge.
Get a front row seat at the final judgment and watch all the finger pointing and excuses being offered and all to no avail. Jesus was quite clear in His instructions to Saint Faustina. Let him who has ears to hear, hear. Forsake these bastions of liturgical nuances for orthodox, magisterium-adhering prarishes and clerics (if you can find any). If not, get to a Saint Pius X Mass and be assured that it is valid and licit. These Holy Priests have never been excommunicated and Pope Benedict and his advisors admit to that. Their Masses are said in a most sacred manner the way Mass was said for hundreds of years.
Get to know the Divine Mercy Devotion, read the Diary of Saint Faustina, listen carefully to what this Saint tells us about her conversations with Jesus. You will come to know how serious the entire issue is and how close we are coming to the Just Judge returning soon to judge the living and the dead. Don’t let anyone stop you for they will not accompany you to your judgment – you will stand alone before Jesus. Do it totally forgiven through His Divine Mercy.
Pax
Thank you Father, for this marvelous teaching….. I need to be reminded that this devotion is specifi ally for these last days….I get so bogged down in the details of life that I can forget my focus, which is HIM. Thank you for your eloquence and encouragement AND for the reference to EWTN. God bless you for feeding this starving lamb.
Comments are closed.