THE FEAST OF ST MARIA FAUSTINA. APOSTLE OF DIVINE MERCY.
FEAST OF ST MARIA FAUSTINA, VIRGIN AND RELIGIOUS SISTER
THE GOODNEWS:
"There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said,
“Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law?
How do you read it?”
He said in reply,
“You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your being,
with all your strength,
and with all your mind,
and your neighbor as yourself.”
He replied to him, “You have answered correctly;
do this and you will live.”
But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus,
“And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus replied,
“A man fell victim to robbers
as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.
A priest happened to be going down that road,
but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
Likewise a Levite came to the place,
and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him
was moved with compassion at the sight.
He approached the victim,
poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them.
Then he lifted him up on his own animal,
took him to an inn, and cared for him.
The next day he took out two silver coins
and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction,
‘Take care of him.
If you spend more than what I have given you,
I shall repay you on my way back.’
Which of these three, in your opinion,
was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?”
He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.”
Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
Monday 5th October 2026 in the 27th Week in Ordinary Time.
Brethren, a lawyer tests Jesus with a clever question:
"Who is my neighbor?"
He wants a definition. Jesus gives him a man half dead on the roadside and three travelers.
Then Jesus turns the question around: "Which of these was neighbor to the man?"
The lawyer cannot even say the word "Samaritan."
He says, "The one who showed him mercy."
Three things in today's Gospel:
#1 The priest and the Levite SAW him and passed by.
They were men of religion, and they walked on. Prayer without mercy is noise. You can attend Mass every day and still cross to the other side of the road.
#2 The Samaritan was MOVED. Then he ACTED. He bandaged, carried, paid and promised to come back.
Compassion that does not move your hands and your wallet is only sentiment.
#3 Jesus does not say "admire the Samaritan." He says: "GO AND DO LIKEWISE."
So, who is lying by the roadside in your family? In your workplace? In your parish? Whom have you been passing by?
Do ONE concrete act of mercy today for someone you would normally walk past.
Today we remember St Faustina, the Apostle of Divine Mercy.
Receive mercy from Jesus. Then give it away.
SAINT OF THE DAY: ST MARIA FAUSTINA KOWALSKA (1905 - 1938). Polish. Religious Sister and Apostle of Divine Mercy.
Dear friends, meet a very ordinary girl. Helena Kowalska was born on 25th August 1905 into a poor farming family in Głogowiec, Poland, the third of ten children. She had barely three years of schooling. At sixteen she left home to work as a housemaid, so that her family could have a little more bread on the table.
All the while, one desire stayed in her heart: to belong entirely to Jesus. In 1925 she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Warsaw and became Sister Maria Faustina. She was a cook, a gardener and a doorkeeper.
Hidden. Unnoticed. But never unseen by Heaven.
On 22nd February 1931, in her little cell at Płock, Jesus appeared to her, with red and pale rays streaming from His Heart.
Tenderly He asked her to have an image painted with the words:
"Jesus, I trust in You."
He taught her the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and asked for a Feast of Mercy on the Sunday after Easter.
Out of obedience to her confessor, Fr Michael Sopoćko, she wrote everything down in a Diary of some 600 pages, now loved around the world as "Divine Mercy in My Soul."
Tuberculosis took her in Kraków on 5th October 1938. She was only 33.
Pope St John Paul II beatified her in 1993 and canonized her on 30th April 2000, the first saint of the new millennium, and named the Second Sunday of Easter Divine Mercy Sunday.
Her message is as simple as it is beautiful:
#1 Trust in Jesus. "Jesus, I trust in You."
#2 Mercy received must become mercy given.
THE ABC OF MERCY captures the essence of the DIVINE MERCY DEVOTION.
A - ASK FOR MERCY.
B - BE MERCIFUL.
C - COMPLETELY TRUST JESUS FOR MERCY.
The Good Samaritan shows us what that mercy looks like.
October is the Month of the Holy Rosary.
Why a spRosaryecial month for the Holy ? Because the Rosary is a very powerful prayer. It is an important prayer in the life of the Church and in the life of individual Christian.
A FAMILY THAT PRAYS THE ROSARY TOGETHER STAYS TOGETHER.
Say the Holy Rosary every day in October.
Mary Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, pray for us.
For Prayers, Consecration, Litany, Testimony of Jesus about those who pray the Rosary, click the link below:
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