National Shrine of The Divine Mercy Bulletin July 11, 2021

O Mary, Immaculate Virgin, Pure crystal for my heart, You are my strength, O sturdy anchor! You are the weak heart’s shield and protection. O Mary you are pure, of purity incomparable; At once both Virgin and Mother, You are beautiful as the sun, without blemish, And your soul is beyond all comparison. Your beauty has delighted the eye of the Thrice-Holy One. He descended from heaven, leaving His eternal throne, And took Body and Blood of Virgin’s Heart. O Mother, Virgin, purest of all lilies, Your heart was Jesus’ first tabernacle on earth. Only because no humility was deeper than yours Were you raised above the choirs of Angels and above all Saints. O Mary, my sweet Mother, I give you my soul, my body and my poor heart. Be the guardian of my life, Especially at the hour of death, in the final strife. Diary 161 From the Diary of St. Faustina On July 14, the Church celebrates the "Lily of the Mohawks." Saint Kateri Tekakwitha is the first Native American to be declared a saint. She's a model of someone who sets out to console the Heart of Jesus by bearing her cross bravely, doing all for the love of God and neighbor. She caught smallpox at the age of 4, living the rest of her life with serious facial scars and impaired vision as a result. Suffering persecution from her fellow Native Americans for having accepted the religion of the "Black Robes" — the Jesuit missionaries working among the native peoples at the time — Kateri nevertheless maintained her charity and her courage. Known for her charity and patience, and her kindness toward the sick and elderly, Kateri loved the Eucharist and the Cross deeply -excerpt from A True Catholic American by Chris Sparks click the link to read full article https://www.thedivinemercy.org/articles/true-catholic-american In the Spotlight... S t. K ateri T ekakwitha Patron Saint of Environment, Ecology Feast Day: July 14th Blessed Oil of St. Faustina Oil Blessed in honor of St. Faustina is available at the Shrine Reception Desk. A suggested donation of $5.00 is being requested to help fund all our Shrine Ministries. To order your copy of The Diary of St. Faustina please go to divinemercygiftshop.org. or call our Gift Shop at 1-888-484-1112 I often attend upon the dyi and h ough entreaties obtain for them trust in God ’s mercy, an d I implore Go for an abundance of divine grace, which is always victorious. Go ’s mercy sometimes touches the sinner at the last moment in a wo er us and mysterious way. O twardly, it seems as if everything were lost, but it is final gr ce, turns to God in the last moment with such a forgiveness of sin and punishment, while outwardly it shows no sign either of repentance or of co trition, bec use souls [at that stage] no longer react to external things. Oh, how be ond comprehension is God ’s mercy! But – horror!- there are also s uls who voluntarily and consciously reject and scorn this grace! Although a person is at the point of death, the merciful God gives the soul that interior vivid moment, so that if the soul is willing, it has the possibility of returning to God. but sometimes, the obduracy in souls is so great that consciously they choose hell; they [thus] make useless all the prayers that other suls offer to god for them and even the efforts of God Himself... Diary 1698