Pillars of Fire In My Soul

viction that all good within us and which we do is the work and gift of God; that we possess nothing except that which we have from God. This trust-hope constitutes the opening of a soul’s receiving Divine grace, and the requesting of it is an attitude of continuous and most effec- tive prayer. Truly, this very disposition — trust, and nothing more — is what the Lord asks us to bring to Divine Mercy Sunday, in order to receive the whole ocean of His mercy (Diary entries 1520, and 1578): I have opened My Heart as a living fountain of mercy. Let all souls draw life from it. Let them approach this sea of mercy with great trust. ... The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive. Still, one might well ask: why are the “floodgates” of Divine Mercy said to be fully open, on this basis, only on one particu- lar Feast Day, rather than at every Holy Communion? This objection seems much like the objection of some of the radical Protestant reformers of the 16th and 17th centuries to the claim that Holy Communion imparts special graces to souls, in a unique and more intimate manner than is normally available to souls from the practice of communal prayer. Why do we limit God’s Mercy in this way? The answer is that we do not intend to limit God’s Mercy — He is always free to pour out His Mercy in any way, at any time — but we do intend to believe His promises. From Holy Scripture we know that the Father promised that a unique and intimate communion with His Son can be obtained through the Holy Eucharist, and from Christ’s prophetic revelations to St. Faustina, we know that He has promised an exceptional abundance of graces — a complete renewal of Baptism — to those who receive Holy Communion in the state of grace, with great trust in His Mercy, on Divine Mercy Sunday. This is not because Christ is “stingy,” or withholds such a plenary Essential Features of the Devotion to The Divine Mercy 133