Divine Mercy Conference
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| Divine Mercy Conference February 19th - 20th 2011 RDS Dublin |
The conference is on in the RDS in Dublin for Febrary 19th to 20th 2011.
Saturday 19th - 10.00am to 9.00pm
Sunday 20th - 10.00am to 5.30pm
Doors open each morning at 9am for all day registration.
Michael gives an introduction to the devotion to the Divine Mercy which is based on the message which was entrusted to a Polish nun from the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy, now known as St Faustina which promotes a rememberence of the belief that Jesus' death on the Cross was to beg mercy from the Father for the world, imortalized with His heartfelt appeal to the father, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do"
Further information about the conference can be got from their website.
Gospel - Mathew 5: 17-37
This weeks gospel is a continuation of the Sermon on the Mount with Jesus reminding us that the call to a life in communion with the Divine is not just a case of obeying and conforming to external laws and rules which was the complaint against the Pharisees and Scribes of his time. While the Law and the Prophets had a role in pointing the way to the Love of God, in someways they almost became idols in themselves instead of acting as the sign posts that they were. Jesus reminds us this week that unless we understand the reason for the rule/law in the sense of it leading us deeper into relationship with God then we may have missed the point. It is not enough to be able to say we have obeyed the commandments and not killed anyone for example, but aside from taking their earthly physical life, have we been guilty of taking their good name or ignoring them or making life awkward and difficult for them by "killing" their acceptance by society and the way they live their lives?
We must seek, heart to heart with God how best we can answer the call to repentance and forgiveness of sinners that Jesus preached. It is not a case of just receiving what the German martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer called cheap grace which in his words is:
- "cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ."
- "costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. It is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: "My yoke is easy and my burden is light." "
We have a wisdom to offer those who have reached maturity: not a philosophy of our age, it is true, still less of the masters of our age, which are coming to their end. The hidden wisdom of God which we teach in our mysteries is the wisdom that God predestined to be for our glory before the ages began. It is a wisdom that none of the masters of this age have ever known, or they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory; we teach what scripture calls: the things that no eye has seen and no ear has heard, things beyond the mind of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him. These are the very things that God has revealed to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit reaches the depths of everything, even the depths of God.
Further reflections on this weeks gospel available from Word on Fire, English Dominicans, and Catholic Ireland.net.
Saints of the Week
February 14th - Sts Cyril and Methodius, co-patrons of Europe
(oh yes there is also the more famous rememberance of St Valentine whose relics are in the Whitefriar Street Carmeilte Church in Dublin whose website is here)
February 15th - St Claude de la Colobiere - Apostle of the Sacred Heart
February 16th - St Onesimus
February 17th - St Fintan, Abbot of Swords
February 18th - St Colman of Lindisfarne
February 19th - Bl. Fra Anglico OP
Notices
The main notice on this weeks show was about the upcoming visit of one of the seers of Medugorje to Ireland:
The eldest of the Medjugorje visionaries is planning a number of engagements in town halls and churches all over Ireland this month. Vicka Ivanković-Mijatović (46) who was the eldest of six local children who claimed that they were contacted by the Virgin Mary in 1981, will attend a number of church services in Ireland throughout February and will also appear on The Late Late Show. Vicka has claimed that she gets a vision from Our Lady at 4:40pm daily and this has been reflected in the schedule for her nationwide tour. Her schedule commences at 4:00pm in Dublin's RDS Concert Hall on February 17. The following night she will appear with Ryan Tubridy on The Late Late Show, while she will be in Mitchelstown Town Hall in County Cork at 4:00pm on February 19 and Silver Springs Hotel in Cork on February 20. On February 22 she will attend Saint Brendan's Church in Tralee at 4:00pm while on February 27 she will attend An Evening of Prayer through Song with singer David Parkes at the Sacred Heart Church in Roscommon town commencing at 7:00pm. According to tour organiser Niall Glynn, whose company Marian Pilgrimages specialises in trips to Medjugorje, “Thousands of Irish pilgrims visit the pilgrimage town each year. In terms of pilgrims going to Medjugorje, Ireland is second only to the Italians.”
As always, thanks for listening!
John, Michael, Lorraine and Shane
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