God of everlasting mercy, Who in the very recurrence of the paschal feast kindle the faith of the people You have made Your own, increase, we pray, the grace You have bestowed, that all may grasp and rightly understand in what font they have been washed, by Whose Spirit they have been reborn, by Whose Blood they have been redeemed. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
God of everlasting mercy – On Divine Mercy Sunday, we do well to reflect on the depths of God's mercy. Of course, we can never reach the bottom of these depths. God is infinitely merciful, infinitely loving. When we repent and confess, turning to Him in humility, He forgives us...again and again and again. After all, Jesus told His disciples that they must forgive seven times seventy times (i.e., infinitely). Why would God not do the same?
recurrence of the paschal feast – Many people forget that Easter is not just a single day. Rather, Easter is an entire season, and today we celebrate the Second Sunday of this Easter season. Our Lord's Resurrection is so central to our faith that we continue to commemorate it for weeks. Further, every Sunday of the year may be considered a little Easter as we praise and worship our Lord with gratitude in our hearts for His dying and rising again to save us from our sins.
kindle the faith of the people You have made Your own – Faith is both a human act and a gift from God, but the initiative always lies with God. He gives us faith as a theological virtue, a divine gift. Our faith arises as a response to that gift. Further, God has established a covenant with us through Jesus Christ. We belong to Him. We are His family, His children by adoption. Further, Jesus paid the price for us, for our redemption, with His own blood. How can we not belong fully to our Lord?
increase, we pray, the grace You have bestowed – We are such frail, weak creatures. We are so prone to sins and falls. We need God's grace at every moment, and we must always ask God to send us more of His grace. This kind of prayer shows both gratitude for what He has already given us and a humble awareness of our continuing need for His constant help and support.
that all may grasp and rightly understand in what font they have been washed – How well do we understand the sacrament of Baptism? We would do well to read and meditate on the Catechism paragraphs 1213-1284 to better comprehend the great gift God has given us when He came to dwell within us, filled us with sanctifying grace, and made us members of His family, the Church
by Whose Spirit they have been reborn – The Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Blessed Trinity, is the love between the Father and the Son that is so strong, so intense, that He, too, is a Person. In this Spirit, we receive new life, eternal life. We can begin to live Heaven right now and can look forward to the day in which we fully unite the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in Heaven forever.
by Whose Blood they have been redeemed – Jesus shed every last drop of His precious blood for us. On the cross, He redeemed us from slavery to sin and death. He bought us for Himself. We belong to Him. And this is an infinitely good thing.
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