ENTRANCE ANTIPHON Cf. Ps 86 (85): 3, 5
Miserere mihi, Domine, quoniam ad te clamavi tota die:
quia tu, Domine, suavis ac mitis es,
et copiosus in misericordia omnibus invocantibus te.Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I cry to you all the day long.
O Lord, you are good and forgiving, full of mercy to all who call to you.
Our entrance antiphon for this week is especially beautiful to me right now. I’ve been thinking about mercy a lot lately, for two reasons. One, because I’m realizing more and more how much I need it! Two, because we’ve been reading through the rough draft of my Dad’s next book, 7 Secrets of Divine Mercy, and it’s blowing my mind.
So in reflecting on mercy, and just trying to get closer to the Lord in general, I made a connection that utterly astounded me. I’m sure it’s not original, other people may have realized this too, but the short version is that mercy is synonymous with God, because God is Mercy. Not such a big revelation, I know, but it gets better, I promise.
When looking in my trusty thesaurus at various derivations of “to have mercy upon,” I discovered that another way of saying this is “to open one’s heart.” And if God is Mercy, this means that when we ask the Lord to “have mercy” on us, what we’re really saying is, “Lord, open Your Heart to me and give me Yourself, Mercy Incarnate.” What’s amazing about this, is that before we even knew to ask, He already saw our need and opened His Heart for each of us on the Cross, and this “fountain of mercy” — His life blood — never runs dry; it is a spring “welling up to eternal life” (Jn. 4:14). This is a beautiful meditation on its own, but there’s more.
I purposely mentioned eternal life, but I have to interrupt myself to give a quick definition. As the Catechism explains, we are called to “share in the life of the Blessed Trinity”(#265); in other words, eternal life is when we enter into the way God lives. And as St. Faustina tells us, we don’t have to wait until we die, this life can begin here on earth (Diary, 1811). Here’s why I bring it up. Each time we find ourselves in need of mercy, what we’re essentially in need of is Him and His Life in us, because He is Mercy.
Now this is the part that staggers me: In a sense, every plea for mercy can be a spiritual communion, because we are pleading for Him, Mercy itself, to enter our reality and sanctify it, to fill us with Himself, and to walk with us in our time of need. And is this not the very definition of Communion? To be filled with God, with His very person, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity? To become one with Him, taking on His way of existing, allowing His Life in us to transform us? To invite Him into our now moment, uniting ourselves with Mercy-made-flesh?
This has changed everything for me. Now when I come before the Lord looking for mercy, I am almost instantly filled with peace because I know that what I’m really looking for is deeper union with Him. And He never fails to give Himself. He did it on Calvary “once, for all,” when He allowed His tender Heart to be pierced, and my prayer for mercy brings me to the foot of the Cross, where I just sit beneath that open wound and let His life pour into me, cover me, surround me. Now it doesn’t matter if my problems are immediately solved, if financial difficulties don’t disappear magically, if my health isn’t great, if relationship issues are still very present … because God Himself has come into my being and filled me with His own life. And this is enough. Nothing else is as important.
So my prayer this week, for me, for you, is that we will be enabled, by the power of the Spirit and the intercession of Our Lady, to come before the Lord with an ever greater trust, confident that He will come and dwell in us whenever we call upon Him, and that our trust in His mercy — our trust in Him — will increase, leading us to an even deeper intimacy with this loving God of ours, the Lord of all tenderness.
Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I cry to you all the day long.
O Lord, you are good and forgiving, full of mercy to all who call to you.Open Your Heart to me, O Lord, and give me more of You,
for I cry to you all the day long.
O Lord, you are good and forgiving,
and You never fail to give Yourself to all who call to you
(personalized Entrance Antiphon)
I too find the Lord to be all about mercy. He welcomes us to himself in every moment, IF we allow it.
Sometimes it is hard to remember to turn to him immediately instead of grumbling or complaining or wallowing in our trials.
The Jesus Prayer to me, is the ultimate request, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” I pray this many times a day and always when at Mass or in Adoration. He always answers this prayer, with his peace. (although, once I had to pray it 700 times in a row) That was not a good day. 🙂 We always get another chance though, to turn to the Lord and ask for His mercy.
Thank you for sharing this in such a beautiful way.