Low Sunday or Divine Mercy Sunday, which do you prefer? Being the mean evil divisive Trad that I am I choose Low Sunday every time. In fact my pre 1950 calendar that I make every year will always show the first Sunday after Easter as Low Sunday and not Divine mercy Sunday. This seems to be a real sore spot with many people. Some Catholics will treat divine mercy devotion in almost cult like dedication while some Traditional Catholics think it is something Satanic. Being the true coward that I am I choose the middle road. While I don’t like the devotion, I think there is a lot of creepy stuff to it especially that spooky picture of Christ with no heart I still maintain that you worry about your soul and I will worry about mine. Most will chalk off divine Mercy as one of those mean evil divisive Traditional Catholic prejudices. I think it is definitely one of our differences but not a cause of the divide.
Here are my problems with the devotion. Fr. Peter Scott of the SSPX has some good points against it. First off there is that creepy picture of Christ with no heart. Many say it is a counterfeit from the picture of the Sacred Heart (my devotion of choice by the way). Below is a comparison of the two. The idea of a “heartless” Christ makes me sweat a bit!
The devotion has been condemned by two popes, Pius XII and John XXIII. They found while the prayers were orthodox and acceptable there were many aspects of Faustina’s account that drew red flags. Most Divine Mercy splainers will tell you that was because of bad translations of her diary. The main problem the popes had was the the total emphasis on the merciful God and no mention of the God who is also the judge.
There were two decrees from Rome on this question, both of the time of Pope John XXIII. The Supreme Congregation of the Holy Office, in a plenary meeting held on November 19, 1958, made the following decisions:
The supernatural nature of the revelations made to Sister Faustina is not evident.No feast of Divine Mercy is to be instituted.It is forbidden to divulge images and writings that propagate this devotion under the form received by Sister Faustina.
The second decree of the Holy Office was on March 6, 1959, in which the following was established:
The diffusion of images and writings promoting the devotion to Divine Mercy under the form proposed by the same Sister Faustina was forbidden.The prudence of the bishops is to judge as to the removal of the aforesaid images that are already displayed for public honor.
A great example of that is my friend Victor. Like myself he was an apostate Catholic who returned to the faith. Victor returned thru the post Vatican church I came back with the rebirth of the Traditional Catholic mass. When Victor heard about the divine Mercy he went crazy with the concept of God forgiving you of everything at the final judgement just by following the devotion. He even had that creepy Christ with no heart tattooed on his forearm (Victor moved some years back, when he had the tattoo put on he was over 300 lbs, he has since shed about 100 of those pounds. I wonder what the tatoo looks like now, if its even recognizable, if not recognizable then maybe God is trying to tell him something………….ya think?) I asked Victor once when the last time he went to confession, he said “years, and I’m not going to worry about it since I believe in the divine mercy devotion and I know I will be forgiven of everything at the end”. I said Vic, do me a favor and just go to confession, it won’t kill you, hedge your bets, be a safety engineer, wear both a belt and suspenders.
Father Scott pointed out the questionable aspects of the devotion. The host kept leaping out of the tabernacle into the hands of Faustina. This in itself seems to promote the idea of communion in the hand which is an Arian Heresy.
Another strange part of the diary is how she claims God elevates her above all other creations, this would seemingly include Our blessed mother. From Fr. Scott, “On October 2, 1936, for example, she states that the “Lord Jesus” spoke these words to her: “Now I know that it is not for the graces or gifts that you love me, but because My will is dearer to you than life. That is why I am uniting Myself with you so intimately as with no other creature.” (§707, p. 288). This gives every appearance of being a claim of being more united to Jesus than anybody else, even the Blessed Virgin Mary, and certainly more than all the other saints. What pride, to believe such an affirmation, let alone to assert that it came from heaven!”
This devotion was not pushed until the reign of John Paul II. I am sure the reason for that is because both were Pols. My question here is how can I trust a devotion supported by a pope who kissed the Koran.
So the bottom line is this. If your angry with me now because you love the devotion fine. As Emeral Lagasse used to say, “You ain’t hurting my feelings”. If you feel you are getting something from it, closer to God then continue. Like I say I worry about my soul and you worry about yours. For myself, just too many red flags in this devotion for me to swallow. I will just stick to my daily rosary and call it a day. Oh ya! One more thing I will continue regular confession because after all I am a safety engineer!