St. Margaret Mary and St. Faustina

I've always been struck by the similarities in St Margaret Mary's revelations of the Sacred Heart and the revelations to St Faustina of the Divine Mercy of this same Heart. I've always felt that the words of Jesus to St. Faustina were a  "completion" of the messages He gave to St. Margaret Mary. The words are very similar in nature and I believe were meant for our times. Mark Mallett has written a post called
 The Last Effort  concerning these two great saints and the cohesiveness of the messages for the world given to them by Jesus himself.

The Door of His Mercy

Today is the Feast Day of  St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, Apostle of the Divine Mercy.

Every human person was created in God's image. Satan, in his absolute hatred for God, will stop at nothing to deface this image. As God's children with this divine imprint upon our souls we not only must battle against our own proclivity to sin but we must also battle powers and principalities. God's grace, however, is more powerful than satan's antipathy. Not only does the Lord help us battle the forces of evil, He also provides remedies for our own sinfulness.

It can be discouraging in our day to look around and see a world mired in sin. Viewed through human eyes it can be downright overwhelming. Many people would like to pretend that everything is just fine on the earth. Truth, however, tells us that this is not so. God would much rather we walk in his light and face evil, including our own, than bury our faces in the sand and pretend that it doesn't exist. One of the ways God does this is to expose the sins of the world (and our own) to a greater and greater degree until we must acknowledge it. He makes them obvious to us. Not so that we will despair, but so that we can turn to Him and accept the mercy and healing He longs to pour upon us. What easier way to draw our attention to the condition of our world than to have us confront it on a daily basis. The wounds of sin have surfaced on our earth and God  is longing to pour the balm of his love and mercy upon us.

In honor of St. Faustina's feast day, I have chosen a passage from her diary that reflects Jesus' yearning to show mercy to us all, if only we will accept it:

Let the greatest sinners place their trust in My mercy. They have the right before others to trust in the abyss of My mercy. My daughter, write about My mercy towards tormented souls. Souls that make an appeal to My mercy delight Me. To such souls I grant even more mercy than they ask. I cannot punish even the greatest sinner if he makes an appeal to my compassion, but on the contrary, I justify him in My unfathomable mercy. Write: before I come as a just Judge, I first open wide the door of My mercy. He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice. *                             1146


* The Diary of Maria Faustina Kowalska
   The Marion Fathers of the Immaculate Conception
   used with permission (but I have no clue where the copyright mark is on this keyboard, lol)

Googling God and The Divine Mercy

Over the past month or so I've been peeking at my site stats out of curiosity as to what draws people to my site. I was especially interested in what key words brought people to The Beautiful Gate. What I found interesting is that, other than the keywords "beautiful gate", many visitors end up here accidentally by googling "purple shampoo" and "rotten potatoes". I guess brassy hair and foul potatoes are quite common (lol). I can see why. Having pumpkin head is no picnic. But I would rather have my heart shine as a beacon than my head! Still, I often pray that God leads people here accidentally on purpose and this seems to be the case at times. Who says that God doesn't answer prayers!

For those who visit and are wondering if purple shampoo really works? Yep! It does! Cuts the brassiness in half. John Frieda puts out a purple tone restoring shampoo that you can find at CVS and a few other drugstores. Just figured I'd make your search easier.

 I'd like to make another search easier, too. Often, what we think of as an accident is actually the hand of God working in our lives. I cannot count the number of times God threw people in my path when I was far away from him. Though at the time I didn't recognize these events as coming from the Lord, it is clear to me now. Looking back, I can see that the Lord guided my steps, carefully, back onto the right path through "chance" meetings with those who knew him well or through "random" events. Through these instances He was paving the way for my conversion. Of course, at the time, these things went right over my head. I didn't know that God actually took a personal interest in people's lives unless it was to pick on them and I was flying under my own steam back then, with an occasional prayer thown in for fire insurance. Little did I realize that these little prayers of desperation were soon to be answered in a big way. Maybe He didn't want to scare me because I was a fearful person, though outwardly this may not have always shown. I didn't think that this world was all that great a place to live and nothing about the circumstances in my life had really proven this to be otherwise. While I believed in God, as I grew older I certainly didn't credit him with much kindness or love, that's for sure. After all, what kind of God would allow so much suffering in the world? I think I blamed the suffering on him rather than recognizing that our sins cause the deepest sufferings here on earth.  I remember being in awe of God as a child and determined to become a saint or a martyr, but life got in the way and my early love for him was buried under the ashes of despair and fear. I soon forgot God (probably on purpose) but he didn't forget me. God resurrected this earlier love for him in a powerful and unexpected way.

I had heard of Saint Paul and his "Damascus moment" but it never occurred to me that God still did such things. That is why I was so surprised when I sat on my bed one evening, cried out, "Jesus, I am fed up with my life!", and instantly found myself in the presence of a great light. I immediately understood that I was in the presence of Mercy, Himself. This knowledge was communicated to me. Not through words. God can make things known without words - through directly infused knowledge. I had no awareness of my body at all but total awareness of myself and Jesus. Rays emanating from his Sacred Heart pierced my soul and I was filled with love and peace. I received tremendous healing. It was as if scales fell from my soul and I could suddenly see and understand God's incredible love for me and for us all. When I was returned to my body I was still sitting in the same position as before and stunned at what had just happened. Nothing like this had EVER happened to me before and I was in a state of shock.

It kind of tips your life upside down. Especially the life of a sinner like me.

An after-effect of this time in his Presence was the realization on my sinfulness and what a grace I had received. During my first Confession after this experience, my sins just poured out of me. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is an immense gift to the Church.

One of the things that struck me was the color of the rays which pierced my soul. They were colors that I have never, ever, seen upon this earth. At the time I had never heard of Saint Faustina and so knew nothing of the Divine Mercy picture or the Chaplet. When I did find out about her I was immediately captivated by both the picture and the Divine Mercy Chaplet. I have the Divine Mercy picture on a stand by my bed as a constant reminder to be thankful of the gift I have received. As in the picture, the rays I saw were both light and dark. A deep, dark, rich red and a lighter color tinged with a pale pink. This is a bit different from the picture but these colors were not of this world and this is the best I can describe them. My URL is based on the Divine Mercy and the title of my blog is based on the cripple who begged outside of the "Beautiful Gate" of the temple. It seemed like a fitting title because I was crippled by sin before entering the Gate of Jesus' Mercy. I needed healing before I could walk.

As for rotten potatoes, after you clean the cupboard, put a box of baking soda in there. That should do the trick :)

Sabbath Moments - Soaking in the Rays of His Heart

Sabbath Moments are moments when we let go and let God and try to live in the present moment. This weekly meme is hosted by Colleen at Thoughts on Grace.

This week I spent some time with the Lord in adoration. A small chapel in our city exposes the Eucharist during the week and I enjoy my visits there. After a period of prayer, I sit in silence and "listen" to what God speaks to my heart. I try to cast all cares and worries away and simply focus on Jesus. It's very peaceful and I always leave feeling blessed. To be in His Presence and just absorb the love that He so wants to share with us is a gift beyond measure. We do not understand the fullness of the blessings and healing we receive through Eucharistic adoration and probably won't until we get to heaven. When I go to adoration I know that I am "bathing" in Jesus' Mercy and "soaking" in His Love. How our souls must shine when we depart!

Opening the Floodgates

I love Divine Mercy Sunday!!! May the Lord open the floodgates and drench each and every one of us with His INFINITE MERCY!

I love this devotion. After my experience in the presence of  Jesus' mercy, I was still unaware of St. Faustina at the time so I didn't know about her diary, the novena or the chaplet. The minute I saw the book in a Catholic bookstore I was dumbfounded. The picture on the front of the book reminded me of what had happened to me and I bought it immediately. I've been praying the Mercy Chaplet and doing the Novena ever since. It's one of my favorite devotions. AND IT'S POWERFUL!

I hope everyone had a happy Divine Mercy Sunday. I'm off to pray the chaplet, now :)

Divine Mercy

" ...but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out."
John 19:34

From the Diary of St. M. Faustina Kowalska:
299
"The two rays denote Blood and Water. The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls...
These two rays issued forth from the very depths of My tender mercy when My agonized Heart was opened by a lance on the cross." *


Ever since I was in the presence of The Divine Mercy this book has fascinated me. Though I knew that I was in His presence and that He was flooding me with mercy, I did not understand why the rays that pierced my soul were two different colors. Until I read St. Faustina's Diary.
Then, I knew what a truly precious gift I had been given.


* The Diary Of St. M. Faustina Kowalska
Marian Fathers of The Immaculate Conception
used with permission

A Thank You

I would like to thank The Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception for permission to use quotes from The Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska-Divine Mercy in My Soul on my blogs. I would also like to thank M. for your kindness and patience in answering my questions.

For those who read my blog:
I highly recommend this book. St. Faustina is a great saint and her words are very timely for a world that is so greatly in need of Our Lord's mercy. My prayer is that all my brothers and sisters in this world will open their hearts to this precious gift.


Utterly Thine, O Lord!

Yes, America, there is a God

Yes, America, there is a God and we are always in His Divine Presence. You may not believe in Him but He believes in you. Many of us go through life utterly unaware of this Presence; some of us have run away from Him, some have hid their faces from HE WHO IS, others just don't want to be bothered by Him. There are others who are afraid of Him, "Perhaps, if I don't pay attention to HIM , He won't notice ME! "

I have done all of the above....none of them worked. The Lord called me by name, grasped me by the hand and pulled me from the pit I had dug for myself (with a little help from the ugly one). Yes, my conversion was miraculous, http://openingthefloodgatesofmercy.blogspot.com/2009/06/heart-of-jesus-infinite-in-mercy.html
but this grace was given in this manner so that I might tell others about it. It was a spiritual manifestation of the gift that is given to every single one of us. The gift of Divine Mercy.

Divine Mercy

One of the books that I brought to the beach is Divine Mercy in My Soul by St. Faustina. On page 333 it says "Speak to the world about my mercy; let all mankind recognize My unfathomable mercy." When I was in the presence of the Divine Mercy I had never even heard of St Faustina ( http://openingthefloodgatesofmercy.blogspot.com/2009/06/heart-of-jesus-infinite-in-mercy.html ) , but it was communicated (not through words) to me that I was in the presence of the mercy of Jesus. When I first saw the Divine Mercy picture it struck me like a bolt of lightning because it reminded me so much of my experience with Him, but I can also understand St. Faustina's dissatisfaction with this image. The colors of the rays which pierced my soul were colors I had never seen on earth and the reality of His Divine Presence is inexplicable in earthly terms. He is pure truth, pure mercy, pure love and pure justice. He knows us better than we know ourselves. The Lord is very gentle and kind and not one person on this earth should be afraid to approach Him. No matter how sinful a person has been in their past He will forgive them if they are truly sorry for their sins.

People sometimes ask me "Why you? What did you ever do to deserve this?" The answer is....I did nothing. This was pure grace. For some reason that only the Lord knows, He chose to make me an example of His mercy and for this I will always be grateful. The Lord has also shown me that this infinite mercy is for all who ask for it and I truly mean EVERYONE.

For years I have searched the internet trying to find someone who has been in the presence of the Divine Mercy in this way and if there is, please write to me as I would love to hear about it.

Thank you Lord!