The Divine Mercy Prayer

The "3 o'clock Prayer" as we know it, is the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy whose roots date back to September 13, 1935 with Sister Mary Faustina receiving the prayer from Jesus Christ though a vision. The ABC of the prayer:

A— Ask for His Mercy. God wants us to approach  Him in prayer constantly, repenting of our sins and
asking Him to pour His mercy out upon us and upon the whole world.

B— Be merciful. God wants us to receive His mercy and let it flow through us to others. He wants us to extend love and forgiveness to others just as He does to us.

C— Completely trust in Jesus. God wants us to know that the graces of His mercy are dependent upon our
trust. The more we trust in Jesus, the more we will receive.

The message of mercy is that God loves us — all of us — no matter how great our sins. He wants us to recognize that His mercy is greater than our sins, so that we will call upon Him with trust, receive His mercy, and let it flow through us to others. Thus, all will come to share His joy.

Here is the Chaplet of Divine Mercy in Song:




The Original Divine Mercy image which is also known as The Vilnius Divine Mercy Image has this background story:

The original Divine Mercy Image, painted by Eugene Kazimierowski in Vilnius under the direct supervision of St. Faustina and Fr. Michael Sopocko. It was completed in 1934, and first shown for public veneration in 1935 at the Church of Our Lady, Gate of the New Dawn, where the Ostra Bramska Image, also known as Our Lady of Mercy, resides.

St. Faustina was apparently very disappointed with Kazimierowski’s work during the painting of the image, because it was not capturing the beauty of Jesus as Faustina had seen him. Jesus appeared to St. Faustina again, and told her to settle for this image with these words:

“Not in the beauty of the color, nor of the brush lies the greatness of this image, but in My grace.”
                                                                                                                                      (Diary, 313)

The image fell into disrepair from storage during the second World War, and the following decades when public veneration of the Divine Mercy was forbidden. The image was restored back to it's original beauty in 2003 by an artist of Vilnius. 

Here are other online resources for Sister Faustina's visions and the Divine Mercy Prayer:

1. Faustina Message
2. Divine Mercy in my Soul
3. Divine Mercy Sunday

Let's celebrate the Divine Mercy Weekend 2016 on the 2nd and 3rd of April by praying the Divine Mercy Novena!

World Religions: Handouts for Sacred Places

I found an acrobat document which appears to be a scanned pages of Special Edition of US News and World Report issued November 26- December 3, 2007. The cover title says Sacred Places, Inside the World's Most Spiritually Important Sites and What they Mean Today.

For those who are looking for something substantial and insightful on the subject, this will hopefully serve as a good introduction.

The link is here with the ebay link.

My Notes on The Future of Faiths

As I journey through the third term with my seventh graders for my World Religions class, I can't help but smile and give my students an imaginary pat on their backs after the first part of our discussion of the future of religions.

They had been with me since sixth grade and their growth in their knowledge of world religions, different faiths and beliefs were tremendous. Coming from our Face to Faith Team Blogging activity in second term, these kids are now almost-ready to take on their Ethics class next school year.

Thanks be to God for the beauty and satisfaction I find everyday in teaching and the opportunity to be part of the lives of my students. Praise be to God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ, God the Holy Spirit and to the Mother of God, the Queen of Heaven and all the angels and saints!

I'm sharing my notes on my lecture-discussion on the topic The Future of Faiths:

Looking Over the Spiritual Horizon (Religion  Today and Tomorrow) from the book Many Peoples, Many Faith, Women and Men in the World Religions by Robert S. Ellwood and Barbara A. McGraw.

Things Old and New

1. Some of the religions and belief systems we have looked at are very much rooted in the past, if not irrevocably locked in the past. Some of these religions may give religion a romantic patina or sprinkle it with the blood of grisly sacrifices that are all gone, thankfully they're gone.

2. The past is much simpler, more pristine or pure, the works of the Divine more evident and the moral teachings or values are clearer, somewhat.

3. As we move through time and space, as we practice and live our beliefs, it is expected that we bring along our traditions with us, continuously evolving yet staying in the past.

Will religion survive? Will God survive?

In the 18th century, the scholars and eminent voices from the "learned" circles all over the world have predicted the fading away of religion. If we look at history, as we always do in our class, "Death of god" is nothing new. We have seen how a society's religion and the gods it brings along dies or are placed on the sides when a new, more dominant and stronger "civilization" led by its mega-strong army claimed its rightful place in the conquered society.

Religion is always changing. That's a fact. Maybe subtle or the opposite, but it changes.

What are the factors affecting Religions Today?

1. Nuclear Proliferation
2. Technology
3. Ecological and Population Crises
4. Gender Inequity

Work on your reading assignments and we will continue our lecture-discussion next week.Have a great day! Be safe and my the blessing and protection of God be with you all!

Celebrating Chinese New Year 2016

It will be a long weekend, thanks to our Chinese brothers, they'll be celebrating their new year on Monday, February 8, 2016. What will you guys be doing for three days? Will you still be working at the office? Will you be travelling out of town? Will you be biking with family and friends? What will you be doing?

I will be attending to my basketball coaching and fatherhood duties this coming weekend.

University of Asia & the Pacific Men's Basketball Team will have a game on Sunday for our Summer League and will be playing against Our Lady of Fatima University at the De La Salle-Antipolo Gym. Tomorrow I'll have the whole morning to be with my HS Basketball team, training and coaching. I'll be bringing along my son M for the workouts.

Monday will be a two-game billing for my HS team....Game 2 and Game 6, it will be a killer but my boys will be up to it.

And yes, Yang Chow Restaurant called me up this week and said I won a Set Meal and I can claim it (eat it!!!) anytime. Yehey!

Going back to the topic...

For 2016, according to Chinese tradition and this website, it will be the Year of the Monkey. And better watch out, they say people born in a year of the monkey, 2016 is considered a bad year. Bad year huh? But what do they say about the monkey for the Year of the Monkey?

The Monkey is ninth of the 12 animals in the recurring 12-year Chinese zodiac cycle. Every 12 years there is a Monkey year. Monkey years are all multiples of 12 --- from 12 AD, through 1200 AS to now in 2016.