by Brother John Raymond
The Monks of Adoration
Some of the Apostles and Evangelists make reference to God's Mercy
in the New Testament. One example of this is St. Paul reference
to God as "the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort." (II
Cor. 1,3) But let us see what the saints and others have said
about God's Mercy throughout history. The early teachers of the
Faith, known as the Fathers of the Church, say that Our Lord
saved the thief in the last hour of his life so that sinners
might never doubt God's Mercy.
St. Athanasius (d.373) wrote, "It is the great Mercy of God that
He becomes the Father of those to whom He is first the Creator."
St. Ambrose (d.397) stated, "Mercy, also, is a good thing, for it
makes men perfect, in that it imitates the perfect Father.
Nothing graces the Christian soul so much as mercy."
St. John Chrysostom (d.407) explained, "Everything that God does
is born of His Mercy and His clemency."
St. Augustine (d.430) prayed, "I confess, O Lord, that Thou art
merciful in all Thine acts. And this Saint explained that "God's
Mercy is not lacking to any of His works" Also he wrote that
"Man, created in the image of God, is not of the same nature as
God, and therefore is not His true son, but he becomes His son
through the grace of Divine Mercy." St. Augustine speaks of mercy
"flying" after him as if on wings. This same Saint referred to
the Holy Eucharist as the "Sacrament of Mercy."
St. Benedict (d.547) taught that one should "never despair of
God's mercy."
Pope St. Gregory I (d.604) asked, "Are you a sinner? Then believe
in His [God's] mercy, that you may rise."
St. Bernard (d.1153) taught that "God is not the Father of
Judgement, but only the Father of Mercy, and punishment comes
from our own selves."
St. Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) taught that God's mercy is the chief
motive of all His external activity.
St. Gertrude the Great (d.1302) was even taught the identical
chaplet to the Mercy of God as was Sr. Faustina.
St. Catherine of Siena (d.1380) prayed, "Oh, Divine Mercy!. . . On
every side which I turn my thought I find nothing but mercy."
God the Father said to her: "I gave My Word, My Only-begotten Son,
because the whole. . . human generation was corrupted. . .[that]
He might endure suffering in that self-same nature in which man
had offended. . .so He satisfied My justice and My Divine Mercy.
For My Mercy willed to make satisfaction for the sin of man and
to dispose him to that good for which I had created him. . . My
mercy is greater without any comparison than all the sins which
any creature can commit. . . it greatly displeases Me that they
should consider their sins to be greater. Despair is the sin
which is pardoned neither here nor hereafter, and it is because
despair displeases Me so much that I wish them to hope in My
mercy at the point of death, even if their life has been
disordered and wicked."
The great English writer William Shakespeare (d.1616) wrote that
"The quality of mercy is not strained, It droppeth as the gentle
rain from Heaven. . ."
St. Francis de Sales (d.1622) explained that "If God had not
created man He would still indeed have been perfect in goodness,
but He would not have been actually merciful, since mercy can
only be exercised toward the miserable. . . Our misery is the
throne of God's mercy."
Venerable Leonard Lessius (d.1623) said there were three major
works of Divine Mercy: creating and preserving the world in
existence, raising Man to a supernatural state of life with God
in the Garden of Eden and the Redemption of the fallen human race
by God's Son.
St. Margaret Mary (d.1690) was told by Our Blessed Lord, "Sinners
shall find My Heart an ocean of mercy." Fr. Sopocko (the
confessor of Sr. Faustina) said, "devotion to the Divine Mercy is
the logical consequence of devotion to the Sacred Heart of
Jesus."
http://www.ewtn.com/library/CHRIST/DIVMERCY.TXT
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