DIVINE MERCY

Recently, I have started studying the THE DIARY OF SAINT MARIA FAUSTINA KOWALSKA, whom Jesus calls the "secretary of My Mercy." In the Diary, Our Lord seems to be trying to explain to us in every way humanly possible what His Divine Mercy entails. He tells St. Faustina to write all this information down.

In this new age of Divine Mercy, wherein God is offering us the "New and Divine Holiness" referred to by Pope John Paul II, I often ask myself the eternal question, "why?" Why would Jesus offer us union with the Godhead? And why would He now be offering us a "New State of Mystical Union" reserved for our times?

Jesus gives us an answer to this question in St. Faustina's Diary. The answer is that it is because of His Divine Mercy. Jesus says: "Know my daughter, that between Me and You there is a bottomless abyss, an abyss which separates the Creator from the creature. But the abyss is filled with My mercy. I raise you up to myself, not that I have need of you, but it is solely out of mercy that I grant you the grace of union with Myself." (p. 559) And it seems to me that it is solely out of His Mercy that He now offers us this "New State of Mystical Union."

NEW AND DIVINE HOLINESS

In his book, The Splendor of Creation, the Rev. Joseph Iannuzzi refers to it as "A New State of Mystical Union." Dr. Iannuzzi is a theologian and author of four books on mystical and dogmatic theology. He has lectured internationally on the gift of the Divine Will. He calls it the "eternal mode" of mystical contemplation. I have been wondering how this eternal mode relates to what Abbot Thomas Keating calls "The Night of Self." Do any of my readers have any ideas on this subject?