The quality of mercy.

Happy Easter to our Orthodox brethren!

Meanwhile, on the Roman side of things, today is Divine Mercy Sunday, which is a very helpful day indeed.

Celebrated the first Sunday after Easter Sunday since AD 2000, this day is a chance for Catholics to really set things right. For some, it is a glorious example of the boundless mercy of God, as revealed by Jesus to St. Faustina. For others, it's a makeup exam after flunking Lent.

How does it work? Well, at my parish there will be a celebration this afternoon featuring veneration of the famous picture of Jesus and the Sacred Heart (the Divine Mercy Image), with Reconciliation (Confession to you old-timers), exposition and benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, and recitation of the Divine Mercy Chaplet.

I'll just pop down to the neighborhood chapel.

The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy is particularly potent, as Jesus has promised mercy even to hardened sinners who pray it. A chaplet sounds like an olde-tyme cape, or a little teeny church, or a short British gentleman, but it is defined as a "part of a rosary featuring five decades." And as a wreath worn around the head. And "a small molding carved with small decorative forms." English is weird.

Anyway, sounds like a good deal, right? It's even better than that. Because we don't just pray for ourselves, but for every human being on the planet. In the rosary, in place of the 50 Hail Marys, we pray, "For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world." That means all of us palookas, every one. And we need it.

Of course I have a commitment I must attend to during our parish ceremony, so I'm going to miss it. It's a pity, because that mercy sounds like something I could definitely use. For the times I've been cross and angry and yelling at my dogs or at people (the dogs, at least, usually don't deserve it), for the times I have gotten mad at parishioners driving the wrong way in the church parking lot (it's not that hard, folks!), for the times I have asked St. Celestinia, patron of asteroids, to send just a couple of wee little meteorites down on the heads of mine enemies, for these things and others I could use me some mercy. It doesn't even have to be totally divine; just, like, 80 proof divine would be great.

And I could use some divine education. Imagine how embarrassed I was to find out there's no St. Celestinia! No wonder I got no meteorites.