15th Dublin International Divine Mercy Conference

Held on the weekend of the 18th and 19th of February 2006 Main Hall RDS. Ballsbridge, Dublin 4

Theme was "Be it done to me according to your Word" Luke 1 :38

“Doing God's Will”

by Gerard Duff, B.A. (Theology), M.A. (Spirituality)

A very warm welcome to you all on the occasion of this year's annual Divine Mercy Conference, the theme of which is taken from the scripture passage Lk.1: 38,

“May it be done to me according to Your Word”.

The scripture passage forms part of the angelus prayer said at 12 and 6 O' Clock to commemorate the Annunciation. Reflection on the prayer indicates how Mary responded to the will of God.

Most Irish people grew up with this prayer and will be very familiar with it. When I was a boy growing up in my grandmother's house I recall her stopping when the bell rang on the radio at noon and later at six in the evening. For most people back then, God seemed to be a part of their lives and you often heard neighbors greet each other with “Soft day thank God” or “God Bless”.

My grandmother was widowed early in her marriage and had to bring up seven children, times were hard and like most people she would go short, but she told me that after dropping into the church to say a prayer for help she would meet someone who would repay something she had lent or someone who would lend a bob or two until pay day. These stories would always end with “God is good”. Many times when I came in from school she would dish me up my dinner and while I ate it, she went to sit on the stairs underneath the front window. One day I asked her what she was doing and she produced her rosary beads from under her apron and said:

“ I am just saying my few prayers son”

Saturday evenings, were a preparation for Sunday Mass, the house was polished and cleaned top to bottom in readiness. Our souls also received some spit and polish with the inquiry: Are you receiving in the morning? A veiled inquiry as to when we last went to confession and a check on weather we had attended the Monthly Solidarity.

Once when I asked her what she thought I should do in a particular circumstance she replied “Well! If it is the Will of God it won't pass you by”. My grandmother and her neighbors were people of deep faith for whom God was part of the experience of their every day lives. For them the will of God was something that they learned to trust and depend on, they never seemed to have to ask what it was, for them God was part of every day and every day was planned to include Him.

It is true to say that the fabric of their faith was woven into their every day lives. The Will of God for them came through their love for God in the way in which they made time to include Him in their lives. Arising from this faith came a love of neighbor and so it was not unusual for my grandmother, aunts, uncles and neighbors, to inquire after and visit each other during illness or to see if the other was all right. Likewise in times of celebration family, friends, and neighbors came together in community.

I have no doubt that my grandmother's quite prayers and recitation, of the Angelus instilled in her a childlike trust in God that brought her great confidence in the His Providence. Many times she would thank God for: “Small mercies as she called them”, such as that bob or two till payday, or the bit of tea lent or given, or the goodness of a friend.

Saint Faustina was also a woman of my grandmother's time who knew something about doing the will of God in her spiritual diary she writes: “The essence of virtues is the will of God. He who does the will of God faithfully, practices all the virtues. In all the circumstances my life I adore and bless the holy will of God”(D.S.F.678).

The will of God may be understood in the two great commandments “You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Lk.11: 27).

Saint Faustina understood that the only way that we would be able to do this was with Divine Mercy. She approached the fountain of God's Mercy as Jesus instructed her with childlike simplicity in order that He might teach her “spiritual childhood” (D.S.F.1480). The hallmark of spiritual childhood is “trusting,” that flows from confidence that God love us, and our desire to love Him in return. This is why Jesus approached Saint Faustina as a child in order that she learns how to trust. We to can approach Jesus asking for this same trust to be granted to us with the prayer:

“ Jesus I trust in you.”

Diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul © 1987 Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception, Stockbridge, MA 01263. www.thedivinemercy.org Used with permission and gratitude.