Divine Mercy, The Flame of Love, and Why We Pray

As we approach Divine Mercy Sunday, let’s explore the deep connection between Divine Mercy and the Flame of Love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Once again, it will bring us to that item of paramount importance: that, as the effect of grace, we come to love God and one another with God’s own love (Rom 5:5, II Peter 1:4). There is nothing more important than this (I Cor 13). Amidst the explosion of violence in the world, from Iran to Ukraine to Lebanon, to countless forgotten conflicts, to our own cities, towns, and families, we will not have peace until the effect of grace of the Flame of Love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary floods the world so that both perpetrators and victims of violence love with God’s own love. And here is our first connection.

Grace, Mercy, and Peace – the Scriptural Connection

We speak of the Flame of Love as the Movement of Grace. It is even referred to as such in the Critical Edition of the Diary: “Jesus: bring the news of my heart’s Flame of Love to . . . start the movement of grace. We will provide strength for this.” (March 24, 1963). Of course, Divine Mercy is the Movement of Mercy. Have you even noticed how these are used together in scripture?

“grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” I Timothy 1:2 NABRE
“grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” II Timothy 1:2 NABRE
“Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son in truth and love.” II John 1:3 NABRE

The Structural Connection

How do these, Divine Mercy and The Flame of Love, work together to bring about the peace that comes from loving with God’s own love? This is the structural connection. We must not underestimate either Divine Mercy or the Flame of Love and reduce them to two devotions in the Church that exist side by side. It is NOT like this:

Divine Mercy

Flame of Love

Sometimes we underestimate Divine Mercy and reduce it to just the Chaplet, the Novena, or Divine Mercy Sunday but Mercy much bigger; is God’s greatest attribute! It is far more than just the forgiveness of our sins. Perhaps the best definition of Mercy I’ve heard is from Father Chris Alar MIC, viz., that mercy is where love meets need. Remember that the goal is that we love God and one another with God’s own love. In order to do that, we needed to be created. God, who is Love, met that need in the creation and thus we see Mercy manifested in Creation: Love met our need to be created. But we then broke our relationship with God and once more, God who is Love, met our need and we see Mercy manifested in Redemption: Love met our need to be redeemed. Finally, even once redeemed, we could not love God with His own love so, once again, God who is Love, met our need and we see Mercy in Grace: the miracle of Grace to literally unite us to the life of the Trinity through union with Jesus, true God and true man. This is the structural connection between Divine Mercy and The Flame of Love, between Mercy and Grace:

The foundation of all things is Love because God IS Love. Because God is Love, He is merciful because His Love meets need and there is Mercy. Because He is merciful, He is gracious, i.e., in Mercy, His Love meets our need to be made holy by giving us Grace as Saint Faustina writes in section 1507 of her Diary: “All grace flows from mercy”. And then we see a beautiful effect – we come full circle. When we receive this Grace, we are now able to love God with His own Love – it brings us right back to the beginning, the foundation from which all things flow – the Love God is.

Perhaps this is easier to see if we portray it in the below graphic:

The Connection to Prayer

Notice we have one more step in this diagram. Once Mercy and Grace have made us capable of loving God and others with God’s own love, we have one more step to take: we ourselves become merciful when the love within us as the effect of grace meets the needs of others. “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” Luke 6:36 NABRE This brings us to the connection with prayer.

Our prayer both contributes to this process and flows from this process. What motivates our prayer? Sometimes, especially with the precarious state of our world, it may be an understandable anxiety. Sometimes, it is fear for ourselves or our loved ones. Will I lose my home? Will they lose their job? Will they recover from this serious illness? Will they divorce? Sometimes, it is desperation; there is no other hope but prayer. Sometimes God uses the fear, anxiety, and desperation to drive us to our knees.

These are acceptable places to start because prayer itself is a conduit of grace. It helps us along this path of miraculous transformation as the effect of grace into the divine nature to think, feel, act, be, live, and love as God does even if our prayer is not perfect. But, as we move along this path, it changes our prayer. If there is fear, anxiety, or desperation in our prayers, there is something not quite right. As grace more and more deeply transforms us, our prayers change from being acts of fear, anxiety, or desperation, to being acts of mercy.

We now pray, not because we fear what might happen to someone or from some sense of dread about the state of our world, country, or community, but because we see their need and, in love, wish to meet that need through prayer. We may see that someone has a financial need beyond our ability to financially help them. We know that God knows their need and how to best meet it for their eternal salvation and in the way that weaves together the lives of all those around them. But, because we see the need, our love for them awakens; mercy springs forth where love meets need, and we pray for them as an act of mercy. This brings both a powerful fervor born of love and a deep peace rooted in the trust in God that His love brings. We are no longer praying in fear or worry but in mercy.

I pray this exploration of the connection between Mercy and Grace, between The Divine Mercy and The Flame of Love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, is helpful particularly in regard to our prayer life. Let us honestly ask if our prayer is still tinged with anxiety, fear, worry, or desperation. If it is, that’s okay for now; we are on a journey of transformation. But, by that same prayer, let us open ourselves to the miraculous transformation of grace flowing from God’s mercy sprung from His infinite love and become merciful ourselves – merciful in deed and merciful in prayer. Then we will come to know and experience the full power of prayer as an expression of mercy in the peace and burning fervor of grace filled love. A most blessed Divine Mercy Sunday to you all!