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On February 5-7, 2016, the XIII Charismatic Meetings in Ostrołęka took place, organized by the Group of Renewal in the Holy Spirit “Sail to the depth” from Ostrołęka. Each of those days had a different theme. There was prayer and singing; there were catecheses. At the end of each day, we entrusted what we discovered about ourselves and God in the Holy Mass, thanking for His favors.
The main theme of the first day was “His Mercy”.
In the first conference, the speaker – Lucyna Słup – a graduate of Polish philology and theology, psychotherapist, cooperating with the Specialist Psychological Clinic “Pracownia Dialog” in Warsaw, introduced us to “What is the mercy and forgiveness I receive?” She emphasized that man loves in a limited way and it is difficult for him to accept God’s unlimited love. Meanwhile, Mercy is the second name of Love. Therefore, it is also difficult to accept this Divine Mercy. It is announced right after the original sin of our first parents in the form of the Son of God, and it culminates on the cross, when Jesus dies for our sins, thus restoring us to God’s sonship. By asking and accepting the grace of God’s infinite Mercy, one is able to offer forgiveness to another person.
The next conferences were chaired by Katerina Lachmanova, who comes from the Czech Republic and specializes in theology of spirituality and theological anthropology, author of many books on spirituality and psychology. She taught “How can I show mercy and forgiveness to others?” She stated that life and its meaning can be described as a little time, given and given, to learn to love and to prepare for the encounter with God’s eternal Love. When a person lacks love, it can be compared to cancer…. cancer of the soul; or imagine broken blood vessels. In both cases, a person dies slowly. Therefore, it is very important to show mercy to others, that is, forgiveness and reconciliation. It often happens that a person is impeded to forgive. The speaker mentioned five of them:
1. The first one is self-crying, that is, you can say self-pity. The root of this obstacle is wounded self-love. Sensitive to everything, we collect more and more resentments: this one looked at me wrong, I could have done better, it always only affects me … .. Still something wrong, and in my heart I feel sorry for the whole world. Until I decide to give it to Jesus and accept His love, I am unable to forgive.
2. The second obstacle is false self-esteem, rooted in fear of losing others’ respect and pride. Such a person does not admit to the committed mistake and deed, he is perfect and does not need to ask for forgiveness. However, he sees, judges and criticizes the mistakes of others. He demands from others, but not necessarily from himself. It often happens that he even enters the sacrament of penance and reconciliation, but then confesses very vaguely, sometimes of the sins of others. Meanwhile, if such a person tries to stand in the face of God’s Mercy and accept this grace, if he tries to notice his weaknesses and asks for forgiveness, it turns out that in this way he can rebuild his dignity and maintain the respect of others. It is not those who strive to be perfect that inspire recognition, but those who have the courage to admit that they often fail, even though they try very hard.
3. Another obstacle to forgiveness on the basis of an ideological nature, we reject others because of ideology, our beliefs and thought patterns. Roots in this case are hatred and prejudices that block people-to-people contact and reconciliation. Meanwhile, Jesus did not say: Love your neighbor except… .. and you can insert anything here. Jesus said to love your neighbor anyway.
4. Another obstacle to forgiveness is the belief in my own righteousness, the belief that I am the only representative of God’s justice. An example is the older son from the Parable of the Merciful Father, who rebukes his father for his extravagance when welcoming his younger son. He feels that he is doing well and demands the same of his father and brother. As a consequence of such a person the heart of such a person becomes harder and is marked by excessive legalism and formalism. Most often, such a person is sad, upset, disappointed in his expectations and unhappy.
5. The final obstacle is the sense of justice that is due. The harm done demands that it be treated with justice. Meanwhile, the person suffering this harm tries to hide it somewhere deep in his heart, remain silent, pass over it to the agenda, that is, as if it was not there. Then this wound festers and prevents forgiveness and reconciliation. There is a need for such a man to stand before God and admit that he has been painfully wounded, give Him his woundedness.
Then the speaker went to the tasks that result from accepting God’s Mercy. It is the center of the Gospel, it is the name of God. Divine Mercy is like a river, it begins from the heart of Jesus and flows to every person. God’s heart is always open to man. God’s mercy is limitless. However, man can limit this divine mercy through his littleness, sin, lack of openness to God. Meanwhile, the more he distances himself from God and is limited to His reception, the greater is God’s Mercy. In her Magnificat, Mary sings: “The Almighty has done great things for me, holy is his name. And his mercy is from age to age on those who fear him.” So it is present at all times in which modern man lives. By accepting God’s Mercy, we are obliged to:
1. Accepting God’s Mercy for oneself and contemplating Him. It is thanks to the Divine Mercy that was accomplished on the Cross that we are saved. Thanks to God’s grace, we ourselves can be merciful towards others. But when we discover that we cannot perform works of mercy, we run away from God. We do not need to deserve God’s Mercy with good works of mercy. Jesus redeemed us and therefore we can be saved. It is thanks to His grace, which we accept and cooperate with, that we can be merciful towards ourselves and others. We are merciful and we perform works of mercy because we are saved.
2. Proclamation of Divine Mercy, that is, to proclaim. If we discover this Divine Mercy and accept It, we will see fruit in our lives, then we are not able to keep it only for ourselves. If we get to know God’s Mercy and admire it, we will proclaim It. Joy is so great that you have to share it and proclaim the Love and Mercy of God.
3. Updating Divine Mercy in Your Life. We stand before God here and now, with our life history, with our hurts, weaknesses and worries. It is here and now that God’s Mercy comes to us, to these worries, wounds, weaknesses, hardships, circumstances in which we live, relationships with others … It is here and now that God’s Mercy works and works in my life.
4. Calls for Divine Mercy. We have the right and the duty to invoke God’s Mercy. This law results from the fact that we are God’s children, His heirs. So what is God is also ours. So we have the right to demand His Mercy from Him. To be a child of God does not mean to be infantile, but to be aware of who I am, to “straighten up” in my dignity. After all, we are the sons and daughters of the King of the Universes. If we see the need for God’s graces, we have a duty to ask for God’s Mercy. Like Jesus, we can pray and ask with strength of faith and courage.
During the meeting, we glorified God’s Mercy with the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, singing under the leadership of the Kadosz band and with Fr. Jacek Dąbrowski, we prayed for openness to God’s Mercy, adoring the Blessed Sacrament. At the end of the meeting, a Holy Mass was presided over by Fr. Infułat Jan Sołowianiuk.
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