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(Acts 4:32-35;\xa0\xa0 Ps.118:1-4,16-18,22-24;\xa0\xa0 1Jn.5:1-6;\xa0\xa0 Jn.20:19-31) \u201cHis mercy endures forever.\u201d Our psalmist \u201cwas hard pressed and was falling, but the Lord helped\u201d him.\xa0 The disciples were locked in their rooms for fear, but \u201cJesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, \u2018Peace be with you.\u2019\u201d\xa0 Thomas was hardened in unbelief, but His God appeared to him and said, \u201cBring your hand and put it into my side.\u201d\xa0 We are all sinners, but to us each, Christ offers mercy. From that side into which Thomas placed his hand \u201cblood and water\u201d poured forth for the cleansing of souls and the realization of new life.\xa0 The institution of Baptism and the Eucharist had come, and so the Church is born from the side of its Savior.\xa0 And so all souls are justified; and so all souls find new life.\xa0 And so all of the \u201ccommunity of believers\u201d become \u201cof one heart and mind.\u201d This is Divine Mercy Sunday, so proclaimed by the Spirit who testifies through Holy Church, and that to which the Spirit testifies is truth.\xa0 God\u2019s encompassing mercy our Mother and our Lord would have us celebrate this day \u2013 of that which Jesus thirsts to share with us, she and He would have us drink.\xa0 Let none be unbelieving.\xa0 Let none despair.\xa0 Let all be blessed to own that faith which \u201cconquers the world,\u201d that makes us \u201cchildren of God.\u201d\xa0 The Lord is ready to forgive men\u2019s sins; He is desirous of this above all things.\xa0 He has given power to His disciples to forgive in His name\u2026\xa0 Let all come and share in His mercy. Let us love God and one another, my brothers and sisters.\xa0 Let us love the Father by accepting the grace that comes from His Son, and let us love one another by sharing that grace and mercy with everyone.\xa0 We keep His Word when we share in His mercy, when we swim in the ocean of love the water and blood from His side create.\xa0 And new life will be our own as it was for the first disciples; there is nothing lacking for \u201cthose who have not seen but believed.\u201d\xa0 In fact, more blessed may we be now, for we must have the greater faith. Forever the Lord\u2019s mercy endures.\xa0 Every day it is poured forth.\xa0 And today we declare in truth its great graces, that all might be one in the Lord. Written, read & chanted, and produced by James Kurt. Music: "Cleansing" from Cleansing Human Frailty, fourth album of Songs for Children of Light, by James Kurt. ******* O LORD, your risen Son stands before us and calls us to touch His hands and enter into the wounds in His side that we might believe in Him and be cleansed of sin. YHWH, Jesus is the Christ, your only Son: let us believe in the preaching of the apostles and become one in His Name.\xa0 May all have their sins forgiven, their doubt washed away in His blood, that all might declare with Thomas, \u201cMy LORD and my God!\u201d Jesus is God as you are God, O LORD, and we desire to be one with you by the grace and mercy that come to us through His death and resurrection.\xa0 If we had but faith in Him, we would conquer the world; all sin falls by the wayside when His Spirit is upon us, and we can but shout in victory at the glory in our midst. O may His peace indeed be with us, the peace which passes not away, the peace that comes to us in the Breath of the Holy Spirit.\xa0 O LORD, let His nail marks be in our hands and His wound in our side that your love we might know to the depths of our souls.