“Mary, then, is the one who has the deepest knowledge of the mystery of God’s mercy. She knows its price, she knows how great it is. In this sense, we call her the Mother of mercy: our Lady of mercy, or Mother of divine mercy; in each one of these titles there is a deep theological meaning, for they express the special preparation of her soul, of her whole personality, so that she was able to perceive, through the complex events, first of Israel, then of every individual and of the whole of humanity, that mercy of which “from generation to generation” people become sharers according to the eternal design of the most Holy Trinity” (Dives in misericordia, 9).
Mary is the Gate through which Jesus – Mercy Incarnate comes into the world. The mystery of redemption begins to be realized on earth at the moment when Mary, with an open and trusting heart, says her Fiat in a response to the word that God addressed to her. In Nazareth, where she became the Mother of the Son of God, she begins to experience in a tangible way that a merciful God is faithful to His promises and that His mercy is an incomprehensible, undeserved and admirable gift.
Do I expect the word that God has for me in my daily activities?
Have I experienced in my life the fulfillment of God’s promises?
What did these promises relate to, and how did God fulfill them for me?
“Today, I felt that my Mother, my Heavenly Mother, was close by my side, though every time before Holy Communion I beg Our Lady to help me make my soul ready for the coming of Her Son, and I can distinctly feel Her protection over me. I fervently entreat Her to kindle the flame of God’s love in me, that same love which was burning in Her pure Heart at the moment when the Divine Word was made flesh” (Diary 1114).
“The third attribute is His love and mercy. And I understood that love and mercy is His greatest attribute. It unites the created with its Creator. I see that His greatest love, the infinite depth of His mercy, is in the Incarnation of the Word, in the Redemption He accomplished, and hence I learned that this is the greatest of God’s attributes” (Diary 180).
