Linda's Divine Mercy Blessings

By Marc Massery

In 1997, after Charlie Bolcer proposed to his future wife Linda, both prayed separately to ask the Lord exactly when they should become wed.

"Separately, we got the inspiration we should get married on the eve of Divine Mercy [Sunday]," Linda said. She didn't realize it then, but that "coincidence" was a sign of blessings to come.

Let's take a look at a few examples.

Divine Mercy saves a marriage
At that time, Linda's youngest brother and his pregnant wife had become separated. "They were irreconcilable," Linda said. "My brother said there was no way he would go back to her. My heart was broken because my sister-in-law was pregnant."

Linda and Charlie decided to pray the Divine Mercy Novena for a reconciliation. So, they began the novena on Good Friday and ended the next Saturday, their wedding day.

Their wedding reception ended at midnight that Saturday. The following morning, Linda and Charlie woke up at 4 a.m. and boarded a bus from Cranford, New Jersey, where they live, to the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. There, they celebrated Divine Mercy Sunday. That evening also happened to be daylight savings time, so they lost an additional hour of sleep just to spend their wedding weekend in prayer to Divine Mercy.

Later that same month, Linda and Charlie visited their native Philippines. "We were at the table eating dinner, and my baby brother came to me and my husband and said, 'I need to ask you a big favor.

I want you to accompany me while I go reconcile with my wife,'" Linda recalled.

At this request, Linda remembers watching her husband Charlie start to tear up. "It was amazing to see answered prayers in the same month to a novena we just did," Linda said. "They have been reconciled since then, and they are deeply devoted to Divine Mercy."

Divine Mercy cures cancer
A few months later, Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer. "I found out later that it was stage 4," Linda said. "But I was so at peace. I never cried, I never shed a tear. I knew in my heart the Lord would heal me."

Though Linda was confident the Lord would heal her, she was scheduled to meet with her surgeon in one month's time. Every morning that month, Linda would ask the Lord to speak to her through Scripture. "Every time I opened my Bible, it was everything about healing, for one month," Linda said.

Though God doesn't always give the grace of physical healing, He did in her case. In thanksgiving, Linda decided to make yearly pilgrimages to a Marian shrine. Three times, she and her husband went to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in Mexico City.

"On the first year that we went, before we left for Mexico, my husband had a skin biopsy," Linda said. The doctor told Charlie that it was cancerous, and that if he valued his life, he would come back for treatment soon. Charlie said, "I was so at peace because we learned of the message of Our Lady to St. Juan Diego: 'Do not fear about anything because you are in the folds of my mantle.' I went to bed so much in peace. I didn't worry."

The doctor took a biopsy when Charlie returned. "And of course, he was fine. He didn't even need any treatment," Linda said.

Divine Mercy saves a life
A few years later, Linda gave her younger brother a Divine Mercy Image, which she had touched to St. Faustina's tomb in Poland.

"Then some years later, I don't know what year, there was a coworker of my sister-in-law who was dying," Linda said. "So, my brother visited that dying lady and offered that image to the family of the dying woman. And she got healed! Later, my sister-in-law put this woman on the phone because she wanted to meet with me just to thank me. I said, 'No, thank the Lord, and do whatever you can do to spread the message of Divine Mercy.'"

BCBB

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On the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (June 16), we ask, "What is the difference between the devotion of the Sacred Heart and the Divine Mercy message?"

We will not presume to outline here the whole teaching of St. Catherine's masterpiece, The Dialogue. Rather we will focus on the theme of Divine Mercy as it appears in the book.

"Our Lady, I know that you are very gracious and cannot help loving us whom your Son and your God has loved with the greatest love. Who can tell how often you allay the ire of the Judge when the virtue of divine justice is about to strike?"