Jul
10
2013
0
By Anonymous (not verified)
By Mark Endres
Each Saturday night, college students nationwide can be found partying, which often involves binge drinking and other excesses.
So imagine this: Students at a house party reach for beer and come face to face with an image of Divine Mercy. You may be happy to know partying students have experienced this at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, ranked one of the "best party" schools in the nation.
In light of that, I was encouraged when my youngest son, a freshman there, recently sent me a photo he took at a college house party. The photo was of a Divine Mercy image hanging on the refrigerator door where the beer was being kept cold. That must have been a pretty startling sight for partiers reaching for a Miller-Lite.
There's no way of knowing what sort of graces Jesus had in store for those students. Maybe seeing the face of Jesus looking upon them with love and mercy kept them from committing sexual sin that evening. Maybe a young woman, agonizing over an unwanted pregnancy, and who sought to drown her sorrows through alcohol, instead was stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the image. Maybe she even mouthed the words written at the bottom of the image, "Jesus, I Trust in You." Maybe instead of an adult beverage, she found "eternal drink," as Jesus says in John 4:13.
If so, may she never thirst again.
What we can be assured of is that Jesus keeps His promises. He tells us through St. Faustina, "By means of this Image I shall be granting many graces to souls; so let every soul have access to it" (Diary of St. Faustina, 570).
How wonderful for students to be introduced to the Divine Mercy image in such a "public," seemingly incongruous, place as a house party on a college campus.
When we learn of the special graces Jesus promises us through this image, it's a wonder it isn't plastered to every refrigerator, every wall, every bus, and every billboard on the planet.
Someday, maybe.
When we think how much we need His mercy, it's a sobering thought, indeed.
Mark Endres lives in Madison, Wis.
Each Saturday night, college students nationwide can be found partying, which often involves binge drinking and other excesses.
So imagine this: Students at a house party reach for beer and come face to face with an image of Divine Mercy. You may be happy to know partying students have experienced this at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, ranked one of the "best party" schools in the nation.
In light of that, I was encouraged when my youngest son, a freshman there, recently sent me a photo he took at a college house party. The photo was of a Divine Mercy image hanging on the refrigerator door where the beer was being kept cold. That must have been a pretty startling sight for partiers reaching for a Miller-Lite.
There's no way of knowing what sort of graces Jesus had in store for those students. Maybe seeing the face of Jesus looking upon them with love and mercy kept them from committing sexual sin that evening. Maybe a young woman, agonizing over an unwanted pregnancy, and who sought to drown her sorrows through alcohol, instead was stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the image. Maybe she even mouthed the words written at the bottom of the image, "Jesus, I Trust in You." Maybe instead of an adult beverage, she found "eternal drink," as Jesus says in John 4:13.
If so, may she never thirst again.
What we can be assured of is that Jesus keeps His promises. He tells us through St. Faustina, "By means of this Image I shall be granting many graces to souls; so let every soul have access to it" (Diary of St. Faustina, 570).
How wonderful for students to be introduced to the Divine Mercy image in such a "public," seemingly incongruous, place as a house party on a college campus.
When we learn of the special graces Jesus promises us through this image, it's a wonder it isn't plastered to every refrigerator, every wall, every bus, and every billboard on the planet.
Someday, maybe.
When we think how much we need His mercy, it's a sobering thought, indeed.
Mark Endres lives in Madison, Wis.
DMIX
