A text popped up on my phone the other night, “Jesus, I trust in you.” One of my bestie’s pics popped up with her name.

“Everything ok?” I texted back. The response was not surprising, that anxieties are mounting. Sometimes, all we can do is muster a short act of faith like one prayer St. Faustina was given by Jesus, “Jesus, I trust in you.”

We are doing our best to hold on to hope these days while the news reports set our teeth on edge. The reality of such a change in our daily lives and the amount of people we see suffering from illness or job loss is shocking. We sit home feeling helpless, to do our part to avoid the spread of this virus, aptly named after the crown-shape it resembles. No mistake, my friend Susan, on her blog, Veil of Veronica , refers to the crowning of thorns that tortured our Lord during his passion. Corona…crown.

A Litany of Trust

The great hearth in the main room of the retreat center roared as one of the beautiful Nashville Dominican sisters put on more logs and poked at the embers. Even though I was on retreat this past January, I was a co-facilitator, so I wasn’t officially in silence. I was busy managing some small practical detail intently, so I barely noticed when a person quietly passed by and gently placed something before me. After pulling myself from my Walter-Mitty moment, I examined the little card. It was something called “The Litany of Trust.” I looked around for who had left this little prayer before me but everyone in my vision was in a comfy chair by the fire or overlooking the quiet wooded hills, deep in meditation with the last points from the previous talk. I tucked the prayer card into my notebook and went back to business.

The Virtue Card Tradition

The last day of the retreat, we concluded with our tradition of handing out the virtue cards for the year. One of our favorite moments of the retreat, we are randomly “assigned” a saint with special virtue for the year on which to focus, as Father blessed the cards in a basket and jokes that the Holy Spirit makes sure we get the one we need. The Dominican sisters who have been our amazing hostesses for the past five years ask us politely for any “leftover” cards as it had become one of their favorite moments as well. The cards were blessed and I distributed them. Not looking as I passed them out, the Holy Spirit takes over who gets what and everyone gives an ironic laugh at which virtue they are assigned for the year as in, “Ha. Of course this is what I got.” (Don’t need to go into God speaking to our hearts of where we can grow on this point.)

Mercy, my card was entitled with Saint Faustina Kowalska. She would be my new spiritual companion for the year. Not surprisingly, I have her diary next to my bed at home and had been reading excerpts to increase my hope throughout January as the darkest days of winter seemed to be looming ahead (I had no idea.) With the same ironic chuckle, I tucked this card next to the “Litany of Trust” card I had received earlier and packed up for home.

Placing the Litany of Trust on my bedside at home, I didn’t realize how vital this prayer would become over the next six weeks as the pandemic broke. Putting my St Faustina/Virtue card of MERCY on my little home altar, I went to pray one evening last week with the Litany. As I started to pray the Litany, I was startled by the line underneath the title “Litany of Trust”.

“Written by Sister Faustina Maria Pia, Sister of Life. sistersoflife.org The sister who wrote this litany was also inspired by my new friend, Saint Faustina.

That’s not all. Check out this video a friend sent me today. There is a prayer card from 1944 which just turned up with the Divine Mercy Chaplet which said “The Corona of Mercy” prayer card. The Crown of Mercy. Check it out. (Thanks to Padre Pio group Nashville for bringing this to our attention).

The graces of My mercy are drawn by means of one vessel only, and that is — trust. The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive (1578). –St Faustina’s Diary, Jesus to Saint Faustina

HOW I WILL ACT AND PRAY:

Every time I hear the word “CoronaVirus” I will pray “Jesus, I trust in you. Increase my trust.”

https://www.thedivinemercy.org/message/spirituality/trust

For related reading check out:

https://boscoworld.blog/2019/04/27/mercy-mercy-mercy/

https://boscoworld.blog/2019/04/19/good-friday/