Divine Mercy Sunday, and a devotion to Devotions

This is not a devotion that ever had much meaning for me... oh, I don't mean to Divine Mercy itself, I am wildly in need of that (I was going to say "desperately in need" but remembering the word's Latin roots .... well, that would be utterly un-Catholic wouldn't it?) and devoted to it, but the rigmarole of the this particular manifestation of faith in the Divine Mercy never grabbed me.
That is the point of devotions, right, you can tak'em or leav'em? (despite the adherents of many of them who flip out to find that others aren't drawn the way they are, who impugn others' Catholicism for not embracing their own pet devotion.)
But devotions are lovely, and I think I have written before that the de facto suppression of them by martinets (in roman collars and otherwise,) who completely misunderstood the concept of the Eucharist as "source and summit" have badly damaged the Church, and, the exact opposite of their intention, damaged the Eucharistic Liturgy.
Quashing events that express personal piety doesn't eliminate that expression, it merely forces it to find another venue; hence, all the nonsense that is now shoe-horned into Mass.
Imagine you thought your child or spouse was spending too much time at a hobby, instead of joining the rest of you for family meals.
Giving away his work-bench to the Goodwill may not have the intended consequence -- it is just as likely to cause you to enter the kitchen some afternoon and find the table so crowded with wood-working tools or half-built models that you can't even see the dinner plates.
I have given up trying to convince TPTB that one thing that works against them in the never-ending battle to convince the regular PIPs that Baptism DO belong at Mass, (besides the main offender, the fabrication of chopping the Rite up and spreading it out over several weeks, and several Masses, for each group of new little souls,) is that so much else that doesn't belong there crops up almost every week that the PIPs can't tell the difference.
They have no idea what is rightful and what the whim of the performers, but they can smell that it can't ALL be necessary according to the wishes of Holy Mother Church, so they reject it all!
The PIPs end up putting the Sacrament of Baptism in the same category as the "Rite of Enrollment for First Reconciliation."
Back to Divine Mercy.... I'm not sure the late JPII did not make a mistake elevating this devotion, lovely as it is, to semi-official status by calling the 2nd Sunday of Eastertide "Divine Mercy Sunday.
But that said, I am highly in favor of the devotion itself.
I grew up pretty much without devotions, except in the home... what poverty!
So while I wouldn't necessarily choose them for myself, I am thrilled that a nearby parish has recently revived a novena that began, AFAIK, during one of the World Wars, (and which would have been a great comfort during Viet Nam, for instance.)
I love the enthusiasm with which our parish belts out a, (truth be told, DREADFUL,) old hymn to one of our parish patrons at the annual novena.
I am profoundly moved, not just by the 14 Stations themselves, but by the somber fascination on the face of tiny children whose families faithfully attend during Lent.
And I am always glad to offer my services, I modestly believe that my playing helped the singing of "Good Night Sweet Jesus," a song I had never heard before, (and hope never to again,) and which would be totally out of place in virtually any other context but is a valid part of these people's prayer life.
Our Divine Mercy was well attended, and the chaplet (which I admit I find treacly as heard on EWTN, when it isn't popped up, when I find it tacky,) if chanted simply and prayerfully, is beautiful even to a snob (I'm working on that, by the way. See? I told you I needed mercy.)
And in the mysterious way that it so often does, the Church's calender seemed designed especially for me.
I had just had a long phone-call from a suffering friend. I have become a default confessor, or at least confidante, because other people who could do him more good won't talk to him.
I wish he would look into St Faustina's work... his self-abnegation goes so far it travels full circle and becomes a sort of arrogance, in his cups he tells me that something he has done is beyond forgiveness.
If only he could see!
Wow.... that sure did wander from where I wanted it to go.
But here, some links to get ready for next year, and really, for anytime -- because when is one NOT in need of Divine Mercy?
http://www.faustina.org/
http://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/mercy/index.htm
Do you think you have written enough about My mercy? What you have written is but a drop compared to the ocean. I am Love and Mercy itself. There is no misery that could be a match for My mercy, neither will misery exhaust it, because as it is being granted - it increases.