Last week, I reflected on the practice of praying the St. Michael Prayer after Mass. This week, with the Feast of Sts. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael coming on September 29, I would like to look more closely at the saint whose name our parish bears.

Recently, someone asked me about the custom of adding the words, “and for the prayers we hold quietly in our hearts,” at the end of the General Intercessions at Mass. They wondered why sometimes we say it and sometimes we do not. It is a good question, and it gives us an opportunity to return to something we reflected on a few weeks ago: the priestly role of the baptized.

Happy Easter to all of you! This weekend I will be away leading a parish retreat in North Carolina on the theme of God’s mercy. That is especially fitting, because this weekend is Divine Mercy Sunday. In those retreat talks I will be drawing from St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Aquinas teaches us that God’s mercy is not simply God feeling sorry for us. It is God acting to heal what we cannot heal ourselves. If Aquinas gives us a theology and ethics of mercy, Bernard gives us a spiritual psychology of mercy. He helps us see why so often we fail at mercy and how God can reform our hearts.