06/19/2026
https://www.facebook.com/100077252386498/posts/3968996066545915/?fs=e&mibextid=wwXIfr&fs=e
THE DOCTORA AND THE HILL
In this March 26, 2016 photo, Sal Pilar read from a book of meditations for Holy Saturday at the foot of the 20-foot Cross at the Divine Mercy Shrine Encinitas as I witnessed two rays descending from the sun. Incredibly enough, Sal and his wife, both in their late 70s, who showed no signs of fatigue, made it all the way to the top of the hill unassisted to the surprise of their younger companions.
This was also the day the Doctora, who escaped death when her Benz was crushed between two semis two months before, first came to the shrine to give thanks and made it all the way up the same hill. Although seemingly frail physically, the elderly Doctora is no ordinary person. She is a retired professor of medicine with a specialization in child psychiatry at a prestigious university nearby, and her demeanor revealed a dignity and nobility to her manner that evoked a sense of awareness and anticipation of mystery about her presence at the shrine.
Meanwhile, as I look back on that day, I remember how my doubts were weighing down on me like a sack of potatoes with each step I took. Before then as we stood in the grotto another volunteer, who was also assisting Doctora, prayed aloud over her and declared, "The angels of the Lord will carry you up the hill. There will be no pain."
I struggled to think what would happen if any of our friends needed emergency assistance. But with each step I took, it seemed that I was the only one who was having trouble breathing and climbing up the hill to my consternation and shame. Everyone else seemed to be okay.
So yes, God has a sense of humor and He is right. We need to trust because the smallest doubt we may have in the power of God's mercy can only drag us down like a sack of potatoes much like our misery.
On our way down, I almost fainted when the Doctora calmly whispered in my ear, her arm in mine, that she suffered two cracked vertebrae in her lower back from her accident two months before. Her husband confided days before the visit that she was in fact paralyzed from the accident and bedridden; her gaze her only means of movement until that one morning.
"One morning she suddenly slipped out of bed, got on her feet, walked over to the image of the Divine Mercy — her eyes set upon the sweetness of the eternal gaze of Jesus — and with both hands reverently lowered it from the bedroom wall,” recalled her shocked spouse. With the image then safely in her arms, she turned to him and asked to go to daily mass. But this was not the kind of talk you would hear and believe easily -- unless like me you happen to feel the weight of your doubts like a sack of potatoes.
The hot sun seemed to have burned away every cloud of doubt I harbored earlier, blown away by the impossibility of her words that left me in awe and wonder about God's unfathomable love and tender mercy for each one of us.
With God nothing is impossible.
-- Gen, a DMHFSC volunteer
REFLECTION
ST RAPHAEL’S WORDS TO TOBIT AND TOBIAS
“Bless God and give him thanks before all the living for the good things he has done for you, by blessing and extolling his name in song. Proclaim before all with due honor the deeds of God, and do not be slack in thanking him.
A king’s secret should be kept secret, but one must declare the works of God and give thanks with due honor.” — Tobit 12:6-7
MEDITATION:
O GREATLY MERCIFUL GOD
1570 (143) O Greatly Merciful God, Infinite Goodness, today all mankind calls out from the abyss of its misery to Your mercy — to Your compassion, O God; and it is with its mighty voice of misery that it cries out. Gracious God, do not reject the prayer of this earth’s exiles!
O Lord, Goodness beyond our understanding, Who are acquainted with our misery through and through, and know that by our own power we cannot ascend to You, we implore You: anticipate us with Your grace and keep on increasing Your mercy in us, that we may faithfully do Your holy will all through our life and at death’s hour.
Let the omnipotence of Your mercy shield us from the darts of our salvation’s enemies, that we may with confidence, as Your children, await Your final coming — that day known to You alone.
And we expect to obtain everything promised us by Jesus in spite of all our wretchedness. For Jesus is our Hope: Through His merciful Heart, as through an open gate, we pass through to heaven.”
(DIARY 1570)
Excerpt From: Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska. “Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul.” Apple Books.
