The week begins with the memorial of St Faustina Kowalska, the early-20th-century Polish nun with whom the Divine Mercy devotion began. Pope St John Paul II, who canonised her in 2000, died five years later on the eve of the feast of Divine Mercy which he had established (the Sunday after Easter).
Tuesday is the optional memorial of St Bruno of Cologne, who founded the Carthusian order. After his death in 1101, his brethren said of him: “His face was always joyful, and he was modest of tongue; he led with the authority of a father and the tenderness of a mother. No one found him too proud, but gentle like a lamb.” The story of Mary and Martha in the Gospel that day, Luke 10:38-42, gives us an insight into the importance of the contemplative vocation. The meditation, by Sister Ruth Burrows OCD (see page 102), links this Gospel to the one of the day before (Luke 10:25-37):
