Posted on 02/22/2006 10:46:51 AM PST by NYer
by Robert R. Allard, Director
Apostles of Divine Mercy
75th Anniversary of the appearance of Jesus to St. Faustina, February 22nd 2006
Everywhere you turn, people are talking about Divine Mercy! Hurricanes, Floods, Tsunamis, Global Warming, and Fires. Hardly an article can be written about any of these events without the thought of the Second Coming of Jesus and Divine Chastisement.
Today marks a very significant date for all mankind. Seventy-five years ago on February 22nd 1931 Jesus appeared to St. Faustina as The Divine Mercy with a special mission for her. He told her to paint an image as she witnessed Him with two rays of light streaming from His heart, one red and the other pale like water and to sign it “Jesus, I trust in You”.
Jesus spent the next seven years speaking to her about His mercy and asked her to record His words in a diary, which she named “Divine Mercy in My Soul”. He made known to her that it was her job to prepare the world for His final coming. Jesus told her: “Write: before I come as a just Judge, I first open wide the door of My mercy. He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice…”(Diary 1146)
“I am prolonging the time of mercy for the sake of sinners. But woe to them if they do not recognize this time of My visitation. In the Old Covenant I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to My people. Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart. I use punishment when they themselves force me to do so; My hand is reluctant to take hold of the sword of justice. Before the Day of Justice I am sending the Day of Mercy”(Diary 1588).
The Blessed Virgin Mary also spoke to Faustina about the Second Coming “I gave the savior to the world; as for you, you have to speak to the world about His great mercy and prepare the world for the Second Coming of Him who will come, not as a merciful Savior, but as a just Judge. Oh how terrible is that day! Determined is the day of justice, the day of divine wrath. The angels tremble before it. Speak to souls about this great mercy while it is still time for granting mercy. If you keep silent now, you will be answering for a great number of souls on that terrible day. Fear nothing. Be faithful to the end. I sympathize with you” (Diary 635).
Pope John Paul the Great, by Divine Providence, was immersed in the message of Divine Mercy at an early age and commented that it was “his job given to him by God to bring this message to the world”. He later said “I give thanks to Divine Providence that I have been enabled to fulfill the will of Christ by instituting the Feast of Divine Mercy”(Visit to Poland ).
The diary has more than 14 entries where Jesus had requested that a Feast of Mercy be established in the Church as a “Last hope of Salvation”. Pope John Paul established the feast as Divine Mercy Sunday during the canonization in Rome of Saint Faustina in the Jubilee Year 2000 as the first saint in the new millennium!
Jesus told Faustina that “from [Poland] will come forth a spark that will prepare the world for My final coming” (Diary 1732). No doubt, this was Pope John Paul, who not only established the feast requested by Jesus, but issued an unprecedented special plenary indulgence and specified, as the duties of priests, the proclamation of that plenary indulgence to all humanity.
If this wasn’t proof enough of God’s Providence in the matter, our beloved Pope passed into heaven on the Vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday after celebrating that feast and participating in the requirements of obtaining the plenary indulgence!
Jesus told Faustina “Before the day of justice arrives, there will be given to people a sign in the heavens of this sort:”
“All light in the heavens will be extinguished, and there will be great darkness over the whole earth. Then the sign of the cross will be seen in the sky, and from the openings where the hands and the feet of the Savior were nailed will come forth great lights which will light up the earth for a period of time. This will take place shortly before the last day” (Diary 83).
The Image of the Divine Mercy is central to entire message of Divine Mercy and has a special importance by being displayed in churches, especially on the Feast of Divine Mercy.
Jesus related several times the importance of the image on the feast. He said “I desire that there be a Feast of Mercy. I want this image, which you will paint with a brush, to be solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter; that Sunday is to be the Feast of Mercy” (Diary 49).
One day St. Faustina said to Our Lord “They tell me that there is already such a feast and so why should I talk about it?” Jesus answered “And who knows anything about this feast? No one! Even those who should be proclaiming My mercy and teaching people about it often do not know about it themselves. That is why I want the image to be solemnly blessed on the First Sunday after Easter, and want it to be venerated publicly so that every soul may know about it” (Diary 340).
Pope Benedict XVI also supports the Image of Divine Mercy in his book “The Spirit of the Liturgy”. In it he explains the importance of images in the liturgy and goes on to say that the perfect image must represent the Paschal Mystery and also include a message of hope in preparation for the Second Coming of Jesus!
The Divine Mercy image perfectly suites the recommendations of a perfect icon for not only Divine Mercy Sunday, but for every liturgy as well. Pope Benedict talked of the shameful stripping of sacred images in churches during the twentieth century. If you haven’t read the book yet, buy one and read the section on images.
Churches throughout the world that have permanently installed Divine Mercy images are benefiting greatly. Jesus surely knew what He was doing when He gave us this image. It is exactly what mankind will need to maintain its hope in the years ahead through chastisements and natural disasters that are inevitable. If it is true that a picture has a thousand words, then this one has untold millions!
Jesus said “The two rays denote Blood and Water. The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the life of souls. These two rays issued forth from the very depths of My tender mercy when My agonized Heart was opened by a lance on the cross… Happy is the one who will dwell in their shelter, for the just hand of God shall not lay hold of him” (Diary 299).
Robert R. Allard, Director
Apostles of Divine Mercy
Jesus, may I put my trust in Thee!
Have you read her Diary? Just amazing!
I have a copy, and I've read parts of it.
Great post. However reading it today certaintly makes me wish I had gone to confession on Saturday. I guess its the truth of it coupled with the uneasy times.
The image at my desk too. I didn't realize that the appearance happened on the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter. Wonder if there was a significance to that.
Thanks for that post! I'll have to add her book to my growing list. Look forward to reading it.
With God, there are no coincidences.
If you have not yet done so, I recommend reading her diary. One of the events that got me laughing occured while Faustina was visiting a different convent. The Mother Superior decided to send her and another Sister to a local pilgrimage site. Faustina was looking forward to the outing. Jesus told her not to go, and she asked him, "Why not?". Can you imagine asking God such a question! It made me smile.
Wow - I had no idea. I've been re-reading the Diary with my wife every evening for the last two weeks.
I see every religion has its Joseph Smiths.
Nice. Who's yours?
You have a unique understanding, certainly not a Catholic one, of how to become a member of His church.
Maybe you'd better take that up with St. Paul...you know, the guy who had that Damascus Road Experience.
Meantime, there is no parallel here with Joseph Smith. St. Faustina did not start a religion with her revelations. Indeed, due to initial misunderstanding, the religion to which she did belong put the squash on her private revelations for decades. It was hardly solicited by the Catholic Church, and took decades to gain real recognition.
"Private revelation," so-called, which is what all modern time apparitions are, does not have to be believed or acted on by any Catholic for good standing in the Church. That is certainly the case here. Despite this, it is churlish and self-important arrogance for any Catholic to simply dismiss them all in the face of credible evidence. With some of the apparitions, given the extensive investigations of the external evidence they provide, it would serve any *Christian* well (Catholic or not) to seriously consider those apparitions the Church acknowledges are credible ("approved").
For instance, Fatima, where, on October 13, 1917, 70,000+ people simultaneously saw the "Miracle of the Sun" as a culmination to several visits of the Virgin Mary to three small shepherd children. A number of people also saw the apparition, though separated by many miles from the main body of people. An anti-Christian, anti-clerical Lisbon daily, "O Seculo," sent reporters to scoff at the "superstitious nonsense." Seeing what everyone else saw, they were quite badly shaken by the experience. It has been said of them that "They came to scoff and stayed to pray." They courageously wrote about what they experienced in their paper, which courageously published it, to the consternation of the readership. If you read Portuguese, you can see the accounts for yourself. If you can only read Spanish, you can still figure it out. The messages conveyed at Fatima spoke of things which came to pass, largely fulfilled by WW II and its political circumstances and aftermath.
Or Lourdes, the town in France in which the Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette Soubirous some 20 times in 1858, leaving behind a curing spring which has left a goodly number of scientifically inexplicable cures in its wake. St. Bernadette herself remains something of a miracle. I happen to be looking at my indult Latin Mass calendar right now for February. There's a 6x8 picture of St. Bernadette right there at the top of the fold. The picture is a recent one. She died in 1879. She looks like she's merely sleeping. Discern the implications...
You must have the parchment-colored calendar with the "Old Calendar" feast days.
Er...that would be correct! ;-)
Actually, my wife and I are tasked with selling them at our church each year, so we're pretty much guaranteed a copy.
Speaking of our church, if I may make so bold as to ask for prayers, our church is slated for closure and sale at the end of next month. The indult Latin Mass community and the Germans to whom the current church belongs have no viable relocation venue. Not only is the demolition of a beautiful Gothic interior church at stake, but possibly the indult Latin Mass in the Archdiocese of Boston, as well. We need a minor miracle. We have staved off two previous deadlines. We'd like to have "closure" by permanently remaining "unclosed." So your prayers are requested.
Thanks!
Sounds like Faustina had a little too much vino that night.
I've visited Holy Trinity once, about 2 and a half years ago. It's a beautiful church. I hope it stays open.
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