Divine Mercy Sunday - message from Saint Faustina Kowalska and link to JPII

The message from Saint Faustina Kowalska is nothing new. The Divine Mercy devotion reminds us of the most fundamental teaching of Jesus Christ: repent and believe. However, the urgency of the message and connection with the Pontificate of Pope John Paul the Great should get our attention and make us reflect upon our lives.

“You will prepare the world for My final coming (Diary 429). Speak to the world about My mercy ... It is a sign for the end times. After it will come the Day of Justice. While there is still time, let them have recourse to the fountain of My mercy (Diary 848). Tell souls about this great mercy of Mine, because the awful day, the day of My justice, is near (Diary 965). 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 (Diary 1160). Before the Day of Justice, I am sending the Day of Mercy (Diary 1588). He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice” (Diary 1146).

No one knows the time of the Second Coming, but both St. Faustina and Pope John Paul II have made it very clear that we are living in a very special time of trial. Much of humanity has rejected God. We are living within the consequences of this massive apostasy.

Early in his pontificate, the newly elected Pope from Poland declared, "Right from the beginning of my ministry in St. Peter’s See in Rome, I consider this message of Divine Mercy my special task. Providence has assigned it to me in the present situation of man, the Church and the world. It could be said that precisely this situation assigned that message to me as my task before God" (November 22, 1981 at the Shrine of Merciful Love in Collevalenza, Italy).

In 1997 near Krakow, Poland, where the relics of Blessed Faustina are kept, John Paul II addressed the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy with these words: "At no time and in no historical period — especially at a moment as critical as our own — can the Church forget the prayer that is a cry for the mercy of God amid the many forms of evil which weigh upon humanity and threaten it... The more the human conscience succumbs to secularization, loses its sense of the very meaning of the word mercy, moves away from God, and distances itself from the mystery of mercy, the more the Church has the right and the duty to appeal to the God of mercy with loud cries”.

During this year’s Good Friday Stations of the Cross, Pope Benedict XVI, underscored the situation of the modern world when he said during the Seventh Station that “there is a move to reinvent mankind, to modify the very grammar of life as planned and willed by God. But, to take God’s place, without being God, is insane arrogance, a risky and dangerous venture”.

This Sunday’s gospel passage reveals to us the God of mercy. Jesus appears to his apostles for the first time and pronounces to them words of mercy: “Peace be with you” (John 20: 21). We are all sinners. All of us have something to do with the crucifixion of Jesus. It is the merciful Lord that gives us peace, and his peace comes to us because he forgives us of all of our sins. “Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those who sins you retain, they are retained” (John 20: 23). With these words, the God of mercy gives us the Sacrament of Confession. How sad and how alarming it is that many Catholics reject the sacrament of mercy.

If we do not recognize our own personal sinfulness, how can we personally experience the loving presence of the merciful Lord in our lives?

How many souls will be lost because they do not recognize their own sinfulness? How many souls will be lost because they refuse to go to the Sacrament of Confession and encounter the God of mercy?

Catholic Culture

Collect:
God of mercy, you wash away our sins in water, you give us new birth in the Spirit, and redeem us in the blood of Christ. As we celebrate Christ's resurrection increase our awareness of these blessings, and renew your gift of life within us. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

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» Easter Soup with Leftover Lamb

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April 23, 2006

Divine Mercy Sunday

"I shall sing forever the Lord's mercy." (Ps 89 [88]) This Sunday is popularly known as Mercy of God Sunday. Between 1930 and 1938 Christ appeared to Sister Faustina, a Sister of Mercy in Poland who initiated the Divine Mercy devotion. She was canonized on April 30, 2000, the Sunday after Easter, the Feast of Divine Mercy. On Good Friday, 1937, Jesus requested that Blessed Faustina make a special novena before the Feast of Mercy, from Good Friday through the following Saturday. Jesus also asked that a picture be painted according to the vision of Himself as the fountain of mercy. He gave her a chaplet to be recited and said that it was appropriate to pray the chaplet at three o'clock each afternoon (the Hour of Great Mercy).

The last stational procession is held at the Church of St. Pancras. Those newly baptized are now full fledged members of the Christian community. This church is most appropriate since St. Pancras was a young man of fourteen who sealed his baptismal promises with his blood.

Jesus to Sr. Faustina

On one occasion, I heard these words: My daughter, tell the whole world about My inconceivable mercy. I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day all the divine floodgates through which grace flow are opened. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity. Everything that exists has come forth from the very depths of My most tender mercy. Every soul in its relation to Me will contemplate My love and mercy throughout eternity. The Feast of Mercy emerged from My very depths of tenderness. It is My desire that it be solemnly celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter. Mankind will not have peace until it turns to the Fount of My Mercy.

[Let] the greatest sinners place their trust in My mercy. They have the right before others to trust in the abyss of My mercy. My daughter, write about My mercy towards tormented souls. Souls that make an appeal to My mercy delight Me. To such souls I grant even more graces than they ask. I cannot punish even the greatest sinner if he makes an appeal to My compassion, but on the contrary, I justify him in My unfathomable and inscrutable mercy. 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.

From all My wounds, like from streams, mercy flows for souls, but the wound in My Heart is the fountain of unfathomable mercy. From this fountain spring all graces for souls. The flames of compassion burn Me. I desire greatly to pour them out upon souls. Speak to the whole world about My mercy.

Excerpted from Diary of Sr. M. Faustina Kowalska.

Things to Do:

Read the Apostolic Peniteniary Decree on the Indulgences attached to devotions in honour of Divine Mercy

Read Dives in misericordia, the encyclical Letter of John Paul II on Mercy.

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