A very great hunger for The Divine Mercy
by Fr. Seraphim Michalenko, MIC
After 18 days of travel, 14 plane flights, and meetings in 8 cities, our unprecedented Divine Mercy "crusade" of the Far East came to a close.
Quite an amazing, exhausting, yet exhilarating time? That's for sure, especially since, before this, I could not possibly have imagined what God had in store for us.
What struck me most was how widely the Divine Mercy message and devotion are known, accepted, and appreciated in the far flung corners of the world. Yet, not only that! Closely connected to this awareness is the sense one gets of a very great hunger for The Divine Mercy, manifested by untold numbers of souls. So many want to enter more deeply into God's mercy.
We are witnessing the assurance in country after country that Divine Mercy is truly at the very heart of the Gospel. Divine Mercy is a shining example in the Church of what we theologians call the sensus fidelium. This means the mind, the understanding of the faithful, as authentic witnesses to genuine Catholic Faith and Tradition.
This sense of the faithful embracing Divine Mercy was so apparent on our crusade. The organizers were so dedicated with their carefully prepared venues and conference programs. The liturgies were dignified, reverent, and joyful. And everywhere we went, the participants were extremely devout with the numbers of attendees at the venues exceeding our expectations.
After our experience in the Far East, I concur with recent appraisals of the religious scene in the world, that Christianity will leave its deepest mark on the 21st century. The critical centers of the Christian world have moved decisively from Europe and North America to Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
The growing numbers of Christians are reported as jaw-dropping in these parts of the world! Consider, for example, that in the Philippines, there are more baptisms per year than in France, Spain, Italy, and Poland combined.
With the Divine Mercy message and devotion having become so widespread there, the Philippines are bound to become the source of abundant laborers for the New Evangelization of Asia. A sign of this was the establishment of a National Shrine of The Divine Mercy last November by the Catholic Bishops' Conference there. Its founder and rector took his inspiration from our National Shrine in Stockbridge, MA, 11 years earlier.
With similar developments elsewhere, the following words recorded by St. Faustina in her Diary can truly be considered prophetic: "I saw the glory of God which flows from the image. Many souls are receiving graces, although they do not speak of it openly. Even though it has met up with all sorts of vicissitudes, God is receiving glory because of it ... . The Divine Mercy will triumph over the whole world and will be worshiped by all souls" (1789).