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DIVINE MERCY APOSTOLATE
St Peter’s Church, Padungan, Kuching, in the Archdiocese of Kuching.
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THE FEAST OF MERCY Among all of the
elements of devotion to The Divine Mercy requested by our Lord through Sr.
Faustina, the Feast of Mercy holds first place. The Lord’s will with regard to its
establishment was already made known in His first revelation to the
saint. In all, there were 14
revelations concerning the desired feast in St. Faustina’s Diary (Divine
Mercy in My Soul). The most comprehensive
revelation can be found in Diary entry 699: My daughter, tell the whole world
about My inconceivable mercy. I desire
that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and a 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 are
opened all the divine floodgates through which graces flow. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even
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 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. Our Lord’s explicit
desire is that this feast be celebrated on the first Sunday after
Easter. This Sunday is designated in
“The Liturgy of the Hours and the Celebration of the Eucharist” as the
“Octave Day of Easter.” It was
officially called the Second Sunday of Easter after the liturgical reform of
Vatican II. Now, by the Decree of the
Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the
name of this liturgical day has been changed to: “Second Sunday of Easter, or
Divine Mercy Sunday.” Pope John Paul II made
the surprise announcement of this change in his homily at the canonization of
Sr. Faustina on 30th April,
2000. There, he declared: “It is
important then that we accept the whole message that comes to us from the
word of God on this throughout the Church, will be called ‘Divine Mercy
Sunday.” By the words “the whole
message,” the Holy Father was referring to the connection between the “Easter
Mystery of the Redemption” – in other words, the suffering, death, burial,
resurrection, and ascension of Christ, followed by the sending of the Holy
Spirit – and this Feast of Divine Mercy, the Octave Day of Easter. This connection is
evident from the scripture readings appointed for this Sunday. As the Holy Father said, citing the
Responsorial Psalm of the Liturgy, “The Church sings……, as if receiving from
Christ’s lips these words of the Psalm.” “Give thanks to the Lord for tHe is
good; His steadfast love (i.e. mercy) endures forever” (Psalms 118:1). And
then, the Holy Father developed the connection further: “[This comes] from
the lips of the risen Christ, who bears the great message of Divine Mercy and
entrusts its ministry to the Apostles in the Upper Room: ‘Peace be with
you. As the Father has sent Me, even
so I send you. ……Receive the Holy Spirit.
If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the
sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:21-23). During his homily, the
Holy Father also made clear that the Image of The Divine Mercy St. Faustina
saw, which is to be venerated on Mercy Sunday, represents the Risen Christ
bringing mercy to the world. (See Diary 49, 88, 299, 341, 570, 742). The Holy Father said: “Jesus shows His
hands and His side [to the Apostles].
He points, especially the wound in His Heart, the source from which
flows the great wave of mercy poured out on humanity. “From that Heart, Sr.
Faustina Kowalska, the blessed whom from now on we will call a saint, will
see two rays of light shining from that Heart and illuminating the world:
‘The two rays,’ Jesus Himself explained to her one day, ‘represent blood and
water.’ (Diary 299) “Blood and water! We
immediately think of the testimony given by the Evangelist John, who, when a
soldier on Calvary pierced Christ’s side with his spear, sees blood and water
flowing from it (see John 19:34).
Moreover, if the blood recalls the sacrifice of the cross and the gift
of the Eucharist, the water, in Johannine symbolism, represents not only
Baptism but also the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (See John 3:5; 4:14; 7:37-39). From this teaching of
the Holy Father on that most solemn occasion of the canonization of St.
Faustina, it can be deduced that the most appropriate time for the solemn
honouring of The Divine Mercy falls immediately after the Paschal Feast of
Easter. In fact, this is fully
in accord with liturgical tradition.
St. Augustine called the eight days of Easter, referring to the
Octave, “days of mercy and pardon.”
Liturgically, these days constitute a single day or a single
celebration. In a sermon, he then
calls the Sunday of this Octave of Easter “the summary of the days of mercy.” It is no wonder, then,
that already during his pilgrimage to [St.] Faustina’s tomb on June 7, 1997,
Pope John Paul II declared: “I give thanks to Divine Providence that I have
been enabled to contribute personally to the fulfillment of Christ’s will
through the institution of the Feast of Divine Mercy.” He was referring to his approval for Mercy
Sunday to be celebrated throughout Poland; now it is being celebrated as a
universal feast with his blessing. Veneration of the Image
The Image of Jesus, The
Divine Mercy, is to have a special place of honour on the Feast of Mercy, a
visual reminder of all that Jesus did for us through His Passion, Death, and
Resurrection…. And a reminder, too, of what He asks of us in return – to
trust Him and be merciful to others: I
want the Image to be solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter, and I
want it to be venerated publicly so that every soul may know about it. (Diary
341) A Special Promise of Mercy Our
Lord’s promise to grant completer forgiveness of sins and punishment on the
Feast of Mercy is recorded three times in the Diary of St. Faustina, each
time in a slightly different way: I
want to grant a complete pardon to the souls that will go to Confession and
receive Holy Communion on the Feast of My mercy. (Diary 1109) Whoever
approaches the Fountain of Life on this day will be granted complete
forgiveness of sins and punishment. (Diary 300) The
soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion will obtain
complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. (Diary 699) Extraordinary Graces Our
Lord is also emphasizing, through this promise, the infinite value of
Confession and Communion as miracles of mercy. He wants us to realize that since the
Eucharist is His own Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, it is the “Fountain of
Life” (Diary 300). The Eucharist is
Jesus, Himself, the Living God, longing to pour Himself as Mercy into our
hearts. Why
would Our Lord feel the need to emphasize this? Because so many people do not really
understand it. They either see no need
to receive Holy Communion, or they receive it simply out of habit. As St. Paul explains in his letter to the
Corinthians, they eat the bread or drink the cupof the Lord unworthily,
“without recognizing the body of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 11:27 -29). In
His revelations to St. Faustina Our Lord makes it very clear what He is
offering us in Holy Communion and how much it hurts Him when we treat His
presence with indifference: My
great delight is to unite Myself with souls.
… When I come to a human heart in Holy Communion, My hands are full of
all kinds of graces which I want to give to the soul. But souls do not even pay any attention to
Me; they leave Me to Myself and busy themselves with other things. Oh, how sad I am that souls do not
recognize Love! They treat Me as a
dead object (Diary 1385; also see 1288 and 1447) So,
Our Lord’s promise of complete forgiveness is both a reminder and a
call. It is a reminder that He is
truly present and truly alive in the Eucharist, filled with love for us and
waiting for us to turn to Him with trust. And it is a call for us all to be washed
clean in His Love through Confession and Holy Communion – no matter how
terrible our sins – and begin our lives again. He is offering us a new start. Prepare Yourself Properly Going
to Confession is not the only way we should prepare ourselves for Divine
Mercy Sunday. As Cardinal Francis
Macharski, Archbishop of Cracow, Poland, explains in a 1985 pastoral letter,
we are not simply called to ask for God’s mercy with trust. We are also called to be merciful: “Our
own merciful attitude is likewise a preparation. Without deeds of mercy, our devotion would
not be real. For Christ does not only
reveal the mercy of God, but at the same time He places before people the
demand that they conduct themselves in life with love and mercy. The Holy Father states that this
requirement constitutes the very heart of the Gospel ethos (Rich in Mercy,3)
– it is the commandment of love and the promise: ‘Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy’ (Matthew 5:7).
Let it be a mercy that is forgiving and true, and universal, with good
words, deeds, and prayer for others!” Our
Lord’s words to St. Faustina about this requirement to be merciful are very
strong and leave no room for misinterpretation: Yes,
the first Sunday after Easter is the Feast of Mercy, but there must lso be
acts of mercy. … I demand from you
deeds of mercy, which are to arise out of love for Me. You are to show mercy to your neighbours
always and everywhere. You must not
shrink from this or try to excuse or absolve yourself from it. (Diary 742) Thus,
to fittingly observe the Feast of Mercy, we should: 1.
Celebrate the Feast on the Sunday after Easter; 2.
Sincerely repent of all our sins; 3.
Place our complete trust in Jesus; 4.
Go to Confession, preferably before that Sunday; 5.
Receive Holy Communion on the day
of the Feast; 6.
Venerate* the Image of The Divine Mercy: 7.
Be merciful to others, through our actions, words
and prayers on their behalf. *To venerate a sacred image or statue
simply means to perform some act or make some gesture of deep religious
respect toward it because of the person whom it represents – in this case,
our Most Merciful Saviour. Pope Says Mercy Is Answer Only
the mercy of God will quench the thirst of all people, Pope John Paul II told
about 50,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square on April 22, 2001, for
the first worldwide celebration of
Mercy Sunday. “Divine
Mercy! This is the Easter gift the Church receives from the risen Christ, and
offers to humanity at the dawn of the third millennium,” the Holy Father said
in his homily. Christ,
“who implores forgiveness for His torturers and opens the gates of heaven to
repentant sinners,” is a reason for hope not only for believers, but also for
non-believers, the pope said. “In
the humiliated and suffering Christ believers and non-believers can admire a
surprising solidarity which binds Him to our human condition beyond all
imaginable measure,” he added. Jesus’
love, which in the resurrection shows itself stronger than sin and death, “is
revealed and put into practice as mercy in our daily lives and prompts evry
person in turn to have ‘mercy’ towards the Crucified One,” John Paul II said. Later,
during his noontime address, the Pope gave thanks for the Apostle of Divine
Mercy. “During this celebration,
together with you, I thanked God who almost one year ago, granted me the
grace to canonize Sister Faustina Kowalska, the chosen apostle of the
merciful Christ, and to proclaim the Second Sunday of Easter as the Feast of
Divine Mercy for the entire Church.” |
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MERCY APOSTOLATE
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