The underlying message of the Gospel is the promise of God’s abundant love and mercy which is offered to even the worst sinners.
A special devotion and message of Divine Mercy began in the 1930s when Jesus appeared to a Polish nun who wrote about the encounters in her diary.
Jesus asked Sister Mary Faustina Kowalska to paint the now familiar image of how Jesus appeared to her and which reminds us that Jesus always comes to us asking us to place our trust in Him.
During her encounters, St. Faustina received a special prayer from Jesus that promises great graces when asking God’s mercy for us and for the whole world.
A powerful Divine Mercy novena is also prayed using this chaplet, popularly prayed for nine days and starting on Good Friday. Another special prayer is prayed at 3:00 PM, when Jesus died for us on the Cross.
Jesus also asked St. Faustina for a special feast, which was established by Pope John Paul II in 2000. Divine Mercy Sunday is now celebrated by the Church on the Sunday after Easter.
A message of mercy:
Presenting the theme of mercy in a whole new way:
Making all of us missionaries of mercy:
“His mercy is from age to age to those who fear Him. He has shown might with his arm, dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart. He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly. The hungry He has filled with good things; the rich He has sent away empty. He has helped Israel his servant, remembering his mercy, according to his promise to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
Luke 1: 50-55
The visions of a young nun:
Understanding and living out mercy:
An image that brings a deeper appreciation of God’s mercy:
In life we go forward tentatively, uncertainly, like a toddler who takes a few steps and falls; a few steps more and falls again, yet each time his father puts him back on his feet. The hand that always puts us back on our feet is mercy: God knows that without mercy we will remain on the ground, that in order to keep walking, we need to be put back on our feet. You may object: “But I keep falling!”. The Lord knows this and he is always ready to raise you up. He does not want us to keep thinking about our failings; rather, He wants us to look to Him. For when we fall, He sees children needing to be put back on their feet; in our failings He sees children in need of his merciful love. Today, in this church that has become a shrine of mercy in Rome, and on this Sunday that Saint John Paul II dedicated to Divine Mercy twenty years ago, we confidently welcome this message. Jesus said to Saint Faustina: “I am love and mercy itself; there is no human misery that could measure up to my mercy.”
Pope Francis, Homily, 19 April 2020
Sources of Divine Mercy:
The Gospel is the revelation in Jesus Christ of God’s mercy to sinners. The angel announced to Joseph: “You shall call his name Jesus, for He will save his people from their sins.” The same is true of the Eucharist, the sacrament of redemption: “This is my Blood of the Covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1846
A call to be merciful in a merciless world:
Receiving the graces of Divine Mercy Sunday:
The devotional aspects of the message of Divine Mercy:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
You didn’t have to exist:
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