The Feast of Divine Mercy Sunday is occurring this weekend on 7 April.
Celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday focuses on the gift of mercy and love given through Christ’s death, burial and resurrection.
“Our goal [is] to show to the contemporary lost man the richness of God’s Mercy, from the source of which he can draw strength every day to become a more readable icon of God’s presence in today’s world,” says Fr Lukasz Mazurek, director of London’s Divine Mercy Apostolate in Ealing, which will be celebrating the Feast day with Masses and various prayers and processions throughout the day.
Today the world is “hurting” and “needs to hear the Good News of God’s Merciful love as never before,” notes the Apostolate’s website. “Therefore, we need courageous apostles of His Mercy to proclaim this message to the world.”
The main goal of the Apostolate and of the Feast of Divine Mercy “is to show the modern world the true and merciful Face of God who desires an intimate relationship with every person, especially those who [are] lost in sin”.
The message of mercy is that God loves us “all of us” no matter how great our sins, notes the Apostolate. He wants us to recognise that his mercy is greater than our sins, so that we will call upon him with trust, receive his mercy, and let it flow through us to others. Thus, all will come to share his joy. It is a message we can call to mind simply by remembering ABC.
A — Ask for his Mercy. God wants us to approach him in prayer constantly, repenting of our sins and asking him to pour his mercy out upon us and upon the whole world.
B — Be merciful. God wants us to receive his mercy and let it flow through us to others. He wants us to extend love and forgiveness to others just as he does to us.
C — Completely trust in Jesus. God wants us to know the graces of his mercy are dependent upon our trust. The more we trust in Jesus, the more we will receive.
Many different versions of the famous Divine Mercy image have been painted, but the Apostolate notes that Our Lord made it clear that the painting itself is not what is important. When Saint Faustina first saw the original image that was being painted under her direction, she wept in disappointment and complained to Jesus: “Who will paint You as beautiful as You are?” (as noted in her famous Diary entries).
In answer she heard these words: “Not in the beauty of the colour, nor of the brush lies the greatness of this image, but in My grace.”
At the request of her spiritual director, Saint Faustina asked the Lord about the meaning of the rays in the image. She heard these words in reply :
“The two rays depicted in the image denote Blood and Water. The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls. These two rays issued forth from the depths of My tender mercy when My agonised 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. By means of this image I shall grant many graces to souls. It is to be a reminder of the demands of My mercy, because even the strongest faith is of no avail without works.”
The Divine Mercy Apostolate is a part of The Association of Marian Helpers, which assists the Congregation of Marian Fathers in uniting all the faithful who want to develop spiritually, to imitate Our Lady’s life, to proclaim to the whole world the truth of Divine Mercy according to Mary’s example and under Her guidance.
“Members make themselves and their neighbours holy through prayer, penance, acts of mercy which they offer to God for the intention of the Church, for the souls suffering in purgatory and…for holy priestly and religious vocations,” notes the Apostolate.
The Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary is a fraternal community of consecrated life in the Roman Catholic Church. They are also known for their devotion to Mary Immaculate, dedication to praying for the poor souls in Purgatory, and active service to the Church.
In a series of revelations to St. Maria Faustina Kowalska in the 1930s, our Lord called for a special feast day to be celebrated on the Sunday after Easter. Today that feast is known as Divine Mercy Sunday, named by Pope St. John Paul II at the canonisation of St. Faustina on 30 April 2000.
“Divine Mercy reaches human beings through the heart of Christ crucified,” said Pope John Paul II.
(Photo: Screenshot from www.divinemercyapostolate.co.uk.)
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