2nd Sunday of Easter, Octave of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday
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Liturgy of the Word
Acts 2:42-47;
Ps. 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24;
1 Pt. 1:3-9;
Jn. 20:19-31.
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. At the canonization of St. Faustina on 30 April 2000 (the first Saint of the new millennium), Pope St. John Paul II named the 2nd Sunday after Easter, or the Octave of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday, a Sunday close to the celebration of the Paschal Mystery, the greatest demonstration of God’s eternal love and mercy for humanity.
“I desire that the Feast of Divine Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners” (Diary of St. Faustina).
St. Maria Faustina Kowalska is the Polish Sister whom our Lord chose to be his Apostle of Divine Mercy to the world. She was born in Poland in 1905 and entered the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy during the 1930s. She came from a poor family and had only three years of education.
Around the time of her first vows, our Lord began to reveal to her the mystery of his mercy.
Jesus gave her the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and the famous Divine Mercy image. She recorded her conversations with Jesus in her diary, “Divine Mercy in my Soul.” The Lord instructed her to have his image painted and be blessed on Divine Mercy Sunday.
The Image:
In 1931, St. Faustina saw Jesus clothed in a white garment with his right hand raised in blessing. His left hand was touching his garment in the area of the Heart, from where two large rays came forth, one red and the other pale. Jesus said to her: “Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the signature, ‘Jesus, I trust in you.’ I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish.”
According to the Lord, the two rays denote Blood and Water. The pale ray stands for the Water that makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the Blood that is the life of souls. “These two rays issued forth from the depths of my tender mercy when my agonized heart was opened by a lance on the Cross. Happy is the man who will dwell in their shelter, for the just hand of God shall not lay hold of him.”
The Chaplet of Divine Mercy: In 1935, St. Faustina saw a vision of an angel sent by God to chastise a certain city. She saw the Holy Trinity and felt the power of grace within her. She pleaded with God for mercy, and she heard interiorly, “Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world; for the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us.” As she continued this prayer, the angel could not carry out the deserved punishment.
The next day, the Lord instructed her how to recite the prayer, and later called it “the Chaplet.” The Lord instructed her to add the words “and on the whole world” after “have mercy on us.”
The Lord also said, “Whoever will recite it will receive great mercy at the hour of death.”
When this Chaplet is prayed in the presence of the dying, the Lord will serve as the Merciful Savior and not as just Judge. If a most hardened sinner prays the Chaplet, even if only once, he will receive grace from the Lord’s infinite mercy.
The novena of Chaplets begins on the ninth day before the Feast of Divine Mercy. It is appropriate to pray the Chaplet during the “Hour of Great Mercy,” 3 p.m., the time of Christ’s death on the Cross.
Today, Divine Mercy Sunday, a plenary indulgence is granted to one who goes to Confession, receives Holy Communion, and prays for the intentions of the Holy Father.
St. Faustina’s confessor, Fr. Michael Sopoćko, was the primary witness of St. Faustina’s sanctity. Of him, the Lord said to St. Faustina, “He is a priest after my own Heart; his efforts are pleasing to me.” He was beatified in 2008.
Prayer: God of everlasting mercy, who in the very recurrence of the paschal feast kindle the faith of the people you have made your own, increase, we pray, the grace you have bestowed, that all may grasp and rightly understand on what font they have been washed, by whose Spirit they have been reborn, by whose blood they have been redeemed, through the Risen Christ our Lord and merciful Savior. Amen.
