Today is Divine Mercy Sunday
Pope Saint John Paul II first inserted today’s feast into the Roman calendar on April 30, 2000, the canonization day of Saint Faustina. Saint Pope John Paul II was also canonized on Divine Mercy Sunday in 2014.
And so the Church’s third millennium was launched with a new devotion that quickly eclipsed many older ones, a new piety rooted in the most ancient truths, a fresh appeal to a side of God that had not been fully understood in prior ages. Divine Mercy has been described as the new face of God for the third millennium, a postmodern Sacred Heart.
During the 1930’s, Jesus revealed the depths of his merciful love for mankind to Sister Faustina, a Polish Nun. Among the messages Sister Faustina received was a devotion known as the Divine Mercy Chaplet and a novena (nine days) of prayer to be offered from Good Friday through the first week of Easter.
Through Sister – now Saint – Faustina, Jesus said, “I desire that during these nine days you bring souls to the fountain of my mercy, that they may draw there from strength and refreshment and whatever grace they have need of in the hardships of life.” (Diary, 1209). We celebrate the mercy of the Lord in a special way today on this Second Sunday of Easter, known also as “Divine Mercy Sunday.”
Father Devlin
