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INSPIRATIONS

The message of Christ's mercy is a message for the new millennium as the Holy Father said “ We do not know what the years ahead will bring us, but the light of Divine Mercy will illumine the way for the men and women of the third millennium”.

It was a festive day at the St. Peter’s Square as the whole nation witnessed the canonization of the first saint for the Jubilee Year and the Holy Father’s announcement that the Sunday after Easter would be known as “Divine Mercy Sunday.”

It all started in 1905 in a small village in Poland when a girl by the name of Helen Kowalska was born. At the age of 7, Helen has already received the message from the Lord to live a life of holiness.

In 1926, Helen receives the habit and her new name: Sister Maria Faustina of the Most Blessed Sacrament. The events in the life of Sis. Faustina were scribbled in her diary. Through a vision, the Lord commissioned Sis. Faustina to paint an image, according the pattern she beholds. Our Lord frequently appeared to Faustina as a little child. Jesus told her that He wanted her to learn the lesson of spiritual childhood: to learn to approach God with humility and trust as a little child would. In 1938, after long sufferings borne with great patience, Sis. Faustina goes to the Lord for her reward. She died of tuberculosis at age 33.

The message and devotion to the Divine Mercy were made known through Sis. Faustina’s writings. She left behind a diary in which she recorded her mystical experiences – in particular Jesus Christ’s desire that the world accept His unlimited mercy. After her death, sisters of her religious community began to transcribe and make known excerpts from her spiritual Diary. However, errors and inaccuracies in its translations caused Church authorities to prohibit their spread. Through the people of his Archdiocese in Cracow, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla (now Pope John Paul II) opened the process of examining Sis. Faustina’s heroic virtues in 1965. The report on her writings stated that anyone who lived according to the writings of Sis. Faustina would achieve a high degree of sanctity. The revelations expressed in her writings proved that the message could only come from a supernatural “heavenly source.” The Diary was then considered a great mystical work and the prohibition to spread the message was lifted in April 1978.

Sis. Faustina’s message of God’s mercy is one of Hope – especially for those in despair. Jesus wanted not only to do works of mercy, but to spread this message to the entire world. Her canonization shows the truth of God’s tender care for us at the most miserable times with hope that the world is going to hear and embrace – not only to trust more in the Lord, but that we, in turn, be merciful toward one another. In his homily during the Jubilee Year celebration, Pope John Paul II expressed the sentiment that “Mankind will not have peace until it turn with trust to My mercy” (as written in Sis. Faustina’s Diary, 300).

We invite everybody to join in the devotion to the Divine Mercy as we pray:

You died Jesus, but the source of life flowed out for souls and the ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world. O fountain of life, immeasurable Divine Mercy, cover the whole world and empty yourself out upon us. O Blood and Water which flowed out from the heart of Jesus as a fountain of mercy for us, I trust in You.

Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and the whole world (3x) Amen. Jesus King of Mercy, we trust in You!

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* Extracted from the Association of Marian Helpers Bulletin, Summer 2000 Edition