Divine Mercy Sunday - Trust in God and receive his love, mercy

Each second Sunday of Easter, April 7 this year, the Catholic Church worldwide celebrates Divine Mercy Sunday, instituted by Pope Saint John Paul II on April 22, 2020. 

Inviting the faithful to trust in God’s mercy, Saint John Paul II said to 50,000 pilgrims in Saint Peter’s Square during the first celebration, “Divine Mercy! This is the Easter gift the Church receives from the Rising Christ and offers to humanity at the dawn of the third millennium.”

He said, “Only the mercy of God will quench the thirst of all people.” 

The devotion to Divine Mercy goes back to 1931, when on Feb. 22, Jesus appeared to a religious sister Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938) at the Congregation of Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Krakow, Poland, saying, “Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the signature: Jesus, I trust in You” (Diary, 47-48).

The image of Christ, with a white and a red ray coming out from his heart, highlights God’s righteousness for souls, and his blood poured out for the life of souls. “These two rays issued forth from the very depths of my tender mercy when my agonized heart was opened by a lance on the Cross” (Diary, 299).

Sister Faustina devoted her life to making the message of Divine Mercy known by her simple hidden life, inspiring people to trust in Jesus’ promise. “I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to my merciful heart” (Diary, 1588).

Due to health problems, she died at an early age of 33 leaving behind her spiritual writings which became the “Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska – Divine Mercy in My Soul.”

Beatified by Pope Saint John Paul II on Divine Mercy Sunday in 1993 in Rome and canonized also on Divine Mercy Sunday in 2000, she was declared the first saint of the new millennium and “the great apostle of Divine Mercy.”

Divine Mercy Sunday offers Catholics the opportunity to appreciate anew God’s unfathomable mercy and love and receive special blessings as Jesus promised. “By this novena (of Divine Mercy chaplets, before the Feast of Mercy), I will grant every possible grace to souls” (Diary, 796).

“Even if a sinner were most hardened, if only once he will recite this chaplet, he will obtain grace from My infinite mercy” (Diary, 687).

Jad Ziolkowska is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.



Photo: Divine Mercy Sanctuary in Krakow-Lagiewniki, Poland. Photo Jad Ziolkowska/Sooner Catholic