What a wonderful week of beautiful spring weather we had to celebrate the Ressurection of Our Lord! As we are preparing for our youth formation night this coming Thursday, I thought I'd post a little something before we send a new Flocknote.
The second Sunday of Easter is known as Divine Mercy Sunday, and after mass, we received the info card about praying the Chaplet , and read a bit more about it in the bulletin this week. I thought a follow up about it's very recent history might be helpful:
God’s mercy and love for us is so great. Christ died on the cross–suffered painfully on the cross–so that we could find union with him and forgiveness for all our sins. Yet, experiencing and grasping this can be so incredibly hard. God is merciful, but it can be a challenge to recognize, experience, and welcome that mercy into our lives. The devotion to the Divine Mercy and all that it entails is a great way to experience God’s infinite mercy for us.
Divine Mercy History
In Poland during the 1930’s, a young, uneducated nun received a series of revelations from the Lord Jesus. Despite her lack of education, her spiritual director asked her to record these revelations in a series of notebooks which are today known as the Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska. The message of Divine Mercy which St. Faustina revealed, is not new (Christianity has always proclaimed God’s saving mercy), but her diary sparked a movement that inspired Pope John Paul II to canonize her as the first saint of the new millennium and to officially recognize the Sunday after Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday.
Divine Mercy Message
The message of Divine Mercy is that God loves us–all of us. We can forgive ourselves for our sins because God’s mercy is so much greater than any of our faults. The revelation passed on by St. Faustina leads us to ask for God’s mercy, to be merciful people, and always trust in Jesus.
Divine Mercy Devotion
The devotion to the Divine Mercy includes many opportunities to experience God’s love for us. These opportunities include:
The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy
The Divine Mercy Image
Divine Mercy Sunday
The Divine Mercy Novena
The Hour of Great Mercy (prayer at 3:00 p.m.)
Divine Mercy Chaplet
The prayers we say during the chaplet of the Divine Mercy (and which are said using a rosary) come from the revelations given to St. Faustina. The chaplet is often said after Mass because the prayer extends the offering of the Mass. Specifically, during one of St. Faustina’s revelations, the Lord requested that the chaplet be prayed as a novena (prayed for nine days) leading up to Divine Mercy Sunday.
