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Dear friends,
 
This weekend we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday reminding us of the great love of God to sacrifice His Son to save us. A celebration that has a beautiful history and tradition. The world was in the midst of the Great Depression in 1931, and the memories of World War I were still very much alive in the minds of all when in Poland a sister of the Congregation of Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938), is said to have been personally visited by Jesus.
 
According to her diary, which was listed on the Index of Forbidden Books for more than 20 years, an image was revealed to her of the risen Lord, from whose heart shone two rays, one red (representing blood) and the other “pale” (symbolizing water), with the words “Jesus, I trust in You” at the bottom. Faustina wrote in her diary that Jesus told her, “I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish.” When she was canonized in 2000, Pope John Paul II, proclaimed that the Second Sunday of Easter be known as Divine Mercy Sunday, thereby widely promoting the devotional practices associated with Faustina’s visions, already popular in many communities.
 
St. Faustina kept a 600-page diary of the apparitions she claimed continued for years. Her entries focus on God’s mercy, the call to accept God’s mercy and to be merciful, the need for conversion, and the call to trust in Jesus. It had been Jesus’ own wish, she wrote, to establish a feast day: “I [Jesus] desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls. I am giving them the last hope of salvation; that is, the Feast of My Mercy.” Among the practices associated with the devotion are its novena, the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy, the Hour of Great Mercy (a time of prayer traditionally at 3:00pm), and the plenary indulgence granted to those who receive the sacraments on Divine Mercy Sunday. The celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday is an opportunity to
reflect on the theme of how God’s mercy can overcome sin through the divine benevolence.
 
Please join us at 3:00pm the hour of Mercy at St. Patrick to pray together the Divine Mercy Chaplet before the blessed sacrament. Confessions will be available too.
 
May you continue to flourish through this gracious Easter Season and may God bless you always.
 
Fr. Francis