THE MESSAGE OF DIVINE MERCY

Da Paolo Tessione - April 25, 2019

On February 22, 1931, Jesus appeared to Sister Faustina Kowalska (beatified on April 30, 2000) in Poland and entrusted her with the message of Devotion to Divine Mercy. She herself described the apparition thus: “I was in my cell, when I saw the Lord dressed in white robe. He had a hand raised in the act of blessing; with the other he touched the white tunic on his chest, from which two rays came out: one red and the other white ". After a moment, Jesus said to me: “Paint a picture according to the model you see, and write to us below: Jesus, I trust in You! I also want this image to be venerated in your chapel and all over the world. The rays represent the Blood and Water that gushed out when my Heart was pierced by the spear, on the Cross. The white ray represents the water that purifies souls; the red one, the blood that is the life of souls ”. In another apparition Jesus asked her to institute the feast of Divine Mercy, expressing himself thus: “I wish that the first Sunday after Easter is the feast of my Mercy. The soul, who on that day will confess and communicate himself, will obtain full remission of sins and penalties. I wish this feast to be celebrated solemnly throughout the Church. "

PROMISES OF MERCIFUL JESUS.

The soul who will worship this image will not perish. I, the Lord, will protect you with the rays of my heart. Blessed is he who lives in their shadow, since the hand of Divine Justice will not reach it! I will protect the souls who will spread the cult to my Mercy, for all their life; in the hour of their death, then, I will not be Judge but Savior. The greater the misery of men, the greater right they have to my Mercy because I wish to save them all. The source of this Mercy was opened by the spear blow on the Cross. Humanity will find neither peace nor peace until it turns to Me with full confidence. I will grant numberless graces to those who recite this crown. If recited next to a dying person, I will not be fair Judge, but Savior. I give humanity a vase with which it will be able to draw graces from the source of Mercy. This vase is the image with the inscription: "Jesus, I trust in You!". "O blood and water that springs from the heart of Jesus, as a source of mercy for us, I trust in You!" When, with faith and with a contrite heart, you recite this prayer for some sinner I will give him the grace of conversion.

CROWN OF DIVINE MERCY

Use the crown of the Rosary. In the beginning: Pater, Ave, Credo.

On the larger beads of the Rosary: "Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your beloved Son and Our Lord Jesus Christ in expiation for our sins, the world and souls in Purgatory".

On the grains of the Ave Maria ten times: "For his painful passion have mercy on us, the world and souls in Purgatory".

In the end repeat three times: "Holy God, Strong God, Immortal God: have mercy on us, the world and souls in Purgatory".

Maria Faustina Kowalska (19051938) Sister Maria Faustina, the apostle of Divine Mercy, belongs today to the group of the best known saints of the Church. Through her the Lord sends the great message of Divine Mercy to the world and shows an example of Christian perfection based on trust in God and merciful attitude towards others. Sister Maria Faustina was born on 25 August 1905, the third of ten children, to Marianna and Stanislao Kowalska, farmers from the village of Gogowiec. At the baptism in the parish church of Edwinice Warckie she was given the name of Elena. From childhood he distinguished himself for his love of prayer, for his industriousness, for obedience and for his great sensitivity to human poverty. At the age of nine he received First Communion; It was a profound experience for her because she immediately became aware of the presence of the Divine Guest in her soul. He attended school for just three short years. While still a teenager, she left her parents' house and went to work with some wealthy families in Aleksandròw and Ostroòek, to support herself and to help her parents. Since the seventh year of life he felt the religious vocation in his soul, but not having the consent of his parents to enter the convent, he tried to suppress it. Urged on by a vision of the suffering Christ, she left for Warsaw where on 1 August 1925 she entered the convent of the Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy. With the name of Sister Maria Faustina she spent thirteen years in the convent in the various houses of the Congregation, especially in Krakow, Vilno and Pock, working as a cook, gardener and concierge. On the outside, no sign made her suspect her extraordinarily rich mystical life. She carried out all the work diligently, faithfully observed religious rules, was concentrated, silent and at the same time full of benevolent and selfless love. Her apparently ordinary, monotonous and gray life hid within herself a profound and extraordinary union with God. At the basis of her spirituality is the mystery of Divine Mercy which she meditated in the word of God and contemplated in the daily life of her life. The knowledge and contemplation of the mystery of God's Mercy developed in her an attitude of filial trust in God and of mercy towards others. He wrote: “O my Jesus, each of your saints reflects in himself one of your virtues; I want to mirror Your compassionate and merciful Heart, I want to glorify it. Your mercy, or Jesus, be imprinted on my heart and on my soul as a seal and this will be my hallmark in this and in the other life "(Q. IV, 7). Sister Maria Faustina was a faithful daughter of the Church, whom she loved as Mother and as the Mystical Body of Christ. Aware of his role in the Church, he collaborated with Divine Mercy in the work of salvation of lost souls. Responding to the desire and example of Jesus he offered his life in sacrifice. His spiritual life was also characterized by love for the Eucharist and a deep devotion to the Mother of God of Mercy. The years of his religious life abounded with extraordinary graces: the revelations, the visions, the hidden stigmata, the participation in the Lord's Passion, the gift of ubiquity, the gift of reading in human souls, the gift of prophecies and the rare gift of engagement and mystical marriage. The living contact with God, with the Madonna, with the angels, with the saints, with the souls of purgatory, with the whole supernatural world was for her no less real and concrete than what she experienced with the senses. Despite the gift of many extraordinary graces, he was aware that they are not the essence of holiness. He wrote in the "Diary": "Neither graces, nor revelations, nor ecstasies, nor any other gift given to it make it perfect, but the intimate union of my soul with God. The gifts are only an ornament of the soul, but they do not constitute its substance or perfection. My holiness and perfection consists in a close union of my will with the will of God "(Q. III, 28). The Lord chose Sister Maria Faustina as secretary and apostle of her mercy, through her, a great message to the world. “In the Old Testament I sent the lightning prophets to My people. Today I send you to all humanity with My mercy. I don't want to punish suffering humanity, but I want to heal it and hold it to My merciful Heart "(Q. V, 155). Sister Maria Faustina's mission consisted of three tasks: to bring the truth revealed in Sacred Scripture about the Mercy of God to each man closer and proclaim it. To implore Divine Mercy for the whole world, especially for sinners, especially with the new forms of worship of Divine Mercy indicated by Jesus: the image of Christ with the inscription: Jesus I trust in you !, the feast of Divine Mercy on the first Sunday after Easter, the chaplet of Divine Mercy and prayer in the hour of Divine Mercy (15pm). To these forms of worship and also to the spread of the adoration of Mercy, the Lord attached great promises on condition of being entrusted to God and of the practice of active love for one's neighbor. Inspire an apostolic movement of Divine Mercy with the task of proclaiming and begging for Divine Mercy for the world and aspiring to Christian perfection on the path indicated by Sister Maria Faustina. This is the way that prescribes an attitude of filial trust, the fulfillment of the will of God and an attitude of mercy towards one's neighbor. Today this movement brings together millions of people from all over the world in the Church: religious congregations, secular institutes, priests, confraternities, associations, the various communities of apostles of Divine Mercy and single people who undertake the tasks that the Lord he sent Sister Maria Faustina. Sister Maria Faustina's mission was described in the "Diary" which she wrote following the desire of Jesus and the suggestions of the confessor fathers, faithfully writing down all the words of Jesus and revealing the contact of his soul with him. The Lord said to Faustina: "Secretary of My deepest mystery ... your deepest task is to write everything I make you know about My mercy, for the good of souls who reading these writings will experience inner comfort and will be encouraged to approach to Me "(Q. VI, 67). This work in fact brings the mystery of Divine Mercy in an extraordinary way; the "Diary" has been translated into various languages, including English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Czech, Slovak and Arabic. Sister Maria Faustina, destroyed by the disease and the various sufferings that she willingly endured as a sacrifice for sinners, in the fullness of spiritual maturity and mystically united to God, died in Krakow on October 5, 1938 at the age of just 33 years. The fame of the sanctity of his life grew together with the spread of the cult of Divine Mercy in the wake of the graces obtained through his intercession. In 196567 the information process related to his life and virtues took place in Krakow and in 1968 the beatification process began in Rome which ended in December 1992. She was beatified by John Paul II in St. Peter's Square in Rome on April 18, 1993. Canonized by the same pope on April 30, 2000.