Journey to Divine Mercy

Transcription

1 Journey to Divine Mercy Just one year ago on the eve of the Fourth Sunday of Lent - Pope Francis announced that he was proclaiming an Extraordinary Jubilee Year that would have as its focus the mercy of God. It began this past December on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, and it will conclude at the end of November on the Solemnity of Christ the King. In announcing the Year of Mercy, Pope Francis said that this Jubilee is meant to be a gift for each one of us - that the whole Church is in need of mercy, because we are all sinners. He was confident that the whole Church would be able to find in it and I quote his words the joy of rediscovering and rendering fruitful God s mercy, with which we are all called to give comfort to every man and every woman of our time. [For] God forgives all, and God forgives always. 1 During the past few weeks here at St. Peter s, we ve been reflecting together on mercy. Fr. Cristino spoke of the relationship between mercy and forgiveness, of the demands of charity as well as of justice. Fr. Nathan discussed the corporal and spiritual acts of mercy - how we re all called to live out mercy in our daily lives. And Fr. Jerome considered the significance of the role of our Blessed Mother, Mary - for she is our Mother of Mercy. And finally, tonight, we are going to spend some time together reflecting on the life and mission of the apostle of Divine Mercy - a woman we know today as St. Maria Faustina. Last May, I had the opportunity to go to Poland on a Divine Mercy pilgrimage. I joined a group of people from Ottawa who had invited several priests from the Companions of the Cross to accompany us. I didn t know a single soul when I arrived at the airport, and I was furtively looking everyone over, trying to figure out who looked Catholic who might be part of my group. And I came to feel so blessed by these wonderful travelling companions as we spent an amazing two weeks tracing the footsteps of St. Faustina together. Since that time, I ve found myself returning again and again to meditate on the mystery of God s mercy to try to go deeper in my understanding of the place that St. Faustina s mission and devotion to Divine Mercy has in God s plan of salvation. Tonight, I ll be touching briefly on some of the practices associated with devotion to Divine Mercy, but I d like to begin first by spending a little time reflecting on St. Faustina s early life - what helped prepare her to be an apostle of Divine Mercy. Because I m convinced that this is the work that God wants to do in each one of our lives here tonight: that He wants to prepare our hearts and minds to come to a deeper understanding of His unconditional and eternal love so that we can all take advantage of the incredible graces He is longing to shower upon us in the upcoming Feast of Divine Mercy and throughout the coming Jubilee year. I ve prepared a little photo album to go along with my talk tonight some are pictures that I took myself during my time in Poland; others I found on the Internet and I d like to invite you now to journey along with me as we reflect together on the life and mission of St. Faustina. 1

2 Early Life of St. Maria Faustina St. Maria Faustina was a humble, uneducated Polish nun who was born August 25th, 1905 in the tiny village of Głogowiec about 165 kilometres west of the capital city, Warsaw. She was the third of ten children born to Stanislaus Kowalski and his wife, Marianna, and they named her Helena. Although Helena s father was a carpenter by trade, the family s farm was their main source of income. But though Stanislaus worked long hours from morning til night, the land wasn t very fertile, and it was a struggle for them to make ends meet. Helena was so poorly dressed that two of her classmates didn t even want to sit on the same bench with her. And she couldn t always attend Mass on Sundays not because she didn t want to, but because there was only one Sunday dress to share among her sisters. On the weeks when one of the others was wearing it, Helena would take a book of devotions and pray quietly by herself in a corner at home. Faith was the foundation of the Kowalski family s life, and Helena s parents were the children s first teachers. Her mother, Marianna, recalled, The Faith was very important to [Stanislaw], which is what I liked about him. Though I could not read or write, I taught my daughters and sons the truths of the Gospel, taking care that they not only knew the precept of love of neighbour, but, primarily, that they observed it. Stanislaw was an example to them of daily prayer and obligatory participation in Sunday Mass. We both instilled Christian morality in our children and demanded respect for the affairs of God. 2 But even Marianna complained when Stanislaus insisted on singing the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the crack of dawn every morning. She tried to get him to stop, saying that his singing was waking the children up way too early, but he wouldn t back down. Woman! he said. I want to give them a good example, so I must serve God above all and only then think about you all. 3 The village of Głogowiec didn t have a primary school until 1917; so it wasn t until then when Helena was already 12 years old - that she had the opportunity to go to school. She was the top student in her class, but there simply wasn t enough room for all the neighbouring children to attend. And so, after just two years, the oldest children were forced to leave to make room for the younger ones. It s true that Helena had very little formal schooling, but she wasn t illiterate. Her father - who was one of only two people in the entire village who could read and write - had taken the time to teach her to read. He owned a lot of books which was rare in those days for a person of his station in life and Helena especially loved reading the Bible and books on the lives of the saints. But she saw how hard her father worked to support the family, and she worried about him. After leaving school, she begged her parents for permission to get a job so she could help out financially. In the end, they gave their consent. Helena was just 14 years old. Life away from home Her first job was as a housekeeper and nanny for their neighbour s sister in a nearby town - about 8 kilometers away. But before the year was up, she had returned home. 2

3 Helena knew that God was calling her to religious life, and she begged her parents to allow her to enter a convent. But in those days, a young girl couldn t enter a convent unless she had an appropriate dowry. The Kowalskis were too poor; they had no savings, only debts. They would have had to sell a cow, but Stanislaw would not agree to that. Helen[a] tried to convince him that she did not need money, as God Himself would see to the dowry. 4 But even though their parish priest urged him to reconsider, her father stubbornly repeated, No! Helena didn t want to enter a convent against her parents wishes, so she decided to go to Łódź (Woodch) a large industrial town, about 80 kilometres away - to look for work. There, she lived with cousins and found a job working for three women who belonged to the Third Order of Francis. She was happy that they allowed her to attend daily Mass, and she also had access to their confessor. She sent almost all her earnings home during that time, but the persistent inner voice continued to nag at her. And a little over a year later, Helena - now 18 - returned home to once again ask her parents permission to enter a convent. And again they refused. There was nothing she could do, so Helena decided to throw herself into her work. She started buying fashionable clothing and going to dances with her girlfriends - but she wasn t happy. She looked for another job and found a position in the home of Mrs. Marcjanna Sadowska, helping her with the housework and caring for her three small children. Mrs. Sadowska remembered the day she hired her, saying, Helen[a] came to me so fashionably dressed that I hesitated to hire her as a maid. I purposely lowered the amount of salary so that she would go away, but Helen[a] accepted my proposition. 5 She later recalled, [Helena] was good-natured and somewhat of a giggler. In the evenings, when she sat down on a stool, my three children would immediately gather around her. They liked her because she told them fairy tales and played with them at whatever they wished. Whenever I left the house, I was confident that she would do everything better than I would. She was so foresighted and loving. Moreover, she was pleasant, polite, and hard-working. I cannot say anything bad about her she was just so good. 6 Though Helena was trying hard to ignore the call of her vocation, she hadn t given up on God and for that matter, neither had God given up on her. It was while Helena was in Łódź that she had an experience that would change her life. In her Diary, she tells the story: Once I was at a dance with one of my sisters. While everybody was having a good time, my soul was experiencing deep torments. As I began to dance, I suddenly saw Jesus at my side, Jesus racked with pain, stripped of His clothing, all covered with wounds, who spoke these words to me: How long shall I put up with you and how long will you keep putting Me off? At that moment the charming music stopped, [and] the company I was with vanished from my sight; there remained Jesus and I. I took a seat by my dear sister pretending to have a headache in order to cover up what took place in my soul. After a while I slipped out unnoticed, leaving my sister and all my companions behind and made my way to the Cathedral of Saint Stanislaus Kostka. It was almost twilight; there were only a few people in the cathedral. Paying no attention to what was happening 3

4 around me, I fell prostrate before the Blessed Sacrament and begged the Lord to be good enough to give me to understand what I should do next. Then I heard these words: Go at once to Warsaw; you will enter a convent there. I rose from prayer, came home, and took care of things that needed to be settled. As best I could, I confided to my sister what took place within my soul. I told her to say good-bye to our parents, and thus, in my one dress, with no other belongings, I arrived in Warsaw. 7 Seeking her place Now we might be tempted to think that that was the end of it all: that Helena heard God s call, she answered it, she had wonderful visions, and she lived happily ever after. But that isn t how God generally works in our lives nor was this how He chose to act in St. Faustina s life. God doesn t call us to a mission without first fitting us for the task. He wants to prepare us for the challenges He knows will lie ahead if we choose to follow Him. He knows that we are strengthened through trials and that it is through suffering that we will draw closer to Him, that we will become more like Him. And so it was that although Helena knocked on one convent door after another, no one wanted her. No matter where she went, they turned her away. Perhaps it was her somewhat neglected appearance, her lack of education, her extreme poverty and her present occupation as a maid [that was] the reason why she met with refusal at each convent where she applied. We do not accept maids here, they would say. 8 So when Helena knocked on the convent door of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, it wasn t surprising that Mother Malgorzata wanted to send her away at once. She described her as no one special modest, a little old [she was 20!], rather frail, a domestic a cook by trade. Moreover, she added, She is not only without a dowry, but she lacks even the most modest trousseau. 9 But the Superior of the house, Mother Michaela Moraczewska asked to meet her. In her memoirs, Mother Michaela described the encounter. In 1924, one spring morning, when I was Superior of the house in Żytnia Street, I was told by a person working at our gate that a young girl had come to ask to be admitted to the Congregation. So I went down to the parlour and opened the door slightly, however, at first glance, the candidate, who was sitting in such a way that she did not see me, did not make a good impression on me because her appearance was a bit shabby. I thought: well, she is not for us! I closed the door quietly with the intention of sending in another sister to tell the candidate that her request had been turned down. However, at that moment it came to me that it would be more in accordance with the love of neighbour to ask the girl a few general questions and only then to say goodbye. Therefore, I returned to the parlour and started talking with her. Then I noticed that on further acquaintance the candidate made a much better impression, 4

5 that her smile and facial expression were nice, that there was a lot of simplicity and honesty about her and that what she said was very sensible. Therefore, I soon changed my mind and I started to feel like admitting her. The main difficulty was that Helenka Kowalska was poor, not to mention the lack of a dowry, from which the Holy See easily dispensed sisters. She did not have any trousseau and we did not have any fund for it either. However, I suggested that she could go to work as a housekeeper and save a few hundred zlotys for the trousseau. She was very eager to do that and we agreed that she would bring the money to the gate in order to give it in for safekeeping. It was decided that she would do that. Soon after I said goodbye to her and forgot about it. Therefore, I was astonished when a few months later when I was living in Vilnius, I received a letter in which it was written that a person had brought 60 zlotys for safekeeping and that she said that she had been told to do so. Only after a moment s thought did I realize what was going on. Since that time the deposit grew steadily, so after one year a few hundred zlotys was saved, which at that time was enough for a modest trousseau for a nun. 10 Helena had had to overcome many obstacles in order to answer God s call. First of all, there was her poverty and her lack of education. Her family didn t approve of her entering the convent, and they sent her older sister, Genevieve, to try to talk her out of it. Not even the family she worked for while she saved up money to enter the convent understood her desire to follow God s will for her life. They tried to convince her to marry and attempted to set her up with several eligible young men. But God s mercy had been operating in Helena s life from the time she was just a small child. She had learned from her father that God must take first place in our lives that we must serve Him above all and only then think of others. She had learned through many trials and hardships the meaning of faithfulness, perseverance, and trust. And she had come to know that if God wanted something, He would arrange things in such a way that they would come to pass (see Diary, #1090). Had Mother Michaela not responded to God s prompting to speak with Helena on the morning of her interview, things might have turned out differently. But when we love God and are faithful in trying to do His will, He promises that He will make everything work for our good (cf. Rom 8:28). And so it was that on August 1, 1925 the Feast of Our Lady of the Angels Helena Kowalska was finally received into religious life. She took the name Sr. Maria Faustina of the Most Blessed Sacrament. 11 Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy Mercy has always been the central theme of the spirituality of the congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. They have a special devotion to Mary, Mother of Mercy, who is their patroness, and to the Mercy of God, which is the inspiration of their apostolic work. 12 In their mission statement, they write that from the beginning of their foundation, they have aimed to cooperate with God s mercy in saving lost souls by extending spiritual and educational care to wayward girls and 5

6 women in need of deep moral conversion and renewal. 13 The sisters set up Mercy Houses places where women could find refuge and safe haven, a place where they had the opportunity to reform their lives and learn various trade skills. The women could stay as long as they wanted and return to society whenever they felt ready. The congregation s nuns were divided into two groups, called choirs. The sisters of the first choir were usually better educated, and their job was to do educational work with the girls. The sisters of the second choir were mainly from lower social levels, and they did all the support work for example, in the kitchen or the garden. But everyone was concerned for the salvation of the souls entrusted to their care. Because of St. Faustina s lack of education, she was assigned to the second choir and sent to work in the kitchen. 14 She was happy to do the work, but before she joined the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, St. Faustina hadn t actually understood that they are an active not a contemplative congregation. She d had no idea what her life would be like once she was within the convent s walls. And as she came to understand their mission, she couldn t help but regret that it left her so little time for prayer and contemplation. And so, after only three weeks, St. Faustina decided she d made a mistake. She wanted to transfer to an order with a stricter rule one where the observance of prayer life would be more developed. But though the idea appealed to her, it didn t bring her any peace. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more tormented she felt. She turned to God to ask what she should do. God uses many different ways to speak with us when He wants to reveal His Will, and in the case of St. Faustina, He chose to answer her in another vision. She wrote, After a while a brightness filled my cell, and on the curtain I saw the very sorrowful Face of Jesus. There were open wounds on His Face, and large tears were falling on my bedspread. Not knowing what all this meant, I asked Jesus, Jesus, who has hurt You so? And Jesus said to me, It is you who will cause Me this pain if you leave this convent. It is to this place that I called you and nowhere else; and I have prepared many graces for you. 15 St. Faustina apologized to Jesus at once and immediately changed her mind about leaving. She was certain now that it was God s will that she remain in the congregation. She was ready to begin her mission as His apostle of Divine Mercy. Preparing to be an Apostle of Divine Mercy It might seem odd to us that Jesus called St. Faustina to a place where she didn t - at least at first feel comfortable. We might wonder why He wanted her to stay in a convent where it didn t seem that she would be able to fulfill her dreams or satisfy her deepest longings. After all, isn t this what we ve all been created for? St. Faustina just wanted to spend her days in prayer, to have a deep and intimate relationship with her Lord. And isn t that what Jesus would have wanted, too? But God had other 6

7 ideas. He wanted to use her right there right where she was to bring about His Divine Plan. The fact that God chose to make St. Faustina holy in the midst of an active vocation in religious life to choose a plan for her that was different than the one she would have chosen for herself - is a beautiful reminder of how God wants to meet each one of us wherever we are. He wants to use the challenges and difficulties we face in our daily work, in our relationships, and in our family lives to help us draw closer to Him. He wants us to trust Him, so that we, too, can become holy so that we can become vessels of grace and apostles of His Divine Mercy. He wants us to serve Him above all, and only then think of ourselves. And as we have already seen, God prepares us gradually; He will never overwhelm us. He strengthens us through our everyday challenges when we worry about our job security, when we wonder how we are going to make ends meet, when our relationships turn out to be something different than we might have first expected. God doesn t take suffering away, but He does use it to help us grow in our conviction that He will never leave us alone - that His mercy outweighs His justice. God forgives all, and God forgives always. It would take another six years before God would reveal the image of Divine Mercy to St. Faustina and ask that she Paint an image according to the pattern [she saw] with the signature: Jesus, I trust in You. 16 St. Faustina had never painted anything in her life, and she had no idea how to go about it. And when word about her visions began to get out in the convent, it just made her life more difficult. The other nuns started talking about her openly; they regarded her as a hysteric and a fantasist, and the rumours about her just kept growing. 17 But St. Faustina didn t give up. Three years after that vision, St. Faustina met her Spiritual Director, Fr. Michał (Meehow) Sopoćko. He was the one who would commission an artist to paint the image and arrange to have it publicly displayed in the Gate of Dawn in Vilnius on the Sunday immediately following Easter Sunday in 1937 the day we now set aside to celebrate the Feast of Divine Mercy. St. Faustina was present in the crowd on that auspicious day, but she would not live to see the institution of the Feast of Divine Mercy. Although Jesus had repeatedly told her that He desired that a Feast of Divine Mercy be proclaimed, there would be many sufferings, trials, and persecutions before it would finally come about. Because of a poor and inaccurate translation of St. Faustina s diary, the Church suppressed devotion to Divine Mercy in the form given to her in It would not be until 42 years later on April 30, that St. John Paul II would canonize Blessed Maria Faustina Kowalska, and officially recognize the Sunday following Easter Sunday as the Feast of Divine Mercy. A little over a year after the image of Divine Mercy was displayed at the Gate of Dawn, St. Faustina would die of tuberculosis without ever seeing the fulfillment of another of Jesus requests: that she found a new congregation dedicated to mercy. 7

8 The rule for this congregation was given to St. Faustina in a series of visions, but it would be left to Fr. Sopoćko to bring it into existence. Today, that congregation is known as the Apostolic Movement of the Divine Mercy, and it has three objectives: to revive religious life in the spirit of trust in God and mercy toward one s neighbours, to proclaim the mystery of the mercy of God, and to plead with God to have mercy on the whole world. 18 Living out Divine Mercy Jesus prepared St. Faustina for her role as the apostle of Divine Mercy in all of the circumstances of her daily life. In a similar way, Jesus has also been preparing each one of us to do our part. He invites us to not only avail ourselves of His Mercy, but to spread the message to those around us, to exercise His Mercy in the unique circumstances of our everyday lives. In announcing this Jubilee Year of Mercy, Pope Francis said, Jesus urges each of us never to stop at the surface of things, especially when we have a person before us. We are called to look beyond, to focus on the heart in order to see how much generosity everyone is capable of. No one can be excluded from the mercy of God; everyone knows the way to access it and the Church is the house where everyone is welcomed and no one is rejected. Her doors remain wide open, so that those who are touched by grace may find the assurance of forgiveness. The greater the sin, the greater the love that must be shown by the Church to those who repent. 19 Jesus told St. Faustina that there are three different ways that we can exercise Divine Mercy in our lives: through our actions, through our words, and in our prayer. I d like to spend our last few minutes together considering each one of these in turn. 1. Actions Celebrating the Feast of Divine Mercy First of all, we exercise God s mercy in our actions when we celebrate the Feast of Divine Mercy. Jesus said, Whoever [will approach] the Fount of Life on this day will be granted complete remission of sins and punishment. 20 This means that if we go to Confession and receive Holy Communion on Divine Mercy Sunday, Jesus promises that we will receive remission of not just the punishment due for our sins, but also of the guilt that is attached to those sins. 21 It s like a second Baptism! 22 We start all over again with a clean slate. And this grace is available to each one of us every year on Divine Mercy Sunday. Venerate the Image of Divine Mercy Jesus also asks that we venerate the image of Divine Mercy. He said, By means of this image I shall grant many graces to souls. It is to be a reminder of the demands of My mercy, because even the strongest faith is of no avail without works. 23 8

9 When we examine the image, we see that it shows the heart of Jesus with two rays emanating from it. In a vision, Jesus explained that, The two rays denote Blood and Water. The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls. 24 He said, 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. These rays shield souls from the wrath of My Father. Happy is the one who will dwell in their shelter, for the just hand of God shall not lay hold of him. 25 Jesus wants each one of us to find shelter in the rays of His mercy, and no one is excluded from His invitation. No matter what we have done in our lives no matter how much we have messed up or how unworthy we might feel, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - that can get in the way of His Mercy. In fact, it s exactly the opposite! As Jesus once said to St. Faustina, The greater the misery of a soul, the greater its right to My mercy; [urge] all souls to trust in the unfathomable abyss of My mercy, because I want to save them all. On the cross, the fountain of My mercy was opened wide by the lance for all souls no one have I excluded! 26 It is because of Jesus largesse that mercy is the grace Satan hates more than anything. It s his greatest torment - because Satan knows that when we call upon God s mercy, Satan will no longer have any power over us. 27 Perform Concrete Actions: Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy Concrete acts, such as the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, are another way we express God s mercy in our actions. This is so because, as Jesus said, even the strongest faith is of no avail without works. I demand from you deeds of mercy, which are to arise out of love for Me. You are to show mercy to your neighbors always and everywhere. You must not shrink from this or try to excuse or absolve yourself from it Words The second way Jesus asks us to exercise His Mercy is in our words. He said, Tell the world about My mercy and My love. The flames of mercy are burning me. I desire to pour them out upon human souls. Oh, what pain they cause Me when they do not want to accept them! Do whatever is within your power to spread devotion to My mercy. I will make up for what you lack. Tell aching mankind to snuggle close to My merciful Heart, and I will fill it with peace. 29 What a beautiful image to think of ourselves snuggled up close to the merciful Heart of Jesus. Mercy is the greatest attribute of God. 30 Jesus is Love and Mercy itself, and when we approach Him with trust, He fills us with such an abundance of graces that we can t contain them within ourselves, but must radiate them to other souls. And if we are faithful and spread devotion to His mercy, Jesus promises to keep us safe throughout our entire lives, just as a mother tenderly protects her baby. And at the 9

10 hour of our death at that moment when we have nothing to defend ourselves with except Jesus mercy - He promises that we won t feel afraid. He promises that His mercy will shield us in that final battle - that He will come before us not as a Judge, but as a Merciful Saviour. Happy is the soul that during its lifetime immersed itself in the Fountain of Mercy, He said, because justice will have no hold on it. 31 Every conversion of a sinful soul demands sacrifice, Jesus said. 32 If sinners knew My mercy, they would not perish in such great numbers. Tell sinful souls not to be afraid to approach Me; speak to them of My great mercy Prayer The third way in which Jesus asks us to exercise mercy is through prayer. He said, The loss of each soul plunges Me into mortal sadness. You always console Me when you pray for sinners. The prayer most pleasing to Me is prayer for the conversion of sinners. 34 If we want to have a more profound understanding of the love that Jesus has for souls, we need only meditate on His Passion. For it was through His voluntary death on the Cross His death for us while we were still deep in sin that He won our Salvation. The Chaplet of Divine Mercy The Chaplet of Divine Mercy is the special prayer that Jesus gave to St. Faustina so that we can draw down His mercy for the salvation of sinners. Call upon My mercy on behalf of sinners, He said. I desire their salvation. When you say this prayer, with a contrite heart and with faith on behalf of some sinner, I will give him the grace of conversion. 35 The words of this Chaplet are, I m sure, familiar to many of you: Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world; for the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world. 36 This prayer is especially effective when we recite it at 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon the hour that Jesus died on the Cross, the Hour of Great Mercy. Jesus said, I remind you, My daughter, that as often as you hear the clock strike the third hour, immerse yourself completely in My mercy, adoring and glorifying it; invoke its omnipotence for the whole world, and particularly for poor sinners; for at that moment mercy was opened wide for every soul. In this hour you can obtain everything for yourself and for others for the asking; it was the hour of grace for the whole world mercy triumphed over justice. 37 Jesus asked St. Faustina to share this prayer with the whole world. He said, Encourage souls to say the chaplet which I have given to you. It pleases Me to grant everything they ask of Me by saying the chaplet. When hardened sinners say it, I will fill their souls with peace, and the hour of their death will be a happy one. When they say this chaplet in the presence of the dying, I will stand between My Father and the dying person, not as the just Judge but as the 10

11 merciful Savior. 38 Through this chaplet we will obtain everything, if what we ask for is compatible with God s will. 39 Novena of Divine Mercy Before I leave our discussion on prayer, I d also like to mention the Novena of Divine Mercy. Jesus requested that St. Faustina make this special novena before the Feast of Divine Mercy in 1937 she began on Good Friday and continued through the following Saturday. He Himself dictated the intentions that she should pray for each day. Unlike the Chaplet, the Novena seems to have been intended primarily for St. Faustina, but as she wrote it down, He must have intended that we could pray it as well. On the first day, the intention is for all mankind, especially all sinners; the second day is offered for priests and religious. On the following days, the intentions are for all devout and faithful souls, for those who do not believe in God and those who do not yet know Him, for those who have separated themselves from the Church, for meek and humble souls and the souls of little children. We pray for the souls who especially venerate and glorify God s mercy, for the souls who are in purgatory, and on the ninth and final day, we pray for souls who have become lukewarm. Jesus, I Trust in You The remission of our sins, peace and shelter in this life, a happy death - these are great graces. But if we wish to receive them, we need to trust in Jesus. He knows what it s like when we re confronted with the reality of who we are when we have to face our faults and our failings, our weaknesses and our sinfulness. We might be tempted to think that because it s so hard for us to forgive ourselves, it must be hard for God to forgive us, too. But we re wrong about that. Jesus tells us that when we see and realize how great our sins are - when we finally understand the full extent of the misery into which we have fallen - we should not despair. Instead, with trust we should throw ourselves into the arms of His mercy, just as a child throws itself into the arms of its mother. Let the weak, sinful soul have no fear to approach Me, He said, for even if it had more sins than there are grains of sand in the world, all would be drowned in the unmeasurable depths of My mercy. 40 These souls, He said, have a right of priority to My compassionate Heart, they have first access to My mercy. Tell them that no soul that has called upon My mercy has been disappointed or brought to shame. I delight particularly in a soul which has placed its trust in My goodness. 41 On the first Sunday that the image of Divine Mercy was exposed at the Gate of Dawn in St. Faustina had a vision. She wrote, When [Fr. Sopoćko] began to speak about the great mercy of the Lord, the image [of Divine Mercy] came alive and the rays pierced the hearts of the people gathered there, but not all to the same degree. Some received more, some less. 42 I found myself wondering why this was so, and I think the answer is found within ourselves in our own degree of openness and trust. Because as Jesus once said, The graces of My mercy are drawn by means of one vessel only, and that is trust. The more a soul trusts, the more 11

12 it will receive. Souls that trust boundlessly are a great comfort to Me, because I pour all the treasures of My graces into them. I rejoice that they ask for much, because it is My desire to give much, very much. On the other hand, I am sad when souls ask for little, when they narrow their hearts. 43 It s not Jesus who holds back His mercy; we re the ones who place obstacles in the way of His grace. He never gets tired of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of asking for forgiveness. But Jesus said, Tell souls not to place within their own hearts obstacles to My mercy, which so greatly wants to act within them. My mercy works in all those hearts which open their doors to it. Both the sinner and the righteous person have need of My mercy. Conversion, as well as perseverance, is a grace of My mercy. 44 Actions, words, prayer: these are the means that we can use to exercise God s Mercy in the world. We must ask for God s mercy in prayer, we must be merciful to others in all that we do, and above all, we must have complete trust in God s infinite love and in His mercy. I pray that as we continue our journey during this Jubilee of Mercy, that each one of us will be open to all the graces our Heavenly Father is longing to shower on us. For He forgives all, and He forgives always. - Sharon van der Sloot Footnotes: 1 Pope Francis, The Announcement of the Jubilee of Mercy (March 13, 2015), Jubilee of Mercy [website]; available from Internet; accessed 29 February Grzegorz Górny and Janusz Rosikoń, Trust: In Saint Faustina s Footsteps (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2014), Ibid., Ibid., 44, Sister Sophia Michalenko, C.M.G.T., The Life of Faustina Kowalska (Cincinnati, Ohio: Servant Books, 1999), Górny and Rosikoń, Trust: In Saint Faustina s Footsteps, Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, Divine Mercy in My Soul, 3 rd ed. with revisions (Stockbridge, MA: Marian Press, 2014), # Michalenko, The Life of Faustina Kowalska, Górny and Rosikoń, Trust: In Saint Faustina s Footsteps, Memoirs of Mother Michael Moraczewska, The Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy [website]; available from Internet; accessed 9 February The name that Helena Kowalska was given on this clothing day [April 30, 1926] was Sister Mary Faustina. The name was given to her by the Mother General. The name Faustina meant the fortunate, happy, or blessed one. Helena s name may have been the feminine form of Faustinus, a martyr from the early Church whose feast was celebrated on February 15. According to legend, Faustinus and his brother Simplicius were thrown in to the Tiber River in Rome for refusing to worship Roman gods near the year 120. Seven months later, their sister Beatrice was martyred for her faith as well. But Helena added something else to this ancient name. She wanted to be known as Sister Mary Faustina of the Most Blessed Sacrament. Quoted from Catherine M. Odell, Faustina, Apostle of Divine Mercy (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, 1998), Cf. Michalenko, The Life of Faustina Kowalska,

13 13 The Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy [website]; available from Internet; accessed 17 February Cf. Górny and Rosikoń, Trust: In Saint Faustina s Footsteps, 69, Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, Divine Mercy in My Soul, # Ibid., # Ibid., # Sister Maria Elżbieta Siepak ZMBM, The New Congregation of Sister Faustina: The Apostolic Movement of the Divine Mercy, trans. Piotr Mizia, 2 nd ed. (Kraków: Misericordia Publication, 2005), Pope Francis, The Announcement of the Jubilee of Mercy. 20 Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, Divine Mercy in My Soul, # Cf. Ibid., # Cf. Rev. Ignacy Rozycki, Essential Features of the Devotion to The Divine Mercy (Stockbridge, MA: Marian Press, 2000), Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, Divine Mercy in My Soul, # Ibid., # Ibid. 26 Ibid., # Cf. Ibid., # Ibid., # Ibid., # Cf. Ibid., # Ibid., # Ibid., # Ibid., # Ibid., # Ibid., # Ibid., # Ibid., # Ibid., # Cf. Ibid., # Ibid., # Ibid., # Ibid., # Ibid., # Ibid., #