Father Symeon suggested that a fitting way to end our day at the concentration camps might be a visit to the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Lagiewniki to pray for all of those affected by the holocaust. And I readily agreed, as this particular pilgrimage site was high on my list of things to see while we were in Poland. It was a thrill to go to venerate the relics of a saint whose writings and work had meant so much to me in the past few years. And it was exciting to enter the shrine where Pope John Paul II had commended the world to the Divine Mercy of God in a solemn Mass.
It so happens that Sister Maria Faustina Kowalska was the first saint cannonized by Pope John Paul II in the new millenium, shortly after I returned in earnest to my Catholic faith. She lived between the two world wars and received visions of Jesus asking her to have an image painted and venerated around the world in tribute to His Divine Mercy. She kept a diary in which she made a remarkable accounting of her spiritual life and faithful devotion to her mission despite many obstacles. A particular archbishop named Karol Wojtyla of Krakow (later named Pope John Paul II) began the initial investigation into her life in 1965. This beloved pope is soon to be cannonized himself, perhaps later this year. And it is worth noting that he not only promoted this feast day, but he devoted his pontificate to it and then died on the eve of Divine Mercy Sunday (the second Sunday of Easter) in 2005.
Perhaps the image is most recognizable of all. In it Jesus stands with one hand raised in blessing and the other revealing his heart from which two rays are eminating: one white to represent the saving waters of Baptism, and the other red to represent the blood he shed for us on the cross. At the bottom are the words, "Jesus, I Trust in You!"
Pope John Paul II
"Right from the beginning of my ministry in St. Peter’s See in Rome, I consider this message [of Divine Mercy] my special task. Providence has assigned it to me in the present situation of man, the Church and the world. It could be said that precisely this situation assigned that message to me as my task before God."
—November 22, 1981 at the Shrine of Merciful Love in Collevalenza, Italy
"Those who sincerely say ‘Jesus, I trust in You’ will find comfort in all their anxieties and fears."
"There is nothing more man needs than Divine Mercy – that love which is benevolent, which is compassionate, which raises man above his weakness to the infinite heights to the holiness of God."
—Shrine of Divine Mercy in Cracow, Poland on June 7, 1997
"…with the burning desire that the message of God’s merciful love proclaimed by St. Faustina may be made known to all the peoples of the earth and fill their hearts with hope. May this message radiate from this place to our beloved homeland and throughout the world… In the mercy of God the world will find peace and mankind will find happiness."
—August 17, 2002
"The Message of Divine Mercy has always been near and dear to me… which I took with me to the See of Peter and which it in a sense forms the image of this Pontificate."
—John Paul II speaking on his Pontificate
"Be apostles of Divine Mercy under the maternal and loving guidance of Mary."
—John Paul II to the Marians, June 22, 1993
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Faustina_Kowalska:
The fact that her Vatican biography directly quotes some of her reputed conversations with Jesus distinguishes her among the many reported visionaries. The author and priest Benedict Groeschel considers a modest estimate of the following of the Divine Mercy devotion in 2010 to be over one hundred million Catholics.
Pope John Paul II said: "The message she brought is the appropriate and incisive answer that God wanted to offer to the questions and expectations of human beings in our time, marked by terrible tragedies. Jesus said to Sr Faustina one day: 'Humanity will never find peace until it turns with trust to the Divine Mercy.'"
There is a beautiful recording of The Divine Mercy Chaplet in Song on EWTN and also on You-Tube. Reference for the 20 minute recording:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5TGfisOKMM&feature=youtube_gdata_player
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