Divine Mercy Mission in Cameroon

The Marians established the first mission in Africa in 1984. first in Rwanda, and then in Cameroon. Presently there are 10 missionaries serving in both countries. They provide pastoral and social ministry in their parish and also educational service to the youth and children. They serve also spiritual and charismatic ministry.

Character of the Marian Mission

The Marian mission in Rwanda has been placed within a specific social, cultural, and political environment.

Before the war they were creating the Church trough organizing chapels and schools.  During the war they assisted the refugees through their ministry in the refuge’s camps and after the war they undertook the ministry of reconciliation for traumatized ands wounded people helping them to find peace, forgiveness, and sense of life.

Their mission in Cameroon can be described as assistance in restoring back to life both the people and structures. Through repairing old ruined buildings and making new constructions, they have restored to the mission its old splendor and functionality. They proclaim hope to fallen people, educate them, set free from fear and poverty, and lead them to a dignified way of life.

Calling for Mercy
This is how they could name their African Missions since the theological basis of their mission is proclaiming and practicing mercy. They undertook this challenge in Cameroon starting with creating communities of Divine Mercy. They now have 25 communities, which recite the Divine Mercy Chaplet and get involved in helping the poor. In Aril 2004 the Bishop established the Shrine of the Divine Mercy, the only such shrine in Cameroon, and entrusted it to the Marians.

Shrine’s and Apostolate’s activities
They organized a large pilgrimage for the Feast of the Divine Mercy. In 2004, one thousand people participated in a walking pilgrimage to the Shrine. In 2005, the number was greater.

In the Shrine they hold retreats, days of retreats, and sessions for all groups and movements.  They assist the poor, the sick (especially people with AIDS).  They create for the young people the “foyer” – a formation center where they can learn and trade and receive a basic formation necessary for independent life.  They have also organized a group of animators or leaders with whom they spread the Divine Mercy message and spirituality through the entire diocese.

Following St. Faustina’s example to be an “Apostle of the Divine Mercy”, and in the spirit of the Lord’s commandment given to Faustina (Diary, 1588): “ In the Old Covenant I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to my people. Today I am sending you with my Mercy to the people of the whole world”, they visited 20 parish in their diocese with Divine Mercy Animation – conferences, singing, celebration, as well as a theatrical performance.

They also try to root the Divine Mercy message into the hearts and minds of the Africans through using their culture and customs; and they try to improve their custom by offering them the victory of love and mercy over vengeance and hatred. 

They translate prayers and songs into local dialects. Also, they use the African art to bring closer to people the Merciful Christ and The Divine Mercy.  In particular, they also help families. African family is in great need of The Divine Mercy. The majority of families live outside any kind of wedding bonds: neither traditional, nor legal, nor religious; they often maintain polygamy. Such bad heathen habits deprive (divest) women of all dignity and condemn children to poverty.

Apart from the pastoral and spiritual activity, the calling for the Mercy includes social works: for example development of the formation center where they provide assistance for the poor and the sick.  They assist the handicapped and suffering people by providing them with wheelchairs, tools for trade, and by teaching them to be independent.

From:  http://www.divine-mercy-mission.org/

Mankind will not have Peace until it turns with Trust to My Mercy

God told St. Faustina that
“Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My mercy.” (Diary, p.300)

In the Divine Mercy, God receives and quenches human vengeance in Jesus’ own wounded Heart. In this Heart, which is an abyss of love, mercy overcomes hatred. Mercy brings healing that is impossible on a merely human level. Divine Mercy can restore hope, because it flows from the heart of the Risen Christ who, once and for all, has vanquished the finality of death. The deep truth that faith teaches is that only in the context of mercy -- God’s mercy and our own forgiveness and mercy -- can we, as wounded human men and women, find healing and hope. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Mt 5:7).

A prayer of reparation

The Chaplet of Divine Mercy, which God gave to the world through St. Faustina, is a beautiful prayer that has a powerful efficacy to repair the hurt wrought by sin. As we respond to God’s call to continuing conversion, the invocations of the Chaplet may be offered as a litany of reparation. With our hearts turned to the Father, we use the Chaplet to profess and invoke God’s mercy accomplished in Christ’s sorrowful Passion. We unite ourselves with the sacrifice of His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.

When human efforts seem futile and human solutions leave us empty, we pray the Chaplet to beg for a new beginning: the healing of the damage done by our sins and those of others. Our plea for mercy will not fail to reach the Father.

Christ’s execution and the gift of Divine Mercy
The Church’s annual novena to the Divine Mercy begins on Good Friday, the day of the execution of Jesus. The hour of mercy is the hour of His saving sacrifice. This is when blood and water gushed out for our salvation. “On the cross, the fountain of My mercy was opened by the lance for all souls -- no one have I excluded.” (Diary, p.1182) This is the moment that shook the world and stirred the faith of the pagan centurion to say, “Truly, this was the Son of God.” (Mt 27:54)

As we seek a reason to put aside the practice of the death penalty, perhaps the best motive is our desire to imitate God in His mercy toward those for whom Jesus died. Mary, Mother of mercy, pray for us and teach us to show mercy to others.

Above extracts from an article by Most Rev. Robert W. Finn who has been bishop of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph (Missouri) since 2005. A former chairman of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Task Force on the Life and Dignity of the Human Person, he is currently a consultant to the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities. The accompanying article is a component of the 2010-2011 Respect Life Program of the USCCB’s Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities.

website: http://catholickey.blogspot.com/2010/08/divine-mercy-and-death-penalty.html

Helping Jesus to save Souls, Spread the Divine Mercy...

In this coming year, perhaps we can think of more ways to spread the Divine Mercy devotion and help people come to know the great plenary indulgence given to all of us on the Feast of Divine Mercy which in this coming year will be celebrated in Our Lady's Month on the 1st May. 

*Can we pray the Chaplet of Mercy in our local Church, our home or with a mutual friend for our Parish and our Priests.

*Can we donate a Divine Mercy Image to our Parish Church

*Can we get small Divine Mercy prayer cards and give them to members of our family, our friends or others for the New Year.
*Can we get some Divine Mercy prayer books, leaflets, prayer cards to leave in our Churches with the Parish Priests permission.
*Can we start a Divine Mercy holy hour in our local Church

*Can we do some work for the poor, the homeless, those who are lost, abandoned, depressed, those who are sick and help them come to know the love of Christ and His Mercy.

*Can we pray for the dead, for the dying as Jesus has asked.
*Can we encourage others gently to go to Confession and we ourselves go more regularly.
*Pray the Chaplet of Mercy for our Priests that they may come to know the great Mercy of God in their lives.
*Can we begin to promote the Divine Mercy Feast Day in our Churches and Parishes and make a greater effort in preparations for this wonderful and blessed Day. 
*Can we pray with and for children and young people and help them come to know the great Mercy and kindness of Jesus

Meditation from the Diary of St. Faustina

I want to prepare my heart for the coming of the Lord Jesus by silence and recollection of spirit, uniting myself with the Most Holy Mother and faithfully imitating her virtue of silence, by which she found pleasure in the eyes of God Himself. I trust that, by her side, I will persevere in this resolution.



— Diary of St. Faustina, 1398

Let us Participate in Helping Jesus to Save Souls.......

Jesus asks us to pray for sinners.  We are all sinners but there are those who do not know Jesus and those who hate the Church.  These we must pray for.  Remember St. Paul, he who persecuted those who followed Jesus then became one of his greatest apostles.  Do we pray for those who perhaps in the media write terrible things about the Church, do we pray for those who try to push the culture of death and destruction (with abortion, drugs, pornography etc). 

Do we actively participate in work of mercy for others.  Do we pray outside abortion clinics, family planning clinics, pornography shops, strip clubs etc.   Remember, the wages of sin is death.  Jesus wants to save souls and we must help Him do that in whatever way we can.  He has given us an incredible gift of His Divine Mercy for these times which we still don't fully understand or appreciate.  This plenary indulgence granted on Divine Mercy Sunday is a great gift to all of us.  We will be accountable for how we have responded to this...

Let us renew our commitment to 'do something' extra.  You could spread the Image of Divine Mercy to many people by getting some small Divine Mercy prayer cards and sending them with a birthday card, a last minute Christmas Card, a get well card...on the bus by leaving one or more on a seat, simply giving one to someone you meet, there are endless ways of doing this. 

The works of mercy are most important, to visit the sick, to feed the hungry, to help the homeless, pray for the dead and for the dying and the list goes on.  We are all part of the Body of Christ, we have to do our part no matter how small to help one another.  As individuals we all have a responsiblity to help our Church, God has given everyone a gift to use, so do something today for we may not have tomorrow to be kind, merciful, forgiving towards others and to reach out in some small way to another. 

We have so much in the media today which we should use to the maximum to spread the works of Mercy, that is why I started this blog.  It is only something small and inadequate but I try to do my little bit to help others, to encourage others to do something for Jesus, and for souls..

Let us help Jesus....

O Blood and Water which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of Mercy for us,

I trust in You.........

Divine Mercy & Hope - Bishop Robert J. Baker (USA)

Pope Benedict On Divine Mercy - April 2007

"God’s passionate love for his people — for humanity — is at the same time a forgiving love. It is so great that it turns God against himself, his love against his justice.”

This is a startling, radical, statement about divine mercy — the kind of declaration that one might expect to see attributed to Pope John Paul II. But it was Pope Benedict XVI who wrote it, in his first encyclical Deus Caritas Est (God Is Love).

Seven years after Pope John Paul II first announced the creation of Mercy Sunday, many priests are still wary of the feast. Why do they hold back? There is a certain assumption that the Divine Mercy is a private devotion that had a personal meaning to a particular Polish man who happened to also be Pope, but that it is not for everyone.

Reading Pope Benedict’s words about Divine Mercy should dispel that notion. Rather than attributing the popularity of the Divine Mercy devotion to Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI seems more likely to attribute the greatness of Pope John Paul II to his devotion to Divine Mercy.

In his homily before the conclave that elected him, he summed up John Paul’s pontificate by speaking about the late Pope’s emphasis on the Divine Mercy: “Jesus Christ is divine mercy in person: Encountering Christ means encountering the mercy of God,” said Pope Benedict. “The mercy of Christ is not a cheap grace; it does not presume a trivialization of evil. Christ carries in his body and on his soul all the weight of evil, and all its destructive force. He burns and transforms evil through suffering, in the fire of his suffering love.”

He concluded last year’s Way of the Cross by saying: “The Way of the Cross is the way of mercy, the way of mercy that puts a limit on evil: This is what we learned from Pope John Paul II. It is the way of mercy; hence, the way of salvation. … Let us pray to the Lord to help us be ‘infected’ by his mercy.”

He often noted that Pope John Paul II died after Mercy Sunday Mass. And in a March 26 homily last year, Benedict said forcefully: “The Pope, in this last text which is like a testament, then added: ‘How much the world needs to understand and accept Divine Mercy!’”

In a visit with the sick on May 7, Pope Benedict embraced not just the message of Divine Mercy, but the specific devotion popularized by St. Faustina.

The image the devotion promotes is a portrait of Jesus with rays of light emanating from his heart. The words “Jesus, I trust in you” are inscribed below.

Pope Benedict told the sick people, “You who say in silence: ‘Jesus, I trust in you’ teach us that there is no faith more profound, no hope more alive and no love more ardent than the faith, hope and love of a person who in the midst of suffering places himself securely in God’s hands.”

He later spoke about visiting the convent where “Sister Faustina Kowalska, contemplating the shining wounds of the Risen Christ, received a message of trust for humanity which John Paul II echoed and interpreted and which really is a central message precisely for our time: mercy as God’s power, as a divine barrier against the evil of the world.”

In his homilies, the Holy Father has given us some of our most eloquent and adamant enunciations of God’s mercy:

Men and women are prone to doubt God’s care for them. So Pope Benedict stressed: “God loves us in a way that we might call ‘obstinate’ and enfolds us in his inexhaustible tenderness.”

The wrong kind of emphasis on God’s mercy can create the impression that God forgives all in an apathetic way, more like a benign uncle than a loving Father.

So the Pope stresses God’s anger, too. “[T]he anger and mercy of the Lord alternate in a dramatic sequence, but love triumphs in the end, for God is love.”

And always, he seeks to root trust in God’s mercy in the Gospels and the sacraments rather than in private revelation.

“How many people also in our time are in search of God, in search of Jesus and of his Church, in search of divine mercy, and are waiting for a ‘sign’ that will touch their minds and their hearts!” he said, in one homily. “Today, as then, the Evangelist reminds us that the only ‘sign’ is Jesus raised on the cross: Jesus who died and rose is the absolutely sufficient sign.”

The Church grants an indulgence for participation in Mercy Sunday devotions (see page B2). In his new document on the Eucharist, Pope Benedict recommends such indulgences, but emphasizes that the sacraments of confession and the Eucharist are the most important aspects of them.

Finally, Pope Benedict used Divine Mercy to sum up our Christian lives.

“To understand and accept God’s merciful love: May this be your commitment, first of all in your families and then in every neighborhood milieu.”

This Mercy Sunday is a good day to start.

Article from the National Catholic Register:  http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/2222

Divine Mercy in Animation........

The First National Pilgrimage of Divine Mercy in England

In June of this year the first National Pilgrimage of Divine Mercy took place in England at the Catholic Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham....below is an article from Independent Catholic news on that wonderful event..

‘Tell the Whole World’ about My Mercy’ was the theme of the first National Pilgrimage of Divine Mercy to the Roman Catholic Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham on Saturday, 5 June. Around 1500 pilgrims took part.

The day began with songs of praise and the Enthronement of the Divine Mercy Image. A special intention was to pray for the Papal visit and a special union of prayer was extended to the Holy Father. Solemn exposition of the Blessed Sacrament followed during which pilgrims prayed intently in silent.

Mgr Keith Barltrop (National Coordinator for Divine Mercy in UK) then gave a talk on ‘God’s Mercy, Help of the World’ drawing our attention to trust in God’s Mercy and to proclaim it by the witness of our lives. He spoke of the need for a renewed commitment to serious prayer and fasting and exhorted the pilgrims to be part of a National Movement to spread the fire of God’s Mercy throughout the British Isles.

Then the solemn silent Procession of the Blessed Sacrament wended its way from the Abbey Grounds, up the Martyrs’ Way, and along the Pilgrims’ Way through the fields to the Roman Catholic National Shrine. Upon arrival at the Shrine the Chaplet of Divine Mercy was sung.

The Pilgrimage culminated with the celebration of Mass presided by Fr Wojtek Jasinski MIC. A moving homily was preached by Fr. Laurie Locke in which he humbly spoke of how God’s Mercy had enveloped his own priestly life and the transforming impact of the Divine Mercy Devotion in his own Parish Community.

Before the final blessing all the concelebrating priests came before the Divine Mercy Image and led the congregation in a solemn Entrustment of the Church and our Countries to the Divine Mercy.

Reference: http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=16273

On The Chaplet of Divine Mercy

Knights of Divine Mercy (USA) - How they Began

In 2005, a battle was brewing. A battle for souls! A battle for decency! A battle for Morality over Immorality!

In the summer of 2004, Fr. Richard Heilman was assigned as pastor of two parishes, one of which was St. Mary’s of Pine Bluff, a Catholic parish in a small unincorporated town in southern Wisconsin. The little town of Pine Bluff has one church, two bars, and a handful of homes. It is surrounded by fields and idyllic countryside. It’s the kind of town where people dream of raising their kids.

So it was that just months after Fr. Heilman’s arrival in Pine Bluff, one of the bar owners decided to rent out his cozy establishment to a strip club owner. Neighbors were appalled, and the little town was stunned. But there was not, it seemed much that anyone could do.

The folks in Pine Bluff, however, hardly knew their new priest, Fr. Heilman. Little did they know the big plans he was formulating. Discerning God’s will, Father Heilman organized a mile-long Stations of the Cross through the town. He invited everyone—parishioners, townsfolk, people from the wider diocese—to pray along this “miracle mile,” in an effort to reclaim this surrendered ground and to consecrate the soil back to Our Lord.

The inaugural prayer walk was on Palm Sunday 2005. Over two-hundred people spilled into the little town of Pine Bluff to participate in the miracle mile. Pine Bluff residents had prepared for the prayer walk by placing two-foot-high crosses in their lawns stretching all the way down the main road and back, the length of the miracle mile. Participants carried their prayer sheets and a white ribbon (a symbol of purity and anti-pornography). The twelfth station found them at the entrance to the beautiful parish cemetery on a bluff with a life-size crucifix of our Lord and a one-hundred-year-old stone kneeler in front. The participants tied their white ribbons to this kneeler as a prayer form, much like lighting a vigil candle.

After that first prayer walk, a container holding prayer sheets and ribbons was placed at the first station on the walk. All were invited to come, pick up a prayer sheet and white ribbon, and pray at anytime of the day or night, as they wished. Over the next six months, prayer warriors walked the path, prayed the Stations, and sang hymns nearly round the clock. “This is holy ground, we’re standing on holy ground…” they sang. The white crosses on residents’ lawns served as a very tangible reminder to pray the Stations and to pray for God’s mercy. It was estimated that 600-700 ribbons were tied onto the cemetery kneeler over that period of time.

The miracle mile was, indeed, miraculous. Even though many say that the porn industry is more protected (under First Amendment rights) than are the babies in our mothers’ wombs, within six months the strip club was chased out of town. Little Pine Bluff was overjoyed, and a victory was won for Our Lord.

Seeing that the power of prayer moved a very significant mountain, a seed was planted and a lion was awakened. Recall that this year of 2005 was also the year our mercy pope, John Paul the Great, went to be with his merciful Savior, as he passed on the very eve of Divine Mercy Sunday. Pope John Paul II’s love for the Divine Mercy devotion and the inspiration of this faithful remnant in Pine Bluff, who believed and saw their prayers answered, led Fr. Heilman to found the very successful Knights of Divine Mercy, an organization calling Catholic men to heroic virtue, to be strong husbands and fathers, and to be spiritual men of prayer. To this day, after their First Friday evenings of prayer and training, the Knights of Divine Mercy walk across the street for a fish fry social at the now-wholesome, family-friendly sports tavern where the strip club once existed, quite literally “reclaiming surrendered ground.”

Article from:  http://www.knightsofdivinemercy.com/

Homily on the Canonisation of St. Faustina 30th April 2000

Homily of Pope John Paul II at the Mass For the Canonisation of Sr. Mary Faustina Kowalska

in St. Peter's Square, Rome,

on Divine Mercy Sunday 30th April 2000.

1. "Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus, quoniam in saeculum misericordia eius"; "Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his steadfast love endures for ever" (Ps 118: 1). So the Church sings on the Octave of Easter, as if receiving from Christ's lips these words of the Psalm; from the lips of the risen Christ, who bears the great message of divine mercy and entrusts its ministry to the Apostles in the Upper Room: "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.... Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained" (Jn 20: 21-23).

Before speaking these words, Jesus shows his hands and his side. He points, that is, to the wounds of the Passion, especially the wound in his heart, the source from which flows the great wave of mercy poured out on humanity. From that heart Sr Faustina Kowalska, the blessed whom from now on we will call a saint, will see two rays of light shining from that heart and illuminating the world: "The two rays", Jesus himself explained to her one day, "represent blood and water" (Diary, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, p. 132).

2. Blood and water! We immediately think of the testimony given by the Evangelist John, who, when a solider on Calvary pierced Christ's side with his spear, sees blood and water flowing from it (cf. Jn 19: 34). Moreover, if the blood recalls the sacrifice of the Cross and the gift of the Eucharist, the water, in Johannine symbolism, represents not only Baptism but also the gift of the Holy Spirit (cf. Jn 3: 5; 4: 14; 7: 37-39).

Divine Mercy reaches human beings through the heart of Christ crucified: "My daughter, say that I am love and mercy personified", Jesus will ask Sr Faustina (Diary, p. 374). Christ pours out this mercy on humanity though the sending of the Spirit who, in the Trinity, is the Person-Love. And is not mercy love's "second name" (cf. Dives in misericordia, n. 7), understood in its deepest and most tender aspect, in its ability to take upon itself the burden of any need and, especially, in its immense capacity for forgiveness?

Today my joy is truly great in presenting the life and witness of Sr Faustina Kowalska to the whole Church as a gift of God for our time. By divine Providence, the life of this humble daughter of Poland was completely linked with the history of the 20th century, the century we have just left behind. In fact, it was between the First and Second World Wars that Christ entrusted his message of mercy to her. Those who remember, who were witnesses and participants in the events of those years and the horrible sufferings they caused for millions of people, know well how necessary was the message of mercy.

Jesus told Sr Faustina: "Humanity will not find peace until it turns trustfully to divine mercy" (Diary, p. 132). Through the work of the Polish religious, this message has become linked for ever to the 20th century, the last of the second millennium and the bridge to the third. It is not a new message but can be considered a gift of special enlightenment that helps us to relive the Gospel of Easter more intensely, to offer it as a ray of light to the men and women of our time.

3. What will the years ahead bring us? What will man's future on earth be like? We are not given to know. However, it is certain that in addition to new progress there will unfortunately be no lack of painful experiences. But the light of divine mercy, which the Lord in a way wished to return to the world through Sr Faustina's charism, will illumine the way for the men and women of the third millennium.

However, as the Apostles once did, today too humanity must welcome into the upper room of history the risen Christ, who shows the wounds of his Crucifixion and repeats: Peace be with you! Humanity must let itself be touched and pervaded by the Spirit given to it by the risen Christ. It is the Spirit who heals the wounds of the heart, pulls down the barriers that separate us from God and divide us from one another, and at the same time, restores the joy of the Father's love and of fraternal unity.

4. It is important then that we accept the whole message that comes to us from the word of God on this Second Sunday of Easter, which from now on throughout the Church will be called "Divine Mercy Sunday". In the various readings, the liturgy seems to indicate the path of mercy which, while re-establishing the relationship of each person with God, also creates new relations of fraternal solidarity among human beings. Christ has taught us that "man not only receives and experiences the mercy of God, but is also called "to practise mercy' towards others: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy' (Mt 5: 7)" (Dives et misericordia, n. 14). He also showed us the many paths of mercy, which not only forgives sins but reaches out to all human needs. Jesus bent over every kind of human poverty, material and spiritual.

His message of mercy continues to reach us through his hands held out to suffering man. This is how Sr Faustina saw him and proclaimed him to people on all the continents when, hidden in her convent at £agiewniki in Kraków, she made her life a hymn to mercy: Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo.

5. Sr Faustina's canonization has a particular eloquence: by this act I intend today to pass this message on to the new millennium. I pass it on to all people, so that they will learn to know ever better the true face of God and the true face of their brethren.

In fact, love of God and love of one's brothers and sisters are inseparable, as the First Letter of John has reminded us: "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments" (5: 2). Here the Apostle reminds us of the truth of love, showing us its measure and criterion in the observance of the commandments.

It is not easy to love with a deep love, which lies in the authentic gift of self. This love can only be learned by penetrating the mystery of God's love. Looking at him, being one with his fatherly heart, we are able to look with new eyes at our brothers and sisters, with an attitude of unselfishness and solidarity, of generosity and forgiveness. All this is mercy!

To the extent that humanity penetrates the mystery of this merciful gaze, it will seem possible to fulfil the ideal we heard in today's first reading: "The community of believers were of one heart and one mind. None of them ever claimed anything as his own; rather everything was held in common" (Acts 4: 32). Here mercy gave form to human relations and community life; it constituted the basis for the sharing of goods. This led to the spiritual and corporal "works of mercy". Here mercy became a concrete way of being "neighbour" to one's neediest brothers and sisters.

6. Sr Faustina Kowalska wrote in her Diary: "I feel tremendous pain when I see the sufferings of my neighbours. All my neighbours' sufferings reverberate in my own heart; I carry their anguish in my heart in such a way that it even physically destroys me. I would like all their sorrows to fall upon me, in order to relieve my neighbour" (Diary, p. 365). This is the degree of compassion to which love leads, when it takes the love of God as its measure!

It is this love which must inspire humanity today, if it is to face the crisis of the meaning of life, the challenges of the most diverse needs and, especially, the duty to defend the dignity of every human person. Thus the message of divine mercy is also implicitly a message about the value of every human being. Each person is precious in God's eyes; Christ gave his life for each one; to everyone the Father gives his Spirit and offers intimacy.

7. This consoling message is addressed above all to those who, afflicted by a particularly harsh trial or crushed by the weight of the sins they committed, have lost all confidence in life and are tempted to give in to despair. To them the gentle face of Christ is offered; those rays from his heart touch them and shine upon them, warm them, show them the way and fill them with hope. How many souls have been consoled by the prayer "Jesus, I trust in you", which Providence intimated through Sr Faustina! This simple act of abandonment to Jesus dispels the thickest clouds and lets a ray of light penetrate every life. Jezu, ufam tobie.

8. Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo (Ps 88 [89]: 2). Let us too, the pilgrim Church, join our voice to the voice of Mary most holy, "Mother of Mercy", to the voice of this new saint who sings of mercy with all God's friends in the heavenly Jerusalem.

And you, Faustina, a gift of God to our time, a gift from the land of Poland to the whole Church, obtain for us an awareness of the depth of divine mercy; help us to have a living experience of it and to bear witness to it among our brothers and sisters. May your message of light and hope spread throughout the world, spurring sinners to conversion, calming rivalries and hatred and opening individuals and nations to the practice of brotherhood. Today, fixing our gaze with you on the face of the risen Christ, let us make our own your prayer of trusting abandonment and say with firm hope: Christ Jesus, I trust in you! Jezu, ufam tobie!

Divine Mercy For Our Priests

During his visit this year to Fatima, Portugal, Pope Benedict XVI expressed in a special prayer the desire for Priests to be 'Apostles of Divine Mercy' guided by Mary.   The Holy Father entrusted and consecrated priests to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on May 12 at the Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Fatima. There, he invoked the Blessed Virgin Mary as "Mother of Mercy" and prayed:

Guided by you, we want to be Apostles of Divine Mercy, glad to celebrate every day the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar and to offer to those who request it the sacrament of Reconciliation.

Also when Pope Benedict XVI opened the Year for Priests in his homily in St. Peter's on June 19, 2009, the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It also marked the 150th anniversary of the death of St. John Mary Vianney, the patron of priests. On that occasion, the Holy Father expressed how much priests themselves need to respond to "the call to conversion" and have "recourse to Divine Mercy," so they can avoid "the terrible risk of harming those whom [they] are bound to save":

Even our shortcomings, our limitations, and our weaknesses must lead us back to the Heart of Jesus. Indeed, if it is true that sinners, in contemplating Him, must learn from Him the necessary "sorrow for sins" that leads them back to the Father, it is even more so for holy ministers. How can we forget, in this regard, that nothing makes the Church, the Body of Christ, suffer more than the sins of her pastors, especially the sins of those who are transformed into "a thief and a robber" of the sheep (Jn 10:1 ff.), or who deviate from the Church through their own private doctrines, or who ensnare the Church in sin and death? Dear priests, the call to conversion and recourse to Divine Mercy also applies to us, and we must humbly address a heartfelt and ceaseless invocation to the Heart of Jesus to keep us from the terrible risk of harming those whom we are bound to save.

Healing Power of Divine Mercy

The following is from a speech given by Fr. Benedict Groeschel given at the World Congress of Divine Mercy in Rome in 2008. It speaks about how Pscychotherapy and Divine Mercy meet...


THE BROKENNESS OF THE HUMAN PERSON AND

THE HEALING POWER OF DIVINE MERCY
 

In the 20th century much attention has been paid to the psychological brokenness, to the mental illness and dysfunction of human beings. Before that time attention was generally focused on physical illness, disease and circumstances that caused blindness, lameness and other severe bodily problems that often lead to death. Mentally ill patients were simply assigned to asylums, and often thought to be possessed. Gradually people with less severe psychological symptoms received therapy and assistance from the newly emerging psycharitic professions with varying results.

More and more people especially in the more affluent nations realized that they suffered from such problems as depression, anxiety, self hate, guilt and even scrupulosity. All of these symptoms lead to the breakdown of human relationships, the weakening of family life, an inability to do ones vocational work and general unhappiness, which seem to have been the root cause of the problems.

The least depressed country of the 16 studied was Nigeria, a land racked by political turmoil and conflict and with a high level of poverty in many areas. While the United States had 10% of its people depressed, Nigeria had less than 1%. Italy was about 4%. This study was only about depression, but there are other forms of brokenness like substance abuse and alcoholism, and self destructive tendencies, such as acute anxiety disorder and many sexual disorders. All of these problems are less acute than what are generally called mental illnesses like schizophrenia. If you look within yourself you will probably recognize at least some of these less serious symptoms in yourself.

That great psychologist of human history, St. Augustine, rightly saw these problems as a direct result of original sin and often rooted in sinful tendencies. We Catholics usually don’t make much of the distinction between neurotic traits and the old list of the seven capital sins. The question now arises, is any one perfectly well balanced and sane?

It is my belief that there were only two perfectly well balanced people who ever lived and they both lived with St. Joseph who was reported to have apparently wisely said nothing.

The world into which St. Faustina was born was a simple and unsophisticated place where few people paid much attention to their neurotic tendencies. The poor in this sense are usually happier than the rich. When she entered religious life, St. Faustina became aware of the emphasis on self-knowledge and self-examination, and also of the challenges of community life where people’s psychological problems become more obvious. Life in a community is generally more of a challenge than simply living with your own family.

No one could foresee in the 1930s that Christians of all denominations , as well as a large number of Jews and Buddhists and non religious people , would be so interested in their mental health and psychological well being. It was only in the second half of this troubled century that human problems and the techniques for ameliorating this brokenness took up so much attention, proving the validity of an observation that psychologists often make that neurosis is the price of civilization. All of these influences were very far from the thinking of the humble Polish lay sister who would experience mystical encounters of Our Savior under the aspect of Divine Mercy. In a remarkable and even astonishing way, this humble visionary spoke of the mercy of Christ in response to human needs, especially psychological needs.

The very things that modern psychiatry has focused on: fear, guilt, anxiety, self-hate, hostility, distrust of others, would be themes that would be taken up by the revelations of Divine Mercy, which have had such an incredible impact on Catholic life in our times. Probably the most psychologically revealing passages in the Diary are in notebook five, beginning with the “conversations of the merciful Savior”. These conversations enlighten us about Christ’s relationship with various categories of people. The sinful, the despairing, the suffering souls are all encountered in these conversations , as are the souls striving for perfection and even those rare people who are in some sense perfect.

Looking at these “conversations” from the view point of psychology, we see that they are a profound response to what even secular psychology has come to see as the most consistent problems of human beings ; neurotic guilt, self-hate, feelings of frustration and hopelessness. These problems are described and directly confronted in the conversations with the Divine Mercy.

It is important to point out that it is only recently that the world of psychology has become aware of the importance of religious values and virtue. The new positive psychology which is sweeping through the United States at the present time, the psychology of virtue, dovetails very surprisingly with the Gospels and the spiritual life, and even with the revelations of St. Faustina. It has been well known in psychology for a long time that pathology may result from feelings of rejection, uselessness or even a conviction on the part of persons that they are bad or evil. A deep hopelessness, often unacknowledegable, is often the root of neurosis and other problems of personality adjustment. Often these destructive tendencies are the result of damaging relationships in early childhood, especially with parents

The whole message of Divine Mercy, including the image of Divine Mercy, communicates an acceptance on the part of God Himself of the individual. Not only an acceptance but a care, a love, and a great compassion are described. In the “conversations” given in the fifth notebook, particularly the conversation with the despairing soul, the message is communicated that God cares more about our salvation and our happiness than we ever could of ourselves. He counteracts the very negative and self-destructive aspects of the despairing person and the sinful person. He encourages and gives meaning to the sufferings of the person in pain.

We who are believers find it hard to adequately assess what such a message means to persons who have only superficial or mediocre faith. If they suddenly come to the realization even by a private revelation like Divine Mercy that God cares about them, it can transform their lives.

It has long been recognized in the world of psychotherapy that the Catholic sacrament of reconciliation with confession of sins provides great help to the individual and often might make psychotherapy unnecessary. It seems to me that this also can be said of the message of Divine Mercy. To rebuild the inner convictions of an individual’s relationship with the loving God and the merciful Savior is one of the strongest, if not the strongest motivation for overcoming serious psychological problems of a neurotic sort and making a better adjustment in life.

As the new positive psychology focuses on the importance of virtue, including the moral, as well as the theological virtues, there is every reason to expect that the significance of the Divine Mercy revelation will be more and more recognized.


By Fr. Benedict J. Groeschel, CFR
Chiesa di Santa Maria degli Angeli
At the World Apostolic Congress on Divine Mercy in Rome

3rd April 2008

Homily of John Paul II on Divine Mercy Sunday 2001

Divine Mercy: The Easter Gift

"Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one; I died, and behold I am alive for evermore" (Rev 1:17-18).

We heard these comforting words in the Second Reading taken from the Book of Revelation. They invite us to turn our gaze to Christ, to experience His reassuring presence. To each person, whatever his condition, even if it were the most complicated and dramatic, the Risen One repeats: "Fear not!; I died on the Cross but now I am alive for evermore"; "I am the first and the last, and the living one."

"The first," that is, the source of every being and the first-fruits of the new creation; "the last," the definitive end of history; "the living one," the inexhaustible source of life that triumphed over death forever.  In the Messiah, crucified and risen, we recognize the features of the Lamb sacrificed on Golgotha, who implores forgiveness for His torturers and opens the gates of heaven to repentant sinners; we glimpse the face of the immortal King who now has "the keys of Death and Hades" (Rev 1:18).

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy endures forever! (Ps 117:1). Let us make our own the Psalmist's exclamation which we sang in the Responsorial Psalm: "The Lord's mercy endures forever!" In order to understand thoroughly the truth of these words, let us be led by the liturgy to the heart of the event of salvation, which unites Christ's Death and Resurrection with our lives and with the world's history. This miracle of mercy has radically changed humanity's destiny. It is a miracle in which is unfolded the fullness of the love of the Father who, for our redemption, does not even draw back before the sacrifice of His Only-begotten Son.

In the humiliated and suffering Christ, believers and non-believers can admire a surprising solidarity, which binds Him to our human condition beyond all imaginable measure. The Cross, even after the Resurrection of the Son of God, "speaks and never ceases to speak of God the Father, who is absolutely faithful to His eternal love for man. ... Believing in this love means believing in mercy" (Rich in Mercy, 7).

Let us thank the Lord for His love, which is stronger than death and sin. It is revealed and put into practice as mercy in our daily lives, and prompts every person in turn to have "mercy" towards the Crucified One. Is not loving God and loving one's neighbor and even one's "enemies," after Jesus' example, the program of life of every baptized person and of the whole Church?

A great joy
With these sentiments, we are celebrating the Second Sunday of Easter, which since last year, the year of the Great jubilee, is also called "Divine Mercy Sunday." It is a great joy for me to be able to join all of you, dear pilgrims and faithful who have come from various nations to commemorate, after one year, the canonization of Sr. Faustina Kowalska, witness and messenger of the Lord's merciful love.

The elevation to the honors of the altar of this humble religious, a daughter of my land, is not only a gift for Poland but for all humanity. Indeed 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: "Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My mercy" (Diary, 300). Divine Mercy! This is the Easter gift that the Church receives from the risen Christ and offers to humanity at the dawn of the third millennium.

The Gospel, which has just been proclaimed, helps us to grasp the full sense and value of this gift. The Evangelist John makes us share in the emotion felt by the Apostles in their meeting with Christ after His Resurrection. Our attention focuses on the gesture of the Master, who transmits to the fearful, astounded disciples the mission of being ministers of Divine Mercy. He shows them His hands and His side, which bear the marks of the Passion, and tells them: "As the Father has sent Me, even so I send you" Jn 20:21).

Immediately afterwards, "He breathed on them, and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained' " (Jn 20:22-23). Jesus entrusted to them the gift of "forgiving sins," a gift that flows from the wounds in His hands, His feet, and especially from His pierced side. From there a wave of mercy is poured out over all humanity.

Let us relive this moment with great spiritual intensity. Today the Lord also shows us His glorious wounds and His Heart, an inexhaustible source of light and truth, of love and forgiveness.

The Heart of Christ!

His "Sacred Heart" has given men everything: redemption, salvation, sanctification. Saint Faustina Kowalska saw coming from this Heart that was overflowing with generous love, two rays of light which illuminated the world.

The two rays, [according to what Jesus Himself told her], denote blood and water (Diary, 299). The blood recalls the sacrifice of Golgotha and the mystery of the Eucharist; the water, according to the rich symbolism of the Evangelist John, makes us think of Baptism and the Gift of the Holy Spirit (See Jn 3:5; 4:14).

Through the mystery of this wounded Heart, the restorative tide of God's merciful love continues to spread over the men and women of our time. Here alone can those who long for true and lasting happiness find its secret.

"Jesus, I trust in You!"
This prayer, dear to so many of the devout, clearly expresses the attitude with which we too would like to abandon ourselves trustfully in Your hands, 0 Lord, our only Savior.

You are burning with the desire to be loved and those in tune with the sentiments of Your Heart learn how to build the new civilization of love. A simple act of abandonment is enough to overcome the barriers of darkness and sorrow, of doubt and desperation. The rays of Your Divine Mercy restore hope, in a special way, to those-who feel overwhelmed by the burden of sin.

Mary, Mother of Mercy, help us always to have this trust in your Son, our Redeemer. Help us too, St. Faustina, whom we remember today with special affection. Fixing our weak gaze on the divine Savior's face, we would like to repeat with you: "Jesus, I trust in You!" Now and for ever. Amen.