The Feast of Divine Mercy

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On May 5, 2000, the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, at the direction of Pope John Paul II, issue a decree establishing the Feast of Divine Mercy to be celebrated throughout the Universal Church on the Sunday after Easter. How many of you are familiar with this feast and have you taken part in the liturgy in celebration of that feast.
Prayers & Blessings
Deacon Ed B
 
I am very familiar with it, and yes I have taken part in it for the past 3 yrs.
At my Parish “The Friar Suppliers” they are a group of Fransican Friars from NY who attend to the needs of the poor. For the past three years they have “Divine Sunday Celebration” from 2:00-5:00pm. Includes, Benediction, Expostion of The Blessed Sacrament, Confession, Praying The Divine Mercy Chaplet. Veneration of The SacredHeart of Jesus.
It is a truly beautifull day and The Young Friars and The young Sisters of St. Clair are wonderfull.
 
I can remember having since it began. It rocks.

God Bless,
matt
 
When the Holy Spirit directed my husband and I (both Methodists since childhood) to Mass one summer Sunday and our lives were forever changed, we made an appointment with the Priest to talk with him about possibly becoming Catholic, Father gave to us a notebook he’d prepared to help us understand the Catholic faith better along with a Catholic Bible and Catechism to get us started on our journey.

Towards the back of the notebook, Father had included the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. It seemed as if a lightning bolt had hit me as I read it. As the words of this very powerful prayer enfolded me. I knew beyond any doubt I had to try and get this message across to as many people as I possibly could. Before we were confirmed on Thanksgiving Day, 2006, I’d obtained as much information as was available about Ste. Faustina and the Chaplet, read her diary of course and chose her as my patron saint.

Sorry for the rambling but I still get so excited as Lent comes upon us and I know the Feast of Divine Mercy is approaching. We are so blessed in our parish that the Novena is encouraged by everyone and begins Good Friday. Father offers Reconciliation almost every day throughout Lent and celebrates the Feast on Divine Mercy Sunday at 3:00 pm.

Life doesn’t get much better than this.
 
Jacquelinem said:
When the Holy Spirit directed my husband and I (both Methodists since childhood) to Mass one summer Sunday and our lives were forever changed, we made an appointment with the Priest to talk with him about possibly becoming Catholic, Father gave to us a notebook he’d prepared to help us understand the Catholic faith better along with a Catholic Bible and Catechism to get us started on our journey.
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Welcome home to the Catholic Church
Prayers :& Blessings
Deacon Ed B
 
Deacon_Ed_B said:
On May 5, 2000, the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, at the direction of Pope John Paul II, issue a decree establishing the Feast of Divine Mercy to be celebrated throughout the Universal Church on the Sunday after Easter. How many of you are familiar with this feast and have you taken part in the liturgy in celebration of that feast.
Prayers & Blessings
Deacon Ed B
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I offered the TLM in Poughkeepsie, NY on Divine Mercy Sunday a couple of weeks ago. The homily was on Divine Mercy, and we had Benediction, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and Confessions after Mass. St. Joseph’s Church, where we have the Mass, is a Polish ethnic parish, and there is a beautiful shrine to the Divine Mercy, with the traditional Divine Mercy picture of our Lord, a crucifix, and an image of St. Faustina.

God bless,

Fr. Boyd
 
This is a profound devotional and celebration.

After a life changing event that woke me up to the sinful and luke-warm state of my soul I started researching indulgences. I was anxious to get started repenting right away for a life long neglect of my spiritual obligations to God and for taking his mercy for granted. As I researched the private revelations of the saints God slowly but progressively woke me up to just how sinful I had been over my life. I came to know from my reading that the gravity and duration of my forgiven sins could have easily condemned me purgatory till the end of time. So I wanted to work on every possible plenary indulgence knowing that I would probably not be holy enough to ever win a fill plenary remission from God. I also increased my prayer life from non-existent to 1-2 hrs a day. Eventually I chanced onto the “Divine Mercy” Chaplet and read everything I could about this devotion. Then I discovered that The Church had approved Divine Mercy Sunday!

Divine Mercy Sunday is utterly profound. Essentially it is a guarantee for a full plenary indulgence no matter how badly one has sinned as long as they confess, receive communion, pray for the popes intentions and perform acts of Mercy in the manner prescribed. The entire punishment for forgiven sins is wiped out as if one is getting a second baptism (but it is not a baptism obviously)! This is a GREAT way to calm a scrupulous mind for those of us coming out of a life of sin and wondering if we have confessed all our sins. It utterly quiets an overly scrupulous conscience with assurance of Jesus promise of forgiveness in appealing to His Divine Mercy. It’s like starting over with a fully cleaned slate. This means even the worst sinner who has confessed his sins and makes an appeal to the Divine Mercy on this special day is utterly wiped clean of any venial sins and owed punishments - even if in an imperfect state of grace (due to some lingering concupiscence or predisposition).

So yes - you can count me in on those who have gone to a special devotional mass on Divine Mercy Sunday. Since its celebrated coming off Lent each Catholic should already be in a state of repentance (within 20 days of confession) so its the perfect time to purge all purgatorial debts. Parish priests who are not reminding their parishioners of this special grace are doing their congregations a severe spiritual disservice. They should be announcing it from the podium weekly 2 weeks in advance and putting it in the church bulletins. Most people do not know about it.

Also, I have noted that some priests still think this is a “cult” thing. I wanted to donate to a parish priest to buy a DM “We Trust In You” image or even priestly chasuble/stole with the image on it - but they said “no”. Some think it is distracting from the octave of Easter and conflicts with other liturgical calendar events and so will not recognize the DM image itself in regular mass. One has to go to a seperate mass in the afternoon or vigil etc. We need to get these priests and bishops woken up to it.

James
 
FrRJBoyd said:
I offered the TLM in Poughkeepsie, NY on Divine Mercy Sunday a couple of weeks ago. The homily was on Divine Mercy, and we had Benediction, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and Confessions after Mass. St. Joseph’s Church, where we have the Mass, is a Polish ethnic parish, and there is a beautiful shrine to the Divine Mercy, with the traditional Divine Mercy picture of our Lord, a crucifix, and an image of St. Faustina.

God bless,

Fr. Boyd
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I am very happy to have a priest answering on this thread. Divine Mercy is very special to me and I am just happy to see others involved and have strong feelings for it as well.

I am reading and studying the diary of St. Faustina at this time and for private writing, find it some of the most spiritually gripping reading I have ever picked up. It unfolds the growth of a soul in a powerful way.

I would like to ask all who have been on this thread, Have you, or are you now reading her diary, and what are your thoughts about it?
Prayers & Blessings
Deacocn Ed B
 
I am the type of person who really is not into personal revelations and was very much against JP II’s declaration of the Second Sunday of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday thinking that the SUndays in Easter are so important in themselves. Yet in my postion at the parish I was responsible for preparing the liturgy for Divine Mercy on the afternoon of that Sunday over the past few years. I did it and it was very beautiful and the number of people increased over the few years we were doing it. Still, I didn’t really care for it and it didn’t make sense to me to focus on Jesus’ passion while still in the Octave of Easter.

Last fall, I was going through a dry period in prayer and asked my spiritual director for some suggestions for reading. He suggested reading a book by a saint and suggested a few that I had already read, but Faustina’s was the only one on the list I did not. Knowing she had visisions and locutions and all that kind of stuff I resisted reading it, but since I trusted his advice I thought I would look it up online and just see what her writing was all about. After two days of gluing my eyes to the computer I went out and bought the book. I was traveling to Florida for my brother’s wedding that week and could not put the book down. I devouered every word…so much so that he told me I was reading it too fast and should take my time with it. So after I read it through once I now keep it in my prayer corner and read parts of it often. I started praying the chaplet every day and when the Second Sunday of Easter came around I really put myself into preparing the service, even doing the reading. I got so much out of the service that I had attended many times in the past thinking it was a waste. Now I try to promote the Diary to others that I meet and am planning a trip to the Divine Mercy Shrine in Massachusets. I only wish I was into this devotion last summer when my spiritual director led a pilgrimage to Poland…I had no interest in going at the time given my opinion of the devotion. Well maybe someday I will be able to go.
 
Any more thoughts about Divine Mercy.
Prayers & Blessings
Deacon Ed B
 
Deacon_Ed_B said:
Any more thoughts about Divine Mercy.
Prayers & Blessings
Deacon Ed B
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The Divine Mercy and the Sacred Heart were the devotions instrumental to my metanoia within the Church. So I am very devoted to Divine Mercy.

PS Deacon Ed, thanks for answering the Lord’s call and thanks for your presence here!👍

Someday, God willing, I may follow in your footsteps.
 
It makes me a bit sad that not more have responded to your post, Deacon Ed. And I wonder if it’s because a lot of people aren’t familiar with Christ’s secretary and the Feast of Divine Mercy…or whether people ARE familiar with both and just don’t pray the chaplet or novena.

I also wonder if people know that the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Heart from which our Lord’s Divine Mercy flows are singular, together, unified, one and the same. Maybe those who for years have been devoted to The Sacred Heart of Jesus are hesitant to devote themselves to The Divine Mercy not realizing that both Hearts are His. And, maybe, I’m rambling again.

God bless you, Deacon Ed, all of God’s holy priests, all His religious and our holy, Catholic Church.
 
Volodymyr_988 said:
The Divine Mercy and the Sacred Heart were the devotions instrumental to my metanoia within the Church. So I am very devoted to Divine Mercy.

PS Deacon Ed, thanks for answering the Lord’s call and thanks for your presence here!👍

Someday, God willing, I may follow in your footsteps.
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Thank you for saying this. I greatly appreciate this. Keep me in your prayers. You are in mine.
Prayers & blessings
Deacon Ed B
 
Jacquelinem said:
It makes me a bit sad that not more have responded to your post, Deacon Ed. And I wonder if it’s because a lot of people aren’t familiar with Christ’s secretary and the Feast of Divine Mercy…or whether people ARE familiar with both and just don’t pray the chaplet or novena.

I also wonder if people know that the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Heart from which our Lord’s Divine Mercy flows are singular, together, unified, one and the same. Maybe those who for years have been devoted to The Sacred Heart of Jesus are hesitant to devote themselves to The Divine Mercy not realizing that both Hearts are His. And, maybe, I’m rambling again.

God bless you, Deacon Ed, all of God’s holy priests, all His religious and our holy, Catholic Church.
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Thank you for this response. Can you imagine Jesus calling you, “secretary of my soul”. If we said that, most people would look at us like we were crazy. If people were truly familiar with Divine Mercy, they would know it is not a devotion, but a way of life. Reading the Cenicle books about it are really an eye opener and gives us much insight into this.
Prayers & blessings
Deacon Ed B
 
Very familiar with this wonderful feast and devotion to the Divine Mercy.
This devotion means alot to me because it helped me in a very difficult and traumatic situation for me a few years ago. For that I will be always grateful to God’s Divine Mercy and loyal to this beautiful devotion.
 
Very familiar with this wonderful feast and devotion to the Divine Mercy.
This devotion means alot to me because it helped me in a very difficult and traumatic situation for me a few years ago. For that I will be always grateful to God’s Divine Mercy and loyal to this beautiful devotion.
 
catherine_m said:
Very familiar with this wonderful feast and devotion to the Divine Mercy.
This devotion means a lot to me because it helped me in a very difficult and traumatic situation for me a few years ago. For that I will be always grateful to God’s Divine Mercy and loyal to this beautiful devotion.
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You would be surprised at the number of people I have heard say this exact same thing. If only people would realize that he is there for us. It’s so simple. All we have to do is turn to him, and he is there for us. It is truly a holy way of life.
Prayers & blessings
Deacon Ed B
 
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