Second Sunday of Easter ~ Divine Mercy Sunday

Our Lord said to Saint Faustina;

"Encourage souls to say the Chaplet which I have given you ... Whoever will recite it will receive great mercy at the hour of death ... 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 Merciful Saviour ... Priests will recommend it to sinners as their last hope of salvation. Even if there were a sinner most hardened, if he were to recite this chaplet only once, he would receive grace from My infinite mercy ... I desire to grant unimaginable graces to those souls who trust in My mercy ... Through the Chaplet you will obtain everything, if what you ask is compatible with My will."

Helna Kowalska was born on the 25th of August 1905 in the village of Glogowiec near Łódź in Poland. Aged just fourteen and without completing elementary school she went to work. By the time she was fifteen she had made it know to her parents that it was her desire to enter a convent. Accordingly, on the 1st of August 1925 she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy and served her postulancy in Warsaw and her novitiate in Cracow. It was there, during her investiture that she was given the name of Sister Mary Faustina. After a two year novitiate, she made her first profession of vows on the 30th of April 1928. As a temporarily professed sister she worked in various houses belonging to the congregation taking her perpetual vows on the 1st of May 1933. However, after only a few weeks of convent life her health began to deteriorate and she began to suffer from consumption. In August 1934 she suffered a violent attack of asthma for the first time. This was, in all likelihood, tuberculosis which progressed to such an extent that in 1936 and again in 1938 she was forced to spend several months in a sanatorium in Pradnik, near Cracow. In 1938 she spent the last five months of her life in the same hospital and passed away on the 5th of October.

The Visions and the writing of the Diary.

In the 1920s St. Faustina began to receive heavenly visions. She visited Purgatory; she saw and spoke to Jesus and Mary several times. At last Jesus revealed to her the work for which she had been created: to spread the devotion to the Mercy of God. On 22nd of February 1931, He appeared to her as King of Divine Mercy, "wearing a white garment. One hand was raised in a sign of blessing; the other was touching the garment at the breast. From beneath the garment. . .emanated two large rays, one red, the other pale." Jesus asked St. Faustina to have an image painted of Him as she saw Him, but her superiors hesitated. At last, God sent her a new spiritual director, Father Michael Sopocko, who helped her to promulgate devotion to the Mercy of God. It was Fr. Sopocko also who ordered her to write a diary of the graces she received, even though she had a hard time writing and spelling because of her scanty education. The diary was later published under the title Divine Mercy in My Soul: The Diary of St. Faustina.

The Diary of Saint Faustina online. (PDF file) https://liturgicalyear.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/divine-mercy-in-my-soul.pdf

Let the doubting soul read these considerations on Divine Mercy and become trusting.

Divine Mercy, gushing forth from the bosom of the Father, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, greatest attribute of God, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, incomprehensible mystery, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, fount gushing forth from the mystery of the Most Blessed Trinity, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, unfathomed by any intellect, human or angelic, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, from which wells forth all life and happiness, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, better than the heavens, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, source of miracles and wonders, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, encompassing the whole universe, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, descending to earth in the Person of the Incarnate Word, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, which flowed out from the open wound of the Heart of Jesus, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, enclosed in the Heart of Jesus for us, and especially for sinners, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, unfathomed in the institution of the Sacred Host, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, in the founding of Holy Church, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, in our justification through Jesus Christ, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, accompanying us through our whole life, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, embracing us especially at the hour of death, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, endowing us with immortal life, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, accompanying us every moment of our life, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, shielding us from the fire of hell, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, in the conversion of hardened sinners, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, astonishment for Angels, incomprehensible to Saints, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, unfathomed in all the mysteries of God, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, lifting us out of every misery, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, source of our happiness and joy, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, in calling us forth from nothingness to existence, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, embracing all the works of His hands, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, crown of all of God's handiwork, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, in which we are all immersed, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, sweet relief for anguished hearts, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, only hope of despairing souls, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, repose of hearts, peace amidst fear, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, delight and ecstasy of holy souls, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, inspiring hope against all hope, I trust in You.

Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself.

(Diary of St. Faustina, 949-950)

See also:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_Mercy_Sunday

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_Mercy_image

13th April - Optional memorial of St. Martin I, Pope, Martyr.

Born 21 June 598. Near Todi, Umbria, Eastern Roman Empire

Died 16 September 655 (aged 57) Cherson, Eastern Roman Empire

Papacy began 21 July 649

Papacy ended 16 September 655

The last of the early Popes to be venerated as a martyr, Martin was born at Todi in Umbria. His intelligence and charity led to him being sent as a nuncio to Constantinople. He was elected Pope in 649 and presided over a council at the Lateran that condemned the error of Monotheism (which denied that Christ had a human will), together with the Typos and the edicts of Constans II, the reigning emperor. Although supported by the bishops of Africa, England and Syria, Martin was arrested and taken to Constantinople. During the voyage he suffered from dysentery He was jailed for three months, not having been allowed to wash, even in cold water, for forty-seven days. The food that he was given made him sick. Eventually he was tried for treason although the real reason was his refusal to accept the Typos. He was condemned unheard. Public insults, flogging and imprisonment followed. At the intercession of the Patriarch of Constantinople he was exiled to Chersonesus in the Crimea where he died from starvation, apparently forgotten by the people of Rome, in 653.

Almighty and ever living God, grant that we may withstand the trials of the world with the same invincible firmness shown by your Martyr Pope Saint Martin who refused to be daunted by threats or broken by suffering.

See also:

https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09723c.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Martin_I

https://catholicsaints.info/pope-saint-martin-i/

https://catholicsaints.info/butlers-lives-of-the-saints-saint-martin-pope-and-martyr/