Next April 16, the second Sunday of Easter, the Universal Church will celebrate the Feast of Divine Mercy, which was instituted by Saint John Paul II to remind us of Christ’s immense forgiveness.
The devotion to the Lord of Divine Mercy brings together millions of Catholics who each year express their love and gratitude to Jesus, through the prayer of novenas, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, processions, among other religious practices.
This devotion has spread throughout the world due to the special graces that the Lord grants to his faithful devotees. However, its importance lies in remembering the following message that Christ himself transmitted to us: God is Merciful and loves us all, “and the greater the sinner, the greater the right he has to My mercy”, as Santa Faustina wrote in her diary.
Here are 10 things every Catholic should know about Divine Mercy Sunday:
1. Mercy Sunday originates from private revelations
The celebration of this festival originates from the private revelations of Christ to the Polish religious Saint Faustina Kowalska in the town of Plock, Poland, in the year 1931. During the apparitions, the Lord Jesus transmitted a series of messages about the meaning of his Divine Mercy and commissioned him to spread his devotion throughout the world.
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2. It is part of the Church calendar thanks to Saint John Paul II
In the year 2000, Saint John Paul II canonized Saint Faustina and during the ceremony he pointed out that “it is important that we fully accept the message that the word of God transmits to us on this second Sunday of Easter, which from now on throughout the Church it will be designated with the name of ‘Sunday of the Divine Mercy’”. (Homily, April 30, 2000).
3. This private revelation has valid effects in the liturgy
In his theological commentary on the Fatima message, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, wrote: “we can add that private revelations often come above all from popular piety and are supported by it, give it new impulses and open up new ways for her. This does not exclude that they have effects even on the liturgy, as for example the festivals of the The body of the Lord and of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
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4. The Church invites to celebrate Divine Mercy in various ways
Among other things, it offers a plenary indulgence: “in order to make the faithful live this celebration with intense piety, the Supreme Pontiff himself (John Paul II) has established that the aforementioned Sunday be enriched with a plenary indulgence so that the faithful receive more abundance the gift of the consolation of the Holy Spirit and thus cultivate a growing charity towards God and towards their neighbour, and once they have obtained from God the forgiveness of their sins, they in turn forgive their brothers generously”.
With information from ACI PRESS
