Feast day celebrates the mercy of God

By Andrew Junker, The Catholic Sun
April 5, 2007

Just one week after the Church marks the oldest feast on its calendar, Catholics will celebrate one of its newest April 15.

Divine Mercy Sunday falls one week after Easter and is dedicated to the boundless mercy of God as revealed to St. Faustina Kowalska, a 20th century Polish nun.

The feast day has gained prominence recently because Pope John Paul II had such a devotion to it, and passed away on the vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday in 2005.

“I think it can be a profound statement about the charism and meaning of one’s life when God ordains to connect his death to a liturgical feast,” said Katrina Zeno, director of the diocesan John Paul II Resource Center.

“Because of his personal devotion to St. Faustina and then to the Divine Mercy itself, he brought it to the forefront of the world,” she said, noting the mercy Pope John Paul II showed to his would-be assassin by forgiving and visiting him in jail.

“You can’t get more merciful than that,” Zeno said.

Pope John Paul II’s love of Divine Mercy brought it from a regional Polish devotion to the world at large.

St. Faustina’s revelations, as written in her diary, were suppressed by the Church in 1958 due to a poor translation that led many to think the nun’s writings were heretical.

It was the Archbishop of Krakow, then Karol Wojtyla, who reopened an investigation. In 2000, Archbishop Wojtyla — then known as Pope John Paul II — canonized the nun and placed Divine Mercy Sunday on the calendar.

Zeno has organized a Divine Mercy Sunday celebration at Queen of Peace Parish in Mesa to honor both the feast day and the anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s death.

The celebration will include a reception and a procession of the Divine Mercy image.

The image was one of the visions given to St. Faustina. She saw Jesus dressed in a white garment, His right hand poised to bless and His left hand touching His chest, from which pale white and red rays emanated.

“The pale ray stands for the water which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the blood which is the life of souls,” St. Faustina wrote in her diary, recording the words Jesus spoke to her.

“These two rays issued forth from the very depths of My tender mercy when My agonized heart was opened by a lance on the Cross,” the Lord said in St. Faustina’s vision.

Zeno hopes the event will draw attention to the overarching message given to the Polish saint.

“All of us are called to stand in the gap and plead God’s mercy on the world,” she said. “Each of us is called firstly to experience mercy from God and then to be mercy in the world.”

Toni DiMaio, a parishioner at St. James Parish in Glendale, described her devotion to Divine Mercy as trusting in the infinite love of God.

“God is so merciful to all of us, no matter how sinful you are. His arms are open to us if we only go to Him,” she said.

DiMaio has been organizing Divine Mercy Sunday at St. James for the past five years.

“About six years ago I just felt this call that I had to start to do the Divine Mercy at my church, so I started to get after my pastor,” DiMaio laughed.

Her insistence paid off. Divine Mercy Sunday at St. James draws Catholics from around the Valley and includes exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Benediction and the Divine Mercy chaplet.

DiMaio is certain that God wants this devotion spread far and wide through signs she’s been given along the way.

She told one story about trying to procure a banner of the Divine Mercy image for the feast day. She worried about raising the $1,500 necessary for the banner.

When the image finally arrived, the artist who made it told DiMaio she could have the banner for free.

“This was another sign for me how much God wants his Divine Mercy celebrated,” DiMaio said. “He offers me all these things.”