The Divine Mercy Sunday

There is a story about a climber who was determined to reach the summit of a high mountain. After years of preparation, he began his adventure, but he journeyed all alone because he wanted all the glory. He began his ascent, and as daylight faded he decided to continue climbing. Night fell. The night fell heavily and he was overcome by total darkness. The moonlight and starlight were hidden within the clouds. There was zero visibility. He was only a few meters away from the summit when he slipped as he was climbing a ridge and fell off, falling at frightening speed.

While falling he could only see shadows like figures in the darkness and felt the tug of gravity sucking him down. In those anguishing moments he saw his life pass before his eyes. He thought death was near when suddenly he felt the tightening of the rope around his waist that tied him to a nail embedded in the rock wall of the mountain.

In desperation, suspended in mid-air he screamed:- God, please help me!

Then unexpectedly a deep voice from heaven responded: - What would you have me do?

- Save me!

- Do you really think I can save you?

- Of course my Lord!

- Well then, cut the rope.

There was a moment of silence, and then the man tightened the rope around his waist saying:

- Are you joking with me?

The mountain rescue team reported that they found the man frozen to death, his hands wrapped firmly around a rope tied to his waist…

The man was HANGING TWO FEET FROM THE GROUND…

So ... How tight are your ropes? Would you let go?

“I am the Lord your God, who holds your right hand, and I tell you ‘don’t be afraid. I will help you.’” (Is. 41:13) “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”

"Divine Mercy Sunday" was officially established for the universal Church on May 5, 2000 by a decree of the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship.

God shows us His infinite Love and Mercy in different ways. The only concern and problem is: “are we able to believe, to trust Him?” or we are rather firmly gripping the security rope like "Doubting Thomas"? To see and know Jesus in our lives is to recognize where he comes to us in the day-to-day events and to trust Him even if it seems to go against reason.

From the diary of a young Polish nun, a special devotion began spreading throughout the world in the 1930s. The message is nothing new, but is a reminder of what the Church has always taught through scripture and tradition: that God is merciful and forgiving and that we, too, must show mercy and forgiveness. But in the Divine Mercy devotion, the message takes on a powerful new focus, calling people to a deeper understanding that God’s love is unlimited and available to everyone — especially the greatest sinners.

The message and devotion to Jesus as The Divine Mercy is based on the writings of Saint Faustina Kowalska, an uneducated Polish nun who, in obedience to her spiritual director, wrote a diary of about 600 pages recording the revelations she received about God’s mercy. Even before her death in 1938, the devotion to The Divine Mercy had begun to spread.

Devotion to The Divine Mercy involves a total commitment to God as Mercy. It is a decision to trust completely in Him, to accept His mercy with thanksgiving, and to be merciful as He is merciful.

"Divine Mercy Sunday" was officially established for the universal Church on May 5, 2000 by a decree of the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. According to St. Faustina, Our Lord promises to those who go to confession and communion on this day, the remission of their sins and all punishment for sins.

This Feast, which had already been granted to the nation of Poland and been celebrated within Vatican City, was granted to the Universal Church by Pope John Paul II on the occasion of the canonization of Sr. Faustina on 30 April 2000. In a decree dated 23 May 2000, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments stated that "throughout the world the Second Sunday of Easter will receive the name Divine Mercy Sunday, a perennial invitation to the Christian world to face, with confidence in divine benevolence, the difficulties and trials that mankind will experience in the years to come." These papal acts represent the highest endorsement that the Church can give to a private revelation, an act of papal infallibility proclaiming the certain sanctity of the mystic, and the granting of a universal feast, as requested by Our Lord to St. Faustina.

On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day all the divine floodgates through which grace flow are opened. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity. (Diary of Sr. Faustina, 699)