This Sunday is Divine Mercy Sunday.
🔴 What is the Divine Mercy image?
In the 1930s, Jesus appeared to a Polish nun named Maria Faustina Kowalska. He was wearing a white garment and had red and pale rays coming from His heart. Jesus told her that He desired for an image to be made depicting His appearance, and that the image should be venerated throughout the world.
🔴 What does the image mean?
In the image, Jesus is lifting His hand in blessing. From His heart flow streams of red and white (or blue) which symbolize Blood and Water. At the Cross, Blood and Water gushed forth from Jesus's side. By this Blood and Water, which "flows as a Fountain of Mercy," we are saved and made clean.
🔴 What is Divine Mercy Sunday?
Jesus told St. Faustina that He desired for the Sunday after Easter to be known as "Divine Mercy Sunday." According to the Diary of St. Faustina, Jesus said, "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." Pope John Paul II, who was also from Poland, announced the first Divine Mercy Sunday in 2000.
🔴 What is an indulgence and how do I obtain one?
An indulgence is the remission of the temporal punishment due to sins which have already been forgiven (through the Sacrament of Confession.)
On Divine Mercy Sunday, one obtains a plenary indulgence by participating in the "prayers and devotions held in honor of Divine Mercy"
In addition, the regular requirements for an indulgence are necessary:
- Sacrament of Confession
- Holy Communion
- Prayer for the intentions of the pope.
🔴You can learn more at https://www.thedivinemercy.org/.
1 comment:
The short answer is 'no'. My parish (the Oxford Oratory) did not refer to so-called 'Divine Mercy Sunday' either in the notices or in the newsletter.
I find the whole cult questionable. The image is kitsch, and the 'revelations' of the mentally disturbed Sr Faustina and her priest handler were placed on the Index by John XXIII in 1958, and rightly so.
One of her alleged miracles is that Hosts flew out of the tabernacle and she caught them. I suppose this makes her the patron saint of Communion in the hand (or perhaps of slip-fielders in cricket).
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