Posted on 02/22/2006 10:46:51 AM PST by NYer
by Robert R. Allard, Director
Apostles of Divine Mercy
75th Anniversary of the appearance of Jesus to St. Faustina, February 22nd 2006
Everywhere you turn, people are talking about Divine Mercy! Hurricanes, Floods, Tsunamis, Global Warming, and Fires. Hardly an article can be written about any of these events without the thought of the Second Coming of Jesus and Divine Chastisement.
Today marks a very significant date for all mankind. Seventy-five years ago on February 22nd 1931 Jesus appeared to St. Faustina as The Divine Mercy with a special mission for her. He told her to paint an image as she witnessed Him with two rays of light streaming from His heart, one red and the other pale like water and to sign it “Jesus, I trust in You”.
Jesus spent the next seven years speaking to her about His mercy and asked her to record His words in a diary, which she named “Divine Mercy in My Soul”. He made known to her that it was her job to prepare the world for His final coming. Jesus told her: “Write: before I come as a just Judge, I first open wide the door of My mercy. He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice…”(Diary 1146)
“I am prolonging the time of mercy for the sake of sinners. But woe to them if they do not recognize this time of My visitation. In the Old Covenant I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to My people. Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart. I use punishment when they themselves force me to do so; My hand is reluctant to take hold of the sword of justice. Before the Day of Justice I am sending the Day of Mercy”(Diary 1588).
The Blessed Virgin Mary also spoke to Faustina about the Second Coming “I gave the savior to the world; as for you, you have to speak to the world about His great mercy and prepare the world for the Second Coming of Him who will come, not as a merciful Savior, but as a just Judge. Oh how terrible is that day! Determined is the day of justice, the day of divine wrath. The angels tremble before it. Speak to souls about this great mercy while it is still time for granting mercy. If you keep silent now, you will be answering for a great number of souls on that terrible day. Fear nothing. Be faithful to the end. I sympathize with you” (Diary 635).
Pope John Paul the Great, by Divine Providence, was immersed in the message of Divine Mercy at an early age and commented that it was “his job given to him by God to bring this message to the world”. He later said “I give thanks to Divine Providence that I have been enabled to fulfill the will of Christ by instituting the Feast of Divine Mercy”(Visit to Poland ).
The diary has more than 14 entries where Jesus had requested that a Feast of Mercy be established in the Church as a “Last hope of Salvation”. Pope John Paul established the feast as Divine Mercy Sunday during the canonization in Rome of Saint Faustina in the Jubilee Year 2000 as the first saint in the new millennium!
Jesus told Faustina that “from [Poland] will come forth a spark that will prepare the world for My final coming” (Diary 1732). No doubt, this was Pope John Paul, who not only established the feast requested by Jesus, but issued an unprecedented special plenary indulgence and specified, as the duties of priests, the proclamation of that plenary indulgence to all humanity.
If this wasn’t proof enough of God’s Providence in the matter, our beloved Pope passed into heaven on the Vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday after celebrating that feast and participating in the requirements of obtaining the plenary indulgence!
Jesus told Faustina “Before the day of justice arrives, there will be given to people a sign in the heavens of this sort:”
“All light in the heavens will be extinguished, and there will be great darkness over the whole earth. Then the sign of the cross will be seen in the sky, and from the openings where the hands and the feet of the Savior were nailed will come forth great lights which will light up the earth for a period of time. This will take place shortly before the last day” (Diary 83).
The Image of the Divine Mercy is central to entire message of Divine Mercy and has a special importance by being displayed in churches, especially on the Feast of Divine Mercy.
Jesus related several times the importance of the image on the feast. He said “I desire that there be a Feast of Mercy. I want this image, which you will paint with a brush, to be solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter; that Sunday is to be the Feast of Mercy” (Diary 49).
One day St. Faustina said to Our Lord “They tell me that there is already such a feast and so why should I talk about it?” Jesus answered “And who knows anything about this feast? No one! Even those who should be proclaiming My mercy and teaching people about it often do not know about it themselves. That is why I want the image to be solemnly blessed on the First Sunday after Easter, and want it to be venerated publicly so that every soul may know about it” (Diary 340).
Pope Benedict XVI also supports the Image of Divine Mercy in his book “The Spirit of the Liturgy”. In it he explains the importance of images in the liturgy and goes on to say that the perfect image must represent the Paschal Mystery and also include a message of hope in preparation for the Second Coming of Jesus!
The Divine Mercy image perfectly suites the recommendations of a perfect icon for not only Divine Mercy Sunday, but for every liturgy as well. Pope Benedict talked of the shameful stripping of sacred images in churches during the twentieth century. If you haven’t read the book yet, buy one and read the section on images.
Churches throughout the world that have permanently installed Divine Mercy images are benefiting greatly. Jesus surely knew what He was doing when He gave us this image. It is exactly what mankind will need to maintain its hope in the years ahead through chastisements and natural disasters that are inevitable. If it is true that a picture has a thousand words, then this one has untold millions!
Jesus said “The two rays denote Blood and Water. The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the life of souls. 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… Happy is the one who will dwell in their shelter, for the just hand of God shall not lay hold of him” (Diary 299).
Robert R. Allard, Director
Apostles of Divine Mercy
I glad you said that. I didnt realize it began on good Friday. I guess I always associated it starting on Easter Sunday. Is there any other Novena that takes place officially during the Tridium? I need to say it this year. I went ot confession on the day the POPE died and on her Feast Day. There was an indulgence associated with that. Are there any promises associated with this novena.
No, what about the Sacred Heart apparitions to St. Margaret Mary?
I'll take Christ by his word. When he appears, it will be the second coming. There is no "pre-second coming" and I believe the sacred heart to be pious fiction.
I take it you're not Catholic then?
We order them from The Seraphim Company, Dept I, P.O. Box 26600 Colorado Springs, CO 80936-6600. They are $8.00 each for individual orders, but the cost goes down if you buy in bulk. We get 200 in an order, and the cost is $4.00 each.
Hey, if we stay open, and you happen to be in the area from late October to mid-December (when we usually run out), we'll save you a copy! We only charge $6.00, so it saves you a couple and makes a little bit of money for the parish, too.
Again, take it up with St. Paul. Whose voice was that he heard, somewhat *after* the Ascension?
Catholics have got to learn to be less defensive. Its almost like any critique of the faith is an "attack." I'm just offering my opinion, nothing more, nothing less.
The fact of the matter is that I have read scripture, as well as the work of Augustine. All of these indicate that Christ will only appear during the second coming. Christ himself explicitly said this.
Most of these apparitions are pious fiction. They serve a purpose in terms of illustrating a moral, but I don't take them at face value (neither do most Christians, including many Catholics).
God moved through Paul's heart and inspired him when he fell off his donkey on the road to Damascus. I have no doubt that he may have heard the Lord's voice. Nevertheless, actual APPARITIONS do no jibe with the scripture, nor the writings of the early Church fathers.
You are certainly entitled to your opinion. Disbeief in the matter of private revelation is understandable from a non- or lapsed-Catholic. I would not view that as an "attack" on Catholicism, as long as it wasn't over-the-top insulting. But you also insulted ("attacked") St. Faustina as having "too much vino," saying in the process, obviously, that that is the "source" of her visions. Don't be surprised if some people jump down your throat a bit for it. I also wouldn't be so quick to dismiss *all* private revelation out-of-hand. Sure, there are tons of fakes, but there are those which stand up to scrutiny, too. I've briefly mentioned two of them. It *does* seem that they are legit, and that what was alleged to occur at them *did*, in fact occur. No "Bayside" they!
Take the first part of your first sentence, and plug it into the scenarios we're talking about here. It's the same thing. Also, recall that Saul was blinded by intense light during his encounter with Christ on the Damascus Road. That light was Christ Himself, blinding in His glory, which Saul, at the time, was most unworthy to be able to pierce through. His temporary blindness was the result. As St. Paul now, though, he no longer has this problem! ;-)
Return ... in the sense of mankind as a whole. He has appeared to several saints over the centuries, to direct a message to mankind. With St. Faustina, He said:
"I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My merciful Heart." He then told her to record His message of mercy in a diary: "You are the secretary of My Mercy. I have chosen you for that office in this and the next life."
Sounds like Faustina had a little too much vino that night.
Sounds like you could benefit from a dose of our Lord's mercy.
Thank you for your thoughtful and informed reply. :-)
Oh how terrible is that day! Determined is the day of justice, the day of divine wrath.Dies irae, dies illa
Quantus tremor est futurus,
Quando iudex est venturus
Cuncta stricte discussurus!
Tuba mirum spargens sonum
Per sepulcra regionum,
Coget omnes ante thronum.
Mors stupebit et natura,
Cum resurget creatura
Iudicanti responsura.
Liber scriptus proferetur,
In quo totum continetur
Unde mundus iudicetur.
Iudex ergo cum sedebit,
Quiqquid latet apparebit:
Nil inultum remanebit.
[Day of wrath, day that
will dissolve the world into burning coals,
as David bore witness with the Sibyll.
How great a tremor is to be,
when the judge is to come
briskly shattering every (grave).
A trumpet sounding an astonishing sound
through the tombs of the region
drives all (men) before the throne.
Death will be stunned and (so) will Nature,
when arises (man) the creature
responding to the One judging.
The written book will be brought forth,
in which the whole (record of evidence) is contained
whence the world is to be judged.
Therefore when the Judge shall sit,
whatever lay hidden will appear;
nothing unavenged will remain.]
***Sure, there are tons of fakes, but there are those which stand up to scrutiny, too.****
How dare you impune Oral Roberts' vision of a 600 foot Jesus in the desert telling Oral he better come up with so much money or Jesus would take him "home"!
Or my local neighbor who claimed God told him NOT to pay his union dues, but other Christian members still can!
Ok, so I am being sarcastic, and very distrustful of modern day "signs, visions, and woders."
Tears always come with that liturgy. I've heard it so often lately.
I'm pretty sure it was a 900-foot Jesus, but I haven't been to the desert lately.
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