“God of everlasting mercy, (…) increase, we pray, the grace you have bestowed, that all may grasp and rightly understand in what font they have been washed, by whose Spirit they have been reborn, by whose Blood they have been redeemed”
those words we can find in the text of the Collect prescribed to this Sunday. The name “collect” comes from Latin and means a short prayer said by a presiding priest during Mass before the readings. The Collect summarizes the mystery that the liturgy presents to us on the day. Today’s Collect gives us a clue how we should understand God’s mercy. Firstly, we need to be aware of the grace that God has bestowed upon us sending His Son as our redeemer and saviour. The font, Spirit and Blood direct us to our Baptism as a beginning of the salvation prepared by the Son of God and as a source of the dignity we have being the children of God. We can experience fully God’s mercy in the forgiveness of sins that was granted to us in Baptism and is offered in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.’ In today’s passage of the Gospel the Risen Lord gives the Apostles the authority of forgiveness of sins: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain sins of any, they are retained”.
The devotion to Divine Mercy was a new initiated by St. Sister Faustina and widely spread by her spiritual followers. Sister Faustina was a simple and uneducated nun to whom Jesus revealed His message about Divine Mercy. According to the precepts of her confessor Sister Faustina described her spiritual encounters with Jesus in a diary. She passed away in 1938 and the devotion to Divine Mercy in the form presented by her had to wait for many years until it was officially approved by the Church authorities. The promoter of this case was Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, later Pope John Paul II, who during his pontificate in 2000 canonized Sister Faustina and instituted the Feast of Divine Mercy on the Second Sunday of Easter for the universal Church. Pope John Paul II died on April 2nd, 2005 on the eve of Divine Mercy Sunday, was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2011 on Divine Mercy Sunday and was canonized by Pope Francis in 2014 also on Divine Mercy Sunday. We are very happy that in our church we have a certified copy of the Divine Mercy picture painted under the guidance of St. S. Faustina. This Sunday we mark the Feast of Divine Mercy with a special devotion and Mass beginning at 3 pm. Everyone is welcome! This Sunday also concludes the Easter Octave that is 8 solemn days when we celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord.
For the sake of His sorrowful passion have mercy on us and on the whole world!
God bless,
Fr. Peter
