THE DIVINE MERCY MOVEMENT
Video of Divine Mercy Dive In Deeper
Divine Mercy, in General
Divine Mercy gets to the heart of Sacred Scripture. In fact, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, "The Gospel is the revelation in Jesus Christ of God's mercy to sinners" (1849). Right there: That summarizes it. Divine Mercy is the Gospel. It's the good news. And so, it gets to the very center of our faith. Moreover, in the words of Pope Benedict XVI, "Divine Mercy is not a secondary devotion, but an integral dimension of Christian faith and prayer." Benedict even goes so far as to say, "[M]ercy is the central nucleus of the Gospel message."
Okay, so what is Divine Mercy? What is this thing that gets to the heart of Sacred Scripture and to the very center of our faith? To begin, mercy is "love's second name," as John Paul II said. It's a particular kind of love, a particular mode of love when it encounters suffering, poverty, brokenness, and sin. Divine Mercy is when God's love meets us and helps us in the midst of our suffering and sin. In fact, because this side of eternity we're all sinners and because suffering is our lot in life, God's love for us here always takes the form of mercy. It's always the Lord stepping out in compassion to help us poor, weak, and broken sinners. From our perspective, then, every good we receive is an expression Divine Mercy.
The Unbelievable Mystery Of Divine Mercy
This is the deepest, most staggering truth — one that changes everything.
Mercy Is the Very Nature of God
Jesus revealed to Faustina that Mercy is not just one of God's attributes — it is who He IS. The Old Testament says: "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love" (Exodus 34:6). But through Faustina, Jesus showed it deeper still: God's mercy is greater than His justice. Justice measures; mercy pours out. Justice says "you owe"; mercy says "I paid."
The Mystery of the Two Rays — Blood and Water
From the pierced Heart of Jesus on Calvary came Blood and Water — not by chance, but by design.
- The RED RAY (Blood): The Holy Eucharist — God giving Himself completely to us, food for our journey, life for our souls.
- The WHITE/PALE RAY (Water): Baptism and Confession — washing away sin, making us new, making us children of God.
The mystery: No matter how stained, how broken, how far you have fallen — these two rays reach you. They are not limited by time, distance, or sin. They flow from an open Heart — and they never run dry.
The Hour of Great Mercy — 3:00 PM
Jesus told Faustina: "At three o'clock, implore My mercy, especially for sinners… This is the hour of great mercy — the time when the Blood and Water gushed forth from My Heart as a fountain of mercy for all the world." (Diary 1320)
Why 3 PM? Because that was the hour Jesus died — and in that moment, He won for us every grace we will ever need. He asks us to pause — to unite our sorrows, our prayers, our whole lives — with His sacrifice on the Cross. One moment of trust at that hour can change an eternity.
The Unimaginable Promise — Mercy BEFORE Judgment
Jesus revealed something almost too great to believe: Before He comes as Judge — He comes first as Mercy. He is giving the world a final warning — a time of grace — before the day of justice arrives. He said: "I am giving humanity a last refuge — the safe shelter of My mercy. Woe to the one who will not take refuge in it." (Diary 1160)
This is why the message is urgent — not because God is angry, but because He loves us too much to let us perish without warning. He sent Faustina not to frighten us — but to show us His Heart: beaten, pierced, open — and overflowing.
The Greatest Mystery of All — Trust
The inscription above the Image is not a command — it is an invitation: JESUS, I TRUST IN YOU.
Jesus told Faustina: "The greater the sinner, the greater the right he has to My mercy." (Diary 723)
This is the unbelievable, almost impossible truth — your sins do not make God run away. They make Him run toward you — if only you trust Him enough to let Him. He does not ask for perfection — He asks for trust. He does not say "be pure first, then come" — He says "come as you are, and I will make you pure."
The Message of Divine Mercy
A page from St. Faustina Diary.
The message of Divine Mercy is something that's most associated with a Polish nun who died in 1938, about a year before the start of World War II. She's known today as St. Maria Faustina Kowalska. Saint Faustina was a mystic. In other words, she received extraordinary experiences of the Lord Jesus in prayer. In fact, Jesus appeared to her and even spoke with her.
Of course, Jesus didn't reveal some new Gospel when he appeared to St. Faustina. He already revealed everything He needed to say 2,000 years ago to the Apostles and through Sacred Scripture. So, why did He do it? Why did He appear to Faustina?
Actually, why does He appear to any mystic for that matter?
God sometimes appears to mystics because He has a prophetic message for a particular time in history, and He uses particular men and women to share His message. Sometimes it's to remind us of something that's been forgotten. Sometimes it's a warning. At other times, it's a message of comfort. Or it may simply be a call to conversion. Whatever it is, it doesn't change the Bible. Rather, it brings us back to it at a certain time in history.
Okay, so what's the particular and important message that God wants to give to us in our modern time through St. Faustina? Simple. He wants to remind us of the heart of Sacred Scripture, namely, His mercy for us sinners. In fact, He's saying to us sinners, "Now is the time of mercy. Now is a time of extraordinary mercy! Now is a time when I want give especially great graces to the human race. I want to pour out My mercy in a big way."
Why would God say this? Why would He want to give such great graces in our time? Blessed John Paul II explained it best. First, he pointed out something we all know: namely, that there are all kinds of blessings in our contemporary society. For instance, modern technology has done so much to make life easier for us. Just think of e-mail, cell phones, smartphones, and air-conditioning. All these things are blessings. Yet, in the midst of these blessings and in some ways because of the very same advances in technology that brought them, John Paul would say that evil has a reach and power in our day like never before. Indeed, our time, sadly, is marked by unprecedented evil. Despite this, John Paul would also say, "Be not afraid." Why should we not be afraid? Because of what St. Paul writes in Romans, "Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more" (5:20). In other words, God is not outdone by evil. So, in a time of great evil, God wants to give even greater graces, and in our time, the graces are huge, precisely because there's so much sin.
How can we tap into the extraordinary graces of our time? If there are tons of graces available to us, how are we to gather them in?
Tapping Into the Graces
Alright, so how do we do it? How do we get the great graces of Divine Mercy in our time? One important way to get them is to live out a devotion to Divine Mercy, and learning how to live it out is easy. All you need to know is one, little word – actually, it's a little bird: finch. F-I-N-C-H. Finch. If you remember this word, you've got it. So let's get started with F-I-N-C-H, beginning with "F."
F = Feast. What feast? The Feast of Divine Mercy, also known as Divine Mercy Sunday. Divine Mercy Sunday falls on the Second Sunday of Easter.
What's so great about Divine Mercy Sunday? Well, look at it this way: What's the most important feast day of the year? Easter, right? And how many days is Easter?
We celebrate it for eight full days, which is why we call it the Octave of Easter. But the last day is the greatest of all. The eighth day. It's the climax of the whole feast.
Well, Divine Mercy Sunday is the eighth day of Easter, the climax of the entire Easter celebration. In a sense, it's the most important day of the most important feast!
Now, Divine Mercy Sunday existed way before St. Faustina. In fact, it has its roots in the Easter celebrations of the early Church. When Jesus told Faustina that He wanted the feast celebrated, she asked some priests and theologians about it, and they told her, "There already is such a feast." So, Faustina went back to Jesus and told Him, "They tell me that there already is such a feast, and so why should I talk about it?" Jesus responded, "And who knows anything about this feast? No one!" (Diary of St. Faustina, 341). In other words, the great feast of mercy had been forgotten and was almost completely unknown.
So, you can imagine Jesus saying to Faustina, "Look, I want people to know and celebrate this feast. And to sweeten the deal, I promise to give great graces on Divine Mercy Sunday." Specifically, he told her:
On that day [Divine Mercy Sunday], the very depths of My tender mercy are opened.
I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy. ...
On that day, all the divine floodgates through which graces flow are opened. (Diary of St. Faustina, 699)
Thousands upon thousands of people attest to the super-power of prayer offered on Divine Mercy Sunday. But we still haven't gotten to our favorite part of Divine Mercy Sunday, what we call "the clean slate grace."
Regarding Divine Mercy Sunday, Jesus told St. Faustina, "The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment" (699).
Now, that's a big deal. It means that if we were to die right after receiving this grace, then we wouldn't have to go to purgatory! In other words, our slate is wiped clean. In fact, the theologian who was assigned by the future Pope John Paul II to investigate the question "What is the grace of Mercy Sunday?" likened the grace to a second baptism. Of course, it's not the same as Baptism, but it is an extraordinary grace of being cleansed of sin and the punishment due to sin.
Unfortunately, a lot of people confuse the great grace of Divine Mercy Sunday with a plenary indulgence. It's not the same thing. To get a plenary indulgence, you need to do the indulgenced act, pray for the intentions of the Holy Father, go to confession (within 20 days), receive Holy Communion, and be detached from all sin.
That last one is the kicker. Are we detached from all sin? Saint Philip Neri was speaking to a large crowd of people who had gathered for some Church event to receive a plenary indulgence, and the Holy Spirit told St. Philip that only two people in the whole crowd were going to receive the plenary indulgence: Philip himself and a seven-year-old boy – presumably because everyone else was attached to sin.
Now, the good news about the grace of Divine Mercy Sunday is that to receive it, you simply need to go to confession before or on the feast – the experts say that sometime during Lent suffices – be in the state of grace (no mortal sin), and receive Holy Communion with the intention of obtaining the promised grace. Of course, we should also do acts of mercy such as forgiving people, praying for others, and having the intention to be more merciful to our neighbor.
Okay, so that explains the feast. Now let's look at the next letter, "I," as in F-I...
I = Image. What image? The Image of Divine Mercy. Jesus told St. Faustina to have an image painted just as He looked when He appeared to her. She obeyed and had it painted by a Polish artist, Eugene Kazimirowski. It took him more than 12 tries before Faustina accepted it as satisfactory.
As you can see from the image right here to the right, Jesus' right hand is raised in blessing. Also, He's taking a step toward us, and two rays of light issue from His Heart: a red ray and a pale ray, representing the blood and water that gushed forth from His pierced side on the Cross. At the bottom of the image, Jesus wanted a prayer to be written, "Jesus, I trust in You." He also promised to give great graces through it. For instance, one time, He said:
I am offering people a vessel with which they are to keep coming for graces ...
that vessel is this image with the signature, Jesus, I trust in You." By means of
this image, I shall be granting many graces to souls. (327, 742)
We've received countless testimonies from people who have experienced special graces through the Divine Mercy image. One grace that comes through the image is this: It heals the way people often mistakenly view God. Here's what we mean. People too often have a false image of God. They're afraid of Him and see Him as some mean ogre just out to ruin their fun. Well, the Image of Divine Mercy helps to change that. In it, we discover our Merciful Savior who surely calls us to conversion but who also blesses us, loves us, and is deserving of all of our trust.
Next, we come to the letter "N," as in F-I-N...
N = Novena. What novena? The Novena to Divine Mercy. A novena is basically nine days of prayer in a row. Jesus taught St. Faustina a novena that He wanted her to pray and that we can all pray. Each day He asked that a different group of people be entrusted to Him (for example, "all sinners" on day one and "all priests and religious" on day two). You can find the text for the entire Novena here.
Before moving to the next point, we'd just like to answer a question that people often ask about the novena: "When should I begin?" Well, it can be prayed at any time, but a special time to pray it is in preparation for Divine Mercy Sunday. The starting date for the novena, combined with praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy (see below), is Good Friday, and it ends on the Saturday after Easter Sunday, the day before Divine Mercy Sunday. (Novenas typically end the day before the feast.) While you don't have to pray this novena to obtain the grace of Divine Mercy Sunday, it is a good way to prepare, and Jesus promised, "By this novena, I will grant every possible grace to souls."
Now we come to letter "C" as in F-I-N-C...
C = Chaplet. What chaplet? The Chaplet of Divine Mercy. This is a prayer that's prayed on ordinary rosary beads, and it's pretty popular today – perhaps because it can be prayed in a short amount of time (about seven minutes).
I think another reason why the chaplet is so popular is because it's such an incredibly powerful prayer. Why is it so powerful? Because it draws its strength from the holiest and mightiest prayer there is: the Mass. In other words, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy is a kind of extension of the prayer of the Mass. In fact, it's a kind of extension of what we'll call the "supercharged moment of the Mass." Here's what we mean: It's an extension of that moment when the priest at the altar takes the Body and Blood of Christ into his hands and offers it up to the Father with these words:
Through Him, and with Him, and in Him, O God, almighty Father, in the unity
of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is Yours forever and ever. Amen.
That's supercharged because, at the Mass, Jesus is giving Himself Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity into our hands: literally, in the hands of the priest and spiritually, in the hands of all the lay faithful who are uniting their own sacrifices to the offering of the priest at the altar. Together, each in his own way, we offer Jesus' infinite sacrifice of love to the Father. That's the power of the Mass. It's Jesus' own sacrifice of love in our hands, held up to the Father, and the Father can't resist such a perfect sacrifice of love. It really is the perfect prayer.
Now, the chaplet is an extension of that moment of the Mass, because on the "Our Father" beads of the rosary, we pray, "Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ in atonement for our sins and those of [what? ... my family? ... my city? ... no, not just that ...] for the whole world." So, it's a bold prayer: It's for the whole world! And it can be bold, because it relies on infinite merits: Christ's infinite sacrifice of love on the Cross. Alright, so this explains the "Our Father" beads.
On each "Hail Mary" bead, we pray, "For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world." In other words, as we're holding up to the Father His Son's infinite sacrifice of love, we keep repeating: "Mercy, mercy, mercy." More specifically, we keep praying, "Have mercy on us and on the whole world." And this is powerful. And you know who it's most powerful for? The dying. Our Heavenly Father said to St. Faustina:
When this chaplet is said by the bedside of a dying person ... unfathomable
mercy envelops the soul, and the very depths of My tender mercy are moved
for the sake of the sorrowful Passion of My Son. (811)
Also, Jesus made several comforting promises to those who pray the chaplet:
Say unceasingly the chaplet that I have taught you. Whoever will recite it will
receive great mercy at the hour of death. ... Even if there were a sinner most
hardened, if he were to recite this chaplet only once, he would receive grace
from My infinite mercy. (687)
The souls that say this chaplet will be embraced by My mercy during their
lifetime and especially at the hour of their death. (754)
Oh, what great graces I will grant to souls who say this chaplet; the very depths
of My tender mercy are stirred for the sake of those who say the chaplet. (848)
My daughter, encourage souls to say the chaplet which I have given to you.
It pleases Me to grant everything they ask of Me by saying the chaplet. When
hardened sinners say it, I will fill their souls with peace, and the hour of their
death will be a happy one. (1541)
Okay, that was C for chaplet. Learn how to pray the chaplet.
Now, on to the last letter: "H," as in F-I-N-C-H.
H = Hour. What hour? The Hour of Great Mercy. Because Jesus died on the Cross for us at 3 p.m., every day between 3-4 in the afternoon is known as the Hour of Great Mercy. During this hour, Jesus asked St. Faustina to pray the Stations of the Cross, provided her duties permitted it. But He went on to say:
If you are not able to make the Stations of the Cross, then at least step into
the chapel for a moment and adore, in the Blessed Sacrament, My Heart,
which is full of mercy; and should you be unable to step into the chapel,
immerse yourself in prayer there where you happen to be ... and if only
for a brief moment, immerse yourself in My Passion, particularly in My
abandonment at the moment of agony. (1572, 1320)
What Jesus wants above all, through this devotion, is that we have mercy on Him! In other words, He wants us to recall His sacrifice of love. He wants us to think about what He did for us on the Cross. He simply wants our love. So, let's get "the three o'clock habit" and remember Jesus' sacrifice of love for us, even if only for a moment.
Oh, and one other thing about the Three O'clock Hour: Jesus promised that it's a huge time of grace: "This is the hour of great mercy for the whole world. ... I will refuse nothing to the soul that makes a request of Me in virtue of My Passion" (1320). Thus, we can look at this hour as a kind of mini-Mercy Sunday that we have every day. So, it's also a great time to pray for our loved ones, especially for the conversion of unrepentant sinners, and to recite the Chaplet of Divine Mercy.
The ABC's
Of course, we haven't only been covering the devotion. We've also learned some of the basics of the Divine Mercy message. But there's a bit more we should know regarding how to live it. Father George Kosicki's teaching tool, the "ABC's of Mercy," will help us.
By the way, before we begin, we should mention that living the Divine Mercy message and devotion to the full presupposes that one actively participates in the Sacraments. For the Sacraments are the true sources and fountains of God's mercy.
A = Ask for mercy. In Sacred Scripture, Jesus tells us, "Ask and it will be given to you ... for everyone who asks receives" (Mt 7:7,8). In the Diary of St. Faustina, Jesus reminds us of this idea:
Souls that make an appeal to My mercy delight Me. To such souls I grant even more graces than they ask.
I cannot punish even the greatest sinner if he makes an appeal to My compassion (1146).
[B]eg for mercy for the whole world (570). No soul that has called upon My mercy has been disappointed (1541).
B = Be merciful in deed, word, and prayer. As we learned earlier, mercy is love's second name. It's a particular kind of love, a particular mode of love when it encounters suffering, poverty, brokenness, and sin. But it's not just a movement of the heart. It's not just feeling compassion for someone. To be true, mercy must also be put into action. So, mercy is really two movements: heart and arms. The "heart" part is the movement of compassion — it's something we feel. The "arms" part is the movement to alleviate the suffering of another — it's something we do. And what should we do? Jesus tells us in the Diary:
I am giving you three ways of exercising mercy toward your neighbor: the first — by deed, the second — by word, the third — by prayer.
In these three degrees is contained the fullness of mercy, and it is an unquestionable proof of love for Me.
By this means a soul glorifies Me and pays reverence to My mercy (742).
So, mercy in action is mercy in deed, word, and prayer. And whenever our hearts are moved to compassion, wherever we are, we can always put this compassion into action either by some deed that helps alleviate another person's suffering, by some word that comforts or assists them, or by prayer.
As St. Faustina wrote: "If I cannot show mercy by deeds or words, I can always do so by prayer. My prayer reaches out even there where I cannot reach out physically" (163). Of course, one of the great prayers of mercy, as we learned earlier, is the Chaplet of Divine Mercy.
C = Completely Trust. Trust in the mercy of God gets to the heart of the message of Divine Mercy, which is why the Image of Divine Mercy has the prayer at the bottom, "Jesus, I trust in You." Now, trust does not mean that we have license to go about sinning as we please. Rather, it implies that we repent of our sins. Anyway, here are some beautiful quotes from the Diary that have to do with trust:
The Complete Promises Of Divine Mercy
Jesus attached extraordinary promises to the Divine Mercy devotion — the Chaplet, the Image, and the Feast — all spoken directly to St. Faustina and recorded in her Diary.
Promises for Veneration of the Image
1. "I promise that the soul that venerates this image will NOT PERISH." (Diary 48)
2. "I promise victory over its enemies already here on earth, especially at the hour of death. I Myself will defend it as My own glory." (Diary 48)
3. "By means of this image I shall grant many graces to souls. Let every soul have access to it." (Diary 570)
4. "These rays shield souls from the wrath of My Father. Happy is the one who dwells in their shelter — the just hand of God shall not lay hold of him." (Diary 299)
Promises for Praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy
5. "Whoever recites this Chaplet shall receive GREAT MERCY at the hour of death." (Diary 687)
6. "Even the most hardened sinner — if he recites this Chaplet but ONCE — will receive grace from My infinite mercy." (Diary 687)
7. "When said at the bedside of the dying, I will stand between My Father and the dying person — not as Judge, but as MERCIFUL SAVIOR." (Diary 1541)
8. "It pleases Me to grant EVERYTHING they ask of Me by praying this Chaplet — provided it is in accord with My will." (Diary 1731)
9. "Priests who recommend it to sinners will receive great graces themselves." (Diary 687)
10. "Souls who pray it daily will be embraced by My mercy during their lifetime and especially at death." (Diary 1784)
11. "No soul that calls upon My mercy has ever been disappointed or put to shame." (Diary 1541)
12. "Those who spread this devotion — I will protect them throughout their life and at their death." (Diary 1075)
Special Promises for Divine Mercy Sunday
13. "On this day, the very depths of My mercy are open. I pour out a whole OCEAN of graces upon souls who approach the fount of My mercy." (Diary 699)
14. "Whoever goes to Confession and receives Holy Communion on this day shall obtain COMPLETE REMISSION OF ALL SINS AND PUNISHMENT — all guilt, all penalty — fully wiped away." (Diary 699)
15. "The soul that will honor My mercy on this day… shall be filled with My peace." (Diary 699)
Real Miracle And Wonders Of Divine Mercy
These are true, documented accounts of what God has done through the Divine Mercy:
Miracle 1: Bullets That Could Not Penetrate — Nigeria, 1990s
A Catholic woman working in Nigeria was pressured to take part in illegal dealings. She refused, and received death threats. She placed Divine Mercy holy cards on every window of her home. One night, four armed men in two jeeps surrounded her house and fired hundreds of bullets into it. She dropped to the floor, praying. When police arrived — not a single window was broken. Not one bullet had penetrated the walls. Only empty shell casings lay on the ground outside. The rays of the Image truly shielded her.
Miracle 2: Saved from the Nazis — Warsaw, WWII
During World War II, the Gestapo rounded up an entire neighborhood to send to concentration camps. A man living there ran back to his apartment — not to save money or possessions — but to retrieve his small picture of Divine Mercy. When he returned to the street, the officer in charge had forgotten him and had moved on with everyone else. He was set free. He later said: "It was the Image that saved me."
Miracle 3: The Man Who Walked — Italy, Medjugorje
An Italian man named Ugo was paralyzed for years — his legs withered, unable to move. While praying before the Divine Mercy image, he saw Jesus step out of the picture toward him — five times. The fifth time, Jesus said: "Rise and walk." Instantly his legs grew strong again. He stood up, walked, and ran out of the chapel — completely healed.
Miracle 4: The Image That Sweated — Canada
In a parish in Canada, a framed copy of the Divine Mercy image was seen sweating real oil-like tears from the face of Jesus. It happened during Mass — witnessed by many people. The image remained physically unchanged — but the "sweat" appeared and was collected. It was analyzed and found to be pure, clear oil with no natural explanation. The message: Jesus is truly present in His image — He sees, He hears, He is near.
Miracle 5: The Conversion of the Hardened Sinner
A man who had been an atheist and alcoholic for 40 years — who hated the Church — was given a Divine Mercy holy card by a stranger on a bus. He took it only to be polite. That night, he looked at it — and suddenly burst into tears. He felt an overwhelming love he had never known. He prayed the Chaplet once — went to Confession the next morning — and never drank again. He later said: "I did not seek Him — but He was already waiting for me."
Miracle 6: The Storm Calmed — St. Faustina's Own Account
Once while traveling by boat, a terrible storm arose. The waves threatened to sink the vessel. Everyone panicked. Sister Faustina knelt and prayed the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. Moments later — the storm ceased completely, the waves became still, and the sun shone. The captain and crew were astonished. (Diary 1731)