TRUSTS IN YOU

JESUS
TRUSTS IN YOU
JESUS
TRUSTS IN YOU
AN EXTRAORDINARY BOOK ON DIVINE MERCY
ZACCHAEUS,
WRITE YOUR NAME
CoME DoWN QuICKLY,
For ToDAY I MuST
STAY AT Your houSE
Lk 19:5
EE
R
T
E RE
H
T TU
M EN Y
O V
FR AD ERC
N
W THE E M D
O
H O
D E
E LIV H T F G
M D
IT O
CO AN W
TAbLE
143
9
OF CONTENTS
FEAST
OF DIVINE MERCY
INTRODUCTION
MESSAGE
TO YOUTH
23
ST. SISTER
FAUSTINA
43
ST. JOHN PAUL II
63
THE HOUR OF MERCY
135
159
THE WAY
OF MERCY
MEDITATION
153 THE SHRINE OF DIVINE
MERCY
227
229
CHAPLET OF
DIVINE MERCY
X
HOW DO I CONFESS?
185
CONFESSION
THE SACRAMENT OF MERCY
?
DIVINE MERCY
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
81
127
DIVINE MERCY IMAGE “JESUS, I TRUST IN YOU”
115
INTRODUCTION
WORD FROM METROPOLITAN OF KRAKÓW
TO PARTICIPANTS OF THE THE THIRTY-FIRST
WORLD YOUTH DAY
KRAKÓW 2016
I welcome you to the country
which, through the baptism of Prince
Mieszko I in 966, opened itself up
to the Gospel…
10
AND
ACCEPTED
JESUS CHRIST
AS ITS LORD
AND SAVIOuR
6-40
12
WHAT IS
THE RECIPE
FOR
HOLINESS?
22, 3
With these words from the Psalm normally sung in church on
the first Sunday after Easter, known as Mercy Sunday, let me
cordially welcome all participants of World Youth Day. We are
grateful to the Holy Father, Pope Francis, for choosing Kraków
and Poland as the place of gathering of young people from
all over the world so that they can bear witness to their faith
in Jesus Christ Crucified and Risen to share peace and love,
goodness and kindness with all people of good will.
I welcome you to Poland and to Kraków, the homeland of
John Paul II. I welcome you to the country which, through
the baptism of Prince Mieszko I in 966, opened itself up to
the Gospel and accepted Jesus Christ as its Lord and Saviour. Fifteen hundred years ago, the foreheads of our ancestors
were anointed with the waters of baptism and the sacrament’s
grace filled their hearts making of them a harvest of Christ’s
teaching. Therefore, Christ has been present in our history and
life for over a thousand years, shaping the attitude of Poles
from the Oder to the Vistula and Bug rivers, from the Tatra
Mountains to the Baltic Sea. Christ suffering on the cross has
become a symbol of our past, marking the history of Poland,
particularly in times of wars, persecution, and the country’s occupation. Our Risen Lord was a symbol in the times of Hitler’s
occupation and long years of communist subjugation. He was
a source of hope and of the strength needed to persevere in
following God and His rule.
We invite young people from all over the world to our Polish
Cenacle where we reserve an important place for the Lord’s
Mother. Mary carries the title of the Queen of Poland and
is venerated in numerous paintings and figures, the most famous one is the Black Madonna of Częstochowa at Jasna Góra.
Apart from Mary, Poland holds hosts of Polish saints and
blesseds: St. Stanislaus, bishop and martyr; St. Kinga; Bl. Salome; St. Jadwiga, who was queen; St. John of Cantius; Bl. Zofia Czeska; Bl. Stanislaus Papczyński; St. Raphael Kalinowski;
St. Brother Albert Chmielowski: St. Ursula Ledóchowska and
Bl. Maria Teresa Ledóchowska, who were sisters; St. Maximillian Maria Kolbe and many saint and blessed martyrs of
World War II; Bl. Jerzy Popiełuszko, martyred by communist
authorities; and St. Sister Faustina Kowalska and St. John
Paul II, who are called Apostles of Divine Mercy.
Dear young people, along with your ministers, you are coming from various parts of the world: from Europe, Africa, America, Asia, Australia and Oceania, to the homeland of John Paul
Mt
O GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD,
FOR HE IS GOOD;
HIS MERCY
ENDURES FOREVER! Ps 118 (117):1
13
© DAYENU
Image of Our Lady of Częstochowa
Black Madonna
14
15
II in order to share your experience of faith and joy of believing
in Christ. In this Polish Cenacle, we feel moved by the call that
the Christ made to His disciples: “As the Father has sent me,
so I send you” (Jn 20:21). Over two thousand years ago, when
saying these words, Jesus showed His disciples His pierced
hands and His side. He showed them wounds inflicted on Him
by Roman soldiers during His ordeal. Most of all, He showed
them His wounded Heart from which poured a torrent of love
over the world.
Gathering in Kraków’s Cenacle of Divine Mercy, we come to
realize that we have been brought here by the Merciful Jesus.
He has called us here and has given us courage to travel from
very distant places to come here and to once again hear the
proclamation of love and bear witness to God’s great love for
His people.
In Kraków, together with the Holy Father Pope Francis, we
want to look at the image of the Merciful Jesus at the rays of
light emanating from His heart onto the whole world. “The
two rays – Jesus explained to St. Faustina – denote Blood
and Water” (Diary, 299). We are here to once again relive
this Gospel scene, depicted by St. John, and contemplate the
greatest mystery of our salvation. The blood that flowed from
Jesus’s pierced side (see Jn 19:34) reminds us of the Sacrifice
of the Cross and the gift of the Holy Mass; and water is a symbol not just of baptism, but also of the gift of the Holy Spirit
(see Jn 3:5; 4:14; 7:37-39), who enlightens our minds and hearts,
showing the ways in which we are going to bring love to the
world.
Today, looking at the Merciful Jesus, we contemplate the
mystery of Jesus, Crucified and Risen, who continuously shows
us the mystery of Divine Mercy. Today, Christ says to us what
He told St. Faustina: “Tell [all people], My daughter that I
am love and mercy itself” (Diary, 1074). God’s Mercy pours
16
out over the whole of humanity through the sacraments of
the Church. Mercy, as John Paul II wrote in encyclical Dives in
Misericordia (No. 7), is “love’s second name”, indicating God’s
unlimited ability to forgive our sins.
We believe that Christ entrusted St. Faustina with his message of mercy so that she could pass it to the world. God gave
us this message at a very difficult point in the world’s history
– between World War I and World War II – at the time when
humanity experienced horrific atrocities embodied by concentration camps and gulags. Jesus said to St. Faustina: “Mankind
will not find peace until it returns with trust to my mercy”
(Diary, 300). Thanks to St. Faustina and John Paul II – for whom
we thank God – this message has become a sign of hope for
humanity, like “a bridge to the third millennium”. That is how
St. John Paul II referred to Divine Mercy.
Gathering in Kraków, let us look at a special Apostle of Mercy, namely St. John Paul II. With courage he stood by St. Sister
Faustina carrying the message of mercy to distant corners of
the world. Even as a young worker at Solvay, Karol Wojtyła
used to come to the sanctuary chapel in Łagiewniki to pray
before the image of the Merciful Jesus. Later on, as Archbishop of Kraków, he started the process of beatification of Sister
Faustina. As Pope, he made the message of mercy the central
point of his teaching. He discussed the teaching of God’s Mercy in his encyclical Dives in Misericordia – God who is rich in
mercy. Canonising Sister Faustina on 30th April 2000, he established the Feast of Divine Mercy. During his apostolic visit to
his home country on 17th August 2002, he entrusted the whole
world to Divine Mercy.
This act of entrusting became a special declaration of faith
as he was convinced that God had given us the message of
mercy as a sign for humanity which is losing itself in materialism. Quoting St. Faustina: “Mankind will not find peace until it
17
returns with trust to my mercy”, St. John Paul II reminded us
that “the light of Divine Mercy, which the Lord in a way wished
to return to the world through Sister Faustina’s charism, will
illumine the way for the men and women of the third millennium” (Homily of John Paul II at the canonisation of Sister Faustina, Rome, 30th April 2000).
Divine Mercy is indeed a light for the world and the whole
of mankind because it reminds us that people cannot live without God’s merciful love. People simply cannot exist without
God; they lose their way and become monsters for others, dangerous beasts. The message of mercy also brings in another
important truth: through merciful love, a love offered unconditionally, a person opens up to another person. Overcoming
loneliness, he or she builds a community: a family, a home, a
community of friendship and kindness. Here, in Łagiewniki, John
Paul II said: “apart from the mercy of God there is no other
source of hope for mankind” (Homily at the consecration of
the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy in Kraków, 17th August 2002).
The spreading of the message of Divine Mercy, which the
world was reminded of by St. Faustina and was shown afresh
in the teaching of St. John Paul II, was continued by Pope Benedict XVI for the eight years of his pontificate, and now by Pope
Francis, who in the papal bull Misericordiae Vultus has announced that this is an Extraordinary Year of Mercy. The Holy
Father has emphasized that this mercy is the name of God who
revealed Himself through His Son Jesus Christ. Therefore today
we still need to contemplate the mystery of mercy: “It is a
wellspring of joy, serenity, and peace. Our salvation depends
on it. Mercy: the word reveals the very mystery of the Most
Holy Trinity. Mercy: the ultimate and supreme act by which
God comes to meet us” (Misericordiae Vultus, 2). Mercy discovered in God is a basic right that resides in the heart of every
© DAYENU
18
19
person. It shows itself when a person looks with sincerity at
his or her brother met on their journey of life. Mercy is a route
connecting God with a person, because it opens up their heart
giving hope of being loved eternally despite the limitations of
our sin. Mercy unites people and opens them to each other.
At this special place we wish to share the joy of being disciples of Christ and apostles of Divine Mercy. The Holy Father
John Paul II entrusted the Church and the whole world to Divine Mercy and encouraged us to pass the message of mercy
to the whole world bringing hope to men’s hearts. “Mankind
will not find peace until it returns with trust to my mercy!”
May those words accompany us during the World Youth Days
and may they inspire us to be apostles of mercy in the contemporary world.
Stanisław Cardinal Dziwisz
Metropolitan of Kraków
Kraków, The Feast of Presentation of the Lord,
2nd February 2016
20
21
MESSAGE
TO YOUTH
MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
FOR THE THIRTY-FIRST WORLD YOUTH DAY 2016
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy”
(Mt 5:7)
A YEAR ACCEPTABLE TO THE LORD
Dear Young People,
We have come to the last stretch of our pilgrimage to Kraków,
the place where we will celebrate the 31st World Youth Day
next year in the month of July. We are being guided on this
long and challenging path by Jesus’ words taken from the Sermon on the Mount. We began this journey in 2014 by meditating together on the first Beatitude: “Blessed are the poor in
spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:3). The theme
for 2015 was: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see
God” (Mt 5:8). During the year ahead, let us allow ourselves
to be inspired by the words: “Blessed are the merciful, for they
shall obtain mercy” (Mt 5:7).
1. The Jubilee of Mercy
With this theme, the Kraków 2016 WYD forms part of the
Holy Year of Mercy and so becomes a Youth Jubilee at world
level. It is not the first time that an international youth gathering has coincided with a Jubilee Year. Indeed, it was during
the Holy Year of the Redemption (1983/1984) that Saint John
Paul II first called on young people from around the world
to come together on Palm Sunday. Then, during the Great
Jubilee of the year 2000, over two million young people from
around 165 countries gathered in Rome for the 15th World
Youth Day. I am sure that the Youth Jubilee in Kraków will be,
as on those two previous occasions, one of the high points of
this Holy Year!
Perhaps some of you are asking: what is this Jubilee Year that
is celebrated in the Church? The scriptural text of Leviticus 5
can help us to understand the meaning of a “jubilee” for the
people of Israel. Every fifty years they heard the sounding of
24
a trumpet (jobel) calling them (jobil) to celebrate
a holy year as a time of reconciliation (jobal) for
everyone. During that time they had to renew
their good relations with God, with their neighbours and with creation, all in a spirit of gratuitousness. This fostered, among other things, debt
forgiveness, special help for those who had fallen into
poverty, an improvement in interpersonal relations and the
freeing of slaves.
Jesus Christ came to proclaim and bring about the Lord’s
everlasting time of grace. He brought good news to the poor,
freedom to prisoners, sight to the blind and freedom to the oppressed (cf. Lk 4:18-19). In Jesus, and particularly in His Paschal
Mystery, the deeper meaning of the jubilee is fully realized.
When the Church proclaims a jubilee in the name of Christ,
we are all invited to experience a wonderful time of grace. The
Church must offer abundant signs of God’s presence and closeness, and reawaken in people’s hearts the ability to look to the
essentials. In particular, this Holy Year of Mercy is “a time for
the Church to rediscover the meaning of the mission entrusted
to her by the Lord on the day of Easter: to be a sign and an
instrument of the Father’s mercy” (Homily at First Vespers of
Divine Mercy Sunday, 11th April 2015).
25
2. Merciful like the Father
The motto for this Extraordinary Jubilee is “Merciful like the
Father” (cf. Misericordiae Vultus, 13). This fits in with the
theme of the next WYD, so let us try to better understand the
meaning of divine mercy.
The Old Testament uses various terms when it speaks about
mercy. The most meaningful of these are hesed and rahamim.
The first, when applied to God, expresses God’s unfailing fidelity to the Covenant with His people whom He loves and
forgives for ever. The second, rahamim, which literally means
“entrails”, can be translated as “heartfelt mercy”. This particularly brings to mind the maternal womb and helps us understand that God’s love for His people is like that of a mother
for her child. That is how it is presented by the prophet Isaiah:
“Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the
child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget
you” (Is 49:15). Love of this kind involves making space for others within ourselves and being able to sympathize, suffer and
rejoice with our neighbors.
The biblical concept of mercy also includes the tangible
presence of love that is faithful, freely given and able to forgive. In the following passage from Hosea, we have a beautiful
example of God’s love, which the prophet compares to that of
a father for his child:
26
The more I called them,
the farther they went from me…
Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
who took them in my arms;
I drew them with human cords,
with bands of love;
I fostered them like one
who raises an infant to his cheeks…
I stooped to feed my child.”
Hos 11:1-4
28
29
EVERYTHING IN JESUS SPEAKS OF MERCY
out of Egypt I called my son.
INDEED, HE HIMSELF IS MERCY
“When Israel was a child I loved him;
Despite the child’s wrong attitude that deserves punishment, a father’s love is faithful. He always forgives His repentant children. We see here how forgiveness is always included
in mercy. It is “not an abstract idea, but a concrete reality with
which he reveals his love as of that of a father or a mother,
moved to the very depths out of love for their child… It gushes
forth from the depths naturally, full of tenderness and compassion, indulgence and mercy” (Misericordiae Vultus, 6).
The New Testament speaks to us of divine mercy (eleos) as
a synthesis of the work that Jesus came to accomplish in the
world in the name of the Father (cf. Mt 9:13). Our Lord’s mercy
can be seen especially when He bends down to human misery
and shows His compassion for those in need of understanding,
healing and forgiveness. Everything in Jesus speaks of mercy.
Indeed, He Himself is mercy.
In Chapter 15 of Luke’s Gospel we find the three parables
of mercy: the lost sheep, the lost coin and the parable of the
prodigal son. In these three parables we are struck by God’s
joy, the joy that God feels when He finds and forgives a sinner.
Yes, it is God’s joy to forgive! This sums up the whole of the
Gospel. “Each of us, each one of us, is that little lost lamb,
the coin that was mislaid; each one of us is that son who has
squandered his freedom on false idols, illusions of happiness,
and has lost everything. But God does not forget us; the Father
never abandons us. He is a patient Father, always waiting for
us! He respects our freedom, but he remains faithful forever.
And when we come back to him, he welcomes us like children
into his house, for he never ceases, not for one instant, to wait
for us with love. And his heart rejoices over every child who
returns. He is celebrating because he is joy. God has this joy,
when one of us sinners goes to him and asks his forgiveness”
(Angelus, 15th September 2013).
God’s mercy is very real and we are all called to experience
it firsthand. When I was seventeen years old, it happened one
day that, as I was about to go out with friends, I decided to
stop into a church first. I met a priest there who inspired great
confidence, and I felt the desire to open my heart in Confession. That meeting changed my life! I discovered that when we
open our hearts with humility and transparency, we can contemplate God’s mercy in a very concrete way. I felt certain that,
in the person of that priest, God was already waiting for me
even before I took the step of entering that church. We keep
looking for God, but God is there before us, always looking for
us, and He finds us first. Maybe one of you feels something
weighing on your heart. You are thinking: I did this, I did that…
Do not be afraid! God is waiting for you! God is a Father and He
is always waiting for us! It is so wonderful to feel the merciful
embrace of the Father in the sacrament of Reconciliation, to
discover that the confessional is a place of mercy, and to allow
ourselves to be touched by the merciful love of the Lord who
always forgives us!
You, dear young man, dear young woman, have you ever felt
the gaze of everlasting love upon you, a gaze that looks beyond your sins, limitations and failings, and continues to have
faith in you and to look upon your life with hope? Do you realize how precious you are to God, who has given you everything
30
out of love? Saint Paul tells us that “God proves his love for
us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom
5:8). Do we really understand the power of these words?
DO NOT
BE AFRAID
TO LOOK
IN HIS EYES
31
I know how much the WYD cross means to all of you. It was
a gift from Saint John Paul II and has been with you at all your
World Meetings since 1984. So many changes and real conversions have taken place in the lives of young people who have
encountered this simple bare cross! Perhaps you have asked
yourselves the question: what is the origin of the extraordinary
power of the cross?
Here is the answer:
Here I would recall the episode of the two thieves crucified
beside Jesus. One of them is arrogant and does not admit that
he is a sinner. He mocks the Lord. The other acknowledges
that he has done wrong; he turns to the Lord saying: “Jesus,
remember me when you come into your kingdom”. Jesus looks
at him with infinite mercy and replies: “Today you will be with
me in Paradise” (cf. Lk 23:32, 39-43). With which of the two do
we identify? Is it with the arrogant one who does not acknowledge his own mistakes? Or is it with the other, who accepts
that he is in need of divine mercy and begs for it with all his
heart? It is in the Lord, who gave His life for us on the cross,
that we will always find that unconditional love which sees
our lives as something good and always gives us the chance
to start again.
3.
The amazing joy of being instruments of
God’s mercy
the cross is the most eloquent sign
of God’s mercy!
It tells us that the measure of God’s love
for humanity is to love without measure!
Through the cross we can touch God’s mercy
and be touched by that mercy!
34
The Word of God teaches us that “it is more blessed to give
than to receive” (Ac 20:35). That is why the fifth Beatitude
declares that the merciful are blessed. We know that the Lord
loved us first. But we will be truly blessed and happy only when
we enter into the divine “logic” of gift and gracious love,
when we discover that God has loved us infinitely in order to
make us capable of loving like Him, without measure. Saint
John says: “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is
of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows
God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is
love… In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he
loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. Beloved, if
God so loved us, we also must love one another” (1 Jn 4:7-11).
35
After this very brief summary of how the Lord bestows his
mercy upon us, I would like to give you some suggestions on
how we can be instruments of this mercy for others.
I think of the example of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. He
said, “Jesus pays me a visit every morning in Holy Communion,
and I return the visit in the meagre way I know how, visiting the
poor”. Pier Giorgio was a young man who understood what it
means to have a merciful heart that responds to those most
in need. He gave them far more than material goods. He gave
himself by giving his time, his words and his capacity to listen.
He served the poor very quietly and unassumingly. He truly did
what the Gospel tells us: “When you give alms, do not let your
left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret” (Mt 6:3-4). Imagine that, on the day before
his death when he was gravely ill, he was giving directions on
how his friends in need should be helped. At his funeral, his
family and friends were stunned by the presence of so many
poor people unknown to them. They had been befriended and
helped by the young Pier Giorgio.
36
I always like to link the Gospel Beatitudes with Matthew 25,
where Jesus presents us with the works of mercy and tells us
that we will be judged on them.
I ask you, then, to rediscover the corporal works of mercy:
to feed the hungry,
give drink to the thirsty,
clothe the naked,
welcome the stranger,
assist the sick,
visit the imprisoned,
and bury the dead.
Nor should we overlook the spiritual works of mercy:
to counsel the doubtful,
teach the ignorant,
admonish sinners,
comfort the sorrowful,
forgive offences,
patiently bear with
troublesome people,
and pray to God for the living
and the dead.
37
As you can see, mercy does not just imply being a “good
person” nor is it mere sentimentality. It is the measure of our
authenticity as disciples of Jesus, and of our credibility as Christians in today’s world.
If you want me to be very specific, I would suggest that for
the first seven months of 2016 you choose a corporal and a
spiritual work of mercy to practice each month. Find inspiration in the prayer of Saint Faustina, a humble apostle of Divine
Mercy in our times:
“Help me, O Lord, that my eyes may be merciful, so that I
will never be suspicious or judge by appearances, but always
look for what is beautiful in my neighbours’ souls and be of
help to them; (…) that my ears may be merciful, so that I will
be attentive to my neighbours’ needs, and not indifferent to
their pains and complaints; (…) that my tongue may be merciful, so that I will never speak badly of others, but have a
word of comfort and forgiveness for all; (…) that my hands
may be merciful and full of good deeds; (…) that my feet
may be merciful, so that I will hasten to help my neighbour,
despite my own fatigue and weariness; (…) that my heart
may be merciful, so that I myself will share in all the sufferings of my neighbour” (Diary, 163).
The Divine Mercy message is a very specific life plan because
it involves action. One of the most obvious works of mercy,
and perhaps the most difficult to put into practice, is to forgive those who have offended us, who have done us wrong or
whom we consider to be enemies. “At times how hard it seems
to forgive! And yet pardon is the instrument placed into our
fragile hands to attain serenity of heart. To let go of anger,
wrath, violence, and revenge are necessary conditions to living
joyfully” (Misericordiae Vultus, 9).
38
I meet so many young people who say that they are tired of
this world being so divided, with clashes between supporters
of different factions and so many wars, in some of which religion is being used as justification for violence. We must ask
the Lord to give us the grace to be merciful to those who do
us wrong. Jesus on the cross prayed for those who had crucified Him: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do”
(Lk 23:34). Mercy is the only way to overcome evil. Justice is
necessary, very much so, but by itself it is not enough. Justice
and mercy must go together. How I wish that we could join together in a chorus of prayer, from the depths of our hearts, to
implore the Lord to have mercy on us and on the whole world!
4. Kraków is expecting us!
Only a few months are left before we meet in Poland. Kraków,
the city of Saint John Paul II and Saint Faustina Kowalska, is
waiting for us with open arms and hearts. I believe that Divine
Providence led us to the decision to celebrate the Youth Jubilee in that city which was home to those two great apostles
of mercy in our times. John Paul II realized that this is the time
of mercy. At the start of his pontificate, he wrote the encyclical Dives in Misericordia. In the Holy Year 2000 he canonized
Sister Faustina and instituted the Feast of Divine Mercy, which
now takes place on the Second Sunday of Easter. In 2002
he personally inaugurated the Divine Mercy Shrine in Kraków
and entrusted the world to Divine Mercy, in the desire that
this message would reach all the peoples of the earth and
fill their hearts with hope: “This spark needs to be lighted by
the grace of God. This fire of mercy needs to be passed on to
the world. In the mercy of God the world will find peace and
mankind will find happiness!” (Homily at the Dedication of the
Divine Mercy Shrine in Kraków, 17th August 2002).
39
Dear young people, at the Shrine in Kraków dedicated to the
merciful Jesus, where He is depicted in the image venerated by
the people of God, Jesus is waiting for you. He has confidence
in you and is counting on you! He has so many things to say
to each of you… Do not be afraid to look into His eyes, full
of infinite love for you. Open yourselves to His merciful gaze,
so ready to forgive all your sins. A look from Him can change your
lives and heal the wounds of your souls. His eyes can quench
the thirst that dwells deep in your young hearts, a thirst for
love, for peace, for joy and for true happiness. Come to Him and
do not be afraid! Come to Him and say from the depths of your
hearts: “Jesus, I trust in You!”. Let yourselves be touched by His
boundless mercy, so that in turn you may become apostles of
mercy by your actions, words and prayers in our world, wounded by selfishness, hatred and so much despair.
Carry with you the flame of Christ’s merciful love – as Saint
John Paul II said – in every sphere of your daily life and to the
very ends of the earth. In this mission, I am with you with
my encouragement and prayers. I entrust all of you to Mary,
Mother of Mercy, for this last stretch of the journey of spiritual preparation for the next WYD in Kraków. I bless all of you
from my heart.
DO YOU WANT TO
HAVE A SELFIE
WITH
POPE FRANCIS?
(insert your photo here)
FRANCIS
From the Vatican, 15th August 2015
Solemnity of the Assumption of the B.V. Mary
40
41
ST. SISTER
FAUSTINA
42
SHE wAS NOT bORN
A SAINT
bUT SHE MATURED
TO SANCTITY
I
She was common and simple yet extraordinary. She had a
strong personality and great sensitivity. Intelligent despite
her lack of education. She was a mystic with her feet firmly
on the ground. She was not born a saint but she matured to
sanctity. This is Sister Faustina.
46
desire
The life mission of Faustina Kowalska was to remind the
Church and the world that God’s greatest attribute is mercy.
She was given this mission by Jesus on the night of Sunday
22nd February 1931. Faustina, who was a sister in the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, was living in the convent in Płock, over a hundred kilometers from Warsaw. She
was in her cell when suddenly she saw Jesus. He was standing
before her with one arm raised for blessing, and the other
touching the gown at His chest. “From beneath the garment,
slightly drawn aside at the breast there were emanating two
large rays, one red, the other one pale. In silence I kept my
gaze fixed on the Lord; my soul was struck with awe, but also
with great joy” – she wrote in her Diary (No. 47). After a while
Jesus said to her: “Paint an image according to the pattern you
see, with the signature: Jesus, I trust in You. I desire that this
image be venerated, first in your chapel and [then] throughout the world. I promise that the soul that will venerate this
image will not perish. I also 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, 47-48). The Divine
Mercy image depicting Jesus as seen by Faustina that night in
1931 in her convent cell is now known all over the world and
millions of people give glory to the God of Mercy. However, the journey leading to this point was long and took many,
sometimes dramatic years, even after Faustina’s death, to be
known to the world.
From 22nd February 1931 until her death in 1938, Sister
Faustina had visions in which Jesus was gradually revealing to
her the complete essence of Divine Mercy, and told her about
new ways in which to worship God’s Mercy.
When her revelations of the Divine Mercy started, Sister
Faustina was 26 years old. By then, she had been at the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy for six years. Before joining the Congregation her name was Helena. She was
born in Głogowiec, a few dozen kilometers from Łódź, on 25th
August 1905. She was the third of ten children of Marian­na
and Stanisław Kowalski. The family was very poor and struggled to make ends meet, living off a
few acres of poor soil and whatever
income their father made as an occasional carpenter. Even as a sevenyear-old girl Helena felt a calling to
a kind of life which she described as
more perfect, as at that stage she did
not yet know about the existence of
consecrated life. Because of her poverty she could not get an education,
she completed only three years of
primary school. At the age of 15 or
16, she started working as a maid,
initially in Aleksandrów near Łódź,
and then in Łódź. Throughout that time she discovered consecrated life and did not give up the
thought of joining a convent. She asked her parents’ permission to do so several times but they
kept refusing her request. Later on her mother
explained that the reason was a lack of money
for a dowry or at least enough to pay for a set
of clothing which back then was required by monastic congregations. Apart from this, as Helena
was an exceptionally good child, her parents saw
themselves being cared for by her in their old
age. What also mattered was the fact that working as a maid in a city, Helena would send most
of her wages back home.
However, Jesus Himself demanded that Helena’s vocation be fulfilled. It happened in Łódź in
June 1924, on a warm Sunday afternoon.
Helena, a girl of medium-height, with
grey eyes, a pretty smile, beautiful
voice, with a slightly freckled complexion, and long, thick, reddish hair which
she wore in a plait, went to a dance with
her friends at Wenecja Park. For the occasion she wore a pink dress with frills.
She started dancing with a young man
when Jesus stood next to her.
49
He was “racked with pain, stripped of His clothing,
all covered with wounds”
(Diary, 9).
He asked the girl reproachfully:
„
HOW LONG
SHALL I PUT UP WITH YOU
AND HOW LONG
WILL YOU KEEP
PUTTING ME OFF?
50
Helena immediately stopped dancing and left the party; she
ran to a church nearby where she heard in her heart that she
was to go to Warsaw without delay as there she would find
a congregation that would accept her. Helena who, until that
point complied with her parents’ will, now did not hesitate for
a minute. She knew that she had to act against their will in
order to carry out what God intended for her. However, another year passed before she joined the Congregation of the
Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Warsaw. This year was a time
to test the strength of Helena’s calling for the superiors of the
congregation. Over that year, Helena worked as a maid in Ostrówek near Warsaw, saving money to pay for her trousseau.
She joined the convent in Warsaw on 1st August 1925. After a
few months she received a habit and the name Maria Faustina. She spent the two-year noviciate at Łagiewniki, where she
made her vows (of chastity, poverty and obedience). In 1933
she also professed her perpetual vows over there.
Seen from the outside, Faustina’s life was no different from
anyone else’s. Due to her lack of education and dowry, she
belonged to a second monastic choir whose sisters undertook
physical chores (division into choirs was abolished only after
World War II). Faustina was a cook, a gardener, she sold bakery products, and towards the end of her life she was on
duty at the convent gates. She liked baking cakes most of
all and making grand gateaux. Faustina was obedient to her
superiors and was frequently moved from one convent to another to do manual labor. Over the thirteen years of her monastic life, she lived in eight monasteries, sometimes returning
to the ones she had lived in before; she stayed at Łagiewniki,
Warszawa, Vilnus, Płock, Derdy, Walendów, Kiekrz and Biała.
She spent the longest time in Łagiewniki where she passed
away on 5th October 1938, after suffering for several years
from tuberculosis in her lungs and in her bones.
52
SHE LIKED
BAKING
CAKES
MOST OF
ALL AND
MAKING
GRAND
GATEAUX
53
The most important things in Faustina’s life were
happening in her spiritual life. She was chosen by God
to proclaim the truth about Divine Mercy to the Church
and to the world, a truth which was by no means new.
Faustina was one of the greatest mystics in the history
of the Church. She achieved the highest mystical state
possible for a human being on earth. At the beginning
of this journey, she experienced what is known as a
dark night, a period in one’s spiritual life when a soul
feels rejected by God and the senses and the spirit are
purified of the desires of this world. In Faustina’s case
this period did not last long. For Faustina, this period
was a year and a half, while for instance, in the case
of blessed Mother Teresa, her night of the soul lasted
for half a century. After the dark night Sister Faustina swiftly moved through the next stages of mystical
life until her soul attained union with God in a mystical
marriage. The decisive moment which marked the deepening of her mystical life was when she expressed her
consent saying ‘yes’ to God, herself becoming a sacrifice
for sinners.
In her Diary Faustina complained on several occasions that physical language cannot describe what a
human soul experiences when it is immersed in God;
nevertheless she described her experiences in a very
emotional way. She noted down in her Diary what she
learned about the essence of Divine Mercy while experiencing those mystical states. She also wrote down
what Jesus told her in her visions; she had as many as 82
of them! These visons can be summarized in the following words: God is prepared to forgive a person, even the
person’s worst sin, and the only thing required of that
person is to cut with evil and turn to God with trust.
54
dark night
55
8
2
Faustina knew that the One who appeared to her and spoke
to her was Jesus. However, most of her superiors whom she
told about the message of Divine Mercy, as Jesus wanted, did
not believe her. She was advised to avoid those visions which
were considered to be the outcome of fantasizing and hysteria.
This, as well as the unfair judgments of some other sisters who
did not understand Faustina’s spiritual ‘otherness’, was the reason for her moral suffering. It was not until the autumn of 1932,
which was a year and a half after she had her first vision about
the Divine Mercy, that Faustina met a priest, Fr. Edmund Elter,
who confirmed that her visions were of a supernatural nature.
The greatest helper of Sister Faustina’s message of Divine
Mercy was Fr. Michał Sopoćko, whom she met at the convent
in Vilnius, Lithuania. By examining the depth of her spiritual
life, the sincerity of her intentions, and her mental health by
having her examined by himself and professionals, Fr. Sopoćko,
became Faustina’s spiritual director. It was on his orders that
she started keeping her diary where she wrote down her mystical experiences. Her Diary is a great hymn of praise to Divine
Mercy. It was also on orders from Fr. Sopoćko, with Faustina’s involvement, that Eugeniusz Kazimirowski, a Vilnius artist,
painted the first image of the Merciful Jesus with the words:
“Jesus, I trust in You” in 1934 the way Sister Faustina first saw
Jesus in 1931 (the painting in Łagiewniki renowned all over the
world was painted in 1943 by Adolf Hyła). In September 1935,
Jesus gave Faustina the words of the Chaplet to the Divine
Mercy and in October 1937 He told her about the Prayer at the
Hour of Divine Mercy.
Sister Faustina suffered for a long time because she was unable to implement Jesus’s orders expressed in 1931, and then
repeated several times, for the Church to establish a celebration of Divine Mercy on the first Sunday after Easter (as was
56
57
introduced by John Paul II in 2000). Despite that, she was at
peace when she died. She possessed many spiritual gifts including foretelling the future (e.g. she foretold her own canonization), she knew that despite great difficulties, the cult of Divine Mercy would survive and develop (a ban by the Apostolic
See against spreading the cult of the Divine Mercy in the forms
passed by Sister Faustina lasted from 1958 to 1978). Faustina
wrote that “There will come a time when this work, which God
is demanding so very much, will be as though utterly undone.
And then God will act with great power, which will give evidence of its authenticity” (Diary, 378). Faustina was a mystic
but she knew that it was not this that determined her sanctity:
“My sanctity and perfection consist in the close union of my
will with the will of God” (Diary, 1107).
John Paul II beatified Sister Faustina in 1993, and in 2000
she was canonized. A casket with her reliquary is kept at the
Convent Chapel in Łagiewniki where Faustina would pray over
several years. It is stored on the altar behind the paining of
Merciful Jesus with a caption “Jesus, I trust in you”.
Ewa K. Czaczkowska
FAUSTINA
WAS ONE
OF THE GREATEST
MYSTICS
IN THE HISTORY
OF THE CHURCH
Ewa K. Czaczkowska – journalist, historian, senior lecturer at the
Institute for Media Education and Journalism at UKSW; author of
books including Sister Faustina (translated into English, Italian,
Spanish, Portuguese, French, Croatian and Slovak), Miracles of Saint
Faustina, and The Pope who believed. How Karol Wojtyla persuaded
the Church to accept the devotion to Divine Mercy.
58
59
A little child came and woke me up. (…)
The child (…) said to me,
“look
at the sky”
And when I looked at the sky
I saw the stars and the moon shining.
Then the child asked me,
“Do you see this moon and these stars?”
When I said yes,
he spoke these words to me,
“These stars are the souls
of faithful Christians,
and the moon is the souls
of religious.”
Diary, 424
60
61
ST. JOHN PAUL II
HIS FINAL COMING
from here there must go forth the spark which will prepare the world for
May the binding promise of the Lord Jesus be fulfilled:
64
65
1920
John Paull II was first referred to as “an apostle of Divine
Mercy” by Pope Benedict XVI during the Angelus prayer on
30th March 2008. The Pope rightly noted that John Paul II’s
entire life and papal teachings revolved around the mystery
of Divine Mercy. The mission of “the Pope from a distant
country” was service to “the truth of God, mankind and peace
in the world”. Benedict XVI also noted the exceptional coincidence of the Pope’s death occurring on the eve of Divine
Mercy Sunday.
1. Karol Wojtyła’s long journey
Karol Wojtyła was born in Wadowice on 18th May 1920 as the
second son of Karol Wojtyła and Emilia née Kaczorowska. His
father was a retired military man and his mother was a seamstress by trade. Karol had an older brother, Edmund, who was
a doctor, and sister Olga, who died soon after she was born.
In his childhood Karol was usually called Lolek – a diminutive
form of his name. In 1929, when he was 9, his mother Emilia passed away followed by his brother Edmund three years
later.
Karol first attended primary school and then middle school
in Wadowice where he developed an interest in poetry and
theatre. He was an altar boy at the parish church, a scout,
played football, went skiing, hiked through the countryside,
and went on pilgrimages with his father to the Marian Shrine
in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska. In September 1938, having passed
secondary school exams, he and his father moved to Kraków
where he studied Polish at the Department of Philosophy at
the Jagiellonian University. On the outbreak of World War II on
1st September 1939, universities in Poland were closed down
and he was forced to undertake manual labour in the German
chemical factory, Solvay.
66
In 1940, he participated in prayer meetings led by
Jan Tyranowski where he read letters of John of the
Cross. On 18th February 1941 Karol Wojtyła’s father
passed away after a long illness. During the war, many
of his Jewish friends from Wadowice and Kraków
were arrested by the German occupying army and
taken to the concentration camp in Auschwitz.
At the end of 1942 and beginning of 1943, when
he was praying at the convent church of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in
Ła­giewniki, Karol discovered the devotion to the Divine Mercy. He saw the painting of Merciful Jesus
by A
­ dolf Hyła for the first time and he learned the
Chaplet of Divine Mercy. During World War II, together with Tadeusz Kotlarczyk, he set up Teatr Rapsodyczny, where he was an actor.
During the war Karol Wojtyła worked hard to support himself. He performed at the theatre and wrote
poetry and plays. In 1942, when death at the hands
of German invaders was a daily threat, Karol decided
to join seminary. He studied philosophy and theology
at the underground seminary in Kraków. On 17th January 1945, when Kraków was liberated by the Red
Army, he moved into the seminary and continued his
theological studies.
1929
‘19
38
1939
‘46
2. Service to the Church in Kraków
On 1st November 1946, Karol Wojtyła was ordained
as a priest by the Metropolitan of Kraków, Cardinal
Adam Stefan Sapieha. On 2nd November he celebrated his first Holy Mass at St. Leonard’s Crypt at Wawel Cathedral. In November 1946, he went to Rome
‘40
1941
1948
1945
to study theology. He studied at the Pontifical University of
Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome. He successfully
defended his doctoral thesis “The Doctrine of Faith According
to St. John of the Cross”. On his return from his studies in July
1948, Karol Wojtyła started working as an assistant priest at
Niegowić parish (40 km from Kraków). In August 1949, he was
transferred to the Parish of St. Florian in Kraków, where he
worked until 1951 as the student chaplain.
In 1952, Fr. Karol Wojtyła was working to prepare his thesis
that would promote him to the level of assistant professor.
At that period he also dedicated a lot of time to journalism by
writing philosophical and theological essays. He was a lecturer
in ethics and moral theology at the Seminary in Kraków. For a
year he was a professor at the Catholic University in Lublin. He
taught ethics of marriage, humanity, and freedom. On 4th July
1958, Karol Wojtyła was appointed a coadjutor bishop of the
Archdiocese of Kraków. The guiding motto that he chose for
his episcopal ministry was Totus Tuus (which in Latin means
Totally Thine) taken from St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort’s book True Devotion to Mary. This motto, which has to
do with the theme “spiritual servitude”, is understood as a voluntary and complete surrendering of his life to the service to
the Church and to the spiritual motherhood of Mother of God.
This was a constant throughout his life.
Bishop Karol Wojtyła participated in the Second Vatican
Council (1962-1965). On 13th January 1964 he was appointed
Metropolitan Archbishop of Kraków and on 26th June 1967 he
became a cardinal. As the Bishop of the Archdiocese of Kraków
he visited parishes and convents, maintained numerous contacts with people of science, culture and art. In 1965, he started
the beatification process of Sister Faustina Kowalska. He con-
1949
1951
tinued to publish poetry and plays like The Jeweller’s Shop and
Radiance of Fatherhood. In 1969, he published an anthropological monograph Person and Act, and in 1972 he also published
a book on the Second Vatican Council. He researched philosophical traditions (classic Greek ethics, St. Thomas Aquinas,
phenomenology) as well as the Bible and mysticism (St. John
of the Cross).
On 16th October 1978 Cardinal Karol Wojtyła was elected as
Pope and took the name of John Paul II. He was the first Pope
from Poland and the first Bishop of Rome who was not Italian
in 455 years (since the pontificate of Hadrian VI).
3. The Pilgrim Pope
A key characteristic of John Paul II’s pontificate were pilgrimages. His first apostolic visit was to Mexico in 1979. Here, he
taught that politicians of Catholic countries should not forget about human rights, religious freedom and human dignity
while in power. When he returned to Rome he published his
first encyclical Towards Christ, the Redeemer of Man (1979).
In this encyclical, he depicted Christ as man’s only redeemer. In June 1979, the Pope went to his first apostolic visit to Poland, where he famously said, “Let
your Spirit descend and renew the face of the earth,
the face of this land”. The Gospel message preached
by John Paul II contributed to the fall of communism
in the European countries of the Eastern Bloc. In November 1979, the Pope visited Turkey, where he met
with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. This
was the first step towards establishing ecumenism
between the East and the West. In 1980, John Paul II
published his second encyclical, which was about God
‘52
1958
1943
‘4
2
'65
1967
1978
who is rich in mercy, Dives in Misericordia, which pointed to Divine Mercy, the feature that would distinguish his pontificate.
On 13th May 1981, during a general audience in St. Peter’s
Square in Rome, at 5:19pm, John Paul II was shot by Turkish
gunman, Mehmet Ali Ağca. The attack took place on the anniversary of the Fatima revelations of 1917. The Pope was
convinced that the Mother of God shielded him with her cloak
against danger. He survived the shooting, but he shed his blood
for Christ. A year later John Paul II was attacked again. The
Pope was attacked with a bayonet by Juan María Fernández y
Krohn, but did not suffer any serious injuries.
On 27th October 1986, John Paul II initiated an ecumenical
gathering in Assisi, where representatives of many religions
prayed for peace in the world. In addition, he was the first successor of St. Peter who visited a synagogue in Rome (1986).
After the overthrow of communism in the 1990’s, John Paul II
made numerous pilgrimages to those countries in the world
which were experiencing wars and conflicts, in particular to Africa and the Balkans, as a pilgrim of peace. He received Fidel
Castro in the Vatican and himself visited Cuba (1998).
John Paul II led the Church and the world into the new millennium. In the jubilee year of 2000, he visited the Holy Land.
During his visit he went to Yad Vashem Institute, a memorial
to the victims of the Holocaust, and he prayed by the Western Wall. In 1999, the Pope kissed the Quran brought to him
by Muslim imams as a gift. In 2000, during his trip to Egypt
he met with Sunni sheik, Grand Imam of al-Azhar in Cairo. In
2000, as the first Pope ever, he entered the Umayyad Mosque
in Damascus. The pontificate of John Paul II is regarded as the
longest after the pontificate of St. Peter and Bl. Pius IX. He
was Pope for 26 and a half years (9666 days). The personal
70
let
your spirit
descend
and renew
THE FACE OF THE EARTH,
THE FACE OF THIS LAND
beatified
1338 people,
and canonized 482
appointed
231 cardinals at
9 consistories and
1 cardinal in pectore
wrote
14 encyclicals
wrote
a great
number of apostolic letters
and also
15 apostolic
exhortations
as a poet
and playwright
published the poem
Roman Triptych
the Church of England has not recognized the authority of the
Vatican. He was also the first Pope to have visited the White
House.
Despite his best efforts he was not able to make an apostolic
pilgrimage to Russia due to the unwillingness of the Moscow
Patriarch who accused the Vatican of proselytism. As Pope,
John Paul II most frequently visited Poland (8 times), USA (7
times), and France (7 times). John Paul II was renowned for
his meetings with the youth at the World Youth Days, nine of
which he attended. During his pontificate John Paul II beatified
1338 people and canonized 482 people. He appointed 231 cardinals at nine consistories. He also appointed one cardinal in
pectore whose name has never been disclosed.
John Paul II passed away on 2nd April 2005 at 9:37pm, on the
9666th day of his pontificate, on the eve of the Feast of Divine
Mercy. The Pope’s funeral took place on Friday 8th April 2005.
A simple coffin of cypress wood (the symbol of eternity) was
visits
of John Paul II
over 100
visits around
Italy
104 countries
assistant of John Paul II throughout the whole pontificate was
Fr. Stanisław Dziwisz, who is the present Cardinal Metropolitan of Kraków. Apostolic pilgrimages were a characteristic feature of the pontificate of John Paul II. He visited 104 countries
on all continents and made 100 trips throughout Italy. Many
places he visited had never seen a Pope before. For instance,
he was the first Pope to visit Great Britain where, since 1534,
72
9 meetings
at World
Youth Days
8 visits
to Poland
7 visits
to France
7 visits
to the USA
placed directly on St. Peter’s Square. The Holy Mass was concelebrated by a few thousand cardinals, bishops and patriarchs
of Eastern Catholic Churches. The Mass was led by the College
Dean, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. There were 300,000 faithful
in the St. Peter’s Square, 200 presidents and prime ministers,
and representatives of world religions including Muslim clergy
and Jewish rabbis. All over Rome, 5 million people, including 1.5
million Poles, gathered around screens set up in the city. Many
mourners were holding banners with the Italian phrase santo
subito (saint now). John Paul’s II coffin was placed in the crypt
of John XXIII in the Vatican grottoes.
Since his death, he has been referred to as John Paul the
Great. In the history of the Church, only three popes have had
this epithet: Leon I, Nicolas I and Gregory I. This epithet was
first used in the homily of cardinal Angelo Sodano at the requiem mass in the St. Peter’s Square on Sunday 3rd April 2005, the
day after John Paul II passed away. It was also used in news and
current affairs programs by large American TV stations (“John
Paul the Great” – CNN, Fox News, ABC, CBS). The successor of
John Paul II, Benedict XVI used this epithet in the homily at his
papal inauguration.
The beatification of John Paul II took place in Rome on 1st May
2011, on the Feast of Divine Mercy. He was then canonized by
Pope Francis on 27th April 2014. John Paul II is the patron saint
of the World Youth Day.
John Paul II dedicated a lot of time to the unity of Christian
churches. Throughout his pontificate, he sought closer relationship with Protestant and Orthodox churches. He testified
to his work in the cause of ecumenism in the encyclical published in 1995, Ut Unum Sint.
74
John Paul II gave the Church 14 encyclicals. In these encyclicals, he considered the following themes: important dogmatic,
moral and social issues of contemporary man and of the world.
He wrote a great number of apostolic letters on the dignity of
women, celebrating Sunday, Ss Cyril and Methodius, the Jubilee of the Year 2000, priestly ordination, the rosary, 15 apostolic exhortations on the family, catechesis, reconciliation and
penance, the consecrated life, the laity, the life and service of
priests, and apostolic constitutions on reform of Roman Curia
and the code of canon law. The Pope, who was both a poet and
playwright, also published the poem Roman Triptych during
his pontificate.
4. The truth of Divine Mercy
The truth about the Divine Mercy constitutes a central motif of
the pontificate of John Paul II. It features in the encyclical Dives
in Misericordia (God rich in mercy, 1980). Along with the encyclical Redemptor hominis (The Redeemer of man, 1979) and
Dominum et vivificantem (The Lord and Giver of Life, 1983),
the Pope speaks to contemporary man about God revealing
himself in the history of redemption as the Holy Trinity, Father,
Son and Holy Spirit. Mercy is the key to understanding the
mystery of God, the mystery of man, and the mystery of the
world. In these encyclicals (Dives in Misericordia, 3) John Paul
II refers to the time of the Israelite’s Exodus from Egypt where
God revealed His name YHWH (“I am who I am”) to explain the
mystery of His name: “The LORD, the LORD, a God gracious
and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in love and fidelity,
continuing his love for a thousand generations, and forgiving
wickedness, rebellion, and sin (…)” (Ex 34:6-7).
75
2
1
:
3
7
76
John Paul II proclaimed the second Sunday after Easter as
Mercy Sunday stressing that Mercy is a chance to get to know
“the true face of God and the true face of brethern” (Homily
at the canonization of Sister Faustina, Rome, 30th April 2005).
The message of mercy reminds us of the dignity and value of
each person. Mercy also helps those who are lost among the
various ideologies and ideas of the 20th and 21st centuries find
a way to God. In the mystery of Divine Mercy, a Christian will
find the true face of God, who is close to man, and also the
true face of the man, who is in need of mercy and is ready to
show mercy. In his apostolic letter, Novo Millennio Ineunte published at the turn of the third millennium (6th January 2001),
John Paul II wrote about the need to develop the vision of
mercy, or the ability to see the world in the context of God’s
unlimited love.
On August 17th, 2002 during the consecration of Basilica of
Divine Mercy in Kraków-Łagiewniki, John Paul II entrusted the
world to Divine Mercy and set the Church a task to familiarize the world with the Divine Mercy: “Today, therefore, in this
Shine, I wish solemnly to entrust the world to Divine Mercy. I
do so with the burning desire that the message of God’s merciful love, proclaimed here through Saint Faustina, may be made
known to all the peoples of the earth and fill their hearts with
hope. May this message radiate from this place to our beloved
homeland and throughout the world. May the binding promise
of the Lord Jesus be fulfilled: from here there must go forth
the spark which will prepare the world for his final coming.”
This spark of mercy is now brought to the world by Pope
Francis, who has announced 2016 as the Jubilee Year of Mercy.
Fr. Jan Machniak
77
HE (…) DID NOT SPARE HIS OWN SON
John Paul II tells us that mercy is a template of God’s love
for man and it includes every “shade of love”. It is fatherly love,
patient, forgiving, kind and compassionate. Every person can
discover God in nature and in the cosmos through God’s “invisible attributes” (Rom 1:20) and can discover God in their own
life history as a good and forgiving Father. The full revelation
of God’s love was embodied in Jesus Christ. Jesus revealed the
Merciful God in the parables about the lost sheep and lost coin
(Lk 15:1-10), and in particular in the parable of the prodigal son
(Lk 15:11-32). The story first shows the greatness of fatherly
love, ready to forgive and to lavish gifts on his son again. John
Paul II focuses on the dignity of the prodigal son, which, thanks
to the Father’s mercy, shines anew.
The full revelation of Divine Mercy is in the death and resurrection of Christ. The Paschal mystery shows the greatness
of God’s love for man as “He (…) did not spare his own Son”
(Rom 8:32). Through the mystery of the cross, God reveals the
depth of His love, which exists in the creation of man and in the
act of Redemption.
God’s mercy can be encountered in sacraments, in particular those of penance and in the Eucharist, in which a Christian
touches God’s merciful love. The Church undertakes the mission of proclaiming Divine Mercy through declaring the truth
that God is Mercy and by venerating Divine Mercy. The second
task of Christ’s disciples is to act mercifully and the third way
of bearing witness to God is to pray for mercy for the world.
During the canonization of Sister Faustina Kowalska in Rome
on 30th April 2000, John Paul II announced the message of
mercy to the whole world. At the same time he reminded us
that Divine Mercy provides mankind with the opportunity to
be renewed; he referred to the Diary: “Mankind will not have
peace until it turns to the Fount of My Mercy” (Diary, 699).
Fr. Prof. Jan Machniak – graduate of Polish Studies from the Jagiellonian University (1976-1980) and from the Seminary of the Archdiocese of Kraków; ordained a priest in 1985, spiritual theology studies
in Rome (1986-1990); spiritual director of the Seminary of the Archdiocese of Kraków (1991-1995); professor of spiritual theology at the
Pontifical University of John Paul II in Kraków; author of many books
on spirituality, preacher, chaplain in St. John’s Church in Kraków (Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary), rector of the
International Academy of Divine Mercy; participant of World Youth
Day in Buenos Aires (1987), Częstochowa (1991), Paris (1997), Rome
(2000), and Cologne (2005).
78
79
DIVINE MERCY
QUESTIONS
& ANSWERS
80
81
There are questions
to which
you won’t find answers…
82
…
ON THE WEB
83
HAPPINESS
Discovering
that we are loved
ALL PEOPLE, REGARDLESS OF THEIR CULTURE, RELIGION OR PLACE OF BIRTH, WANT TO BE LOVED. IT IS ONLY
WHEN YOU FEEL LOVED THAT YOU CAN BE HAPPY.
CHRISTIANITY OFFERS US SOMETHING GREATER THAN
AN IMPRESSION OF LOVE – IT GIVES US CERTAINTY THAT
THERE IS SOMEONE WHO LOVES US SO MUCH. WE ARE
NOT BORN WITH THIS CERTAINTY, THOUGH. WE OFTEN ARRIVE AT IT GRADUALLY. WE SEARCH, ASK QUESTIONS AND FINALLY FIND THE ANSWER IN GOD’S MERCY.
IS WHAT WE THINK ABOUT GOD THE ACTUAL TRUTH ABOUT
HIM?
If a person’s heart were a room full of paintings and if we took a
picture illustrating God from everyone’s heart, we could create a
very diverse art gallery. Some of the paintings would amaze us,
some other could scare us away. The story of our lives shapes
different images of God in our hearts. For example, if we had too
demanding parents who constantly controlled us, we can think
that God is like them. If we didn’t get enough attention from our
family when we were children, we can think that God cares little
about us as well. If we grew up with the constant fear of punishment for our mistakes, we are likely to be afraid of God, who will
be a strict judge in our eyes.
Was sagt Gott selbst über sich?
84
WHAT DOES GOD SAY ABOUT HIMSELF?
God introduces Himself to us already in the first books of
the Old Testament by saying: “The LORD, the LORD, a God
gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in
love and fidelity (…) forgiving wickedness, rebellion and
sin (…)” (Ex 34:6-7). It is these characteristics of God that
we can see in His reactions to the choices people have made
throughout the history of the world. His reaction to Adam
and Eve’s sin was the promise of Christ’s coming and our
salvation. When God saw the suffering of the Israelites in
Egypt, He called Moses to lead them out of slavery. When
they were complaining while wandering through the desert,
He showed them His patience and care and provided them
with food and drink. He has cared in the same way for the
next generations and so is He taking care of us today. “God
is love” (1 Jn 4:8,16); therefore, anything He does results
from His love.
Is there anything like unconditional love?
You cannot love more than rahamim. This Hebrew word occurs frequently in the Bible as a name for God’s love for us.
Rahamim is the deepest, intimate, tender and totally unconditional love. God loves us more than even the best mother.
He cannot give up on loving us!
Can we be certain that this love will never
change?
God’s hesed is irrevocable. This Hebrew term is used in the
Bible to mean God’s mercy towards us. Hesed means faithful
love, which makes us feel safe. Regardless of our actions,
God will always love us.
85
The Lord is merciful and gracious (…)
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
Ps 103:8.10
DO WE NEED TO DESERVE GOD’S MERCY?
We put a lot of effort into looking good. We work overtime to afford fashionable things. We can spend plenty of
time choosing the best picture for our Facebook profile. We
do it all to be accepted, to feel loved. God accepts us the
way we are, despite our shortcomings and weaknesses. He
sees our helplessness in many situations and takes pity on
us. He sees perfectly what we sometimes try to hide from
people and what we are afraid of in ourselves. Nevertheless, He loves us. It does not mean, however, that we do not
need to act at all. God loves us because we are His children
but when we start looking for Him consciously, He grants
us even more graces and gifts, which help us improve ourselves on our way to sainthood.
WHERE DO OUR FRIENDS, THE NIAGARA FALLS OR
POWER IN THE LIGHT BULB COME FROM?
When we think about God’s mercy, we tend to associate it
solely with forgiveness, but we need to realize that what
is good and beautiful is a gift from the merciful Father as
well. He wants us to be happy so He gives us friends! He
wants to amaze us with beauty so He has created so many
wonders of nature! He wants us to enjoy a better life in
this world so He gives inspiration to inventors! God is our
Father, we are His children. He takes care of our everyday
life. In doing so, He shows His mercy to us.
86
87
How do we know that God wants us to be
happy?
When we love somebody, we want him or her to be happy.
God loves us. If we have any doubts as to whether He wants
us to be happy, it means that we still have a false picture of
Him in our minds. Knowing about our doubts, God decided
to give us the greatest proof of His merciful love. We will
discuss it in the next section.
THE SAVED ONES
What Jesus
did for us
OUR STORY TAKES ITS ROOTS IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN,
WHERE EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL, PURE AND DELIGHTFUL. THERE WAS NO FEAR, HATRED, ILLNESS, OR DEATH.
THERE WAS ONLY FREEDOM. AT SOME POINT, ADAM AND
EVE, DECEIVED BY SATAN, CHOSE EVIL, WHICH BROUGHT
AN END TO THE HARMONY OF THE WONDROUS WORLD
CREATED BY GOD. FROM THAT MOMENT ON, EVERYTHING
HAS BEEN POISONED BY SIN. HOWEVER, THE ANSWER OF
THE MERCIFUL FATHER TO ADAM AND EVE’S DISOBEDIENCE WAS HIS PROMISE OF CHRIST’S COMING AND OUR
SALVATION.
Did God go mad?
THEY HAVE WASHED THEIR ROBES AND MADE THEM WHITE
IN THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB. rev 7:14
© DAYENU
88
If a friend told us that he wanted to become an ant, we
would probably think that he went crazy. The difference
between a man and this little creature is so huge that it is
virtually impossible to imagine someone having such a wish.
Therefore, it is so difficult to understand that God decided
to become man! The Creator of Heaven and Earth, the King
of the Universe, the One who is not limited by time or space
(because He created them) becomes a little helpless baby!
In no other religion has God become so close to us, men.
Some people believe that God’s incarnation is sufficient
proof of His crazy love for us, but He took a step further,
some claim that a step too far.
89
wAS IT POSSIbLE TO DO MORE?
We are able to do great things out of love. We can sit long
hours by the bed of a sick person, travel thousands of kilometers to meet the person we love even for a while, give up our
dreams, spend all our savings to help somebody. Jesus offered
His life out of love for us, He gave it for everyone of us!
DID JESUS HAVE TO DIE?
Every action has some consequences. The same applies to our
sins, although very often we cannot see their consequences immediately, or we can notice only some of them. No person, even
the strongest or the holiest one, would not be able to bear the
consequences of their sins. Jesus had to do it for us. He had to
because He loves us, because He is Love and Mercy. He did not
do it because somebody forced Him but because He wanted
to do it for us. This is the greatest mercy we have ever experienced: Jesus gave His life for us, sinners. He saved us!
(…) consider My Sorrowful Passion
in all its immensity.
Consider it as if it had been undertaken
for your sake alone.
90
IF MY DEATH
HAS NOT CONvINCED YOU
OF MY LOvE, WHAT WILL?
Diary, 1761, 580
ARE wE REALLY THAT bAD THAT wE NEED TO bE
SAVED?
Every sin is a rejection of God and harm we
inflict on ourselves. The drama of many sins
is that they leave us with wounds which may
stay hidden for a long time. Sometimes, we hear
stories of people who have had a car crash and are
badly injured but are in a state of shock and can walk
many kilometers, for example with a broken leg, without feeling any pain. They can walk bleeding until they
lose consciousness. Similarly, we are often unable to see
the wounds resulting from our sins. We need a saviour
because we all have some hidden wounds which can lead
to death… eternal death! Jesus is our Saviour.
ARE THERE PEOPLE wHO DO NOT SIN?
“I haven’t killed anybody, I haven’t stolen anything, I go to
church on Sunday…” It is common for people who are away
from God and lead a bad life to claim that they do not have
any sins. They are really unable to see them. And it would
suffice to “switch on the light”… Nobody is without sin. The
closer we are to God, the better we can see the truth about
ourselves.
Mercy is like light which,
falling on our life,
makes us see the darkness in it, too.
Bp. Grzegorz Ryś
91
Can people be divided into smaller and bigger
sinners?
There are people who let themselves be deceived by Satan
in their lives and committed grave sins. Some other struggle with their venial sins. Are the ones better than the others? We are all sinners and debtors of the merciful God.
He forgives those who have grave sins, and protects other
people from committing them. Both result from His grace
and mercy.
Can God be merciful and just at the same
time?
Many people become very indignant when God shows His
mercy towards wrongdoers. They will ask: Where is justice?
Some others comfort themselves with the thought: I can sin
because the merciful God will forgive me everything any­
way. They all misinterpret God’s justice and mercy, most
commonly by treating them as two opposites. They believe
that there is room for either mercy or justice. However, in
fact, the two go hand in hand because both mercy and justice result from God’s love. The best illustration thereof is
the cross of Jesus Christ. It was on this cross that justice
was done for our sins – the punishment for sins is death and
Jesus died for us voluntarily. It is also through Christ’s cross
that God showed us the greatest mercy – He forgave us
everything and opened us the way to Heaven.
Mercy without justice
is the mother of dissolution;
justice without mercy is cruelty.
St. Thomas Aquinas
92
Where can we find the merciful God?
If Jesus appeared before us today and invited us to follow
Him, what would be our answer? Some might say: “Great,
but not today. I need a bit of time to get ready.” We tend to
believe that to meet God we need to be perfect or, at least,
we should not have any bigger shortcomings or weaknesses.
And maybe this is the reason why we meet Him so rarely. He
looks for us “on the ground floor” and we are “on the 10th
floor”. We put on attractive masks to make a good impression on Him but it is our real face that draws Him, even if it
is scarred. You do not need to wear any make-up when you
come to meet the merciful God. We truly encounter Him
only if we acknowledge the truth about ourselves.
Where does the merciful God act?
For the last 2,000 years, the merciful God has been saving
us through the sacraments. He stays invisible to our senses
– we cannot see Him, we cannot hear Him, but He is present
there and He acts! He is constantly saving us from trouble,
especially by means of two sacraments of “everyday use”:
confession and the Eucharist. In confession, God removes
the dirt of our sins, and, in the Eucharist, He gives Himself
to us, He gives us life and the strength to lead a good life.
Have you already met the enemy of the merciful God?
Enemy, foe, the master of lies and illusion is Satan. We encounter him in all the situations which are supposed to raise
doubts in our hearts, destroy our faith in God’s love for us
and stop us from believing in the possibility of returning to
God and being forgiven. He wants us to stop believing in
God’s mercy. If we trust in God’s constant love despite our
93
sins, Satan is helpless. Therefore, he attacked St. Faustina so
brutally, especially when she wrote in her Diary about the
Divine Mercy. He tried to intimidate her, force her to stop
writing. He had a feeling that what she was writing would
help many people find the way back to God in the future.
Why is there so much “buzz” around mercy
now?
God is always the same, invariable, always merciful. The
whole Bible, the sacred tradition, the experience of thousands of saints tell us about God’s mercy. However, it has
not always been that obvious to us. The twentieth century
witnessed acts of unprecedented atrocity. The wars and the
totalitarian systems led to the death of many innocent people. It was at that time that God decided to remind us about
His mercy through St. Faustina. Nowadays, the evil takes different forms, destroying people more secretly, but there are
equally many victims, if not more. Today, evil is presented as
something good, and sin as freedom. Faced with a growing
number of dangers, man needs God’s mercy more than ever.
Be constantly on the watch,
for many souls will turn back
from the gates of hell
and worship My mercy.
Diary, 639
94
What will the years ahead bring us? (…)
We are not given to know.
However, it is certain that in addition to new progress
there will unfortunately be no lack
of painful experiences.
But the light of divine mercy,
which the Lord in a way wished
to return to the world through Sister Faustina’s
charism, will illumine
the way for the men and women
of the third millennium.
St. John Paul II
What is the Message of Mercy?
The Diary of St. Faustina Kowalska is the most frequently
translated Polish book. It contains all the words that Jesus
directed at the whole world through St. Faustina. We refer
to them as the Message of the Divine Mercy. It is in this
message that God reminds us about His great love and encourages us to trust Him and to be merciful towards other
people.
(…) I intend today to pass this message on to the
new millennium. I pass it on to all people, so that
they will learn to know ever better the true face of
God and the true face of their brethren.
St. John Paul II
Who is the apostle of mercy?
The closest disciples of Jesus, the 12 men he called, were
not His only apostles. Jesus also sent other apostles (apostle means “one who is sent away”). In the 20th century, He
95
entrusted the special mission of proclaiming God’s mercy to
a woman – Sister Faustina. She was supposed to remind all
the people about the Divine Mercy and proclaim it through
acts, words and prayer. By means of St. Faustina’s Diary,
Jesus also encourages us to proclaim God’s great mercy. You
do not need to be a priest or a trained journalist. All He asks
us for is to testify about Him in our everyday life, to notice the presence of the merciful God in everyday situations
and to trust that He will lead us. We also need to become
merciful towards our brethren. We can proclaim His mercy
in everyday conversations by sharing our experiences with
others. We can also help other people notice the presence
of God in their lives and encourage them to trust Him, especially in difficult situations.
FILLED WITH PEACE
AS OFTEN AS YOU WANT
TO MAKE ME HAPPY,
SPEAK TO THE WORLD
ABOUT MY GREAT
AND UNFATHOMABLE MERCY.
Why is it important to trust God?
Diary, 164
96
Those who decided
to trust God
HOW BEAUTIFUL THE WORLD WOULD BE IF EVERYBODY
HAD PEACE IN THEIR HEARTS! THE TRUTH IS THAT WE
ALL LONG FOR PEACE AND MISS IT. MANY PEOPLE LOOK
FOR INNER PEACE IN VARIOUS RELAXATION TECHNIQUES,
MEDITATION, ALCOHOL AND DRUGS, WHICH MAKE US
FORGET ABOUT OUR PROBLEMS FOR A MOMENT. ALL
THESE METHODS SEEM TO WORK PERFECTLY AND GIVE
US RELIEF FOR A WHILE, BUT THEY LEAD TO DEVASTATING CONSEQUENCES IN THE LONG RUN. THEY ARE
SUPPOSED TO HELP US BUT, IN FACT, THEY ONLY MAKE
MATTERS WORSE. HOWEVER, THERE IS SOMEBODY WHO
KNOWS HOW TO REGAIN INNER PEACE. SOMEBODY WHO
KNOWS THE FATHER AND KNOWS THAT HE IS LOVE. AND
THERE IS ONLY ONE ANSWER TO THIS LOVE – TRUST,
WHICH LEADS US TO A COMPLETE PEACE.
God encourages us to trust Him as many as 365 times in
the Bible by saying: “do not fear”, “peace be with you”,
“do not be afraid”… In St. Faustina’s Diary, we can often
find these words of encouragement and comfort, along with
the reason why we can live without fear. Jesus repeats many
times: “I am with you”. His closeness should be the source
of deep peace and release us from any fears. It all depends,
however, on whether we will trust Him since we are able to
trust only somebody whom we know very well.
97
HOw CAN wE COME TO KNOw GOD?
It is actually incredible that we, people, can get to know
God! He wants to be discovered by us, He wants to stay
close to us! Therefore, Jesus stayed with us in the sacraments, through which we can experience His closeness in a
special way and learn to know Him better and better. Every
prayer is a special meeting with God and a time to discover
the truth about Him. It is also incredibly important to read
the Bible, where God speaks to us about Himself. We can
also learn to know Him better when we look back at our
lives – we discover that He has been present in our lives, He
loves us and constantly acts in our everyday life.
The more I come to know Him,
the more ardently, the more fiercely I love Him (…).
Diary, 231
wHAT DOES IT MEAN TO TRUST GOD?
We often think that trusting God means having hope that He
will fulfill our dreams. In fact, this attitude is often reflected
in our prayers: we present God a list of our wishes. However, to truly trust God is to accept His plan for our life and to
believe that it is the best plan possible. Sometimes, we can
have the impression that we do not trust God because we
cannot feel it. Trust is not a feeling. It is a conscious choice
of a pathway which we decide to follow listening to Christ’s
words.
98
In spite of everything, Jesus, I trust in You
in the face of every interior sentiment
which sets itself against hope.
Do what You want with me; I will never leave you,
because You are the source of my life.
Diary, 24
HOw CAN wE bE CERTAIN THAT GOD’S PLAN IS bETTER THAN OURS?
Every inventor knows best what to do with the device he
or she has created to make it work perfectly. They give a
detailed description in the manual so that the user knows
what can and cannot be done with the device. God is our
Creator. He knows us better than we do ourselves. He
knows what is good and what is bad for us. He knows every
person’s abilities and how to use them best. He wants us
to be happy. Therefore, He leaves us hints and advice as to
what to choose for our benefit.
HOw CAN wE CHECK wHETHER wE REALLY TRUST
GOD?
We can check the temperature of our body with a thermometer. We can check our language skills with a specially-designed test. But how can we check whether we trust God?
What we need to do is to analyze our everyday choices and
see whether they are in accordance with God’s will or not.
99
How to live in accordance with God’s will?
God has left us hints how to live. We can find them in the Bible (especially, the Ten Commandments and the Eight Beatitudes). He also speaks to us through the Church, through
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, through everyday
events and our meetings with other people. The moment
we discover what God wants from us, He gives us some directions how to fulfill His calling in our lives. He also speaks
to us through our everyday experiences. We can stay indifferent to His words, we can reject them, or accept them as
a gift from our best friend, Jesus.
Can I choose what I want?
One of the biggest gifts we received from God is freedom.
His gift is irreversible – we will always be free, we will always be able to choose what we want. If somebody wants
to trust God, they will always be looking for His will and
trying to understand what He wants from them, believing
that God wants the best for them. This quest requires a
lot of effort and engagement every day since we often have
difficulties recognizing God’s will straight away. The choice
between good and evil is obvious, but the choice between
good and good seems more complex. In such a case, we
might need to talk to somebody who will help us understand what God will like better.
What will happen if I choose a different way
from the one God intended for me?
When we choose a way which is against God’s will, we commit sin. And this way leads us to death. God says, “I have
set before you life and death (…) therefore choose life
(…)” (Deut 30:19). God never stops taking care of us.
Even when we do not follow His way, He stays by our side
wherever we are.
In our lives, we often choose a different way from the one
intended for us by God. For example, Saul of Tarsus initially
chose the way of violence against Christians. He was travelling to Damascus to persecute them. And it was at that time
that God decided to call Him to become an apostle. Saul
became one of the most zealous Christians because he experienced the great mercy of God, who turned a persecutor
into His trusted friend.
God straightens our crooked paths and is able to notice
goodness in us despite our bad choices. Trust is a dynamic
reality. God’s will is not a strict mathematical plan to follow
but a wonderful story that we can co-create with Him.
God is like GPS.
He tells us where to go,
but if I choose a different way (…)
than Him, He says with the same, calm
voice, “You’ve changed the route. I’m
creating a new route, then.”
Fr. Wojciech Ziółek SJ
All things are lawful for me,
but not all things are helpful.
1 Cor 6:12
101
Will trust in God protect us from suffering?
Let’s imagine the following situation: a beautiful young
student prays for a good future husband. After some time,
she meets her dream boyfriend at a meeting of the youth
chaplaincy. They fall in love with each other and he asks her
to marry him. Two days after their engagement, the young
man dies in a car crash. Could the merciful God include
such a horrible event in His best plan for our life? After
all, He never inflicts suffering on people. But sometimes He
allows it. Trust is not about understanding everything that
happens to us. To trust is to be certain that God is with us
in our suffering and wants to carry us through it. The logic
of mercy does not consist in protecting us from suffering
but it consists in deriving good from the most difficult experiences. The best illustration thereof is the life of Jesus. His
Passion and death led to His resurrection, which brought us
salvation.
part of God’s plan of salvation. We can learn from her how
to trust God in the difficult moments of our lives. We can
also ask Mary for help. Many saints came to trust God completely by doing so.
What is the best way of showing God that we
trust Him?
Jesus has shown us this way. All His life, He was looking
for His Father’s will and followed it. We can see it best in
Christ’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. Despite the
great fear of immense suffering, He said to the Father: “Father, if you are willing, remove this chalice from me; nevertheless not my will, but yours, be done” (Lk 22:42). With
His trust, Jesus opened the doors of Heaven for us. We also
participate in Christ’s mission of salvation if we trust God
and let Him act in our lives. Such trust is the manifestation
of the greatest love. By choosing what God wants from us
we become filled with peace.
When my soul is in anguish, I think only in this way:
Jesus is good and full of mercy,
and even if the ground were to give way
under my feet,
I would not cease to trust in Him.
Diary, 1192
Who can teach us how to trust in God?
In fact, any saint who let himself or herself be led by God,
can serve as an example of trust for us. However, the most
remarkable example of completing God’s will is Mary’s life.
At the Annunciation, she said “yes” to God and did not stop
trusting Him, even when she was standing by the cross, on
which her only Son was dying. She believed that this was
What place does Jesus have in your life?
102
© DAYENU
last
second
first
on the couch
103
THE HAPPY ONES
Those who love
Love everyone out of love for Me,
even your greatest enemies,
so that My mercy may be fully reflected in
your heart.
Diary, 1695
JESUS SHOWED US THE WAY TO HAPPINESS IN THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. HIS WORDS “BLESSED ARE THE
MERCIFUL, FOR THEY SHALL OBTAIN MERCY” (MT 5:7)
ENCOURAGE US TO LOVE OTHER PEOPLE. ONLY WHEN
WE LOVE CAN WE DISCOVER THE MYSTERY OF HAPPINESS.
Merciful – what does it mean?
People tend to think that a merciful person is “a weakling”
who starts crying the moment they see suffering. Sometimes, people think that mercy exists only in the sphere of
emotions and feelings. However, when we look at Jesus and
the saints, we can easily understand that the merciful person is the one who loves and therefore acts – reacts in a
concrete way trying to fight the consequences of evil.
Are charity events a manifestation of mercy?
There are plenty of people in the world who suffer and need
help. Fortunately, there are also many warm-hearted people who devote their time, strength and money to help the
needy ones. However, what they do is not necessarily an act
of mercy. We need to ask about their intentions. If they act
out of their love for Jesus, then their actions are an example
of mercy.
104
Can we be merciful from time to
time?
It is not possible to love somebody in the
morning and to stop loving them in the
evening. If it happens, it means that this is
not a true love. The same applies to mercy, which grows roots in people’s hearts so
that it fills their thoughts, words and actions.
Such people love and therefore act, out of mercy. The mercy
becomes their lifestyle.
Be always merciful
as I am merciful.
Diary, 1695
What is the price of mercy?
The original sin is a wound that we are all born with. It
makes us prone to selfishness, to focusing on our needs
more than on other people. However, if we become fascinated by Jesus, we want to follow Him and a desire arises in our
hearts to love others as much as Jesus loves them. When
we decide to turn to the merciful lifestyle, we declare war
on our instincts and selfishness. Mercy comes at a price, it
can be difficult since it requires us to choose what demands
a greater effort.
105
Is every good deed really good?
Generally speaking, prayer is a good thing. But what if we
pray on an exam day for our teacher to get sick and stay
home? It is good to help a friend who is short of money.
But what if we lend him the money that we have stolen
from our parents? It is a great thing to volunteer for a local
organization. But what if somebody else needs to do our
household chores for us? Any good deed needs to have
good intentions (e.g. a prayer for somebody to be well), be
performed only with good means (e.g. I lend somebody my
own money) and in certain circumstances (e.g. I can help a
local organization after fulfilling my duties first).
Who will take care of us?
Are there any situations when it is impossible
to be merciful?
In some circumstances, we feel at first glance that our
hands are tied and we cannot do anything. It is easy to find
an excuse then and go back to our own business. However,
people with the vision of mercy will not give up that quickly. They will look for new ways, new ideas how to help a
person in need. First, they will try to take some action. If
this turns out to be impossible, they will try to help the
person with the words of support, comfort or forgiveness.
Sometimes, however, even this is not possible. Then we can
always turn to prayer – yet another way to show our mercy.
Is giving money to a beggar an act of mercy?
The experience of many people who chose to be merciful in
their lives shows that when we give ourselves to others, we
receive much more in return. Mercy makes us abandon the
rather sad notion of self-sufficiency and the fearful focus on
ourselves. It transfers us into a fascinating world of interpersonal relationships. It is in this world that we experience
love and generosity. We see that when we give, we receive
even more in return.
It is more blessed to give
than to receive.
Walking down a busy street in a big city, we often see people asking us for money. How do we react? Some of us
give them money knowing that we will not solve their
problem. In fact, it will help them only for a while.
Therefore, it is more important to stop by a
person in need and start a conversation
to come to know them better. Sometimes, a simple conversation is
worth more than the money we
could offer. It is also important
to pray for these people.
Ac 20:35
106
107
When somebody is hungry, do not give them a fish,
give them a fishing rod and teach them to fish.
ARE THERE ANY GLASSES THAT ALLOw US TO SEE
wHAT IS GOOD?
When we read on the Internet about a man who killed somebody, we tend to think that he is a cruel person, a dangerous
criminal, possibly from a dysfunctional family. This might be
true, but it is not the entire truth about him. It is extremely
difficult to see his positive sides if we are confronted solely
with the evil he has done. What we need is a pair of special
“glasses” which would allow us to look at people the way
God does. He is able to find what is good in us under many
layers of evil. We can learn from Him to look at people this
way. The merciful God does not pretend that He cannot see
evil, but He focuses on what is good in us. In spite of our
sins, He looks at us with love and can notice beauty in us.
who did evil to us. In this way, we liberate ourselves from
the burden of our pain, and we give a person who hurt us
a chance to change since only the experience of mercy can
thoroughly transform a person.
We resemble God most
when we forgive our neighbors.
Diary, 1148
wHY DO I HAVE TO bE MERCIFUL?
Happy are those who can see how generous God has been
towards them. Our lives, constant care, help in any situation, forgiveness of any sin – we receive it all from God
for free! Happy are those who experience God’s mercy and
show mercy to their brethren. They are happy also because
through being merciful they become similar to God. “Be
merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Lk 6:36).
HOw TO bE MERCIFUL TOwARDS SOMEbODY wHO
HAS HURT US?
Whenever we say Our Father, we repeat the phrase “and
forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Jesus consciously asked us to repeat these
words in the most basic Christian prayer – He wants to remind us every day that we need forgiveness. God is always
generous with forgiveness and expects us to be equally merciful towards other people. Mercy manifests itself best in
our ability to forgive. And whether we forgive somebody is
our conscious choice. We decide not to do evil to somebody
108
109
CALLING
FOR MERCY
Praying for mercy for us
and the whole world
WE ALL NEED GOD’S MERCY. HE LIFTS US UP WHEN WE
FALL. HE GIVES US STRENGTH TO LEAD A GOOD LIFE.
HE GIVES US HOPE FOR HEAVEN. WE NEED TO PRAY
BECAUSE IT IS IN THE PRAYER THAT WE CAN MEET
THE MERCIFUL GOD. THIS MEETING TRANSFORMS US.
THANKS TO OUR PRAYER, GOD TRANSFORMS THE LIFE
OF OTHER PEOPLE AS WELL. IT HAS AN INFLUENCE ON
THE DESTINY OF THE WHOLE WORLD. WE KNOW ABOUT
IT FROM ST. FAUSTINA’S DIARY. IT IS THROUGH HER THAT
JESUS SHOWED US NEW WAYS OF MEETING HIM AND
ASKING FOR MERCY.
110
How can we pray for mercy?
Whenever we praise God’s mercy, thank Him for His goodness, apologize to Him for our sins, or ask Him for help, we
show Him our trust. If we follow His will while taking everyday decisions, we give Him concrete proof of our trust. And
when we experience His mercy, a desire arises in our hearts
to act in the same way towards other people. Trust and mercy are two straight ways which lead us to God and open us
for His mercy.
Sr. M. Gaudia Skass,
Sr. M. Emanuela Gemza
111
DO YOU KNOW
WHO WAS
THE GREATEST
ADVOCATE
OF DIVINE
MERCY?
CONNECT
THE BLACK DOTS
TO FIND OUT
THE ANSWER
DIVINE MERCY
IMAGE
“JESUS, I TRUST
IN YOU”
114
115
WHAT IS
THE STORY
OF THIS IMAGE?
The image of the Divine Mercy is the only portrait in the history of Christianity that was commissioned by Jesus Himself.
Christ appeared to St. Faustina on 22nd February 1931 during
her stay in the Polish city of Płock. In her Diary, the nun recorded everything she had seen, and her description served as
a guide for the first image of Merciful Jesus, which was painted in 1934 in Vilnius, where it can be found to date. However,
the most renowned Divine Mercy image is displayed in the
convent chapel of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady
of Mercy at the Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Kraków-Łagiewniki. The miraculous image was painted by Polish painter
Adolf Hyła.
2.
1.
WHAT IS THE
7.
SYMBOLIC
MEANING OF
3.
THE PAINTING?
6.
1. eyes
4.
2. the right HAND,
RAISED IN BLESSING
3. the left HAND
ON HIS HEART
The image of Merciful Jesus is not His “photograph”. Therefore, we can find different versions of this painting around the
world. They all fulfill Christ’s desire, provided that they are
painted in accordance with the description in the Diary.
4. rays
5. feet
6. white garment
God bestows graces on those who pray before this image with
trust and imitate Jesus by showing mercy to other people. Jesus said to St. Faustina, “I promise that the soul that will
venerate this image will not perish. I also 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). Jesus fulfills His promises and we see miracles happen
all over the world!
116
7. DARK
BACKGROUND
5.
8. THE INSCRIPTION
“JESUS, I TRUST IN YOU”
8.
117
2. THE RIGHT HAND
RAISED
IN BLESSING
1. EYES
Any encounter begins with exchanging looks. Jesus said to Sister Faustina, “My gaze from this image is like My gaze from
the cross” (Diary, 326). What is the look of somebody who
offered his life for us out of love? It is important to remember
what happened on Golgotha. Anyone who looks at the painting and meets Christ’s gaze can experience the same feelings
as people back then on Golgotha: love, acceptance, forgiveness, infinite care and mercy, which bridges the great abyss
between the sinner and the Holy God.
Dear young people, at the Shrine in Kraków
dedicated to the merciful Jesus, where He is depicted
in the image venerated by the people of God,
Jesus is waiting for you. (…)
Do not be afraid to look into His eyes,
full of infinite love for you.
Open yourselves to His merciful gaze,
so ready to forgive all your sins.
Upon a closer look, we notice a
nail wound on this hand. The One
whom we condemned to death
is raising His hand not to take revenge on us but to bless us. Jesus
taught the same to Sister Faustina:
“If someone causes you trouble,
think what good you can do for
the person who caused you to
suffer” (Diary, 1760). Mercy is a
love that we do not deserve. The
experience of such love helps us
get closer to God.
Love your enemies,
do good to those who hate you,
bless those who curse you,
pray for those who abuse you.
Lk 6:27-28
Pope Francis
118
119
3. THE LEFT HAND
ON HIS HEART
This hand points at the most important element in the picture
– the pierced heart of Jesus. It is in the heart that feelings,
thoughts and decisions are born. It is there that the decision
about love is made. In His heart, Jesus made a decision to offer
His life for us.
I DO NOT WANT TO PUNISH ACHING MANKIND,
BUT I DESIRE TO HEAL IT,
PRESSING IT TO MY MERCIFUL HEART.
Diary, 1588
4. RAyS
MY HEART OVERFLOWS WITH GREAT MERCY FOR
SOULS, AND ESPECIALLY FOR POOR SINNERS. IF
ONLY THEY COULD UNDERSTAND THAT I AM THE
BEST OF FATHERS TO THEM AND THAT IT IS FOR
THEM THAT THE BLOOD AND WATER FLOWED FROM
MY HEART (…)
Diary, 367
120
The left hand touches the heart, which we cannot see in the
painting. Yet, we can see two rays streaming out of it. Jesus
told Sister Faustina that “the pale ray stands for the Water
which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the
Blood which is the life of souls” (Diary, 299). In short, the
two rays denote water and blood, which streamed out of
Christ’s pierced heart. “The Water which makes souls righteous” is a symbol of the sacrament of baptism and confession,
and of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, whose biblical symbol is
water as well. “The Blood which is the life of the souls” symbolizes the Eucharist. Jesus Christ is present in the sacraments
and it is through them that He shows us His greatest mercy:
He forgives us our sins and gives Himself to us.
5. FEET
Christ’s feet also carry traces of His immense suffering. Though wounded by
our sins, Jesus does not cease to look
for us. He makes the first move towards
us, like the loving father from the parable of the prodigal son (Lk 15:11-32). He
does not wait for us to become holy, perfect and converted.
He roams the world in search of the weak to help them come
to Him by themselves.
BUT WHILE HE WAS YET AT A DISTANCE,
HIS FATHER SAW HIM AND HAD COMPASSION,
AND RAN AND EMBRACED HIM AND KISSED HIM.
Lk 15:20
121
6. WHITE GARMENT
Jesus is wearing a white garment, which symbolizes His resurrection. His body bears traces of suffering but the white robe
illustrates His victory over death. These remarkable events
from Christ’s life are the ultimate manifestation of the Divine
Mercy towards man.
7. DARK
BACKGROUND
The dark background behind the light figure of Jesus Christ is
an accurate depiction of the circumstances in which Jesus appeared to Faustina in 1931 – she saw Him in the evening. However, it also carries a symbolic meaning in that it illustrates the
darkness of our sins. And into this darkness – the sphere of
our life filled with pain and fear – comes the resurrected Jesus
– the conqueror of death – to bring us hope for forgiveness.
I HAVE COME
AS LIGHT
INTO THE WORLD,
THAT WHOEVER
BELIEVES IN ME
MAY NOT REMAIN
CHRIST (…) HAS REVEALED IN HIS RESURRECTION
THE FULLNESS OF THE LOVE THAT THE FATHER HAS FOR
HIM AND, IN HIM, FOR ALL PEOPLE.
St. John Paul II
122
IN DARKNESS.
Jn 12:46
123
8. THE INSCRIPTION
“JESUS, I TRUST IN YOU”
Jesus told St. Faustina that He wanted these words to
be written on the painting. They open people’s hearts
to the Divine Mercy. They are also an answer to His
infinite love.
COME TO HIM AND DO NOT BE AFRAID!
COME TO HIM AND SAY FROM THE
DEPTHS OF YOUR HEARTS:
“JESUS, I TRUST IN YOU!”.
LET YOURSELVES BE TOUCHED
BY HIS BOUNDLESS MERCY,
SO THAT IN TURN YOU MAY BECOME
APOSTLES OF MERCY BY YOUR ACTIONS,
WORDS AND PRAYERS IN OUR WORLD,
WOUNDED BY SELFISHNESS,
HATRED AND SO MUCH DESPAIR.
Pope Francis
Sr. M. Gaudia Skass,
Sr. M. Emanuela Gemza
125
CHAPLET OF
DIVINE MERCY
126
127
WHAT IS THE CHAPLET OF THE DIVINE MERCY?
PER LA SUA
DOLOROSA
PASSIONE...
For the sake of
His sorrowful
Passion…
It is a special prayer dictated by Jesus Himself. He is the author of the Chaplet. This prayer reminds us that Jesus loved
us so much that He offered His life to free us from slavery
to sin. It also makes us realize that we sorely need God’s
mercy. We need it and the whole world needs it.
How do we know about this prayer?
Por Su dolorosa
Pasión…
St. Faustina recorded the words of the Chaplet in her Diary
on 13th September 1935 in Vilnius. Two years later, the first
pictures with the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy were printed
in Kraków. Shortly afterwards, Divine Mercy images spread
all over the world.
What is most important in this prayer?
Pela sua dolorosa
Paixão...
DURCH SEIN
SCHMERZHAFTES
LEIDEN...
Par Sa douloureuse passion…
These are only several of many languages in
which people throughout the world recite the
Divine Mercy Chaplet, a special prayer given to
us by Jesus Himself. And when we say this prayer
with trust, miracles happen.
128
It is trust. To trust is to agree to anything that God wants
for us and the world and to believe that what He wants is
best for us. To ask with trust also means to wait patiently
with the faith that God will answer our prayer at the best
moment and in the best possible way.
In what circumstances did Jesus dictate the
Chaplet to St. Faustina?
“In the evening, when I was in my cell, I saw an Angel, the
executor of divine wrath. He was clothed in a dazzling robe,
his face gloriously bright, a cloud beneath his feet. From
the cloud, bolts of thunder and flashes of lightning were
springing into his hands; and from his hand they were going
forth, and only then were they striking the earth. When I
saw this sign of divine wrath which was about to strike the
earth (…) I began to implore the Angel to hold off for a few
moments, and the world would do penance. But my plea
129
And these “words heard interiorly” were what we know today as the Chaplet. “As I was praying in this manner, I saw
the Angel’s helplessness: he could not carry out the just
punishment which was rightly due for sins. Never before
had I prayed with such inner power as I did then.” (Diary,
474).
What time of the day should we say the Chaplet?
Many people associate the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy
with 3pm, the Hour of Mercy. However, Jesus has never said
what time we should recite the prayer. He only asked Sister
Faustina to say it frequently. As a matter of fact, we can say
this prayer any time day or night!
3pm
THE HOUR OF MERCY
Did Jesus make any special promises regarding the Chaplet?
Jesus promised that to those who say the Chaplet He would
grant anything they ask for (that is anything in compliance
with God’s will). He wants to give us everything we need,
everything we ask for! But the words of the Chaplet do
not work miracles the moment we utter them. In fact, they
prompt us to change our lives. What God expects from us
is our trust and mercy shown to our neighbors. The Chaplet
can be likened to a double door through which we can enter
the treasury of God’s promises and receive everything!
Jesus also promised the grace of happy and peaceful death
(“happy” means in the state of the sanctifying grace and
without anxiety and fear) to those who would recite the
Chaplet throughout their lives. This promise is also given to
the dying by whose side somebody will recite this prayer.
In Poland, you can receive a plenary indulgence (under the
usual conditions) for reciting the Chaplet in a church or a
chapel.
When this chaplet is said by the
bedside of a dying person, God’s
anger is placated, unfathomable
mercy envelops the soul (…).
Diary, 811
131
IT PLEASES ME TO GRANT EVERYTHING THEY ASK
OF ME BY SAYING THE CHAPLET. Diary, 1541
was a mere nothing in the face of the divine anger. (…) At
that very moment I felt in my soul the power of Jesus’ grace,
which dwells in my soul. (…) I found myself pleading with
God for the world with words heard interiorly” (Diary, 474).
wHAT DO wE ACTUALLY SAY IN THE CHAPLET?
ETERNAL FATHER…
From the very beginning of the prayer, we address God
as our Father. And when we say to Him “Father! Dad!”,
we invoke His merciful love. In this way, we proclaim
that He is a good, loving Father, who waits for all his children, even the lost ones. He waits for every one of us.
… I offer You the body and blood…
Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, our Lord
Jesus Christ… These words remind us of Jesus Christ’s
real presence in the Eucharist. He offers Himself to His
Father for the salvation of the world. We can consciously join His self-offering. When we recite the words of the
Chaplet, we refer to our role in the Eucharist, where we
make a spiritual offering while the priest celebrates the
sacrament at the altar.
… In atonement for our sins, and those of
the whole world
For the sake of His sorrowful Passion…
These few words remind us how greatly Jesus suffered
for our sins. We stand before the Father and invoke
Christ’s redemptive offering to ask God for mercy. The
sorrowful Passion of Christ is the ultimate manifestation of God’s mercy. “For God so loved the world that
he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes
in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16).
… Have mercy on us and on the whole world
We repeat this phrase many times because we know
that we all sorely need Lord’s mercy. We are aware of
our sins and weaknesses and therefore we are pleading
for mercy. We are praying not only for forgiveness of
our sins but also for anything that would help us lead
a better life. As we ask God for His mercy, we proclaim
our faith in His tender love, goodness and care for every
one of us. We pray for mercy not only for ourselves and
our families, but for the whole world. This prayer opens
up our hearts – we stop concentrating on ourselves and
begin to notice other people’s needs. In the Chaplet, we
pray for the whole world: for the living and the dead.
Do we have anything that we could offer God to expiate
our sins? Could we perform any good works to compensate for our evil deeds? Without Christ’s help, we are
not able to offer anything to God.
Sr. M. Gaudia Skass,
Sr. M. Emanuela Gemza
132
“For the wages of sin is death”
(Rom 6:23). Yet, we do not die
since Jesus took upon Himself
our sins and our death. It was
Him that paid our debt. And this
prayer reminds us thereof.
133
THE HOUR OF
MERCY
There is more merit to
1 hour
of meditation on
My sorrowful Passion
than there is to a whole year
of flagellation that draws blood.
Diary, 369
Ecce Homo, Adam Chmielowski (Brother Albert)
Museum of the Ecce Homo Sanctuary of St. Brother Albert in Kraków
Each day there is a moment during the day
that reminds us of Divine Mercy. It reminds
us of the event which changed the course of
history. It is the hour in which Jesus sacrificed
His life for us showing us the greatest mercy. That is why 3 o’clock is called the Hour of
Mercy.
wHY SHOULD wE PRAY AT 3PM?
When we love someone, we want to be with them forever,
especially if they suffer. At the Hour of Mercy we are with
Jesus in His greatest suffering: when he was suffering and
dying on the cross. He asks us through St. Sister Faustina to
meet Him in prayer every day at the time of his agony.
AS OFTEN AS YOU HEAR THE CLOCK STRIKE
THE THIRD HOUR
IMMERSE YOURSELF COMPLETELY IN MY MERCY
ADORING AND GLORIFYING IT;
INVOKE ITS OMNIPOTENCE FOR THE wHOLE wORLD,
AND PARTICULARLY FOR POOR SINNERS.
Diary, 1572
DO wE NEED TO PRAY FOR THE wHOLE HOUR?
A prayer at the Hour of Mercy is the prayer at the time of Jesus’s dying and a brief prayer at 3pm exactly is sufficient. Regardless of where we are, when we check the time and see
it is 3pm, all that is required is a moment of contemplation,
a few words to Jesus expressing trust in His great mercy.
138
AT THREE O’CLOCK
IMPLORE MY MERCY,
ESPECIALLY FOR SINNERS, AND,
IF ONLY FOR A bRIEF MOMENT, IMMERSE
YOURSELF IN MY PASSION, PARTICULARLY
IN MY AbANDONMENT AT THE MOMENT OF AGONY.
Diary, 1320
DO wE NEED TO PRAY THE CHAPLET OF DIVINE MERCY AT 3PM?
In St. Sister Faustina’s Diary it is not indicated that Jesus
asks us to pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy at the Hour of
Mercy. Of course we can say the Chaplet at 3pm, as we can
at any time of the day or night. If we pray the Chaplet at
another time, then we do not have to make the prayer of
the Hour of Mercy.
We can join those two prayers and after contemplating
Jesus’s suffering at 3pm, the Chaplet should be prayed.
This is how we pray at the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy in
Kraków-Łagiewniki and other places.
HOw TO PRAY AT THE HOUR OF MERCY?
At this special moment of meeting with Jesus, you can visualize standing at the cross. You can thank Jesus for His great
love, for His merciful comapssion of our weakness, and for
139
forgiving us our sins. We know that the sacrifice of His life
has opened up for us the whole divine treasury. By calling
on the merits of His suffering, we can ask for anything believing we are going to receive what is best.
DOES JESUS MAKE ANY SPECIAL PROMISES IN CONNECTION wITH THE HOUR OF MERCY?
On the cross Jesus gave us everything, he gave us Himself.
Likewise at each meeting at the Hour of Mercy He offers us
a great deal more. He promised that we can request anything for ourselves and others. He will grant this request for
us if it is within God’s will for our lives.
IN THIS HOUR I wILL REFUSE NOTHING TO THE SOUL
THAT MAKES A REQUEST OF ME IN VIRTUE OF MY
PASSION.
Diary, 1320
TRY Y
OUR b
EST T
CROS
O MA
S IN T
KE TH
HIS H
AND I
E STA
O
U
R (…)
F YOU
TIONS
;
ARE N
OF TH
OF TH
O
E
T AbL
E CRO
E
S
TO M
S,
THEN
AKE T
AT LE
HE ST
AST S
FOR A
ATION
TEP IN
MOM
S
T
O
E
T
N
HE CH
AND A
T
APEL
DORE
, IN TH
MY H
E bLE
EART,
SSED
wHIC
AND S
SACR
H
IS FUL
AMEN
HOUL
L OF M
D YOU
T,
TO ST
E
b
R
E UNA
CY;
EP INT
b
O
LE
THE C
IMME
HAPE
RSE Y
L
O
,
U
HAPP
RSELF
EN TO
IN PR
AYER
bE, IF
THER
ONLY
E, wH
F
O
R A bR
Diary,
ERE Y
IEF IN
1572
OU
STAN
T.
140
ExAMPLES OF INSPIRATION FOR PRAYERS AT THE
HOUR OF MERCY
Picture yourself at Golgotha. You are standing by the Cross.
You are looking at Jesus, who is dying out of love for you.
Your eyes meet. What do you wish to say to Him? In your
mind, you can stand by the cross with all your weakness,
with your sin, with your pain. You can tell Him about anything, because He is God who knows suffering and can understand your pain. Without accusation, without judgment,
he reaches out with his pierced hand from the cross to help
you rise.
Take the cross in your hand. Contemplate Jesus’s loneliness at the time He most needed someone’s presence, understanding, and love. Contemplate His loneliness in many
brothers and sisters suffering, abandoned, and ridiculed.
Talk to Him about your loneliness. Try to notice in the sea
of suffering His great Divine Mercy.
Sr. M. Gaudia Skass,
Sr. M. Emanuela Gemza
141
FEAST
OF DIVINE MERCY
142
143
AND THAT IS
TRUST
THE GRACES
OF MY MERCY
ARE DRAwN
bY MEANS OF
Diary, 1578
,
Y
L
E
N
ONSSEL O
VE
144
145
GOD IS ALWAYS MERCIFUL.
EVERY DAY,
NO MATTER WHERE WE ARE,
HE SHOWS US HIS LOVE.
HE WANTED, HOWEVER,
A SPECIAL DAY
WHEN WE PRAISE HIS MERCY.
A DAY IN WHICH
EVERY SINNER – I.E. EACH OF US –
HAS A CHANCE
TO LEAVE THEIR PAST
IN THE ARMS
OF THE MERCIFUL GOD
AND START EVERYTHING ANEW.
146
When is this special day?
The Feast of Divine Mercy is celebrated on the first Sunday
after Easter, the last day of the Octave of Easter.
Whose idea was it?
St. Sister Faustina wrote down in her Diary the words of
Jesus asking us to celebrate this feast 14 times. It was Jesus
who stated the exact time and manner of celebrating Divine
Mercy.
Who established this feast?
St. John Paul II devoted his life to the continuation of the
mission of St. Sister Faustina. On the day of her canonization, 30th April 2000, he announced the Feast of Divine
Mercy for the whole Church, fulfilling Jesus’s wish.
147
Why does Jesus want this feast?
The merciful God is present in our history. He can see our
struggle and the sins that destroy us. He tries to rescue us in
any possible way and that is why He has given us the Feast
of Mercy.
I DESIRE THAT THE FEAST OF MERCY BE A
REFUGE AND SHELTER FOR ALL SOULS, AND
ESPECIALLY FOR POOR SINNERS.
Diary, 699
Are there any general promises made by Jesus
in connection with the Feast of Mercy?
ON THAT DAY THE VERY DEPTHS
OF MY TENDER MERCY ARE OPEN.
I POUR OUT A WHOLE OCEAN OF
MY 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.
Diary, 699
On the Feast of Mercy, God wants to give us anything we
trustfully ask of Him. He also wants to give us things that
are going to be good for us! He also promises a special grace:
“the complete forgiveness of sins and punishment”, which
means on that day our hearts can become pure, like on the
day of our baptism. The only thing that one needs to do is to
be in a state of divine grace (after confession and detached
from the sin) and receive Jesus in Holy Communion. We can
also expect in our daily life that if we try to trust in God and
show mercy to others, we can expect Jesus’s promises to be
fulfilled and our hearts will be open to receive great graces.
148
149
How to prepare to this feast?
This special day is the day of God’s great generosity. To
have one’s heart open and prepared to receive all graces
offered by Him, one needs to prepare well for it. Jesus
himself suggested beginning a novena on Good Friday
which involves saying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy for
nine days.
BY THIS NOVENA, I WILL GRANT EVERY POSSIBLE
GRACE TO SOULS.
Diary, 796
How to extend this celebration?
This day is a great undertaking for the whole Church.
Seeing the merciful love of God makes us want to share
the goodness of our Father in heaven with others.
Jesus asks that we spread the message of mercy which
He passed on to St. Faustina, not only on the Feast of
Mercy, but also every day of our lives. Great graces are
promised to those who undertake this task.
Sr. M. Gaudia Skass,
Sr. M. Emanuela Gemza
150
SOULS THAT SPREAD
THE HONOUR OF MY MERCY
I SHIELD THROUGH THEIR
ENTIRE LIVES
AS A TENDER MOTHER
HER INFANT,
AND AT THE HOUR OF DEATH
I WILL NOT BE A JUDGE FOR THEM,
BUT THE MERCIFUL SAVIOUR.
Diary, 1075
THE SHRINE OF
DIVINE MERCY
152
153
The merciful God is everywhere. We can pray to
Him anywhere. Why is it then that every year
around 2 million pilgrims from over 90 countries come to the Shrine of Divine Mercy in
Kraków?
Among them there are those who have been deeply touched
by St. Faustina’s Diary. Others were touched by a testament
of someone who had received a special grace at this place
and they wanted to come here too. Still others are brought
to the Shrine in the hope of God’s miraculous intervention
into their entangled lives. There are many reasons but behind each of them there is desire for God.
I HAVE COME TO
ŁAGIEWNIKI (...).
I AM CONVINCED THAT
THIS IS THE SPECIAL
PLACE CHOSEN BY GOD
TO SOW THE GRACE
OF HIS MERCY.
St. John Paul II
Why is this place so special?
The convent in the district of Łagiewniki in Kraków used to
be one of many homes of the Congregation of the Sisters
of Our Lady of Mercy. The sisters prayed here, worked, and
praised the Lord in their daily lives. At some point this daily
life became a place where God’s special grace was at work
– St. Faustina Kowalska joined the Congregation in Kraków.
Ever since then, the convent in Łagiewniki has been a site of
numerous revelations that are important for us and for the
whole world. It is from this place that the message of Divine
Mercy has spread over all continents. Jesus chose this place
so that here people can experience His presence and grace
in a special way.
Where to go first?
The history of this place started with the convent chapel,
which is the heart of the Shrine. This is where St. Faustina prayed, this is where she saw Jesus and spoke to Him
on many occasions. The painting of Merciful Jesus by Adolf
Hyła has hung in the chapel since World War II. In the 1960’s,
Sister Faustina’s remains were moved here. Very soon the
chapel became the site of many miracles. People come from
all over the world to pray here and receive many graces and
experience God’s presence in a special way.
Why is the Shrine called the world centre for
veneration of Divine Mercy?
In 1938, St. Faustina passed away in the convent in Kraków.
People from all over the world make pilgrimages to her
tomb. Thanks to her they learn the message of Divine Mercy, which changes their lives. Here they pray before the
painting of the Merciful Jesus renowned for bestowing grac-
154
155
es; visitors to the Shrine have taken holy cards and copies
of the painting to the most distant corners of the world.
Through these acts, they experience God’s merciful love;
they join St. Faustina’s mission by spreading the message of
Mercy to everyone. The greatest accomplishments of this
mission are owed to St. John Paul II. In the 1980’s, it was
he who called the Shrine “the capital of Divine Mercy.” He
was aware of how special this place was. He used to go to
Łagiewniki during World War II, when he worked at a nearby
quarry. Later on, he often prayed here as a priest and then as
the bishop of Kraków. As Pope, he beatified and canonized
Sister Faustina and established the Feast of Divine Mercy
(on the second Sunday of Easter) for the whole Church. Later, he made two pilgrimages to the Shrine of Divine Mercy
GOD, MERCIFUL FATHER (...)
BEND DOWN TO US SINNERS, HEAL OUR WEAKNESS, CONQUER ALL EVIL,
AND GRANT THAT ALL THE
PEOPLES OF THE EARTH MAY
EXPERIENCE YOUR MERCY.
IN YOU, THE TRIUNE GOD,
MAY THEY EVER FIND THE
SOURCE OF HOPE.
St. John Paul II
156
in Kraków and, during his last pilgrimage, he consecrated
the Basilica and entrusted the whole world to Divine Mercy.
What other important places are worth visiting at the Shrine?
Near the convent chapel, there is the Basilica building with
its tower visible from many spots in Kraków and nearby areas. Confession is held at the Basilica daily from morning
until evening and many people take this opportunity to go
to confession. In the lower part of the Basilica, people come
to pray at the chapels, which have interior décor that has
been developed by artists from several countries. The Italian, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Slovak and German chapels show
that, through St. Sister Faustina, Jesus passed His message
of mercy to the whole world. Next to the Basilica, there is
the Chapel of Perpetual Adoration where the prayer for
mercy for the world and each human being has been in continuous progress since 2005.
Sr. M. Gaudia Skass,
Sr. M. Emanuela Gemza
Sr. M. Gaudia Skass – sister from the Congregation of the Sisters of
Our Lady of Mercy, graduate of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts
(department of painting), proclaims Divine Mercy in many different
ways, some examples can be found on the Internet, including on the
YouTube channel Faustyna 2016.
Sr. M. Emanuela Gemza – sister from the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, trained musician and teacher, has been
serving the Divine Mercy Sanctuary in Kraków for a few years.
157
THE WAY OF
MERCY
MEDITATION
158
159
1
, HAVINGT
U
O
Y
F
AN O
LOS
WHAT M EEP, IF HE HAS
SH
UNDRED
AH
?
160
OF THEM,
ETY-NINE
IN
N
E
H
T
E
V
EA
DOES NOT L IN THE WILDERNESS,
ER THE ONE
T
F
A
O
G
D
N
A
INDS IT?
F
E
H
IL
T
N
U
ST,
Lk 15:4
WHICH IS LO
161
The spread of the devotion of the Divine Mercy has resulted in new forms of worship. One of them is “The
Way of Mercy”, in which we meditate on the life of Jesus, discovering the truth that Jesus manifests God’s
mercy from the moment of His incarnation up to His
ascension into Heaven and offering us the opportunity
of eternal life. Below you will find one of the forms in
which “The Way of Mercy” can be celebrated.
Opening Prayer
Merciful Jesus, we are about to walk a unique way, the Way of
Mercy. We want to follow Your steps and contemplate Your
words: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”
We are going to reflect on the events recorded in the Gospel
which demonstrate how merciful You are. We want to become
like You, Lord Jesus.
On this Way of Mercy, we are accompanied by Mary and the
Apostles of the Divine Mercy: St. Faustina and St. John Paul II.
Lord Jesus Christ, we are following Your footprints that You
left when You proclaimed Father’s love, healed the sick, cast
out demons, forgave sins, raised the dead to life and when You
offered Your life for our salvation.
Fill us with Your Spirit for the time of this prayer. May Your
Spirit reveal to us the beauty of Your merciful love: starting
from the moment of Your conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary, through your youthful years and adulthood, when
you set off from Nazareth with the mission of mercy, ending
with Golgotha and the joyful day of Your resurrection.
162
MEDITATION 1
Merciful Jesus Comes To Do the Will of the Father
Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,
“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body
have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have
come to do your will, O God,’ as it is written of me in the roll
of the book.” (Heb 10:5-7)
Merciful Jesus, I adore God’s mercy in the mystery of Your
incarnation, when You became man in Mary’s womb. You were
obedient to the Father and came to earth to bring salvation to
everyone. St. Faustina wanted to fulfil God’s will in her life. She
said, “I want to live in the spirit of faith. I accept everything
that comes my way as given me by the loving will of God,
who sincerely desires my happiness” (Diary, 1549).
Lord Jesus, thank You for becoming man and showing me how
I can entrust myself to God and accept His will. Please help
me recognize what God wants from me in my everyday life.
HYMN: Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo.
MEDITATION 2
Merciful Jesus Becomes Close To Humanity
And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered. And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped
him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because
there was no place for them in the inn. And in that region
there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over
their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to
them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and
they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, “Be
163
not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy
which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day
in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. And
this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in
swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” (Lk 2:6-12)
Merciful Jesus, by Your birth in poverty You became closer
to us. Sister Faustina wrote in her Diary: „When I arrived at
Midnight Mass, from the very beginning I steeped myself
in deep recollection, during which time I saw the stable of
Bethlehem filled with great radiance. (…) after a while, I
was left alone with the Infant Jesus who stretched out His
little hands to me, and I understood that I was to take Him
in my arms. Jesus pressed His head against my heart and
gave me to know, by His profound gaze, how good He found
it to be next to my heart” (Diary, 1442).
Lord Jesus, thank You for Your birth in Bethlehem. Help me
experience Your presence and love. May Your care and love
be felt by those who are deprived of family home, warmth,
presence of another person, safety or peace. Please come to
my heart as You came to earth in Bethlehem.
HYMN: Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo.
MEDITATION 3
Jesus Proclaims the Mission of Mercy
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up;
and he went to the synagogue, as was his custom, on the
Sabbath day. And he stood up to read; and there was given
to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book
and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good
news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the
captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty
those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of
the Lord.” And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue
were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this
Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” And all spoke
well of him, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth; and they said, “Is not this Joseph’s
son?” (Lk 4:16-22)
Merciful Jesus, in the synagogue in Nazareth, You read the
words from the book of the prophet Isaiah, who anticipated
Your mission of mercy among people. You came to tell us that
God is good and merciful. Sister Faustina wrote down Your
words: “I desire that the whole world know My infinite mercy” (Diary, 687). “My mercy is greater than your sins and
those of the entire world. Who can measure the extent of
my goodness?” (Diary, 1485).
Lord Jesus, thank You for healing the sick, opening the eyes
of the blind, breaking the fetters of evil, restoring freedom
to the enslaved, bringing hope to the sorrowful. Help me give
testimony to Your love. I want to proclaim Your mercy to the
164
165
world through my good deeds and prayer so that I can make
the doubtful believe, the resigned regain their hope, and the
lonely and rejected receive love.
HYMN: Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo.
MEDITATION 4
Jesus Looks For Sinners on the Peripheries of Life
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near
to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured,
saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” So
he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the
ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is
lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on
his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls
together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them,
‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which
was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy
in heaven over one sinner who repents than over
ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” (Lk 15:1-7)
Merciful Jesus, You are a friend to every one
of us, and You unceasingly look for those who
have gone astray in their lives. Sister Faustina reminds us about Your words: “(…) be willing to talk
openly with your God of mercy who wants to speak
words of pardon and lavish his graces on you. How dear
your soul is to Me! (…) I never reject a contrite heart.
Your misery has disappeared in the depths of My mercy.
(…) You will give me pleasure if you hand over to me all
166
your troubles and griefs. I shall heap upon you the treasures of My grace” (Diary, 1485).
Lord Jesus, thank You for letting me give all my sins and weaknesses to You. Take me into Your arms like a lost sheep and
hug me. Help me trust in You.
HYMN: Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo.
MEDITATION 5
Jesus Shows His Compassion to the Hungry
Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now
three days, and have nothing to eat; and I am unwilling to
send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.” And the
disciples said to him, “Where are we to get bread enough in
the desert to feed so great a crowd?” And Jesus said to them,
“How many loaves have you?” They said, “Seven, and a few
small fish.” And commanding the crowd to sit down on the
ground, he took the seven loaves and the fish, and having
given thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples,
and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate
and were satisfied; and they took up seven baskets full of
the broken pieces left over. Those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. (Mt 15:32-39)
Merciful Jesus, You give me everything I need. You know all
my needs, even the simplest ones in everyday life, but You
also wait for my deeds of mercy. Sister Faustina recorded in
her Diary: “Jesus came to the main entrance today, under
the guise of a poor young man. This young man, emaciated,
barefoot and bareheaded, and with his clothes in tatters,
167
was frozen because the day was cold and rainy. He asked
for something hot to eat. (…) As I was taking the bowl from
him, he gave me to know that He was the Lord of heaven
and earth. (…) I heard these words in my soul: My daughter,
the blessings of the poor who bless me as they leave this
gate have reached My ears. (…) and this is why I came down
from My throne – to taste the fruits of your mercy” (Diary,
1312). “From that moment on, there was stirred up in my
heart an even purer love toward the poor and the needy”
(Diary, 1313).
Lord Jesus, thank You for coming to me in every person I meet.
Teach me not to be indifferent towards the needy. Help me
understand that the things I can offer them are not as important as me spending time and sharing Your love with them.
Lord Jesus, whatever I do for another person, I do for You.
HYMN: Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo.
MEDITATION 6
Jesus Show His Mercy To The Suffering
While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full
of leprosy; and when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and
begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And
he stretched out his hand, and touched him, saying, “I will;
be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him. And he
charged him to tell no one; but “go and show yourself to
the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to the people.” But so much the
more the report went abroad concerning him; and great multitudes gathered to hear and to be healed of their infirmities.
But he withdrew to the wilderness and prayed. (Lk 5:12-16)
168
Merciful Jesus, You show compassion towards the suffering. In
the Gospel, we can find many stories about Your encounters
with the physically and spiritually sick, the blind, the deaf, the
paralyzed and those possessed by demon. Sister Faustina recorded Your words directed at a suffering soul: „I see that you
suffer much and that you do not have even the strength to
converse with me. So I will speak to you. Even though your
sufferings were very great, do not lose heart or give in to
despondency. (…) Tell me about everything, be sincere in
dealing with Me, reveal all the wounds of your heart. I will
heal them, and your suffering will become a source of your
sanctification” (Diary, 1487).
Lord Jesus, thank You for Your compassion. Please help me remember these words when I feel depressed. Help me discover
Your presence when I am struck by an unexpected illness or
when I experience painful events or rejection. Teach me how
to be compassionate and stand by those who suffer.
HYMN: Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo.
MEDITATION 7
Jesus Forgives Sins By The Power Of His Mercy
Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you
see this woman? I entered your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and
wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the
time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not
anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with
ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are
forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little,
loves little.” And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
169
Then those who were at table with him began to say among
themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” And he
said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
(Lk 7:44-50)
Merciful Jesus, I am dear and precious in Your eyes. Whenever
I fall, I can always count on Your forgiveness. Sister Faustina
wrote down Your words in her Diary: “I perform works of
mercy in every soul. The greater the sinner, the greater the
right he has to My mercy” (Diary, 723). “Know that as often as you come to Me, humbling yourself and asking My
forgiveness, I pour out a superabundance of graces on your
soul, and your imperfection vanishes before My eyes, and
I see only your love and your humility. You lose nothing but
gain much…” (Diary, 1293).
Jesus, thank You for not allowing my wrongdoings close the
path to You. Help me cherish Your mercy, which forgives my
sins. Help me to never doubt Your love and Your readiness to
forgive my sins. Please strengthen my faith that it is You who
waits for me in the confessional to forgive my sins and hug me
lovingly to Your Heart.
HYMN: Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo.
MEDITATION 8
Jesus Reveals God’s Tenderness and Patience
I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father,
I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer
worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired
servants.” And he arose and came to his father. But while he
was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son
said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before
you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” But the
father said to his servants, “Bring quickly the best robe, and
put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his
feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and
make merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he
was lost, and is found.” And they began to make merry. (Lk
15:18-24)
Merciful Jesus, thank You for telling me about the Father. I really need to know that God is my Father, that He is a father
who loves me and always waits for me. Sister Faustina wrote
down Your words: “My Heart overflows with great mercy for
souls, and especially for poor sinners. If only they could understand that I am the best of Fathers to them (…)” (Diary,
367). “With My mercy, I pursue sinners along all their paths,
and My Heart rejoices when they return to Me. I forget the
bitterness with which they fed My Heart and rejoice at their
return” (Diary, 1728).
Lord Jesus, thank You for Your open arms, in which I can feel
safe and loved. Please help me never doubt that God is tender
and merciful, that He always waits for my return. I have the
170
171
best Father in the world, whose Heart is always open for me.
In His eyes, I am precious and unique. I am His beloved child.
HYMN: Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo.
MEDITATION 9
Jesus Raises the Dead to Life
Then Mary, when she came where Jesus was and saw him,
fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her
weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping,
he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled; and he said,
“Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come
and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved
him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the
eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” Then
Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb; it was a cave,
and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”
Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by
this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four
days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you would
believe you would see the glory of God?” So they took away
the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father,
I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always
hear me, but I have said this on account of the people standing by, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he
had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Laz’arus, come
out.” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound
with bandages, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said
to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” (Jn 11:32-44)
172
Merciful Jesus, You have the power to bring the dead to life.
Not only do You bring those who have suffered a physical
death to life, but You also bring those who suffer a spiritual
death from their sins back to life. You said to St. Faustina that
the greatest miracles take place in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. You told her, “To avail oneself of this miracle, it is
not necessary to go on a great pilgrimage (…) it suffices
to come with faith to the feet of My representative and to
reveal to him one’s misery, and the miracle of Divine Mercy will be fully demonstrated. Were a soul like a decaying
corpse so that from a human standpoint, there would be no
[hope of] restoration and everything would already be lost,
it is not so with God. The miracle of Divine Mercy restores
that soul in full” (Diary, 1448).
Lord Jesus, thank You for Your mercy, which gives me a new
life. Please help me see Your presence in everyday situations,
especially where there is no solution from a human standpoint. Please teach me to trust in Your mercy, which helps me
and which gives me hope in the situations that are hopeless
to a human mind. Give me a strong faith so that I may believe
that, for You, everything is possible.
HYMN: Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo.
MEDITATION 10
Jesus leaves His disciples the Testament of Mercy
This is my commandment, that you love one another as
I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that
a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if
173
you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants,
for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but
I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my
Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me,
but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and
bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever
you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. This I
command you, to love one another. If the world hates you,
know that it has hated me before it hated you. (Jn 15:12-18)
Merciful Jesus, You are always present among us in the Eucharist. You remind us that we should love one another as You
have loved us. Sister Faustina was with You in the Cenacle,
the room where the Last Supper took place, during one of
her prayers. She wrote, “During this hour of prayer, Jesus
allowed me to enter the Cenacle (…). I was most deeply moved when, before the Consecration, Jesus raised His
eyes to heaven and entered into a mysterious conversation
with His Father. It is only in eternity that we shall really
understand that moment. His eyes were like two flames;
His face was radiant, white as snow; His whole personage
full of majesty, His soul full of longing. At the moment of
Consecration, love rested satiated – the sacrifice fully consummated. Now only the external ceremony of death will
be carried out – external destruction; the essence (of it) is
in the Cenacle” (Diary, 684).
Lord Jesus, thank You for coming to me in every Eucharist and
strengthening me with Your presence. I am not able to offer
my life for my friends yet, but I can learn from You how to give
others my prayers, presence, and service. May every Eucharist
174
change my everyday life so that I can become more merciful
and more like You.
HYMN: Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo.
MEDITATION 11
Jesus Reveals the Difficult Beauty of Mercy
Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him. And the soldiers
plaited a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and clothed
him in a purple robe; they came up to him, saying, “Hail, King
of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands. Pilate went
out again, and said to them, “Behold, I am bringing him out
to you, that you may know that I find no crime in him.” So
Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple
robe. Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!” When the chief
priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify
him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves
and crucify him, for I find no crime in him.” (Jn 19:1-6)
Merciful Jesus, Your suffering shows me how much You love
me. You want me to love other people in the same way. St.
Faustina recorded Your words: “Have great love for those
who cause you suffering. Do good to those who hate you.
(…) It is not always within your power to control your feelings. You will recognize that you have love if, after having
experienced annoyance and contradiction, you do not lose
your peace, but pray for those who have made you suffer
and wish them well” (Diary, 1628).
Lord Jesus, thank You for suffering for me. Please teach me to
love those who I struggle to love. Help me understand true
forgiveness and give me courage to forgive. Teach me how to
175
pray for those who have hurt me and those whom I have ever
hurt in my life.
HYMN: Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo.
MEDITATION 12
Jesus Gives Us Mary as the Mother of Mercy
So the soldiers did this. But standing by the cross of Jesus
were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of
Clopas, and Mary Mag’dalene. When Jesus saw his mother,
and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to
his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the
disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. (Jn 19:25-27)
Merciful Jesus, thank You for giving me Your Mother, who
always takes care of me. St. Faustina received the grace of
seeing Mary and talking to Her. She wrote, “Then I saw the
Blessed Virgin, unspeakably beautiful. She came down
from the altar to my kneeler, held me close to herself
and said to me, I am Mother to you all, thanks to the
unfathomable mercy of God. Most pleasing to Me is
that soul which faithfully carries out the will of God”
(Diary, 449).
Lord Jesus, thank You for giving me Your Mother, Mary. Please
help me grow closer to her and love her. She knows the mystery of the Divine Mercy best since she knows Your Heart.
I can learn from her how to be merciful, how to trust God, and
how to fulfil His will.
HYMN: Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo.
176
MEDITATION 13
Jesus Opens the Fountain of Mercy to Us
Since it was the day of Preparation, in order to prevent the
bodies from remaining on the cross on the Sabbath (for that
Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their
legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of
the other who had been crucified with him; but when they
came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did
not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side
with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.
He who saw it has borne witness – his testimony is true, and
he knows that he tells the truth – that you also may believe.
For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled, “Not a bone of him shall be broken.” (Jn 19:31-36)
Merciful Jesus, You offered Your life on the cross out of love
for me. You often told St. Faustina about Your great love:
“I have opened My Heart as a living fountain of mercy. Let all
souls draw life from it. Let them approach this sea of mercy
with great trust” (Diary, 1520). “For you I descended from
heaven to earth; for you I allowed myself to be nailed to the
cross; for you I let my Sacred Heart be pierced with a lance,
thus opening wide the source of mercy for you. Come, then,
with trust to draw graces from this fountain” (Diary, 1485).
Lord Jesus, thank You for Your cross. Please let me never forget the way to Golgotha. It is there that the fountain of mercy
springs up. You are mercy, Jesus. Hide me and my loved ones
in Your pierced Heart. Teach me to always defend the sign of
the Cross as the sign that shows us how much You love us.
HYMN: Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo.
177
MEDITATION 14
Jesus Brings Mercy in His Holy Wounds
Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not
with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him,
“We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see
in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in
the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will
not believe.” Eight days later, his disciples were again in the
house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but
Jesus came and stood among them, and said, “Peace be with
you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see
my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do
not be faithless, but believing.” Thomas answered him, “My
Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “You have believed because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not
seen and yet believe.” (Jn 20:24-29)
Merciful Jesus, You rose from the dead and brought peace
to us all. This truth is illustrated in the image that You asked
St. Faustina to paint. You showed me your wounds, which
are a cure for my soul and spoke to me through St. Faustina
by saying, “From all My wounds, like from streams, mercy
flows for souls, but the wound in My Heart is the fountain
of unfathomable mercy. From this fountain spring all graces
for souls” (Diary, 1190). “Listen, My child, to what I desire
to tell you. Come close to My wounds and draw from the
Fountain of Life whatever your heart desires” (Diary, 1485).
Lord Jesus, thank You for Your resurrection. Grant me a strong
faith in Your victory over death and in Your resurrection. I worship Your holy wounds, which are the signs of Your merciful
love for me. Help me share with others the love which You
178
pour into my heart. Although I cannot see You with my eyes,
I believe in Your presence and that You wait for me in any
person in need.
HYMN: Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo.
MEDITATION 15
Jesus Will Come To Reward the Merciful
Then the King will say to those at his right hand, “Come,
O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for
you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry
and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink,
I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you
clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison
and you came to me.” Then the righteous will answer him,
“Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty
and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and
welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we
see you sick or in prison and visit you?” And the King will
answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the
least of these my brethren, you did it to me.” (Mt 25:34-40)
Pope Francis reminds us that the love Jesus teaches us is based
on deeds. There is no Christianity without merciful deeds.
Theoretical lessons about mercy, or new philosophies are
not nearly as important as concrete gestures of love. “Dear
brothers and sisters, this is how the Church is Mother, by
teaching her children works of mercy. She learned this manner from Jesus, she learned that this is what’s essential for
salvation. It’s not enough to love those who love us. Jesus
says that pagans do this. It’s not enough to do good to those
who do good to us. To change the world for the better it is
179
necessary to do good to those who are not able to return
the favour, as the Father has done with us, by giving us Jesus. How much have we paid for our redemption? Nothing,
totally free! Doing good without expecting anything in return. This is what the Father did with us and we must do
the same. Do good and carry on! How beautiful it is to live
in the Church, in our Mother Church who teaches us these
things which Jesus taught us. Let us thank the Lord, who has
given us the grace of having the Church as Mother, she who
teaches us the way of mercy, which is the way of life. Let us
thank the Lord.” (Pope Francis, General Audience, 10th September 2014)
Closing prayer
Lord Jesus, thank You for the time we have spent together
walking the Way of Mercy. We believe that there is only
one aim of this journey, that is to fix our gaze on You, Merciful Jesus, so that we can become like You. We want our
hands, feet, hearts, thoughts and desires to be merciful like
Yours. May it happen, Lord. Amen.
Sr. M. Salwatricze Musiał,
Fr. Marek Hajdyła
Sr. M. Salwatricze Musiał – sister from the Congregation of the
Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy; born in Kraków; utilized her education in theological-pedagogical studies in her work with girls at the
House of Mercy and with pilgrims arriving in Łagiewniki; involved in
the formation of the international “Faustinum” Association and the
Apostolic Movement of the Divine Mercy; in her missionary service
in America, Africa and the Middle East, she led catechesis for children
and young people, ministered to the sick, soldiers, and prisoners; she
is currently working at the Divine Mercy Spirituality Center in Rome.
Fr. Marek Hajdyła – director of the Central Events Department of
the Organizational Committee of the World Youth Day 2016, the parish priest of the Church of St. Jadwiga the Queen in Kraków.
180
181
Tell aching mankind to snuggle
close to My merciful Heart,
and I will fill it with peace.
Tell [all people] My daughter
that I am Love and Mercy itself.
Diary, 1074
CONFESSION
THE SACRAMENT
OF MERCY
184
THOSE
wHO ARE wELL
PRESCRIPTION
Word of the Lord
Bible
Provider
wYD
HAVE NO NEED
OF A PHYSICIAN,
2016
Patient
KRAKÓw
bUT THOSE wHO ARE SICK
Come to me, all who labor and
are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest
Mt 11:28
Mt 9:12
signature
The whole Bible
tells us about
God’s mercy,
which can be characterized
as a true,
beautiful,
perfect,
tender
and self-denying
love of the Father
to His children.
188
One of the liturgical prayers says that God’s almighty power
expresses itself best in His forgiveness and pity for us, that is,
His power is best expressed in His mercy. The whole Bible tells
us about God’s mercy, which can be characterized as a true,
beautiful, perfect, tender and self-denying love of the Father
to His children. This is the fatherly love towards the child who
has gone away from the father’s home and, as noted by Pope
Francis, “has squandered his freedom on false idols, illusions
of happiness, and has lost everything.” But, as the Pope adds,
“God does not forget us, the Father never abandons us.
He is a patient father, always waiting for us! He respects
our freedom, but he remains faithful forever. And when
we come back to Him, he welcomes us like children into
His house, for He never ceases, not for one instant, to wait
for us with love. And His heart rejoices over every child
who returns. He is celebrating because there is joy. God
has this joy when one of us sinners goes to Him and asks
His forgiveness.”
OUR ReTURN
TO THe lOVING FATHeR
TAKeS PlAce IN THe SAcRAmeNT
OF PENANCE AND RECONCILIATION.
Before we discuss the sacrament of confession, we need to
ask ourselves the question “What is sin?” and realize that it is
the biggest tragedy that can ever happen in our lives. However,
to fully understand the tragedy of sin and God’s forgiveness
as the only way to return to Him, we need to realize first who
God is, how much He loves us and how beautiful life is if God is
in it and we are obedient to Him, our Father. This truth is best
illustrated in the biblical story of Eden and the fall of Adam
and Eve. Undoubtedly, we can all identify ourselves with them.
“You are not my Father
anymore, and I am not
Your child”
Now the serpent was more subtle
than any other wild creature that the
Lord God had made.
But the Lord God called to the man, and said to
him,
He said to the woman,
{
Did God say, “You shall not eat of any
tree of the garden”?
}
And the woman said to the serpent,
{
We may eat of the fruit of the trees of
the garden; but God said, “You shall not
eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the
midst of the garden, neither shall you
touch it, lest you die.”
{
But the serpent said to the woman,
{
190
You will not die. For God knows that
when you eat of it your eyes will be
opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and
that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be
desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she
also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of
both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and
they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of
the garden.
}
And he said,
{
{
Where are you?
}
I heard the sound of you in the garden,
and I was afraid, because I was naked;
and I hid myself.
}
Who told you that you were naked?
Have you eaten of the tree of which
I commanded you not to eat?
}
He said,
{
The man said,
{
The woman whom you gave to be with
me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and
I ate.
}
191
tHen tHe Lord God said to tHe woman,
{
To be in somebody’s likeness and after somebody’s image
means to be somebody’s son. By saying that
}
What is this that you have done?
MAN
wAS CREATED
tHe woman said,
{
The serpent beguiled me, and I ate.
}
tHe Lord God said to tHe serpent,
{
Because you have done this, cursed are
you above all cattle, and above all wild
animals; upon your belly you shall go, and
dust you shall eat all the days of your life.
(Gen 3:1-14)
}
The book of Genesis says that Adam was created in the
image of God and after God’s likeness. It means that man
resembles God; consequently, he will only be happy if he gives
himself to others by loving others. Man will feel fulfilled if he
builds strong relationships with other people as the three persons of God commune with one another: the Father, the Son
and the Holy Spirit. Man also resembles God in his freedom
and intellect. The truth about man being a reflection of God is
amply illustrated in another passage from the Book of Genesis, where Adam becomes the father of Seth, a son in his own
likeness, after his image (cf. Gen 5:3). The passage features the
same expressions as the ones used to indicate the resemblance
between God and His creation, Adam.
IN
GOD’S
LIKENESS
AND AFTER HIS IMAGE,
THE bOOK OF GENESIS TELLS US
THAT MAN
IS THE CHILD OF GOD, AND GOD IS HIS FATHER.
192
193
SABBATH
In the story of Creation, God rested on the seventh
day. This day is called by Jews “Sabbath”. On this
day, we celebrate the fact that God entered a covenant with man, making him His child and part of
His family.
When God made the covenant with Adam, He had
to set some conditions since a covenant is a type of
contract in which two parties commit themselves to
observing specific rules. God promised Adam absolute happiness, eternal life filled with love because He
loved him.
th
day
AND TO SAY “I LOVE YOU”
MEANS TO EXPRESS THE WISH
“I WANT YOU TO LIVE ETERNALLY.”
This strong father-child relationship is emphasized many
times in the Bible by means of covenants that God makes
between Himself and man. In the old times, when somebody
entered a covenant with another person, it meant that he made
this person a part of his family. To make a covenant means to
say “You belong to my family, we are of one blood.”
194
From man, God demanded obedience. Not because He was
a tyrant or a totalitarian ruler but because the obedience guaranteed man’s happiness. Therefore, God gave man a garden
and some tasks related to it. Adam was supposed to till (Hebrew ‘abodah’) and keep it (Hebrew ‘shamar’). It is important
to point out that back in the ancient times these tasks were
assigned to the firstborn son. He was supposed to cultivate his
father’s land and keep the livestock. God entrusted man with
what a father would entrust his firstborn son. He was only for-
195
bidden from doing one thing. He was not allowed to eat fruit
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Observing these
conditions guaranteed continuity of the covenant and being a
member of God’s family. However, Adam broke the covenant
and committed sin.
Why did Adam succumb to Satan’s temptation and commit
sin if he had everything he needed and was absolutely happy?
After all, God gave him everything in the garden and made him
His son. Why did Adam break the covenant with God despite
all the gifts he received from Him? There are different possible
answers. Maybe he was selfish and wanted to have more for
himself. Satan said, “There is one thing that you did not receive
from God and I will give it to you: you will come to know good
and evil. There is a tree that God left only for Himself, He does
not want to give it to you, but you will get it from me.” Maybe
this explains the sin of the first man? And maybe the answer
can be found in the subtlety of the Hebrew words used to
recount the story of Creation and the original sin?
Important linguistic subtleties can be found in God’s warning
against the consequences of eating fruit from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. God said to Adam that he would
die if he tried this fruit. However, it is extremely difficult to
translate the Hebrew expression used at this point in the Bible
without a lengthy footnote. What the Hebrew version literally
says is that Adam will “die-die” if he picks fruit of that tree.
Another literal translation would be “you will die of death”.
What does it mean, then? In Hebrew, it is possible to form
comparatives of adjectives and nouns to emphasize that something is the best or most remarkable. For example, there is a
book in the Bible the name of which is literally translated into
English as “the Song of Songs”, i.e. the most beautiful and extraordinary song, better than any other. Similarly, a particularly
196
dramatic death would be referred to as “death-death”
or with the phrase “you will die-die”.
In their comments on this fragment of the Bible, Jewish rabbis explain that God wanted to make man aware
of the two kinds of death: physical death, i.e. death
of the body,
AND THE SPIRITUAL DEATH,
I.E. A MUCH WORSE ONE, WHICH SEPARATES MAN
FROM THE FATHER, ALIENATES HIM FROM GOD,
THE SOURCE OF LIFE.
When man decided to pick fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he suffered the worst death, the
spiritual one.
Satan enters the stage with a show of lies and illusions. From
the very beginning, there is no truth in what he says since he
starts the conversation by asking, “Did God say, ‘You shall not
eat of any tree of the garden’?” (Gen 3:1). After a while he lies
again, “If you eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, you will not die” (cf. Gen 3:4). And God said, “You will
die.” Then Satan tells another lie, “For God knows that when
you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,
knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:5). Herein lies the essence of
any sin: man decides to take God’s place. Committing sin is
like telling God, “You are not my God anymore, I am the god
now.” And the problem is that the place we have robbed God
of belongs only to Him and we do not know how to act once
we are there. Whenever we try playing God, it ends in a disaster for us.
197
Committing
sin is
like
telling
God,
“You
are not
my God
anymore,
I am
the god
now.
198
The moment Eve tries to take God’s place,
the look in her eyes changes and – as we
read in the Book of Genesis – she begins to
notice that “the tree was good for food, and
that it was a delight to the eyes” (Gen 3:6).
Before the meeting with the serpent, Adam
and Eve did not see anything special or attractive in that tree. But after the conversation with Satan, their eyes open and they
see that the fruit of that tree is good for
food and delicious and it will bring them the
knowledge promised by the serpent. That is
why they choose to eat it.
Of course, we could ask, “What is wrong
about it? After all, it might be a good thing
to know good and evil! If we know good
and evil, we can distinguish between them,
choose good and resist evil. So what is devilish about it?” The answer is that God did
not want any evil to exist in the world. Satan tries to make Adam and Eve believe that
God does not want them to taste fruit of
that tree because He wants to leave it only
for Himself. This is not true. God does not
want man to come to know evil since He
only wants us to experience good things.
Evil is not a creation of God, it was not
meant for man. But Satan is cunning and
tries to tell man, “You will know both good
and evil.” He does not say, “You will be completely evil, you will only commit sins. You
will stumble through the swamp of sin. You
will be a moral degenerate.” He does
not say anything like that! What he is
trying to say is, “Generally, be good but
allow some evil in your life from time
to time. Do something bad sometimes. Introduce evil into your life and mix it with good.” He
knows perfectly well that hardly anybody would succumb to
such a temptation. Therefore, he expects us to do both good
and evil in our life.
To confuse man even more, Satan starts to present Adam
and Eve anything that is evil as good. He is well aware that
no sane person would choose evil, which debases and destroys us. Nobody consciously chooses something that is bad
for them. We choose evil because it seems good, because we
think we can benefit from it. The devilish temptation presents
evil as something pleasant, as delicious fruit. Evil seems very
innocent, then. Satan says to Eve that their eyes will be open.
Yet what happens is quite the opposite. Adam becomes completely blind because he stops seeing what he saw before, he
stops seeing that God loves him boundlessly, that God wants
the best for him, that God is thinking all the time what to do
to make Adam happy.
We also need to look from a different angle at the conversation between the serpent and Eve. Actually, we need to
note that there was no conversation between the serpent and
Adam. Adam does not even exchange a word with Satan. It
is only Eve that talks to him. Adam is silent, he doesn’t say a
word although it is his duty to guard the garden from undesirable guests, one of whom is undoubtedly Satan.
What made Adam stop protecting the garden? The Hebrew
word nahash, which is translated in this fragment of the Bible
as “the serpent”, occurs later in the Bible as well. However, in
199
other instances, the word is translated in some English versions as “dragon” or “sea monster”. So, in fact, Adam meets
face to face with a dragon, which might sound more serious
than a meeting with “a serpent”. It is possible, then, to imagine
Adam standing there petrified at the serpent which makes him
think of a dragon, or even a sea monster.
ADAm meeTS FAce TO FAce
wITH A DRAGON
he breaks the covenant and enters death-death. To break the
covenant with God means to break the close bond with the
Father. When we commit sin, we are telling God, “You are not
my Father anymore, and I am not Your son.” We are telling the
Father who created us and gave us His world to live in that we
do not want to live here anymore, that we want to follow our
own rules. The last word of the sinner is always “I am god.”
We say, “I am taking your place now”, to God, the highest of all
authorities, who deserves worship, primacy, respect, obedience
and love. This is the actual evil behind any sin – the dethronement of God, telling Him that we do not desire His love anymore, that we do not want Him to be our Father.
What does Adam actually do in this situation? He
stops loving. In other words, he
prefers submitting himself to the
serpent and following Satan’s directions to obeying the covenant
that God made with him, to
protecting Eve and the garden
from undesirable guests. He
is concentrated on himself, on
his safety, desires and stops
thinking about anything else.
breaking the covenant with
God results in the loss of
the godly life and the deathdeath, i.e. the life which is not
a life anymore. Adam
loses sight of the
Creator and Eve
and, in this way,
200
201
Mercy – the tender love of God
Luckily, sin does not have the last word. The last word
belongs to God. When we say to God, “You are not my Father”, He shows us His fatherly love through His beloved
Son, Jesus Christ, our Saviour. His love is illustrated by another biblical story – the parable of the Good Samaritan.
The parable proves that God is not indifferent to us. In fact,
He is genuinely interested in us. His mercy does not allow
Him to pass by our lives, our suffering and the greatest tragedy of our life – our sins. He will do everything to heal our
wounds, raise us when we fall and bring joy back to our
lives. He will do everything to let us experience His mercy
through Jesus Christ.
© DAYENU
LOADING...
202
Jesus replied,
A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he
fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and
departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest
was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed
by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came
to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But
a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and
when he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him and
bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set
him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took
care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and
gave them to the innkeeper, saying, “Take care of him; and
whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come
back.” (Lk 10:30-35)
203
„
The parable shows us what happens to a man who has
committed a sin, which plunges him further and further into
an abyss. The sin strips him of his dignity so that now he is
lying completely naked by the road. In the long run, sin robs
us of our freedom and enslaves us. In the ancient times,
a naked man must have been a slave because free people
wore clothes. We become slaves because we are not able to
resign from our sin anymore. Even when we do not want to
sin again, we fall again and again.
A priest and a Levite – the people who are theoretically
devoted to God – pass by the man. But if they really knew
God, they would know that He was merciful and they would
show their mercy to the naked man. Eventually, a Samaritan
checks whether the man is alive. He is travelling so he must
be in a hurry but he stops by the beaten man. He could check
if he was alive and leave him with the hope that somebody
else would take care of him. He could think about his own
safety – “If this man was beaten here, those who attacked
him must be still somewhere around and can assault me
as well.” But the Samaritan does not look for excuses. He
decides to help the man. He binds up his wounds, disinfects
them with wine and soothes them with oil. He could leave
him at this point if he wanted. But he sets the man on his
animal, which means that, from now on, he himself needs to
walk and takes him to an inn. Now, he could say, “I have done
my bit, take care of him now, I am leaving.” But he chooses
to stay with him all night to take care of him, and in the
morning, he gives money to the innkeeper and says, “Take
743 m.a.s.l.
JERICHO
All too often, we find it difficult to understand the parable
of the Good Samaritan because we tend to compare ourselves to the Good Samaritan and ask ourselves, “Am I like
him?” We ask ourselves how we would react if we passed
by a wounded man. Would we stop? Would we bandage his
wounds? Undoubtedly, these are very important questions.
After all, Jesus encourages the lawyer whom he told the
parable, and us all, to go and act like the Good Samaritan.
But who is actually the Samaritan from Christ’s parable?
The Greek Fathers of the Church explain that we should not
identify ourselves with the Good Samaritan. In fact, we are
epitomized by the man who has been robbed, beaten and
left half dead by the road. We need to identify ourselves
with him and see Jesus as the Good Samaritan. We are
lying by the road as a result of our sins.
The parable says that the man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. As noted by the Fathers of the Church, the
fact that the man was travelling between these two towns
has a deeply symbolic meaning. Jerusalem was the religious
center of Israel, the holy city, the place of the presence of
God. The fact that the man was going down from Jerusalem
means that he was going away from God’s presence and he
began to plunge into sin. He was on his way to Jericho. The
way leading from Jerusalem to Jericho is very steep. The
man is going down, he is plunging further and further
into the abyss of his sins. Finally, he arrives in Jericho,
one of the lowest cities in the world (270 meters below
sea level).
JERUSALEM
270 m.b.s.l.
care of him, I will pay for everything.” In this way, he shows
the stranger his great tenderness and mercy.
The most difficult thing to understand in this parable is
that the Good Samaritan shows his mercy to a Jew. Samaritans and Jews hated each other. The hatred between them
was so intense that when a Samaritan drank water from a
cup, a Jew could not even touch this cup because he considered it unclean.
And who is that man lying by the road? It is you,
wounded by your sin. You are this enemy of God. You are
an enemy of Jesus, for whom He shows so much love and
tenderness. Now you might be thinking to yourself, “How is
it possible? I am His friend.” But are you sure?
Do you know that it is because of your and my sins
that Jesus died? I killed Jesus with my sin! It is my fault.
When I come to a confessional and confess all my sins, I acknowledge that with them I killed the Son of God. This is my
responsibility. But God forgives us for killing His beloved
Son. We are all equal in this respect. There are no light or
unimportant sins. If you know that Jesus died for your sins,
how can you say that you do not sin, that you do not have
anything to confess? Is somebody who is guilty of another
person’s death their friend or enemy? When you face God
knowing that His beloved Son died for your sins, are you not
His enemy? And what is His attitude towards you, the one
who is guilty of His Son’s death? He shows you tenderness,
love and care. When you come to confession, God binds up
your wounds because He knows that you have been defeated by sin. He soothes your pain with oil and disinfects your
wounds with wine. He grants you anew His grace restoring your dignity as the child of God and freeing you from
206
s­ lavery. Then, He takes you in His arms, brings you to an inn
to feed you with His Body and Blood.
Finally, He tells you,
“I LOVE YOU.
I DO NOT REMEMBER WHAT YOU DID ANYMORE.
I HAVE FORGIVEN YOU.
ENJOY YOUR LIFE TO THE FULLEST!”
This is God’s mercy, which manifests itself in Jesus Christ,
epitomized by the Good Samaritan.
The Sacrament of Mercy
The parable of the Good Samaritan reflects what happens in the sacrament of mercy. It is through confession
that we turn from God’s enemy to God’s beloved child.
Through our sins, whether they were actions or words,
we show God that He is not our God anymore. He is not
our Father and we do not want to be his children anymore.
Now, in the sacrament of mercy, we become again God’s
dear children. He forgives our trespasses, hugs us to His
heart, and gives us a new lease of life. In the sacrament of
confession, God also grants us eternal life so that we can
stay close to Him forever. Pope Francis wrote about it as
follows: “It is so wonderful to feel the merciful embrace
of the Father in the sacrament of Reconciliation, to discover that the confessional is a place of mercy, and to
207
allow ourselves to be touched by the merciful love of
the Lord who always forgives us!”
Why do I need confession?
Why do I need to go to confession to receive God’s forgiveness? Why do I have to come to a priest and tell him about
the bad things that I have done? Is it not enough to kneel
down in the church and talk to God in my heart with a deep
sense of regret? No, it is not enough because God’s usual
way of acting in the Church, in which our sins are justified
and forgiven, is the sacrament of penance and reconciliation. Two thousand years ago, Jesus was healing people,
touching them, raising them up and telling them, “I forgive
you your sins.” As stated by St. Leo the Great, a pope from
the 5th century, “What was visible in our Redeemer has now
passed into His Mysteries” (Sermones, 74, 2: PL 54, 398A). It
means that two thousand years ago Jesus was healing and
forgiving people in person, and nowadays He heals us and
forgives us by means of the sacraments.
Where should we confess our sins?
The best place for confession is the sacred space of the
church and the confessional. Of course, it can happen that
we confess our sins in a different place, e.g. in a parish
house or in a different place devoted to God. This way the
sacrament of reconciliation takes place within the community of the Church. It means that when we kneel down in
front of God, we ask our brothers and sisters to pray for
us and seek reconciliation with them as well because, with
our sins, we have hurt the whole Church. My sin is not my
208
private thing. We are all mysteriously
interconnected. Therefore, in the sacrament of confession, we reconcile ourselves with both God and the whole
community of the Church.
Why is the Sacrament of Reconciliation a Ritual?
When we come to confession, we follow a special ritual. Though it might
look artificial at first sight, this process
of confession proves very helpful. For
the confessor, it is important that the
penitent starts by saying a couple of
words about themselves, his/her age
and his/her status in life (whether he/
she is a layperson, a priest, a friar or
a sister, whether he/she is married or
single etc.). It is also essential to mention the time of his/her last confession
and whether he/she received the absolution. With small variations between
individual cultures, the confession of
sins ends with the special formula with
which the penitent expresses sorrow
for his/her sins and resolves to amend
his/her life. We ask God to forgive us
our sins through the ministry of the
priest who hears our confession and
grants us absolution. By means of this
short process, we declare to God that
209
we have fulfilled all the necessary conditions for a valid
confession, which are traditionally referred to as the five
things necessary (steps) for a good confession.
How to confess our sins?
During the sacrament of reconciliation, we have to confess all mortal sins. Mortal sins are sins of grave matter
committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.
We commit a mortal sin when we know that a given act
is a sin and we make a free choice to commit it. When all
these factors are fulfilled, we speak of a mortal sin. While
confessing mortal sins, the penitent needs to be precise so
that the priest can understand what sin we refer to. The
penitent needs to indicate how many times, how often, and
in what circumstances he/she committed a sin. Of course,
we do not need to give an exact number of the sins which
we commit regularly. It suffices to state the frequency the
sin has been committed since your last reconciliation. However, you need to be more precise in the case of grave sins.
Also, we should describe what the sin consisted of (which
does not mean, however, that we have to recount in detail
the very act of committing the sin).
210
Examination of conscience – recognize the
truth about yourself
The first step to a good confession is the examination of
conscience. A well-conducted examination of conscience is
already half of the success. What is the examination of
conscience? I like imagining a mirror where I can compare myself to Jesus Christ. It is a mirror which shows
me the whole truth about myself. It clearly shows what
is evil in myself, what I need to reject and what I need to
change in my life. However, this mirror also reflects my
beauty and good qualities. It reflects how I imitate Jesus in my life. The examination of
conscience does not consist in focusing
solely on your sins and weaknesses.
Its goal is to recognize the truth
EXAMINATION OF
about yourself, which makes
CONSCIENCE
this step of preparing for confession a truly liberating expeIS RECOGNIZING
rience.
THE LIBERATING
The examination of conscience
TRUTH.
is a form of judgment that we
pronounce on ourselves. It is our
conscience and mind that pass this
judgment. It is important to understand what is meant by “judgment” in
this sense. St. John of the Cross said, “As we
prepare to leave this life, we will be judged in love”
(Words of Light and Love, 57). During the examination of
conscience, we judge ourselves in love of God. Therefore,
we examine our conscience with the power from the Holy
Spirit, which turns this step of the preparation for the confession into a prayer.
211
To examine your conscience, you can use an examination
of conscience that is found in a prayer book or in other materials. These reflections are meant to help you see where
you have loved God and others well and where you have
failed to love God and love your neighbour since your last
confession (you will find such help in this booklet as well).
Do not put off the examination of conscience until the time
of confession. Give yourself time to reflect on your actions. One thing that you can do is make an examination
of conscience a part of your daily prayers. For example, you
can do an examination of conscience during your evening
prayers. This allows you to reflect on how many good things
you have managed to do and in what circumstances you
have sinned during your day.
Ignatius of Loyola, one of the greatest experts on examinations of consciences in the history of the Church,
believed that the examination of conscience should begin with thanksgiving. We need to discover the presence
of God in our lives and realize how God’s grace has assisted us. St. Ignatius said that we should not move to analyzing our sins without giving thanks first. The examination
of conscience is not meant to help us see our sins! No, I am
not mistaken. The examination helps us see the truth about
ourselves. Our sins constitute only part of the truth about
us. Nobody in the world is totally evil. We need to be able
to see both good and evil in ourselves. It is only in the light
of God’s presence and His love that you can see how sin
separates you from God and how much you hurt Him with
your trespasses.
I am sorry that I have taken God’s place
During confession, we express contrition, or sorrow, for
our sins. It is the second step of a good confession. We
often have a problem here as we tend to treat this act of
contrition on an emotional level. However, contrition is not
an emotion that we experience, but has more to do with
our will and reason, because we can consciously make different choices than those dictated by emotions. We tend
to associate contrition with the sphere of feelings because
of expressions like “feel sorrow.” But in this case, it is not
important if we feel sorrow; it is essential that we express
our contrition. There is a big difference between feeling and
expressing this sorrow, this contrition.
We distinguish between perfect and imperfect contrition.
Perfect contrition is a repentance for sin that is motivated by my love for God or, to be more precise, by God’s
love for me. I regret that I have offended God with my sin.
I know that with my sin I have taken the place of God in my
life, I “eclipsed” Him, I robbed Him of His glory and position
which He deserves, I have hurt Him and broken the bond between us. I regret because I have hurt Him who loves me so
much. This is the perfect contrition. By contrast, the imperfect contrition is the sorrow that I feel because of the consequences of my sin or because I am afraid of the punishment
for my sin and that I can miss my eternal prize, Heaven. The
imperfect contrition is sufficient to be granted absolution.
Do your best to amend your life
During the sacrament of confession, we also resolve to
change our lives. However, it is not enough to make a resolution in the confessional. God expects us to do our best
212
213
to improve our lives. To do that, we need to realize that we
have done evil and know why it happened (the examination of conscience). Only then can we consider what to do
in order to eliminate this sin from our lives. For example,
if we see that we do not devote any time to God, we need
to allocate ourselves a set time each day to pray. Otherwise, the promise we make at the confessional is empty.
If we do not know what to change in our lives, it means
that we have not given it enough thought and, in fact, we
have not resolved to change. The promise to amend our
lives requires actions, not words.
Spiritual paralysis
You might forget some of your sins during confession. Do
not worry about it. God knows your heart and your sorrow. He also forgives you the sins that have escaped your
memory during confession or the examination of your conscience. If you forgot to mention a grave sin, declare it at
the next confession. Of course, there is a fundamental difference between “I don’t remember” and “I didn’t say”. A
conscious concealment of sins makes the confession invalid
and despite the formal absolution your sins are not forgiven because you have not declared all of them. There is still
a sin which separates you from God. A conscious concealment of sins can paralyze your soul for a long time.
This paralysis may result from the fact that you are afraid
to uncover the truth about yourself and acknowledge your
sins. Maybe at some point in your life, you were so ashamed
of certain sins that you have not confessed them at the confessional. Today you are spiritually paralyzed. Was it in your
childhood? Or in your youth? Or maybe recently? Later,
214
even though you wanted to declare your sin and the
fact that you had concealed it, you were even more
ashamed. Now, you are ashamed of the sin itself and
the fact that you have concealed it. You think, “What
will the priest think of me?”, “What is my confession
going to look like now?” You put off your confession
and the years pass by. You try to erase the memory that you concealed your sin but your spiritual
paralysis is still there. You are paralyzed regardless
of whether you think about your sin or not. It keeps
coming back to your mind and heart, bringing along
even more evil.
Unfortunately, you can also be paralyzed by sin if
you were treated unfairly by your confessor. Your
paralysis was born out of the sin of your confessor,
who, instead of bringing you God’s mercy with his
service, inflicted wounds on your heart which have
stayed with you for years. Maybe you felt completely ignored, maybe he did not show you any kindness,
maybe he only raised his voice and was shouting at
you or even insulting you. Maybe he tackled some
difficult issues without tact and Christ’s tenderness.
Such an attitude, whether it was intentional or not,
may have paralyzed you for years and stopped you
from going to confession because you were not
ready or willing to talk to a priest about your sins.
Remember that you can tell God the whole truth
about yourself. You do not need to fear, His mercy is
incomparably bigger than your greatest sin. God will
always welcome you and forgive you anything if you
choose to come to Him.
Penance is not a punishment for sins
Absolution
After a thorough examination of conscience and a
sincere confession, you need to find a new direction to follow in your life. First, you have to make
amends for your sins before God and your neighbours by completing your penance. Therefore, you
should do your best to compensate for the harm
that your sin caused to another person. For example,
you should give back the things that you stole or
restore the good name of the person you defamed.
More often than not, the will to make amends for
our sins arises spontaneously in our hearts. You will
also be given penance by your confessor. It is meant
to bring you closer to Jesus, who died for all our
sins. Penance may take the form of prayer, offering,
works of mercy, fasting, voluntary self-denial, sacrifices, service of neighbour or any concrete form
meant to restore what your sin destroyed. Penance
gives you a chance to make amends for your sins,
grow in grace and regain your spiritual health. The
confessor imposes it on you to make you look at
yourself and the consequences of your sins together with God. Try to restore what your sin destroyed
and, at the same time, believe that God will help
you because you alone are not able to go back to
all the people you hurt and all the places where you
committed your sins.
Finally comes the most important element of the sacrament: the formula of absolution.
God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to Himself
and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of
sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give
you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit.
It is important to remember who forgives our sins in the
sacrament of reconciliation. It is God, our Father, and not the
priest in the confessional. It is God, against whom we sinned,
that grants us absolution. In this sense, it is important that
He is our Father. Who is father? The father is somebody
who not only loves the child, takes care of it and supports
it, but, first and foremost, gives life to the child. The absolution of sins is the moment when God gives birth to us, in
other words He bestows upon us His own life as if He was
saying, “Live My life, I want you to live like Me, follow My
ideas for your happiness, participate in My nature and in My
life.” How does this birth take place? It happens through the
Son of God, who died for us. He gave His life for us. At the
confessional, we are kneeling in front of Jesus Christ, who
says to us: “Live, and I will die, I will offer My life for you, so
that you can live it.”
We are forgiven by the power of the Holy Spirit, who first
revealed the truth about ourselves, showed us our sin and
inspired repentance and sorrow in us. The Holy Spirit infused
my heart with the grace of forgiveness that flows from the
217
death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is illustrated by the
gesture the priest makes when he pronounces the words of
absolution. In this gesture, the priest raises his open hand
over the penitent to invoke the power of the Holy Spirit
(Greek epiclesis). Interestingly enough, the same gesture
is made by the priest during every Mass, when bread and
wine change into the actual Body and Blood of Christ. The
priest raises his hands over bread and wine asking God to
send down the Holy Spirit upon the gifts to change them.
The presence of this gesture in both the confession and the
Eucharist demonstrates a link between the two sacraments.
In fact, the sacrament of reconciliation serves as the gateway to the Eucharist, or the Holy Communion with God. The
raised hand also symbolizes a father who puts his hand on
the head of his little child to make him or her feel saved and
loved. This gesture also illustrates the truth about the relationship between the Father and the Son, who are united by
mutual Love – the Holy Spirit. This love of the Father for His
Son is bestowed upon us, “adoptive” children of God, who,
through penance, become reunited with God. We can also
say that during the confession God embraces us with the
power of the Holy Spirit. Imagine, God hugs you and tells
you, “You are my child.”
218
Confession is not psychotherapy
God loves us. Therefore, He forgives us and bestows peace
upon us. However, here, the word “peace” does not denote
an emotional state when we feel well because the load is
off our mind. Of course, we can feel like that, but this sort
of peace is not the most important consequence of a valid
and good confession. In fact, the sacrament of reconciliation
brings us a sort of peace which can be described with the
Hebrew word shalom, or the inner harmony, completeness.
We achieve this harmony because we experience God’s forgiveness and know that we cannot be accused before God
for our sins and that we will be saved. Now, we can stand in
front of God as His servants, human beings created by the
Father. He is our God, we are His humble servants with our
hearts full of gratitude for everything that He did for us.
Confession is not a form of psychotherapy, although this
sacrament does help and heal us on the psychological level
as well. The primary goal of reconciliation is not for us to
feel better, remove the burden of our sins, or “spring-clean”
our conscience. All this takes place secondary to the fact
that reconciliation makes us realize anew that God is our
Father, and we are His children, who are reborn to life – to
the life that we lost through our sins. In other words, the
sacrament of confession raises us from death caused by our
sins back to life.
Do not put off your confession until you are perfectly prepared. Despite your fear, doubts, and shame, let yourself be
embraced by God’s love.
219
DON’T WAIT!
STAND UP
AND COME TO THE FATHER,
WHO WAITS FOR YOU
IN FRONT OF HIS HOUSE
WITH HIS ARMS OUTSTRETCHED
TO EMBRACE YOU,
FORGIVE YOU,
GRANT YOU
A NEW LIFE
AND TELL YOU,
“I LOVE YOU!
REGARDLESS OF WHAT HAPPENED,
YOU ARE MY CHILD
AND I LOVE YOU
VERY MUCH.”
Fr. Krzysztof Porosło
Fr. Krzysztof Porosło – a priest in the Archdiocese of
Kraków, student of dogmatic theology at the Theological Faculty of the University of Navarra in Pamplona (Spain), author
and editor of several books on liturgy and the Bible; recordings of his sermons and spiritual exercises are available on the
website www.baptysterium.pl.
i died
SO YOU CAN LIVE
221
© DAYENU
paid
BUT THAT YOU MAY KNOW
THAT THE SON OF MAN
HAS AUTHORITY ON EARTH
TO FORGIVE SINS –
HE THEN SAID TO THE PARALYTIC
“RISE,
TAKE UP YOUR BED
AND GO HOME.”
AND HE ROSE
AND WENT HOME.
Mt 9:6-7
225
Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the
least of these my brethren, you did it to me.
(Mt 25:40)
(Diary, 723)
THE GREATER
THE SINNER,
THE GREATER
THE RIGHT
HE HAS
TO MY MERCY
This is my commandment, that you love one
another as I have loved you. (Jn 15:12)
For if you forgive men their trespasses, your
heavenly Father also will forgive you.
(Mt 6:14)
He who knows how to forgive prepares for
himself many graces from God. As often as
I look upon the cross, so often will I forgive
with all my heart. (Diary, 390)
He who trusts in My mercy will not perish, for all his
affairs are Mine, and his enemies will be shattered at
the base of My footstool. (Diary, 723)
The soul that trusts in My mercy is most fortunate, because I Myself take care of it.
(Diary, 1273)
TAKE AS MUCH AS YOU LIKE
I desire that the whole world know My infinite
mercy. I desire to grant unimaginable graces to those
souls who trust in My mercy. (Diary, 687)
HOW DO I
CONFESS?
228
229
COME NOW,
LET US REASON
TOGETHER,
SAYS THE LORD: THOUGH YOUR SINS
ARE LIKE SCARLET, THEY SHALL BE
AS WHITE AS SNOW;
THOUGH THEY ARE RED LIKE CRIMSON,
THEY SHALL BECOME LIKE WOOL.
Is 1:18
COLOUR A PICTURE OF YOUR SOUL.
LET AREAS WITH SNOWFLAKES
BE WHITE.
5
CONDITIONS
FOR A GOOD
CONFESSION
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE:
RECOGNIZE THE TRUTH ABOUT
YOURSELF.
CONTRITION: EXPRESS SORROW
FOR REJECTING THE GREATEST LOVE
IN THE WORLD.
STRONG RESOLUTION: DO YOUR
BEST TO STAY AWAY FROM SIN.
SINCERE CONFESSION: CONFESS ALL
YOUR SINS.
SATISFACTION: TRY TO REPAIR INJURIES CAUSED BY YOUR SIN.
233
EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE
BASED ON THE SPIRITUAL
WORKS OF MERCY
1. To Admonish Sinners
For me to chastise someone else for their sins, I need to know
that I am a sinner myself.
•Am I patient with someone who has limited knowledge or intelligence?
•Am I able to explain, describe, or teach something patiently?
•Am I patient with myself if I do not succeed in something or if something
humiliates me?
•Can I be happy for someone who knows more, is more talented or is
more mature than me?
3. To Counsel The Doubtful
•How do I behave when I have doubts about my faith?
•Do I readily leave God behind or do I seek Him even more?
•Am I aware of it?
•Can I reprimand myself?
•Am I humble?
•Is salvation my biggest goal?
•Do I want my friends to go to heaven?
•Is God the one who connects us?
•Am I able to maintain a dignified attitude if someone does something bad,
does not respect values, or dismisses God?
•Am I able to speak out?
•Am I courageous in defending my beliefs and morals?
•Am I able to rebuke in a calm way, without pride?
•Does evil influence my desires to fit in with others?
•Do I spread beauty?
•Do I believe with all my strength that love, faith and hope will triumph?
2. To Instruct The Ignorant
To teach the ignorant I myself need formation in faith and
religious knowledge.
•Do I care about my formation?
•Do I frequently read the Bible, catechism, religious books and religious
news?
•Do I invite others to reflect with me on these values?
•Am I patient when someone is less talented than myself?
234
•Do I pray for faith?
•Do I only trust in God or do I trust in superstitions, fortune telling, magic,
horoscopes, or non-Christian spiritualism?
•Do I excessively seek more money, power, connections or human gratification?
•Do I use profanities or swear words?
•Am I rude to others?
•Am I concerned about people who have difficulties with faith?
•Do I share my faith and desire of God with them?
•Do I pray for them or offer advice to them through the grace that God
gives me to spread His Gospel?
•Do I treat my own and others’ faith seriously?
•Does faith empower my life or is it just an addition to it?
4. To Comfort The Afflicted
•When I experience sadness, does the truth about Christ, who also suffers
out of love for the Father and for mankind, console me?
•Am I full of hope when I have difficulties, or do I quickly resort to complaining and whining?
•Do I endure difficulties patiently?
•Am I able to bear difficulties with love or do I run away from the issue
and respond to it with despair?
•When I am upset, do I become unbearable, unsociable, miserable, or
angry with everything?
•Do I bear difficult moments with trust?
235
•Do I kindly and patiently explain to the saddened and distraught the
point of their difficulties?
•Do I consider how my sin against God is greater than someone else’s sin
against me?
•Am I able to be with people who need someone’s presence?
•Do I avoid proclaiming any harm done to me?
•Am I able to be helpless like Mary standing by the cross of Jesus, but still
•Am I aware that some harm may have been done involuntarily?
remain with someone?
•Am I sensitive to suffering, tears, pain, tragedy, and mourning?
•Am I able to notice that someone is suffering because they have done
something they did not mean to do?
•Do I believe in the good intentions of others?
5. To Bear Wrongs Patiently
•Do I cause harm to myself by not believing in others’ good intentions?
• Am I patient with myself?
•Do I seek reparation by resorting to insult?
• Am I able to bear my failures and trials calmly?
•Do I avoid defaming other people?
• Am I aware that I can be hurt just as Jesus was wounded so many times?
• Do I keep an appropriate distance from problems?
• When I deal with problems, do I avoid being too hot-blooded, emotional,
argumentative, malicious, or ironic?
• Do I avoid mud-slinging and gossiping?
• Do I resist the desire in my heart to seek revenge?
• Am I able to use good over evil?
• Do I protect myself and others against being hurt by those who treat us
injustly?
• If possible, do I discipline those who treat me unjustly and in this way
teach him/her to take responsibility?
• Do I discipline him/her in a humane, composed and merciful manner?
• Do I pray for those who treat me unjustly so that they might come to
know the love that God has for them better?
• Do I hurt others through words or actions?
• Do I humiliate others, causing them to suffer or die?
• Do I hurt myself and others with suicidal thoughts or attempts to take my
own life?
6.
•Do I recognize that others may be experiencing frustration, disappointment, or other emotions that result in them having a bad day?
7. To Pray For The Living And The Dead
•A prayer is the most intimate expression of spiritual love. Do I pray
enough?
•Do I set aside time for God every day?
•Do I treasure my prayer or do I say it in a hurry just to appease my conscience?
•Am I faithful to the Eucharist every Sunday and in my daily prayer?
•Do I respect my prayer to God, i.e. praying in a position that expresses respect, dressing appropriately for church, maintaining silence once I’m there,
kneeling in front of the Blessed Sacrament, etc.?
•Do I remember in my prayers the Church, people close to me, family, and
friends?
•Do I remember those in need?
•Do I pray for the deceased?
•Do I help them by gaining and offering to them indulgences made available
through the Church?
•Do I know how to of obtain indulgences for the deceased?
To Forgive Offences Willingly
•Do I offer masses for the dead?
•Am I a person of peace?
•Do I forgive wholeheartedly?
•Do I think about how much Christ has forgiven me?
• Do I think that God is willing to forgive and does not get tired of doing so?
236
237
SAY SOMETHING NICE TODAY
to the first 5 people you meet
238
Don’t just
stand
there like
a sheep
239
EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE
BASED ON THE CORPORAL
WORKS OF MERCY
3. To Clothe The Naked
In today’s world, nakedness is very visible through pornography
and eroticism.
•Do I use such materials?
1. To Feed The Hungry
•Do I remember that food is God’s gift?
•Do I have an appropriate diet?
•Do I eat in moderation (not too much / too little)?
•Do I avoid wasting food?
•Do I fast?
•Am I able to deny myself things during Lent?
•Do I observe the spirit of fasting during fast days (in particular on
Fridays)?
•Do I give alms?
•Do I support charitable institutions?
•Do I directly support poor people I know?
•Do I live in sumptuousness, possessing goods excessively?
•Do I feed those hungry for love with a good word, attention, respect, or
time given to them?
2. To Give Drink To The Thirsty
•Can I be trusted with the protection of someone’s purity?
•Do I respect the body as a temple of the Holy Spirit?
•Do I succumb, willingly and without a fight, to impure thoughts about my
own body (contempt, hatred, excessive cult of the body, masturbation)
or someone else’s body (sexual relationships before or outside marriage,
mutual fondling, rape, prostitution, licentiousness)?
•Am I merciful towards myself in the genuine struggle with my weaknesses
in respect of purity?
•Do I continue to trust while facing temptations and trials regarding
purity?
•Do I realize that Jesus is my greatest purity?
•Do I respect virginity?
•Do I respect celibacy, the single state for the sake of the Heavenly Kingdom?
•Do I desire to have a pure heart?
•Do I realize that sexuality is a delicate gift of God?
•Do I respect my own sexuality?
•Do I shape it?
•Am I sensitive towards my own and others’ sexuality?
•Do I have respect for water as a resource belonging to all people?
•Do I dress appropriately?
•Do I avoid wasting it?
•Do dress suggestively?
•Do I mindlessly contaminate water/the environment?
•Do I respect my own health and life?
•Do I abuse alcohol?
•Do I care about those in need by donating wearable clothes and shoes to
•Do I encourage others to abuse alcohol?
them?
•Do I respect it if someone refuses to have another drink?
•Do I respect those who do not drink at all?
•Do I notice those who thirst not only for water but also for peace, goodness, or a smile?
240
241
CLOTHE
© DAYENU
the prodigal son
4. To Shelter The Homeless
•Do I treat the elderly and vulnerable well?
•Am I always open to receive people close to me by being tidy at home?
•Do I remember that in the sick and suffering I can touch Jesus’s wounds?
•Do I take care of my home by its cleanliness and appropriate décor?
•Do I receive pilgrims?
•Do I respect the sharing of meals with people close to me?
•Am I ashamed to talk to someone who is homeless, destitute, or dirty?
•Do I take care of the home of my heart?
•Am I happy to give up my seat for people who are unwell?
•Do I remember that those suffering embody Jesus for me?
•Do I frequently touch them?
•Do I consider the elderly and the sick useless?
•Do I see how suffering could be redemptive?
•Do I reject euthanasia?
•Am I considerate, kind, and helpful?
•How do I speak to people?
•Do I humiliate people by my own certain style, perfectionism, or excessive attention to detail?
7. To Bury The Dead
•Do I think about my death?
•Am I open to life which needs the home of love?
•Am I always prepared for it?
•Do I respect life from the time of conception to natural death?
•Do I always strive to be in a state of holy grace?
5. To Visit The Prisoner
•Am I enslaved by an addiction through my own choice?
•Am I a free person?
•Am I independent of someone else’s bad behaviour and style?
•Am free from other dependencies?
•Am I entangled in problems of violence, alcohol abuse, or tobacco use?
•Do I use drugs?
•Do I empathize with those who are unable to overcome addictions?
•Do I console them with merciful love?
•Do I overwhelm them with my “flawlessness”?
•Do I hold prisoners in hatred in my own mind?
•Do I frequent the sacrament of reconciliation soon after committing
a sin?
•Do I realize that continuing to live in sin is what hurts Jesus the most?
•Am I prepared every day for my life to come to an end?
•Do I offer a last service to the deceased by arranging their funeral and
burial place out of love?
•Do I treat human remains with respect?
•Do I take care of the graves of people close to me?
•Do I visit them frequently?
•Do I realize that a cemetery is a place of remembrance and reflection?
•Do I believe in the communion of saints, resurrection of the body, and
life everlasting?
•Do I treat them as losers?
•Do I console them, lift their spirit?
•Do I pray for them?
•Do I visit them in prison?
6. To Visit The Sick
•When was the last time I went to visit someone ill, lonely, or elderly in
hospital or in a care home?
•Do I forget about these people?
244
245
3 wAYS
of exercising mercy toward your neighbor:
1. by deed
2. by word
3. by prayer
(Diary, 742)
I demand from you deeds of mercy, which are to arise
out of love for Me. You are to show mercy to your
neighbors always and everywhere. You must not shrink
from this or try to excuse or absolve yourself from it.
(Diary, 742)
246
0
I AM GIVING YOU
I wANT TO bECOME A SAINT,
and I trust that God’s mercy can make a saint
even out of such misery as I am.
(Diary, 1333)
# HOLY
This is your halo –
which you can cut out and proudly display.
247
bE YOU THEREFORE PERFECT,
AS ALSO YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER
IS PERFECT.
IT bEGAN wITH RECONCILIATION, AND wITH bACON
Dear Friends,
We must be perfect. Is that hard, or easy? It becomes easier
when we understand that perfection, holiness, consists in mercy.
The first step is to allow ourselves to be looked at, forgiven, and
Mt 5:48
loved by Jesus. Then we can take this merciful love to others.
Then we can even become capable of loving our enemies. For
divine Love knows no limits.
The pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) began with reconciliation, and with bacon. It was an act of heroic and
merciful love, after World War II, when people forgave their former enemies and saved countless, uprooted refugees from starvation with gifts of bacon. The strength to do so came from God.
Today ACN helps those in need with around 6,000 projects
Father Werenfried with pig
annually, in 140 different countries. Through the priests, religious,
catechists and enthusiastic youth volunteers of the Church ACN
seeks to bring the Merciful Love of God to every corner of our
earth. “Deed, Word and Prayer“ – this is the guiding motto of
ACN. The world needs our holiness, which is made visible through
mercy. There is so much need and poverty in the world. Billions
of people still do not know the love of God. At the same time,
hundreds of thousands are persecuted and killed for their faith
in Jesus. They all need our help, our voices and our prayers. “For
even the strongest faith is of no avail without deeds” (Diary, 742).
Like the Apostles, we are all called to go out into the whole
world and become fishers of men. To catch fish, we need bait.
Jesus offered his own Heart as the bait on the hook. What can
we offer?
PEOPLE ARE MUCH BETTER THAN WE THINK.
THEY ARE ONLY AWAITING THE BURNING WORD
THAT SETS THEIR HEARTS ON FIRE.
Fr. werenfried van Straaten, founder of AcN
248
AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED
WWW.ACN-INTL.ORG
WWW.CHANNELSOFMERCY.ORG
249
Notes
Notes
Notes
Notes
Notes
Notes
Original Title: Jezus ufa tobie. Inna książka o Bożym Miłosierdziu
© Copyright by Archdiocese of Kraków & Wydawnictwo św. Stanisław BM
Publishing Co., Kraków 2016, all rights reserved
© Copyright for the English translation by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the
Republic of Poland, 2016
Imprimatur of the original (Polish): Kraków Metropolitan Curia, no: 832/2016
Licensing: Fr. dr Stanisław Szczepaniec
Consultations: Paul Edward Jarzembowski, Betsy Joan Palmer, United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops
Grafic Design: Dorota Paciorek DAYENU
Illustrations and Cover Design: Monika Szybiak
Layout: Kinga Kostka
Typesetting: Agnieszka Kluzik
Technical Editing: Agnieszka Lipińska
Proofreading: ExLibro Translations Agency
Photos: www.istockphoto.com/pl, Marcin Mazur, Piotr Drabik, Zygmunt Put
Images used in the book: Adam Chmielowski – Ecce Homo, Rembrandt –
The Return of the Prodigal Son, Pompeo Batoni – The Return of the Prodigal
Son, Caravaggio – The Incredulity of Saint Thomas, Mateo Cerezo – Ecce Homo,
Giuseppe Molteni – Confession, Joos van Cleve – The Virgin and Child with Angels,
Christ Pantocrator, Pan Jezus Pięciorański (Five Holy Wounds)
Adolf Hyła, The Miracle-Famous Image of Merciful Jesus, The Shrine of Divine
Mercy in Kraków Łagiewniki © Copyright by The Congregation of the Sisters
of Our Lady of Mercy
Message for the XXXI WYD and fragments of writings of Pope Francis and
fragments of writings of St. John Paul II © Copyright Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Quotes from the Diary of St. Sister M. Faustina Kowalska used with permission
ofthe Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the B.V.M. Stockbridge, MA
USA
Holy Bible quoted according to: The Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version,
Second Catholic Edition (2006) & The New American Bible, Revised Edition
ISBN: 978-83-7422-754-4
Issue: 90,000 copies
Printing: Drukarnia Bałtycka Sp. z o.o.
Printed in Poland. Kraków 2016