The Sunday After Easter is Divine Mercy Sunday

     What is Divine Mercy Sunday? Divine Mercy Sunday is a new Feast Day established by St. John Paul II in the year 2000. It is to be celebrated worldwide on the Sunday after Easter. On that day we celebrate God’s greatest attribute: His mercy, that is, His loving forgiveness.

     The Divine Mercy devotion stems from the diary of St. Faustina, a humble Polish nun. The Feast of Divine Mercy, the image of Divine Mercy, the chaplet of Divine Mercy, the novena and a great deal more arose from a series of private revelations from Jesus to St Faustina back in the 1930’s. Jesus told St. Faustina that He wanted a new Feast Day celebrated throughout the Church on the Sunday after Easter. On that day, He wanted the whole world to be celebrating His Mercy. He told her that the Feast of Mercy would be a special day when, “All the divine floodgates through which graces flow are opened”. 

     Our Lord made a great promise to all those souls who would go to Confession and then receive Him in Holy Communion on the Feast of His Mercy, now called Divine Mercy Sunday. Jesus said “The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain the complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. I want to grant a complete pardon to the souls that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion on the Feast of My Mercy.” Our Lord also said “I want the image (the Divine Mercy Image) to be solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter, and I want it to be venerated publicly so that every soul may know about it. I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish”.  

     Jesus told St. Faustina, "I am offering people a vessel with which they are to keep coming for graces to the fountain of mercy.  That vessel is this image with the signature: ‘Jesus, I trust in You’. The two rays denote Blood and Water. The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous.  The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls. These two rays issued forth from the very depths of My tender mercy when My agonized Heart was opened by a lance on the cross. Happy is the one who will dwell in their shelter, for the just hand of God shall not lay hold of him.” He also encouraged St Faustina to pray a Novena to the Divine Mercy beginning on Good Friday.

     About the Feast Day, Jesus also said “…Tell the whole world about My inconceivable mercy. I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially poor sinners. On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon the souls who approach the Fount of My Mercy. On that day all the divine floodgates through which graces flow are opened.  Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. Mankind will not have peace until it turns to the Fount of My Mercy”.  Come, learn more about God’s Mercy and celebrate this new feast day: the Feast of Divine Mercy! Receive the great blessings and graces available to all who, with trust, approach the fount of God’s infinite mercy!