St. Faustina and the Boundless Mercy of Christ
Today is the feast of St. Faustina, the apostle of Jesus Christ’s Divine Mercy.
St. Faustina was a 20th century Polish nun who suffered greatly physically, but had a very deep and profound mystical life, seeing many visions and supernatural phenomena. Most famously, she received visions and instructions from Christ about Divine Mercy, and she worked to spread devotion to Jesus’s Mercy around the world (her diary with all her mystical experiences has been published). Faustina always emphasized that we must repent of our sins and ask for mercy to receive it, contrary to the modern belief that we attain Heaven no matter how many sins we commit, but God’s mercy is always waiting for us as soon as we ask for it.
Faustina, under Jesus’s direction, urged Christians to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet, which is prayed using a rosary for counting. In each decade there are two prayers, the first prayer said once and the second prayer said ten times. Below are the prayers, which are beautiful cries to God for Mercy, and a reminder of how much Jesus suffered to redeem us:
“Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your Dearly Beloved Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.
For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.”
Jesus told St. Faustina, “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 as from a fount overflowing with mercy.” As broken and sinful as we are, we must turn to Jesus’s Mercy as our last hope and refuge. As Jesus told Faustina, “Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My Mercy.”1
This article was originally published last year.