in the words of Pope Benedict XVI, “Divine Mercy is not a secondary devotion, but an integral dimension of Christian faith and prayer.”3 Benedict even goes so far as to say, “[M]ercy is the central nucleus of the Gospel message.”4 (See Appendix Two for more Divine Mercy quotes from Popes Benedict and John Paul.) Okay, so what is Divine Mercy? What is this thing that gets to the heart of Sacred Scripture and to the very center of our faith? To begin, mercy is “love’s second name.”5 It’s a particular kind of love, a particular mode of love when it encounters suffering, poverty, brokenness, and sin. Divine Mercy is when God’s love meets us and helps us in the midst of our suffering and sin. In fact, because this side of eternity we’re all sinners and because suffering is our lot in life, God’s love for us here always takes the form of mercy. It’s always the Lord stepping out in compassion to help us poor, weak, and broken sinners. From our perspective, then, every good we receive is an expression of Divine Mercy. The Message of Divine Mercy The message of Divine Mercy is something that’s most associated with a Polish nun who died in 1938, about a year before the start of World War II. She’s known today as St. Maria Faustina Kowalska. Now, St. Faustina was a mystic. In other words, she received Excerpt from Divine Mercy Explained. Click here to order
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mw==