Divine Mercy: The Heart of the Gospel

The Sacred Heart and The Divine Mercy 61 from the apparitions o f our Lord Jesus Himself to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in the 1670's. To her the glorified Jesus unveiled His tender, burning love for souls, and through her He asked for the establishment of the annual liturgical Feast of the Sacred Heart, as well as devotional practices such as the Holy Hour, the First Friday Communions, and the veneration of the image o f His loving Heart. By these means our Lord intended to rekindle the fire o f love in the hearts of the faithful, in a modem world in which the hearts o f many were growing cold. Hence, rooted in Scripture, the delight o f many saints, and given the highest endorsement by the popes again and again, it is clear that the devotion to the Heart o f Jesus - especially to the living Heart o f Jesus in the Eucharist - is vital to the life and spiritual health o f the Catholic Church. Simply put: a living body needs a living heart, and the Church, the Body o f Christ, has its own living heart: we have been given the Heart o f Jesus Christ, the Head o f the Body, as our Heart too, the living source o f all our spiritual refreshment and peace. In the twentieth century, however, from out o f the heart o f the Polish nation, our Lord has poured another fresh stream o f devotion into His Church. It began when a simple Polish nun, Sr. Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938), with barely a third-grade education, wrote a diary which has been recognized as worthy o f being numbered “among the out­ standing works o f mystical literature.”8 Now declared “Blessed” Faustina Kowalska, she has been called by Pope John Paul II “the great apostle of Divine Mercy in our time.”9 In Sr. Faustina we find a holy soul completely devoted to the Heart o f Jesus, but in a new way. As she recorded in her diary: He brought me into such close intimacy with Himself that my heart was espoused to His Heart in a loving union, and I could feel the faintest stir of His Heart, and He of mine. The fire o f my cre­ ated love was joined with the ardor o f His eternal love.10 O my Jesus, each of your saints reflects one o f your virtues; I desire to reflect Your compassionate Heart, full o f mercy; I want to glorify it. Let Your Mercy, O Jesus, be impressed upon my heart and soul like a seal, and this will be my badge in this and the future life.1 On several occasions Christ Himself emphasized that His Heart is the source of Divine Mercy for the world: