Pillars of Fire In My Soul

corresponding to the vision of February 22, 1931. Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus requires from us, above all, acts of reparation for sinful offenses, while acts of unshaken trust in God are the very essence of Devotion to Divine Mercy. Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has its privileged days: the first Fridays of each month, and the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi. By contrast, Devotion to The Divine Mercy, with the exception of the Feast of Mercy which is to fall on the first Sunday after Easter, has no special day. On the contrary, it has a special hour, namely, 3:00 p.m., each day of the year. In spite of the fact that small alterations would suffice to adapt the Litany to the Sacred Heart of Jesus for use as a devotion to Divine Mercy, nonetheless these two devotions are different, both in their essential disposition as well as in their manifestations. Fundamental Essence of Devotion to The Divine Mercy Before discussing concrete forms of Devotion to Divine Mercy, it is necessary to answer the question: What constitutes the fundamental essence of Devotion to The Divine Mercy?. Trust constitutes this [essence] to such a degree that without trust there is no devotion such as Jesus wished, and without trust, it is impossible to attain any of the promises attached to the Devotion. Trust is a basic and essential act of this Devotion to such a degree that it alone, without any other concrete forms of the Devotion, is already a guarantee of achieving all the general promises Jesus attached to this Devotion. We submit that trust in this sense is essential and necessary from the fact that Jesus not only insists on it thirty-four times, but also because He speaks of it nine times as a condition necessary for attaining the benefits ensuing from the Devotion: “The graces of My Mercy may be drawn by one vessel alone, which is trust” (Diary §1578). This principle refers not only to sanctifying and saving grace, but also to temporal benefits, which is attested by revelation 13: “Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My Mercy” (Diary §300). 102 Pillars of Fire in My Soul