Pillars of Fire In My Soul

of trust and must be linked to the practice of mercy toward ones neighbor. These basic conditions should never be forgotten. VENERATION OF THE IMAGE OF THE MERCIFUL CHRIST Christ began the revelation of the Devotion [to Divine Mercy] to Sister Helen Faustina and to the world on February 22, 1931, with an evening apparition in her convent cell in Plock [I saw the Lord Jesus clothed in a white garment. One hand raised in the gesture of blessing, the other was touching the garment at the breast. From beneath the garment, slightly drawn aside at the breast, there were emanating two large rays, one red and one pale. After a while, Jesus said to me: “Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the signature, Jesus, I Trust in You. I desire that this image be venerated first in your chapel, and [then] throughout the world. I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish. I also promise victory over [its] enemies already here on earth, and especially at the hour of death. I Myself will defend it as My own glory” (Diary 47-48)]. The artist-painter, Adolf Hyla of Krakowskie + agiewniki (d.1965) painted the image of the Merciful Lord Jesus, reproducing the figure of Jesus from the Plock vision. It is this image that is venerated by the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in their chapel in + agiewniki, Cracow, where Sister Helen Faustina lived and died. It is also the Image which is reproduced and disseminated in many of the periodicals propagating this Devotion. The image, however, requires some comments. First of all, the rays which Sister Helen Faustina saw at Plock were not red and white in color, but one was red, and the other was pale. Therefore, the Plock revelation, and the Devotion based on it, do not utilize the Polish national colors. It is not infected with nationalism and it is not patriotism under the guise of piety. The second ray cannot be white, but should be pale, since white Essential Features of the Devotion to The Divine Mercy 107