Pillars of Fire In My Soul

The Divine Mercy, but the devotion also reached many smaller cities and village parishes. During the terrible oppression of war, people sought help by reciting the Chaplet to The Divine Mercy, or by trustingly wearing the medal, or by carrying the image of the Merciful Savior on their persons; and from many places came reports of wondrous and even miraculous answers to their entreaties. Not only did the devotion spread in Poland, but it also began to penetrate beyond its borders. Medals and holy cards of the Merciful Savior reached Polish troops in German prisoner- of -war camps, and civilian prisoners in concentration camps. They made their way to France and Hungary, to Romania and England, to Russia, Iraq, Palestine and Egypt — wherever a Polish exile was awaiting God’s Mercy. From eyewitnesses we know that this devotion was eagerly spread not only in Vilnius and its environs among the Poles, but also in the Kaunas region of Lithuania. The new images of The Divine Mercy, enshrined on small altars, were seen in the Cathedral of Kaunas and in many of the Lithuanian churches. Brochures containing the Novena, Litany and Chaplet to The Divine Mercy in the Polish and Lithuanian languages could be found at these shrines. Polish displaced persons encountered the devotion in Bavaria, where it continues to flourish. It has been verified that this devotion is spreading in certain centers in the United States, Mexico, and even Australia. After the War But with the termination of the war, did not the fervor for this devotion also cease? For — as we say — “When in fear of the rod, we turn to God!” Certainly, some of the devotion’s aspects, connected as they were with the urgent needs and immediate dangers brought on by the war, had ceased; but the devotion to The Divine Mercy itself in its new form is rather being strengthened and deepened, and it is making ever-widening cir- Divine Mercy … We Trust in You! 27