Pillars of Fire In My Soul

and happiness because they turned away from God and from Christ. And it will next depend upon this, that they acknowl- edge their misfortune and their sin. But they will not be able to do that unless they are drawn, by the knowledge of God’s inex- haustible mercy, to seek help with great confidence and trust. 12 Our Savior, then, coming again with a message of mercy, is only calling our attention anew to that basic condition —which we know under the name of repentance — that alone is capable of rescuing humanity at every moment, but especially now, from the turmoil which is capable of plunging the world into a catastrophe greater than the one we experienced not so long ago [ World War II ]. The following words spoken by the Savior to Sister Faustina should ring loudly and continually in our minds: Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My mercy (Diary, 300). In order to evoke this conversion to The Divine Mercy in individual hearts as well as in entire nations, the Savior offers a variety of means. The devotion to The Divine Mercy must be, above all, internal; but since human beings are not only spirit but also body, their inner devotion must have its external expression and its external means . The Image of The Divine Mercy The first of these external means, and at the same time a most expressive symbol of the entire devotion to The Divine Mercy in its new form, is the image of the Merciful Savior . Its characteristic representation is meant to evoke, in the minds of all who look upon it, a vivid notion of the inexhaustible Mercy of God, and to elicit in hearts a profound confidence in Jesus, who is its personification. And this representation of the Merciful Savior — as paintings, prints and medals which already have been circulated 44 Pillars of Fire in My Soul