Pillars of Fire In My Soul

be said that mercy is the greatest attribute of God. For we rec- ognize the greatest love and abyss of mercy in the Incarnation of the Word, and in His Redemption. The precise and formal sense of the statement: “Mercy is the greatest attribute of God” is that, within this biblical understanding, the results of the activity of merciful love are the greatest in the world and, in this respect, mercy surpasses all other Divine attributes. So, the meaning of this assertion is doctrinally unassailable. Its verbal formulation is probably borrowed from the Latin Vulgate, Ps. 144:9: “Miserationes eius super omnia opera eius,” “His compassions (in Latin “mercies”) are above all his works.” In the revelations granted to Sr. Helen Faustina, this mercy, which is love, goodness and compassion, possesses those qual- ities which only God can have, for it is incomprehensible, inscrutable, inexpressible, inexhaustible and infinite. In most cases in her writings, when Sr. Helen Faustina speaks of mercy, it is the mercy of Jesus. In four instances it is the mercy of Jesus’ heart and in four other instances it is simply Jesus Himself. In only four cases does it appear as the mercy of God the Father; and in two cases as the Mercy of God, One-in-the Trinity. The mercy of God the Father appears first and foremost in the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, which is one of the main forms of this Devotion. Its sense also includes the mercy of Jesus’ human heart as is found by the words of the 25th revelation: “Divine mercy through the divine-human heart of Jesus” (Diary §528). In virtue of a basic commandment of natural moral law, we have the obligation to worship God in every possible, appropri- ate manner, that is, with the supreme act of worship, the wor- ship of adoration. Divine Mercy demands from us the ulti- mate religious worship and adoration since every Divine activity is simply God, because of God’s absolute simplicity. The question arises: In what sense does Divine Mercy, (understood as above), appear as the object of that devotion which the Lord Jesus wished to inculcate into His Church by means of Sister Helen Faustina? The most general answer to Essential Features of the Devotion to The Divine Mercy 97