'Your life will not remain the same.'
If you value articles like this, sign up for our daily email newsletter and support us with a donation.
Editor's note:
Election Day is Nov. 5. Be ready for the ballot box by registering to vote.
For information on registration deadlines in your state or territory, click here.
To register to vote online, or update your registration, click here.
Imagine being on a spiritual journey in a wasted urban landscape searching for a place to adore Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.
Out of the blue early one morning, you hear the strains of a voice – faint, but sure – imploring God, in song, for mercy on the world.
The melody draws you closer until your hear the unmistakable words, sweet yet powerful, of the Divine Mercy prayer, repeated again and again:
"For the sake of the his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world."
You marvel and thank God for what seems like a miracle unfolding in real time.
This is exactly what happened to native Detroiter Susan Vance as she sought a place to daily adore Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
Her search led her recently to St. John XXIII Church in Redford, an inner-ring suburb of the city. It was there that she met Rev. Paulo Dias, singing a capella to Our Lord.
This is how Vance, who serves as captain of Souls and Liberty Action Network's Michigan chapter, described the experience:
"When I approached the church, I thought it was a dream. I heard a soft male voice singing the Divine Mercy Chaplet and I wondered what was going on. It sounded beautiful, but I wasn't sure why the chaplet was being sung at 7:30 a.m. In fact, I wasn't sure what I was hearing at first as I entered the building, walked down the hall, and went into the nave, where I saw a priest in the front row singing to the exposed Eucharist in the monstrance in adoration!"
"He was there alone, humbly and sweetly singing to Jesus! Not to an audience, not to a crowd. To Jesus. I felt certain the strains flowed out from that church out into the city streets and out onto the whole world."
"I felt an immediate joy and peace," Vance recalled. "I felt at home. And since then I haven't stopped going to morning adoration before daily Mass!"
“Where if not in the Divine Mercy can the world find refuge and the light of hope?” – Pope St. John Paul II
Vance caught up with Fr. Paolo sometime afterward and asked if she could share his singing with the Souls and Liberty audience. This resulted in a series of videos titled "Soul Song."
During one of their chats, Fr. Paolo told Vance, "I sing the Divine Mercy Chaplet [because] when you sing, you begin to focus on the words which draws you closer to the Lord and that is where God touches your heart."
"At times my mind is disturbed," the priest said, "but this singing helps me to focus on the Lord and his Mercy"
If you sing the Divine Mercy prayer, he explained, "Your life will not remain the same. You will find the power, the grace – you will find peace and calmness that you want in this challenging time. It will give you strength."
"Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My Mercy." – Jesus to St. Faustina Kowalska
Soul Song, Part I
Despite its increasing popularity, too many Catholics remain unaware of the Divine Mercy devotion. Too many are unfamiliar with St. Faustina Kowalska, and her role in bringing the great message of God's mercy to a world sorely in need of it.
APOSTLE OF DIVINE MERCY
St. Faustina (1905-1938) was baptized Helene Kowalska, one of 10 children born to a poor farming family in a remote corner of rural Poland.
Unfettered by worldly possessions, from an early age she had a close connection to – and visions of – Jesus. As a teenager, she wanted to enter religious life, but her parents refused; perhaps because they needed her to work on the farm or because they didn't have enough money to pay for a religious habit – a requirement for postulants at that time in Poland.
But Kowalska persisted, and at age 18, she braved her way from the farm to Warsaw, the nation's capital and largest city, to pursue religious life. There, she found a convent that would accept her, and spent the next year working as a housemaid to cover the cost of her habit. In 1925, she joined the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy as a novice and was given the name, Sr. Marie Faustina.
"Sr. Faustina is a gift from God for our times." – Pope St. John Paul II
Sister Faustina spent 13 years in the congregation, living out her vocation in various convents in the region – Warsaw, Vilnius, Płock and Kraków. As her religious life deepened, she continued to have mystical encounters and recorded them, as directed by her confessors.
Following her death at the age of 33, these accounts were compiled into a 700-page document. Today, the Diary of St. Faustina, is considered "one of the pearls of mystical literature," and has been translated into many languages, giving inspiration to people around the world.
Sister Faustina succumbed to tuberculosis on Oct. 5, 1938, less than a year before Poland was overrun by the Nazis and Soviets. Pope John Paul II, her countryman and advocate, canonized her a saint in 2000. Her remains are interred at the Sanctuary of the Divine Mercy outside Krakow.
FAUSTINA'S TRIP TO PURGATORY
Shortly after Faustina entered religious life in 1925, the young postulant asked Jesus for whom she should pray.
In response, her guardian angel appeared and took her to "a misty place full of fire in which there was a great crowd of suffering souls," as she described in her diary. She understood this place to be purgatory.
Faustina was made to understand that the suffering souls needed people on earth to aid them; though they could not pray for themselves, they found relief in the prayers of others, which helped to speed their admission into Heaven.
She wrote that the souls told her their greatest torment was their "longing for God."
As her guardian angel escorted her out of the vision, she heard an interior voice say, "My Mercy does not want this, but justice demands it."
She recorded in her diary that since that mystical experience, she was "in closer communion with the suffering souls" and prayed for them often – as do many others, such as Fr. Paulo, when they pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy.
Soul Song, Part II
THE MODERN ICON AND PROCLAMATION OF DIVINE MERCY
In 1931, Our Lord appeared to St. Faustina in her small convent cell as the Risen Lord, clothed in a white garment.
His hands and feet bore the marks of the Crucifixion. His right hand was raised in blessing, and His left hand was placed over His Heart. Two brilliant rays of light emanated from His Heart – one red and the other white.
Faustina recorded in her diary that Jesus explained, "The two rays denote Blood and Water. The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls. These two rays issued forth from the depths of My tender mercy when My agonized heart was opened by a lance on the Cross."
Jesus instructed her to paint this image and inscribe it with the words, "Jesus, I trust in You." Faustina came to understand that Jesus desired the image not to be venerated only in her convent chapel, but throughout the whole world.
This would prove to be the commencement of St. Faustina's prophetic mission.
"Jesus, I Trust in You." – inscription on the Divine Mercy Icon
"I promise that the soul who will venerate this image will not perish. I also promise victory over [the soul's] enemies here on earth, especially at the hour of death," Jesus told her.
Faustina's spiritual director eventually arranged for an artist to paint an icon of Jesus based on her description. When she saw the final product, she was deeply disappointed, exclaiming, "Who will paint You as beautiful as You are?"
She recorded that she heard these words in reply: "Not in the beauty of the color, nor of the brush lies the greatness of this image, but in My merciful grace."
"I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish. I also promise victory over [its] enemies already here on earth, especially at the hour of death." – Jesus to St. Faustina
The original painting managed to miraculously survive the Soviet persecution of Catholics and the wholesale destruction of churches and sacred objects. Over the following decades, the image was secreted away to various holding places. It remained hidden from the world until the Communist grip on Europe began to ease in the 1980s, when it was discovered in Belarus, then a republic of the Soviet Union.
From Belarus, the image made its way back to Vilnius, Lithuania, where it was first painted. It now resides in the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy above the main altar in the Church of the Holy Trinity.
Millions of reproductions of the image, with its inscription "Jesus, I Trust in You," now grace Churches and homes all over the world – even on bumper stickers.
THE CHAPLET AND HOW IT CAME TO BE
In 1935, St. Faustina saw a vision of an angel sent by God to punish a certain city for its horrible sins. Though the name of the city is not given in her diary, many have speculated that it referred to Warsaw, which had become a center for abortions in the lead-up to the Second World War.
To forestall the terrible chastisement, Faustina began to pray for mercy for what was about to befall the city. As she was pleading with God, she heard these words interiorly:
"Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world; for the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world."
By the power of these words, the angel relented and did not carry out the deserved punishment.
From then on, she recited the prayer almost constantly, offering it especially for people at the hour of their death.
In subsequent revelations, Our Lord made it clear that the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, as the prayer came to be known, was intended not just for Faustina, but for the whole world.
Indeed, people all over the world today repeat these words each day on their Rosary beads, begging God for mercy; like Fr. Paulo, many chant them in the early morning.
Soul Song, Part III
The Chaplet is also often recited at 3:00 p.m., the time of Our Lord's death on Calvary. This practice stems from a request from Jesus, which Faustina recorded in her diary: "At three o’clock, beg for My mercy, especially for sinners, and immerse yourself, even for a short moment, in [contemplation on] My Passion, particularly when I was left forsaken at the moment of death. That is the hour of great mercy for the whole world."
Our Lord attached great promises to its recitation, including:
Mercy at death – Jesus promises to stand between the dying person and God as the Merciful Savior, not the just Judge.
Hope for sinners – Jesus asks priests to recommend the chaplet to sinners as a last hope of salvation. He promises that even the most hardened sinner will receive grace if they recite the chaplet once.
Power for priests – Jesus promises to give wondrous power to priests who proclaim and extol his mercy.
Prayer for sinners – Jesus says that prayer for the conversion of sinners is the prayer most pleasing to Him.
Trust in mercy – Jesus promises to obtain trust in His mercy for those who pray the chaplet.
This holy history infuses Fr. Paolo's petitions for God to shower souls with His mercy – acts of intercession for which Detroit Catholics are immensely grateful.
"This priest, who pours his soul and tears into the Divine Mercy Chaplet – even when no one is listening, save God and the angels and saints – has given me strength to carry on," Vance affirms.
"How sweet is the sound!" she exclaims.
Editor's note: Click here to obtain the masterpiece Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul.
Dr. Barbara Toth has a doctorate in rhetoric and composition from Bowling Green State University. She has taught at universities in the US, China and Saudi Arabia. Her work in setting up a writing center at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahmen University, an all-women's university in Riyadh, has been cited in American journals. Toth has published academic and non-academic articles and poems internationally.
Comments