The Sunday after Easter will always be known as Divine
Mercy Sunday, as people pray the novena handed down to us by St Faustina
Kowalska, a Polish nun and visionary, who was pushed away by many church
authorities in her time and after her death. But Pope St John Paul, a Polish
himself, re-opened her case and authenticated her visions, and even canonized
her in the year 2000, precisely on Divine Mercy Sunday. The faithful pray the
novena by reciting 50 times "For the sake of His Sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the
whole world." The image of Jesus as depicted here was described by Saint
Faustina, with two rays of light emanating from the heart of Jesus, one in
white and one in red. The phrase "Jesus, I trust in you" is
frequently included.
Helena Kowalska was born and
raised in and around Warsaw,
Poland and is contemporaneous with St.
John Paul II. She was poorly educated and left
school when she was 15, after
three years to support her poor family. In spite of her difficulties she
entered into a convent after bring refused so many times. She was given the
name Sister Maria Faustina Kowalska. After
being the convent less than five years, she reported that she had visions of
Jesus appearing to her. The visions focused on Jesus as the King of Divine
Mercy. She continued to write a
diary from 1931 until just before her death in 1938.
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