Second Sunday of Easter is the Sunday of Divine Mercy

April 14, 2025

The Message Is Mercy

On Sunday, April 27, Feast of Divine Mercy, immediately following the 11:00 AM Liturgy, in Room B in the Parish Office, we will view a DVD called “St. Faustina.”

The film will summarize this unique vision and promise given by Jesus to this holy Polish sister, and will be followed by a discussion about the unusual plenary indulence.
Sr. Helen Therese, OSF

Sr. Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun who lived in Krakow, Poland, reported having visions of Jesus and conversations with him, which she wrote about in her diary, later published as the book The Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, Divine Mercy in My Soul. Sr. Faustina’s diary records fourteen occasions when Jesus requested that a Feast of Mercy be observed, for example:

My daughter, tell the whole world about my inconceivable mercy. I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. On that day the very depths of my tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the font of my mercy. The soul that would go to confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment…Let no soul fear to draw near to me…It is my desire that it be solemnly celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter. Mankind will not have peace until it turns to the font of my mercy. (Diary, no.699)

On May 5, 2000, five days after the canonization of St. Faustina by Pope John Paul II, the Vatican decreed that the Second Sunday of Easter would henceforth be known as Divine Mercy Sunday. The Paschal Mystery of the suffering, death, and resurrection reveals God’s love. This particular Sunday is meant to be one of “thanksgiving for the goodness of God shown to people in the whole Easter mystery. “(Pope JohnPaul II)

Plenary Indulgence for Divine Mercy Sunday
In a degree dated August 3, 2002, the Apostolic Penitentiary announced that in order “to insure that the faithful would observe this day (Divine Mercy Sunday) with intense devotion, the Supreme Pontiff himself established that this Sunday be enriched by a plenary indulgence…so that the people might receive a great abundance of the gift of consolation of the Holy Spirit.”

The soul that goes to Sacramental Confession (which may take place some days before) and receives Holy Eucharistic Communion, reciting a prayer the Holy Father, adding a devote prayer like Merciful Jesus, I trust in you, on that day shall obtain the total forgiveness of all sins and punishment (like a second baptism).