SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER, APRIL 12, 2026
St. Faustina was born Helena Kowalska in 1905 to a poor, devout family in Poland. Christ chose Faustina to receive and share his message of divine mercy, and she experienced many mystical visions of Christ throughout her life.
The first vision of Jesus called her to enter a convent. After many attempts, the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy accepted her, and she received the name Maria Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament.
Jesus' mission for St. Faustina was to bring his message of mercy to the world. He said to here in a vision, "In the Old Covenant, I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to my people. Today I am sending you with my mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to my Merciful Heart".
St. Faustina's mission also involved reminding the world of God's merciful and endless love for every person. Jesus wanted the world to understand the Lord's Divine Mercy through the veneration of his image and the words, "Jesus, I trust in you". He wanted people to have a childlike trust in God through repentance, prayer, and showing mercy to others.
In a series of revelations to St. Faustina in the 1930s, our Lord called for a special feast day to be celebrated on the Sunday after Easter. Today, we know that feast as Divine Mercy Sunday, named by Pope St. John Paul II at the canonization of St. Faustina on April 30, 2000.
The Lord expressed His will with regard to this feast in his very first revelation to St. Faustina:
"My daughter, tell the whole world about My inconceivable mercy. I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and a 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 fount of My mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day are opened all the divine floodgates through which graces flow. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity. Everything that exists has come from the very depths of My most tender mercy. Every soul in its relation to Me will contemplate My love and mercy throughout eternity. The Feast of Mercy emerged from My very depths of tenderness. 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 Fount of My mercy".
Of course, recourse to the mercy of God is not new with Saint Faustina. Jesus spoke again and again during his life on earth of the boundless mercy of God. Call to mind the parable of the prodigal son whose father forgave him in an excessively generous welcome of a returning and sinful son. That father is God our Father and we are the straying and sinful children who always meet a welcoming and forgiving God. We can rely on God's forgiving mercy.
Devotion to Divine Mercy is not only about God's mercy for us, but it is also about God's call to us to be merciful to others. Just as God forgives us, we are commanded to forgive others. In the prayer of Jesus, we say, "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us". We can only hope to be forgiven if we forgive.
Mercy also includes the works of mercy: feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, caring for the sick, educating children and all rest. A true follower of Jesus is always merciful and generous. Saint John tells us that if we say we love God, yet do not love our brothers and sisters, we are liars. You can't love God without loving other people. And yet our world is at war on Divine Mercy Sunday, 2026. God hates war and wants all of his children to love one another. We need mercy and we need to be merciful.
