by Val Conlon

In her Diary, St. Faustina wrote, “I find myself so weak that were it not for Holy Communion I would fall continually. One thing alone sustains me, and that is Holy Communion. From it I draw my strength; in it is all my comfort. I fear life on days when I do not receive Holy Communion. I fear my own self. Jesus concealed in the Host is everything to me. From the tabernacle I draw strength, power, courage and light. Here, I seek consolation in time of anguish. I would not know how to give glory to God if I did not have the Eucharist in my heart”. (Diary 1037)

“My Peace I Give You”

The central message of the Devotion to Divine Mercy is to trust in the Lord and be merciful to others. It is a continuation of the Communion Rite, in the celebration of the Eucharist, beginning with the Lord’s Prayer. In the celebration of the Eucharist, the priest asks God for a blessing of peace for all present. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit, a peace and mercy that will keep us free from sin, protects us from all anxiety, as we wait in joyful hope, for the glorious return of Jesus.

In the celebration of the Eucharist, the priest prays the words Jesus spoke at the Last Supper, “My Peace I give you, My Peace I leave you”. On that first Low Sunday, now called the Feast of Mercy, Jesus also said, “Peace be with you”. In her Dairy, St. Faustina recorded the words of Our Lord regarding peace. Jesus said, “Mankind will have no peace until it turns with trust to My mercy. Tell aching mankind to come close to My Merciful Heart, and I will fill it with peace”. (Diary 1074)

The Lamb of God

When we call upon the “Lamb of God”, we call upon Jesus, Who is both Priest and Victim and is the source of all mercy. From the pierced side of the risen Lamb of God, flows the blood and water, the sacramental life of the Church. This is the Lamb of God, lifted up before our eyes by the priest.

We are all unworthy to receive this Lamb, but God, in His great mercy, humbled Himself to be the Lamb, that we receive and consume, and so be transformed. We should not just receive Him, but we should enter into communion with Him. We are to become the very image of God, living icons of His trust and mercy.

Transformed by His Mercy

True devotion leads us to an inner conversion to become like what we are devoted to. By our devotion to Divine Mercy, we are to become living icons of Mercy, living witnesses of trust and mercy. Like St. Faustina, we should become living images of the Merciful Saviour.

St. Faustina prayed, “I want to be completely transformed into Your mercy and to be Your living reflection, O Lord. May the greatest of all divine attributes, that of Your unfathomable mercy, pass through my heart and soul, to my neighbour. (Diary 163)

Like St. Faustina, each of us should become a living Eucharist. In this way, we truly extend the Mass to each other. Like St. Faustina, we should become a living Chaplet of Divine Mercy, by offering all our sufferings in union with the Passion of Jesus, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world. Our offerings alone are a mere nothing, but united with Christ, they can be a powerful plea for mercy for ourselves, our families, and for the whole world.

Radiating Christ’s Mercy to Others

Our Lord told St. Faustina that we are to radiate His mercy to others, “Tell (all people), My daughter, that I am Love and Mercy itself. When a soul approaches Me with trust, I will fill it with such an abundance of graces, that it cannot contain them within itself, but radiates them to others” (Diary 1074)

In other words, we are to radiate His mercy, His peace and His forgiveness. We are to become what the priest expresses in the prayer after the Lord’s Prayer, “Delivered from evil and filled with peace and mercy, freed from sin and anxiety, as we joyfully wait for the coming of Jesus Christ our Lord”.

This is the peace and mercy Jesus gives us on Easter Sunday and proclaimed also on the Feast of Mercy. This is the peace the priest blesses us with and which we exchange with one another. This is the peace and mercy we receive and enter into communion with. This is the peace and mercy we are to radiate and share with others. We should turn to Jesus with trust, receive His mercy with thanksgiving and share His trust and mercy with great joy.

Both the Divine Mercy message, of trust and mercy, and the devotions to the Divine Mercy repeat, extend, and continue the offering of the Immaculate Victim of the altar, and the whole of the Communion Rite of Mass.

Living Mercy

We are to imitate what we celebrate and become what we consume. We are to be living icons of mercy, here on earth, glorifying the name of the Eternal Father, fulfilling His will and striving to have mercy on all. Thus we make mercy present and make His kingdom among us present, by our trust in Jesus and by our lives of mercy toward one another. In this way we defeat the kingdom of Evil and give all glory to God the Father, for the kingdom, the power and the glory are His, now and forever.