Our Church now has a picture of the Divine Mercy in the far right hand chapel, next to the statue of St. Thérèse. Those who wish can light candles, and there are some information leaflets about Divine Mercy in this chapel and at the back of Church.

The messages about Divine Mercy were given by Our Lord to a simple Polish nun, Sr. Faustina Kowalska, in the 1930s. On the eve of the most terrible war humanity has yet known, Jesus made known to her the depths of his unfathomable mercy for all of mankind, and urged everyone to place all their trust in that mercy and to perform deeds of mercy towards others.

Jesus asked St. Faustina to have an image painted of himself, with two rays coming from his heart. The pale ray stands for the cleansing water which makes souls righteous, while the red ray stands for the blood of Jesus which is our life. He said: “These two rays issued forth from the very depths of my tender mercy when my agonised heart was opened by a lance on the Cross.” The words, “Jesus, I trust in you” were to be inscribed at the foot of the image, indicating the fundamental attitude which God looks for in us.

Our Lord also asked for a Feast of Mercy to be instituted throughout the Church on the first Sunday after Easter. He promised her, “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.”

Finally, Jesus gave St. Faustina a powerful prayer that he wanted everyone to say: the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, promising great graces to those who would recite it. It can be said on ordinary Rosary beads, beginning with the Our Father, Hail Mary and Apostles Creed. On the five large beads the following prayer is said: “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. “ On the ten small beads: “For the sake of his sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.” The Chaplet concludes with the following prayer said three times: “Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal one, have mercy on us and on the whole world.”

At first, as often happens in the history of the Church, Sr. Faustina’s message was treated with some scepticism and was not spread as she had been instructed. It was not until Pope John Paul II’s time that Sr. Faustina was canonised and her message officially recognised by the Church. The Feast of Divine Mercy was promulgated by the Vatican in the year 2000.

Divine Mercy provides an easy way for Catholics to share their faith, both at a spiritual and practical level. Spiritually, we can give a solid foundation to evangelisation through the Divine Mercy prayers. Our Lord specifically gave one prayer to St. Faustina with the instruction that it was to be said for those who have lost hope in God’s mercy: surely that applies to many people we know, and many around us whom we have no idea how to share the Gospel with. This prayer is: “O blood and water which gushed forth from the heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us, I trust in you.” Jesus promised that he would give special grace to the person we pray for when we use these words, provided we pray with complete trust in him.

On a practical level, many people use simple Divine Mercy prayer cards to give out to people they meet in everyday life or to leave in public places. Rather than lament, for example, the disgraceful cards we see littering public phone boxes, why not leave some Divine Mercy cards in them? More generally, we can recommend the Divine Mercy prayers to those we talk to who are in obvious need of spiritual help.

When the Relics of St. Thérèse visited our country last autumn we saw them being venerated by many who would not call themselves practising or orthodox Christians. Think how much good that visit did to spread the Good News. Divine Mercy is similar: a simple way of attracting those who have left the practice of their faith, or who do not feel themselves to be within the Christian fold, to the unfathomable mercy of God which knows no limits. The harvest is rich, but the labourers are few: Divine Mercy is a simple way of us all becoming workers in the Lord’s harvest, as we are called to be.