divine-mercy-in-my-soul

To this simple, uneducated, but courageous woman religious, who trusted Him
without limit, Our Lord Jesus consigned the great mission to proclaim His message of mercy
directed to the whole world: “Today,” He told her, “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” (Diary, 1588). You are the secretary of My
mercy; I have chosen you for that office in this and the next life” (Diary, 1605) …… “to
make known to souls the great mercy that I have for them, and to exhort them to trust
in the bottomless depth of My mercy” (Diary, 1567).
2. ST. FAUSTINA‟S MISSION. In short, her mission consists in reminding
us of the immemorial, but seemingly forgotten, truths of our faith about God‟s merciful love
for men, and in conveying to us new forms of devotion to The Divine Mercy, the practice of
which is to lead to the revival of the spiritual life in the spirit of Christian trust and mercy.
St. Faustina‟s Diary, which Jesus Christ ordered her to keep during the last four
years of her life, is a kind of journal in which the author recorded current or retrospective
events related primarily to the “encounters” of her soul with God. A rigorous, scholarly
analysis of her notebooks was necessary to extract from them everything which is
considered essential to her mission.
This work was accomplished by an eminent and highly esteemed theologian,
the Rev. Professor, Ignacy Rózycki. A brief summary of his scholarly and theological work is
published under the title The Divine Mercy: Basic Characteristics of the Divine Mercy
Devotion.
Compared to this important theological work, all previous publications on the
Divine Mercy devotion, related to us by St. Faustina, seem to be concerned only with some
of its elements or with more secondary matters. For example, in some instances, emphasis
is placed on the Litany or the Novena to The Divine Mercy, leaving aside the Hour of Mercy.
Fr. Rózycki draws our attention to this fact by saying: “Before we acquaint
ourselves with the specific elements of the Divine Mercy devotion, we need to notice that
among them we won‟t find any of the well-known or beloved novenas or litanies.”
The basis for selecting these, and not other prayers or religious practices, as
the new forms of the Divine Mercy devotion, are the specified promises attached to them,
which the Lord Jesus promised to fulfill on the condition of one‟s trust in God‟s goodness and
of mercy towards one‟s neighbors. Rev. Rózycki points out that there are five elements of
the devotion to The Divine Mercy.
a. The Image of the Merciful Jesus. Its pattern was revealed in the vision St.
Faustina had on February 22, 1931, in her convent cell at Plock. “In the evening, when I was
in my cell,” she recorded in the Diary, “I saw the Lord Jesus clothed in a white garment. One
hand [was] raised in the gesture of blessing, the other was touching the garment at the
breast. From beneath the garment, slightly drawn aside from at breast, there were
emanating two large rays, one red, the other pale. …. After a while, Jesus said to me,
„Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the signature: Jesus, I trust in
You‟‟‟ (Diary, 47). “I want this image …… to be solemnly blessed on the first Sunday
after Easter; that Sunday is to be the Feast of Mercy” (Diary, 49).
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