Christ’s message of mercy to St. Faustina still shared

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

LEICESTER – Divine Mercy, and devotions associated with it, are important to the pastor and parishioners of St. Aloysius-St. Jude Parish, who shared some of their thoughts in conjunction with a special service there Sunday.

“It’s very peaceful. … I just feel peaceful,” parishioner Cathie Underwood said after the Divine Mercy Sunday service. “It’s very comforting. And all the voices together – everybody’s on the same page” in a world filled with disunity. “So you know there’s still hope.”

The service, like others around the diocese and beyond, was a time to focus on aspects of the Divine Mercy message which St. Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun, received in revelations from Jesus in the 1930s.

In 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized St. Faustina and established Divine Mercy Sunday, the feast day associated with the message, to be celebrated on the second Sunday of the Easter season. In addition to Masses, some parishes hold other services that day.

At the afternoon service at St. Aloysius-St. Jude, worshippers sang the Divine Mercy Chaplet (one of the Divine Mercy devotions) with the pastor, Father John M. Lizewski, who preached and offered the sacrament of the sick. The service also included exposition and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

“I like that it’s very intimate; it’s very personal,” Rosemary Shevchuk said of the service, which drew a couple dozen of her fellow parishioners and people from beyond the parish. “I enjoy that people take the time to come and worship and give thanks.”

“In the times that we’re in, it’s a wake-up call, because of the authenticity of [Christ’s] calling to St. Faustina, to ask her to proclaim his Divine Mercy, his great love,” parishioner Aldona Sarkauskas said, in reference to the Divine Mercy apparitions. “He gave us the Passion, he gave us Easter, and now the Divine Mercy. If you can experience in your life Divine Mercy, you will know the depth of his love for you.”

“God has mercy on us, and that’s what St. Faustina wants us to know,” said parishioner Eileen Martin. God “instructed her to give the message out.” She is part of a group of parishioners and others who pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet at St. Aloysius-St. Jude on Fridays throughout the year.

“Father Peter White [former pastor] allowed us to come in and have the holy hour,” around 2011, she said. They prayed the rosary. Around the time Father Lizewski arrived in 2012 someone gave the group a CD with the rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet on it, so they added the Chaplet to their prayers, she said. They also pray other prayers and have quiet time. Last year “we took a field trip” to the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, she said.

In 2014, Father Lizewski said, he started holding Divine Mercy Sunday devotions at St. Aloysius-St. Jude, at the request of parishioners. Before that he had permanently installed in the church the Divine Mercy image, a picture of Jesus as St. Faustina described him from her visions, which she had someone paint in response to his request.

Father Lizewski preached about St. Faustina and described this image, which includes the words, “Jesus, I trust in you.” The pastor linked trust with surrender. He said the white rays streaming from Jesus’ chest represent becoming God’s child through baptism, and the red rays represent “his suffering and death on the cross.”

The rays are “blended together,” Father Lizewski added. He noted that worshippers here were joining people across the diocese, nation and world that day; “we’re all connected.” He spoke of praying for others and of sharing the Catholic faith.

Speaking of St. Faustina’s vision of hell, Father Lizewski asked what the remedy is.

His answer: Divine Mercy.