Divine Mercy Parish celebrates Divine Mercy

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press

BLACKSTONE – Catholics celebrating their parish’s feast day for the first time rejoiced in Jesus – and their pastor, bishop and community – on Divine Mercy Sunday.
Divine Mercy Parish observed its first feast day last weekend, having been formed last summer from St. Paul and St. Theresa parishes in Blackstone and St. Augustine Parish in Millville. The parish uses St. Paul’s campus.
Bishop McManus celebrated Mass for the Second Sunday of Easter, the Sunday of Divine Mercy, which drew an estimated 150 people. The pastor, Father John L. Larochelle, preached.
Then the parish Fellowship Ministry served a lunch and Father Larochelle held a Holy Hour with exposition and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, during which the Divine Mercy Chaplet was prayed and participants could go to confession. They venerated a relic of St. Faustina Kowalska, the Polish nun who spread the Divine Mercy message she received from Jesus in visions in the 1930s. At his request, she had his image painted.
Philip Dunlavey, originally from St. Paul’s and a leader of the bereavement ministry, said the first class relic was given to him in 2015 by Father Roger Wojcik, a priest who had worked with Pope John Paul II and was then living in Connecticut. Mr. Dunlavey had told Father Wojcik about praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet, when they were making arrangements for the funeral of a St. Paul’s parishioner.
In the past, Mr. Dunlavey lent the relic to another parish for Divine Mercy Sunday and to prayer groups. But last Sunday, he said, he donated it to Divine Mercy Parish.  
“Is that a coincidence or is that a God-incidence?” he asked, in reference to getting this relic long before his parish was named Divine Mercy.
“I picked Divine Mercy because there (were) other parishes coming here,” Joanne Curtis, originally from St. Theresa’s, said of how parishioners suggested names for their new parish.
“We’re all in this together,” she said. Gesturing to the people gathered for lunch, she commented, “Look how happy they are.”
“The community gathering is spectacular – a lot of blending of the three parishes,” said Deborah Campano, originally from St. Paul’s, noting how people were dining together. She said she attended the 10:30 a.m. Mass, not her usual choice, because the bishop was coming. She would have liked to hear him preach, but Father Larochelle did a great job, she said.
“It feels really good to be home – it’s our new home,” John Marino, formerly of St. Theresa’s, said of Divine Mercy Parish. “It’s alive. There’s young people. It’s nice to have the bishop coming.” The merge was
worth it; “it taught us a little something about loss and rebirth.”
“It’s coming together beautifully,” said his wife, Kristen.
“I just think … the merging has been a blessing in disguise, because it brought all of us” together in one church, said Toni Harvey, pastoral associate, who came from St. Theresa’s. “Other than Christ, Father John is why it’s been working. His heart is just filled with compassion” for everyone. “You see Christ in his homilies. You hear Christ in his homilies.”
Father Larochelle preached about Divine Mercy, using material from St. Faustina’s Diary and from the Gospel.
He spoke of the blood and water flowing from Jesus’ side on the cross in connection with the Divine Mercy image which shows red and pale rays coming from Jesus’ heart.  
We are called to be the face of mercy, Father Larochelle said, adding that the only answer to the senseless violence of mass shootings is Jesus’ mercy, which we encounter in the Eucharist.
The Eucharist – and Father Larochelle – are reasons why Kim Boucher keeps coming to Divine Mercy Parish.
The pastor brings himself to the people’s level with his self-effacing humor, and, “in doing that, he brings the people up to the level of God,” she said.
“I believed in Jesus,” she said, explaining how she got here. “I prayed every day. I didn’t go to church … for about 35 years.”
Then family members died, she was diagnosed with cancer and was given the Divine Mercy image and much spiritual encouragement from a friend. She decided to find a church.
“I put it in the GPS,” to get directions to a particular church, she said. “I pulled up here (at St. Paul’s) and I said, ‘This isn’t where I was going.’”
But she ended up joining and seemed delighted that Divine Mercy was chosen for the new parish’s name. She said she got a Divine Mercy image from St. Theresa’s Church and that she says daily the words on the image, “Jesus, I trust in you.”
“We always looked at this image, but didn’t know where it came from,” said Darlene Doire, who previously attended St. Paul’s. She learned about St. Faustina and now gives away Divine Mercy cards.
“It’s so exciting to have the bishop come” for the parish’s first Divine Mercy Sunday, she said, and also raved about Father Larochelle.
“This church is ... using the internet,” she said. There are prayer groups and activities to join.
 “This is what it’s all about – spreading Divine Mercy,” she said. “That’s why we have a parish called Divine Mercy.”