Feast of Mercy / Second Sunday of Easter

I am always in awe of God's goodness and today is a reminder of just how good He always is to me. In spite of the fact that I am a sinner and that for my sins he died the most horrible death possible, still he loves me and shows me His mercy time and time again. No matter how many times I fall down he reaches out to me with his merciful love. I need only to repent of my sins and show His mercy to others. This message of God's mercy was made known to a saintly Polish nun around 1930.

THE MESSAGE OF DIVINE MERCY
from Saint sister Maria Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938)
The Lord Jesus entrusted a great mission to a Polish nun, sister Maria Faustina Kowalska, from the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy, Saint Faustina, who had complete trust in God - to proclaim His message of mercy to the whole world. Her mission was to introduce new prayers and forms of devotion to the Divine Mercy, which are to remind us of the forgotten truth of our faith - of God’s merciful love for every person. In the message, Merciful God reveals Jesus Christ the Savior, as the Father of love and Divine Mercy, especially to the most unfortunate, faulted and sinful.

Pope John Paul II chose the occasion of St. Faustina's canonization on April 30, 2000, to declare the Second Sunday of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday for the universal Church. The Great Mercy Pope died on April 2, 2005, at 9:37 p.m., which was the vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday that year, as thousands of the faithful prayed the Rosary in Saint Peter’s Square — thus ending a reign of more than a quarter century. The Holy Father‘s last gift to the Church was the Regina Caeli Message he had written in advance for Divine Mercy Sunday, April 3 (the Second Sunday of Easter). It seems prophetic to me that our saintly former Pontiff was called home on the eve of the Feast of Mercy. Below is the Vatican link to the homily of Pope Benedict on Mercy Sunday last year

HOLY MASS ON THE THIRD ANNIVERSARY

OF THE DEATH OF THE SERVANT OF GOD JOHN PAUL II
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
St Peter's SquareWednesday, 2 April 2008

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20080402_anniv-morte-gpii_en.html

For more information on Sister Faustina and the Divine Mercy message please go to this link on my website
http://sites.google.com/site/faithfulcatholics/Home/divine-mercy