Divine Mercy Is For The Whole World

The Great Mercy Pope

Pope John Paul II, both in his teaching and personal life, strove to live and teach the message of Divine Mercy. As the great Mercy Pope, he wrote an encyclical on Divine Mercy:

"The Message of Divine Mercy has always been near and dear to me… which I took with me to the See of Peter and which it in a sense forms the image of this Pontificate."

In his writings and homilies, he has described Divine Mercy as the answer to the world’s problems and the message of the third millennium. He beatified and canonized Sr. Maria Faustina Kowalska, the nun associated with the message, and he did it in Rome and not in Poland to underscore that Divine Mercy is for the whole world.

Establishing Divine Mercy Sunday for the Entire Church

When Pope John Paul canonized Sr. Faustina (making her St. Faustina), he also, on the same day, surprised the entire world by establishing Divine Mercy Sunday (the feast day associated with the message) as a feast day for the entire Church. The feast day falls on the Second Sunday of the Easter season. On that day, Pope John Paul II declared, "This is the happiest day of my life."

Entrusting the World to Divine Mercy

In 2002, the Pope entrusted the whole world to Divine Mercy when he consecrated the International Shrine of The Divine Mercy in Lagiewniki, a suburb of Krakow in Poland. This is where St. Faustina’s mortal remains are entombed. The saint lived in a convent nearby. The Pope himself remembers as a young man working in the Solvay Quarry, just a few meters from the present-day Shrine. He also says that he had been thinking about Sr. Faustina for a long time when he wrote his encyclical on Divine Mercy. Further, the Holy Father has frequently quoted from the Diary of St. Faustina and has prayed The Chaplet of The Divine Mercy at the saint’s tomb.

Beyond the Life of John Paul II

Given all these connections to Divine Mercy and St. Faustina, is it any wonder that Pope John Paul II died on the Vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday (the evening before the feast day), which fell that year on April 3. It is also no surprise that the Great Mercy Pope left us a message for Divine Mercy Sunday, which was read on the feast day by a Vatican official to the faithful in St. Peter’s after a Mass that had been celebrated for the repose of the soul of the Pope.
Repeatedly Pope John Paul II has written and spoken about the need for us to turn to the mercy of God as the answer to the specific problems of our times. He has placed a strong and significant focus on the Divine Mercy message and devotion throughout his pontificate that will carry the Church long after his death.

Divine Mercy

He Abandoned Himself Completely to Mary.

I came across the most inspiring article today regarding Pope John Paul II and  I just wanted to share it with you. 

God bless you.

By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist   for Living His Life Abundantly, Women of Grace

The physician who treated Pope John Paul II throughout his life said the dying pontiff refused all pain medication and, at the end of his life, abandoned himself completely to Mary.

The Catholic News Agency (CNA) is reporting that Italian physician Renato Buzzonetti, who served as Pope John Paul II’s personal physiciam from 1978 until his death, described the pope’s heroic suffering during a recent interview with L’Osservatore Romano.
When he was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1991, Buzzonetti said he reassured the pope that “no one ever died” from a shaky hand. But as the world watched, the disease gradually worsened.
“The Pope’s life was more complicated later because of the painful joint symptoms that were particularly intense in his right knee, which prevented John Paul II from standing up and walking briskly,” Buzzonetti said. “These were two symptoms that, put together and intertwined, made it necessary for him to use a cane and later a wheelchair.”
Despite the pain, the Holy Father “never asked for sedatives, not even in his final stages,” he said. “It was above all the pain of a man who was enclosed, prostrate on a bed or in a chair, who had lost physical autonomy. He couldn’t do anything by himself, and eventually he was completely physically disabled: he could not walk, he couldn’t speak other than with a weak voice, his breathing was labored and short, he ate with increasing difficulty.”
Buzzonetti spoke about the final days of the pope’s life, when he was forced to perform a tracheotomy that would take away his ability to speak.
“Upon getting himself up after the anesthesia, after having given his consent, he realized he could no longer speak,” Buzzonetti said. “Suddenly he found himself facing an extremely difficult reality. On a little chalkboard he wrote, ‘What have you done to me. Totus tuus (totally yours)’.  It was the realization of the new state in which he had fallen, suddenly exalted by the act of trust in Mary.”
Buzzonetti said the last few days with John Paul II were especially intense. “I felt extremely tense because of the great responsibility that was on my shoulders … My colleagues and I were aware that the disease was … in its final phase. Our battle had been waged with patience, humility and prudence, which was extremely difficult because we knew it would end in defeat.”
The death of Pope John Paul II “was the death of man divested of everything, who had lived through times of struggle and of glory and who was interiorly stripped of everything to meet the Lord and return the keys of the Kingdom,” Buzzonetti said. “At that hour of pain and astonishment, I had the sensation of being on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. The story was reset, as Christ was preparing to call the new Peter.”
  http://www.womenofgrace.com

Fullness of Life

Man is called to a fullness of life which far exceeds the dimensions of his earthly existence, because it consists in sharing the very life of God. 1

As I begin this New Year 2010, I am filled with hope and a renewed sense of purpose;


For I feel the presence of the Almighty within me, filling me up, strengthening me.


Gratitude has become a close friend;
I find joy every time I see her face in the world around me.


Beauty has revealed herself to me on the snow covered peaks of the Eastern Sierra mountain range;
She has made herself known in the orange and purple sunsets above the Northern California coastline,
And she has broken bread with me as I shared the love and laughter of family and friends over holiday meals.


As I begin this New Year 2010, I am blessed to see all the ways the Almighty shows himself to those who seek his face.


May the Lord of all hold you close to himself this day,
And may you find comfort in the warmth of his most Sacred Heart.

(1 )Encyclical Letter of John Pau II, the Gospel of Life; Evangelium Vitae