Catholics have been celebrating Divine Mercy Sunday on the second Sunday of Easter since the canonization of Sr. Faustina in the year 2000 by Pope John Paul II. The image of the Divine Mercy revealed to St. Faustina represents the Risen Christ’s mercy and grace for the whole world.

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, my thoughts higher than your thoughts” Isaiah 55:9

“The two rays,’ Jesus Himself explained to St. Faustina, “represent blood and water.”  (Diary, 299).  The blood is Christ’s blood shed for us on Good Friday and His Body & Blood in the Holy Eucharist. The water represents Baptism and the Holy Spirit.

The Divine Mercy image reminds us of Jesus’ great love demonstrated through His sacrifice and resurrection. The image reinforces that Jesus is the Lord of mercy in whom we can trust. Often the words, “Jesus, I trust in You” is displayed below this image.

Powerful and life-giving words but much easier said than done.

Trusting someone can be a difficult as it is but trusting in God is even more of a challenge. I have a hard time trusting someone I don’t know. So in order for me to say, “Jesus, my Lord and my God, I trust in You,” I have to be in a relationship with Him.  This takes discipline, time and prayer. And it is not always easy.  But in Jesus I can trust in God’s will rather than my own. Whenever we pray the Our Father, we ask for God’s kingdom to come and God’s will to be done, but I must admit many times I am not always conscious of what I am really praying. I need to trust more.

Praying for God’s will to be done has been particularly difficult in my grief but all I can do is trust in Him. It is these prayers that are often the hardest to pray yet are the most powerful. I take solace in the fact that God knows better than I do.

Another powerful prayer that I love to pray is the Divine Mercy Chaplet [how to pray] because it reminds me that God’s ways are different to our advantage. The Divine Mercy Chaplet closes with, “Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly on us, and increase Your mercy in us, that in difficult moments, we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence, submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself.”

It is that last line that I need to pray whole-heartedly every day. We as Christians need to pray for every day – seek God’s will above anything else in this life.

In praying the chaplet, we are not only are we seeking to trust in God and His will but also His unending mercy for us. Trust in God’s love for you. Trust in His mercy. We all have someone in our life that we need to seek forgiveness from or to forgive. Through God’s divine mercy, let us be merciful to one another.

It’s still the Easter season. Keep celebrating. Keep praying. Keep trusting.

Praying for you,

Rachel