Celebrating the Feast of Divine Mercy

This Sunday is Divine Mercy Sunday!


Jesus said to St. Faustina "The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous; the red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls. These two rays issued forth from the depths of My most tender Mercy at that time when My agonizing Heart was opened by a lance on the Cross....Fortunate is the one who will dwell in their shelter, for the just hand of God shall not lay hold of him."


Here are several ideas that I have gathered for celebrating the feast...

Listen to/Read Stories of St. Faustina and Divine Mercy

For the Littles:

Holy Heroes has a series of CDs on the lives of the saints called Glory Stories. They are perfect for listening to in the car, and have lessons for adults too! For this feast listen to the story of St. Faustina.

To purchase Holy Heros Glory Stories click here

  

I absolutely LOVE this children's book about St. Faustina and the Divine Mercy Image by David Previtali. Unfortunately, it is no longer in print so most copies are QUITE expensive. If you happen to find one for a reasonable price, don't hesitate, just buy it!

EWTN has a wonderful DVD series of saint stories called My Catholic Family. In this particular DVD the parents teach their children about Divine Mercy.

To preview this DVD visit EWTN Kids

EWTN also has this DVD in which St. Fautina teaches children about Divine Mercy and how to pray the chaplet.

Father Lovasik has written a fabulous book called The Works of Mercy. This would be a perfect book to read and teach children about God's Mercy and about BEING merciful. It is also quite IN-expensive

For adults

Read The Diary of St. Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul (my favorite section of this book is the one on Faustina's Eucharistic reflections. It is at the very end of the book)

Read about the life of St. Faustina and the History/Message of Divine Mercy

Color Pictures and Make Crafts

Here are a couple of links to my FAVORITE coloring pages pertaining to the Feast of Divine Mercy

I just LOVE this Divine Mercy Icon coloring page by Charlotte over at Waltzing Matilda. It is the perfect outline for making your own mosaic (just cut up several pieces of paper, in a variety of colors, and glue all the little pieces to the picture).


(I equally love this stained glass window coloring page of the Divine Mercy Image from the coloring book: Fenestrae Fidei: A Coloring Companion for Catholic Mosaic. However, it is not a free print out...but it is only $9.99 and worth every penny! It includes 48 stained glass style pictures of the saints and major Feasts of the Church)

This picture was found at Shower of Roses, my new favorite Catholic blog.

You can also find a coloring page for St. Faustina, the Mercy Image, and JPII, as well as a couple of word searches at Divine Mercy Kids.






I think that this is a perfect craft for little ones.

Visit Make Music Praying Twice for FREE print outs and the full tutorial here

Eat!(after all it is a FEAST-DAY)

Serve foods that are red and blue to represent the rays of light (which in turn represent the blood and water that flowed from the pierced side of Christ).

I think these two ideas are so beautifully clever!

Mercy Pancakes!

Doesn't this cheesecake look just DIVINE?!


*For these and more amazing food ideas visit Catholic Cuisine


Pray!

Set up a sacred space with the Divine Mercy Image as your centerpiece.

 
Decorate with a vase filled with roses/flowers (half red and half white/blue).

Pray the Mercy Chaplet as a family (you may wish to pray this during the 3:00 Mercy hour...the hour that Jesus died on the Cross).

*To burn a free CD of the Mercy Chaplet (Chanted) click here.

Practice one or more of the spiritual or corporal works of mercy as a family ("The first Sunday after Easter is the Feast of Mercy, but there must also be acts of mercy...I demand from you deeds of mercy, which are to arise out of love for Me." Diary, 742).

Works of Mercy, by the Master of Alkmaar

Have a lovely Feast day!!!



Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion — inexhaustible, look kindly upon 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.

Divine Mercy Novena...Pray With Us!!!

Today is Good Friday. It marks the beginning of the Easter Triduum and "day 1" of the Divine Mercy Novena.

for the history of this image click here.

My Mr and I have a great devotion to The Divine Mercy Message (as revealed to St. Faustina). In college, we were blessed to be able to visit the Divine mercy shrine in Poland (!!!) and St. Faustina's tomb. Several years later, we were engaged before Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament in the Mother-house of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception (an order of priests dedicated to spreading the devotion of Divine Mercy). We were married by a friend and priest (Fr. Mark) from the same order. And at the tail end of our honeymoon we visited the National Shrine of Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, MA.

These days, we TRY to remember to say a short prayer during the 3 o'clock hour each day (for the souls in most need of God's mercy) and we also love to sing the divine mercy chaplet together as we put our littles to sleep at night. This year we will be praying the Divine Mercy novena as a family and would love for you to join us!

Our Lord asked St. Faustina to prepare for the feast of Divine Mercy (the Sunday following Easter) with nine consecutive days of prayer for souls. On each day of the novena we are asked to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet for a different group of souls:

Day 1: All mankind, especially sinners

Day 2: The souls of priests and religious

Day 3: All devout and faithful souls

Day 4: Those who do not believe in God and those who do not yet know Jesus

Day 5: Souls who have separated themselves from the Church

Day 6: Meek and humble souls and the souls of little children

Day 7: Souls who especially venerate and glorify His mercy

Day 8: Souls detained in purgatory

Day 9: Souls who have become lukewarm


I can remember praying this novena with my family each year as I was growing up and am so looking forward to starting this devotion in our home.

Resources:

• To listen to the chaplet (in song) click here. NOTE: I could not find the version that we usually pray but I think you can download it off of the MIC's website. I'll edit this post to include it in the next couple of days.
  
• For instructions on how to pray the chaplet, and for more information on the history and devotion, click here.
• For daily prayers of the novena click here.
• If you would like daily prayer reminders by E-mail, sign up here.

"Those who sincerely say ‘Jesus, I trust in You’ will find comfort in all their anxieties and fears."

 "There is nothing more man needs than Divine Mercy – that love which is benevolent, which is compassionate, which raises man above his weakness to the infinite heights to the holiness of God."

—Shrine of Divine Mercy in Cracow, Poland on June 7, 1997