|
|
|
Monthly
Articles |
 |
| |
See also: Out of the Wounds of Christ was born the Chaplet of Divine Mercy
See also: God's Sacrament of Marriage
See also: Have You Met My Son? By Fr. John Harris
See also: Prepare for the Afterlife
See also: The Third Hour - Intercessory Prayer
See also: Angels are Pure Spirits
See also: Science, Religion & the Human Genome
See also: How Do You Know If You Have Faith?
See also: The Fool Has Said There Is No God
See also: The Virgin of Nazareth
See also: Love Speaks - Our Lady & St.Faustina
See also: Divine Mercy and Our Church
See also: "Glory Be" Novena
See also: When the last day comes, you shall be judged on this..
|
The Image of Divine Mercy is a Living Image |
The Image of Divine Mercy is a Living Image
In this article I hope to convey my belief that the Divine Mercy Image is a living Image. By this I mean to illustrate that the Image is alive. This Icon of Jesus is much more than just a religious painting and this is supported by many passages from the Diary. In the revelation of 1934, He called the Image a “vessel” to help people receive graces from the very source of God's Mercy. In the vision of December 1935, He described it as a tool which He Himself uses to grant graces. Therefore the Image is probably the most important element in the whole Devotion. But be aware that seeking mercy from His image of Divine Mercy without living mercy in one's own life may have the opposite effect. Jesus said: “This Image is also to be a reminder of the demands of My mercy, because even the strongest faith, is of no avail without works” (742) This is also confirmed by Gospel (James 2.14) "Take the case my brothers, of someone who has never done a single good act but claims he has faith. Will that faith save him"?
Jesus requires Devotion to His Divine Mercy to be a renewal of Christian life and therefore you must be sure your devotion to His Mercy is not hypocrisy. Thus the Image points clearly to the duty of living mercy in our lives, knowing we can receive His mercy at will from this vessel, or source of mercy.
The first Image of Jesus as Divine Mercy appeared to Helen Kowalska a 25 year old Polish girl who had taken the name Faustina when she joined the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in August 1925, we know her today as Saint Faustina.
Saint Faustina was in her room in the convent in Plock, sometime late in the evening of 22nd February 1931. Her description of the momentous event is recorded in her diary of that day. She said, in the evening she was suddenly aware of a figure appearing in her room, she recognised the figure as Jesus, dressed in a white garment. (Diary No.47)
His right hand was raised in the gesture of a blessing, the left one was touching His breast where two bright clusters of rays starting from His heart and spreading out as they descended to the floor - one cluster was red, the other pale, showing as pale blue in the original painting, as described by her to the first artist who painted this image
On this first of many appearances of Jesus the Son of God to Sr.Faustina He requested her to have an image painted as she then saw Him. An image He told her that would be a means for great graces to be bestowed to all who prayed before it and asked for mercy for themselves and others. He told her it should have the signature "Jesus I trust in You" which implied, this should be repeated meaningfully by all who seek graces from it.
Jesus wanted this image of Himself as Divine Mercy to be honoured, throughout the world. And the importance of this was repeated again and again during His visits to Sr.Faustina. He also added some extraordinary promises connected with the worship of the image.
Some days later Sister Faustina told her confessor about this but he did not understand her unusual confession and interpreted the Saviour's wish as referring to the spiritual level, asking Faustina to paint the divine image in her soul by means of good deeds. But Jesus wanted something else. Soon after the confession, he addressed her again repeating His wish to have the image of the Divine Mercy painted (Diary 491).When she mentioned it to her Superior, her Superior asked for proof that this request really came from Jesus and did not originate in Sr. Faustina's imagination. The Saint asked Jesus for a proof but Jesus replied that the extraordinary graces which He would grant through this image would be proof for the world. (Diary 511)
In Lent 1933 Jesus emphasised the importance of painting the Image to save many souls. He told Sister Faustina that she would be responsible for failing to save many souls if she neglected having the Image painted. When the work on the painting started, Jesus asked Sister Faustina to have this Image of the Divine Mercy displayed in public on the first Sunday after Easter. [Diary 88] Sister Faustina's spiritual director, Fr. Michael Sopocko asked about the inscription required on the painting. Faustina answered that Christ wanted the words "Jesus I trust in You" which had been given to her in the first apparition in February 1931. She also emphasised to Fr. Sopocko that Jesus also explained that the image was to be a vessel through which all souls would receive graces as if from a fountain of God's mercy [Diary 327].
At the same time another revelation took place when Jesus explained the meaning of His gaze or facial expression on or from the image. He said “My gaze from this Image is like My gaze from the cross, meaning a gaze of sadness for the world” [Diary 326]. Jesus also said to her at one stage that the greatness of the image was not in the expertise of the artist who painted it but in the graces that flowed from it to those who prayed to it, and trusted in His Divine Mercy. [Diary 313] Father Sopocko also asked Faustina to explain the meaning of the rays. During prayer Jesus told her that the two streams of rays denoted the Blood and Water which ran from His side when it was opened by a lance on the cross. The pale rays stands for the Water which cleanses the soul of past sins, and the red rays represent His Blood which He shed for the renewal of souls. [Diary 299].
On the 26th of October 1934 a very special revelation of the Image took place. It happened in the convent gardens in Vilnius at 5.50 p.m. on Friday, and lasted about four minutes. Jesus was high in the sky above the Convent looking the very same as the original Image in Plock in 1931.The rays of love and mercy emanating from His heart were covering the Convent in Vilnius and then spreading out over the whole world. [Diary 87].
On the 5th of November 1934 Jesus confirmed the importance of the Image being solemnly blessed and venerated on the first Sunday after Easter [Diary 341].
Extraordinary Connection of the Image to the Eucharist
In November 1934 Faustina experienced a revelation which connected the Image to the Eucharist for the first time. During Mass, when the Blessed Sacrament was exposed before Communion Saint Faustina saw the rays red and pale, the same as in the image, coming out from the Sacred Host.
On the 20th of December 1934 Saint Faustina had a vision where she saw Jesus exposed in the Blessed Sacrament and being venerated by Father Sopocko and many other priests and religious of various orders and great crowds of ordinary people. The same rays, as in the Image came out of the Host and then passed through the hands of Fr. Sopocko and then through the hands of the clergy and from their hands to the people, and then they returned to the Host [Diary 344]. At the end of January 1935, while waiting for confession, Sister Faustina saw the rays coming out from the monstrance and spreading throughout the Church. Their appearance was bright and transparent like crystal. The revelation lasted the whole service [Diary 370].
On Good Friday, the 19th of April 1935, at 3 p.m. When Faustina entered the chapel she heard the words: “I desire that the Image be publicly honoured” (414). Then she saw Jesus dying on the cross suffering greatly and the rays of mercy coming out of His heart and spreading out over the whole world [Diary 414]
An Extraordinary Occurrence
The Image of the Divine Mercy was publicly displayed for the first time at the Mother of Divine Mercy Shrine in Vilnius on 26th, 27th, 28th of April 1935 during the celebrations concluding the Jubilee Year of the anniversary of the Redemption of the World. The Image of Jesus the Divine Mercy was placed beside Our Lady the Mother of Divine Mercy, as if the Mother was giving her Son once again to the world on the anniversary of His death on the Cross, which is why Divine Mercy is available to the world.
In fact at the beginning of the weekend when Fr. Sopocko gave a sermon about the Divine Mercy, Saint Faustina, who was there, saw the painting come alive and the rays went out over the whole congregation and pierced the hearts of all the people there. (Diary 417) Then on the Sunday which was Low Sunday the 28th of April 1935, as the Mass ended, Fr. Sopocko took the Blessed Sacrament to bless the congregation. But what Saint Faustina saw was Christ as He is represented in the Image of Divine Mercy, blessing all the people present. The rays once again spread out over them and then she saw the rays continue to spread out over the whole world. On the solemnity of Corpus Christi, the 20th of June 1935, the painting of the Divine Mercy Image was placed in front of the altar. When the Blessed Sacrament was put on the altar, the rays from the Image went through the Sacred Host and spread out over the world. At that moment Faustina heard Jesus say that the rays of mercy would pass through her to the world, just as they had passed through the Host [Diary 441].
On the 29 June of the same year Faustina saw Jesus again, as He is represented in the picture. He expressed a desire that a new congregation should be founded to spread devotion to His Divine Mercy (Diary 437).
On the 27th of October 1935 the feast of Christ the King, Faustina saw Jesus again in the same way as He is represented in the picture. It happened during a mass while she was praying that He might be beloved by all the world and that His Divine Mercy would reach into every soul. (Diary 500)
In the last quarter of 1935 three more revelations concerning the Image of the Divine Mercy took place. In December 1935, Fr.Sopocko got a message from Jesus through Sister Faustina telling him to move the painting from the privacy of the convent to the public church. This was to enable the public to have access to the image and by veneration of it obtain all the graces that would flow from it. (Diary 570).
|
 |
| |
|
|
|
|
