Divine Mercy and the Pro-Life Movement
From the Eucharistic Apostles of the Divine Mercy:
A Universal Call to Mercy - The Beauty of Life and God's Mercy
The entire world is convulsing in an atmosphere of catastrophic peril. In a collage of terrorism, religious division, plague, famine, war, pornography, homosexuality, abortion, stem cell research, euthanasia, and moral indifference with human cloning on the horizon, we as a humanity have hardened our hearts to the authority of God. We have rejected His laws and replaced them with our own. We must act to restore God's authority over His creation and melt our hardened hearts.
On March 25, 2003, the Feast of the Incarnation of Christ in the womb of Our Blessed Mother, the Holy Father personally signed and granted to Eucharistic Apostles of The Divine Mercy a special Apostolic Blessing. Pope John Paul II encourages the whole world to join with ALL Eucharistic Apostles in recitation of the Divine Mercy Chaplet to "avoid Divine Chastisement," and to eradicate the "culture of death" throughout the world. (Click here to see the pro-life Apostolic Blessing for those reciting the Divine Mercy Chaplet.)
This "universal call to mercy" takes on monumental importance in fulfilling the mandate of Jesus Christ to St. Faustina Kowalska. Our Lord told her that, "Mankind will not have peace until it turns to trust to My mercy" (Diary of Saint Faustina, # 300). The timing of the Papal Blessing is apparent to those aware that we live in a world in desperate need of God's Mercy. Christ Himself dictated the Divine Mercy Chaplet to St. Faustina as a prayer to God the Father; it is a Eucharistic prayer that mitigates God's anger. We know from Sacred Scripture that Christ never forgave an unrepentant sinner, and we must ask for mercy humbly and obediently. The Holy Father wrote in the encyclical The Mercy of God, "The Church proclaims the truth of God's mercy revealed in the crucified and risen Christ, and she professes it in various ways. Furthermore, she seeks to practice mercy towards mercy through people, and she sees in this an indispensable condition for solicitude for a better and 'more human' world, today and tomorrow. However, at no time and in no historical period - especially at a moment as critical as our own - can the Church forget the prayer that is a cry for the mercy of God amid the many forms of evil which weigh upon humanity and threaten it" (Dives in Misericordia, #VIII, Para 15).
When we approach our loving Father in obedience and offer the merits of His Son's bitter Passion and death for our sins, He responds with an outpouring of grace. We have within our grasp the means of effectuating a great Miracle of Divine Mercy for the entire world. We must cooperate as a human race with the Divine Will of Our Father and pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy as often as our station in life permits. Our Lord told St. Faustina, "Say unceasingly the chaplet that I have taught you. Whoever will recite it will receive great mercy at the hour of death. Priests will recommend it to sinners as their last hope of salvation. Even if there were a sinner most hardened, if he were to recite this chaplet only once, he would receive grace from My infinite mercy. I desire that the whole world know My infinite mercy. I desire to grant unimaginable graces to those souls who trust in My mercy" (Diary, 687).
We must cooperate, and we must act; the outcome of this "Universal Call to Mercy" will be a great change of hearts in all of humanity. "A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances" (Ezek 36:26-7). For it is in the heart where change must take place, and it is through trust in God that this action will take place. When we, as a human race, reach out to God with "childlike trust," He will respond because He has promised us this that He would. Our Lord told St. Faustina, "The graces of My mercy are drawn by one vessel only, and that is - trust. The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive" (Diary, 1578).
We are currently engaged in a spiritual battle for the hearts and souls of every person on earth. Our mission, like St. Faustina's, is God and Souls. We will either live in a pagan world completely devoid of God and His authority, or we will live in a world where the Judeo-Christian ethic is the basis of moral and legal authority. As a nation, we have already seen the initial and gradual divorce of our society from anything that is of God. We need to act and address the issue, and the time to do so is now.
We ask that you assist our efforts and pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet at least once daily; pray it with childlike trust for all your intentions, and also for mothers contemplating abortion, the infants dying in the wombs, victims of euthanasia, stem cell research, cloning, and for a change in the hearts of our elected political leaders.
If you would like a prayer card with the Papal Blessing on the front and the Divine Mercy Chaplet on the back, or if you are involved in Respect Life or Project Rachel activities in your parish, please send us an e-mail with your name and address, and we will send you a beautiful full-sized copy of the Papal Blessing for your parish. We do ask that a donation of any size be made back to the ministry in order that we may continue our work.
Eucharistic Apostles of The Divine Mercy is a lay outreach ministry of the Congregation of Marians of the Immaculate Conception based in Stockbridge, MA. We have had the honor of receiving four separate Apostolic Blessings on our work from the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II. Please review other aspects of our website for information on our Divine Mercy cenacles, recitation of the Divine Mercy Chaplet for the sick and dying during Eucharistic Adoration, and more. For additional information regarding the ministry, call us (outside the USA) at 813-681-3699; or toll free 1-877-380-0727 if in the USA.
Additional Resources:
"Rachel Weep No More" reveals how Divine Mercy is available to all of us. This booklet is a great source of hope for anyone who has been involved with abortion. It provides a plan for cutting through the pain and lies, acknowledging the truth, and receiving God's powerful healing from the effects of this tragedy. Norma McCorvey (formerly "Jane Roe" of Roe vs. Wade) tells her amazing story about getting out of the culture of death. Let this booklet show you the amazing power of Divine Mercy. Order this resource online or by calling 1-877-380-0727.
Text of Blessing:
Calling to Remembrance
the participation in Our Lord's Agony in Gethsemani of
Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska of The Most Blessed Sacrament,
who at least thrice in her lifetime willingly accepted the violent pains that convulsed her for three hours and at times caused her to lose consciousness, as allowed by Jesus in order to offer reparation to God for infants murdered in their mothers' wombs (Diary #1276)
To All Members of The Eucharistic Apostles of the Divine Mercy
-A Lay Ministry Outreach of the Congregation of Marians
of The Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary-
and
To All The Faithful Wordlwide, who join them in offering
The Divine Mercy Chaplet -revealed to St. M. Faustina
For Averting Divine Chastisement-
-for mothers, that they not abort their offspring;
- for infants in danger of being put to death in the womb;
-for a change of heart of providers of abortions and of their collaborators;
- for human victims of stem cell research, genetic manipulation, cloning and euthanasia;
-and for all entrusted with the government of peoples,
that they may promote the "Culture of Life" so as to put to an end to the "Culture of Death,"
I impart,
as a token of a Superabundance of Divine Graces,
My Heartfelt Apostolic Blessing.
Given at the Vatican March, A.D. 2003,
Solemnity of the Incarnation of The Divine Word
In the 25th year of My Pontificate
Joannes Paulus II
Introduction to the Life of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska:
St. Maria Faustina Kowalska of the Most Blessed Sacrament, commonly known as Saint Faustina, was born in Glogowiec, Poland, on August 25, 1905. The third of ten children from a poor family, Saint Faustina had little formal education, because she had to work to support her family. After applying to various convents in Warsaw, she was finally accepted by the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy on August 1, 1925, and, on April 30, 1926, she became an initiate.
Facts:
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Feast Day: October 5
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Type of Feast: Commemoration
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Dates: August 25, 1905 (Glogowiec, Poland)-October 5, 1938 (Krakow, Poland)
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Birth Name: Helena Kowalska
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Patron of: Mercy
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Beatification: April 18, 1993, by Pope John Paul II
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Canonization: April 30, 2000 (Divine Mercy Sunday, the Sunday after Easter 2000), by Pope John Paul II
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Prayers: Divine Mercy Chaplet; Divine Mercy Novena
The Life of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska:
Beginning on February 22, 1931, and through her death in 1938, Saint Faustina received revelations and visits from Christ. In 1934, she began recording these in a diary, Divine Mercy in My Soul.
On Good Friday 1937, Christ appeared to Saint Faustina and dictated to her the prayers that He wished her to pray in a novena from Good Friday through the Octave of Easter, now known as Divine Mercy Sunday. These prayers seem intended primarily for her private use, but the novena has become very popular. It is often combined with the Divine Mercy Chaplet, which can also be prayed throughout the year. (Saint Faustina especially recommended that the chaplet be prayed on Fridays at 3:00 P.M., to commemorate the Death of Christ on the Cross.)
Saint Faustina died on October 5, 1938, in Krakow, Poland, of tuberculosis. The depths of her devotion to Christ and to His Divine Mercy only became know after her death, when her diary was revealed by her spiritual director, Father Michał Sopoćko. Father Sopoćko promoted the devotion to the Divine Mercy, but the devotion and the publication of Saint Faustina's writing was temporarily suppressed by the Vatican, because of possibly heretical misinterpretations.
As archbishop of Krakow, Karol Wojtyla (later Pope John Paul II) became devoted to Saint Faustina. Through his efforts, her works were once again allowed to be published, the Divine Mercy devotion became quite popular, and the cause of her sainthood was opened in 1965.
A miracle was attributed to Saint Faustina in March 1981, when Maureen Digan of Roslindale, Massachusetts, was cured of lymphedema, an incurable disease, after praying at Saint Faustina's tomb. The certification of the miracle led to Saint Faustina's beatification on April 18, 1993. A priest who had heart damage was cured on October 5, 1995, and this led to Saint Faustina's canonization on April 30, 2000—Divine Mercy Sunday that year.