Friday 5 October 2012

Saint Faustina - Divine Mercy prayer



Saint of the day: 5th October

Saint Faustina
http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.  
Mystic. Foundress of the Divine Mercy movement. Saint Faustina was born Helen Kowalska in the village of Glogowiec, Lodz Province in Poland on August 25, 1905. After hearing the Lord's calling from the age of seven she was accepted into the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy as Sister Mary Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament, in Warsaw on 1 August, 1925.

In 1928, she took her vows as a nun, and died just ten years later. She was beatified in 1993 and canonised on April 30, 2000 - the first saint of the New Millennium..

St Faustina experienced a vision in 1931, in which she saw Jesus clad in a white garment with His right hand raised in blessing. His left hand was touching his garment in the area of his heart, from where two large rays came forth, one red and one white. Jesus said: "Paint an image according to the pattern you see with the signature:- 'Jesus, I trust in You.' - I Promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish.'

After this experience St Faustina devised the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy, based on the prayer she recalled from her vision:

Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood, 
Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, 
our Lord Jesus Christ, 
in atonement for my sins and for those of the entire world. 
For the sake of His sorrowful passion,
have mercy on us and on the whole world.

There are now many paintings of this vision and the daily devotion to Divine Mercy takes place in churches around the world at 3pm

Saint Faustina's congregation, the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy look after the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Lagiewniki, Poland. In the United States, the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy opened their first house outside Poland in Boston in 1988. There is also the National Shrine of Divine Mercy in Eden Hill, Massachusetts, run by the Marians of the Immaculate Conception.



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