Trad Hate for the Divine Mercy devotion is so cringe to me. Yes, I know all about the problematic parts of St. Faustina’s diary, and there are many problems. Saints make mistakes, even to the point of sin. It happens. Sister Lucia made mistakes too. Also, it’s not the fault of St. Faustina if the Divine Mercy has overtaken devotion to the Sacred Heart, and/or diminution of the Rosary… none of that should have happened. If you are a regular reader of this space, you know of my ardent devotion to the Sacred Heart, AND His Eucharistic Heart, AND Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, AND the Most Holy Rosary. You can have ALL of these things, if you direct your will towards them, and act.
But the subject we are dealing with today is a fact, a revealed truth, not up for debate: Divine Mercy. You are free to reject St. Faustina’s revelations completely and remain a good Catholic, as they are private revelation. But the Divine Mercy itself is not private revelation, it’s Scriptural. The administration of Divine Mercy is the very business of the Church. It’s what She was built for. It’s why you’re aboard Her. (Fans of Star Trek TOS will recognize that device)
I also think it’s totally appropriate for this feast to occur on the Octave Day of Easter. It doesn’t mean the Octave Day of Easter has been suppressed… that’s like claiming that calling it Low Sunday or Dominica in Albis or Quasimodo diminishes the Octave. Furthermore, the TLM (1962) readings for today miraculously appear to be perfect selections to instruct us on the Divine Mercy, even though the old missal obviously pre-dates the institution of the feast. Have you ever noticed that? Yes, I said miraculous. God knows what he is doing.
EPISTLE I John 5:4-10. “Beloved: For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. And this is the victory which overcameth the world: Our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood, Jesus Christ: not by water only but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit which testifieth that Christ is the truth. And there are Three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. And there are three that give testimony on earth: the spirit and the water and the blood. And these three are one. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater. For this is the testimony of God, which is greater, because he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth in the Son of God hath the testimony of God in himself.”
How can you read that and not have the image of Divine Mercy come to mind?
Note that the Epistle and Gospel are both from St. John the Apostle.
GOSPEL John 20:19-31. “At that time, when it was late the same day, the first of the week, and the doors were shut, where the disciples were gathered together, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them: “Peace be to you.” And when he had said this, he shewed them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore were glad, when they saw the Lord. He said therefore to them again: “Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: “Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them: and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.” Now Thomas, one of the twelve, who is called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him: “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them: “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the place of the nails and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” And after eight days, again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst and said: “Peace be to you.” Then he said to Thomas: “Put in thy finger hither and see my hands. And bring hither the hand and put it into my side. And be not faithless, but believing.” Thomas answered and said to him: “My Lord and my God.” Jesus saith to him: “Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen and have believed.” Many other signs also did Jesus in the sight of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God: and that believing, you may have life in his name.”
So here we read, on Divine Mercy Sunday and the Octave Day of Easter, of the institution of the Sacrament of Confession. Is that not wholly appropriate? The preaching today inevitably focuses on St. Thomas, with the earlier portion of the Gospel ignored. Which is too bad, since the Sacrament of Confession is also largely ignored in the N.O. Church today, except for 3:00-3:15pm on Saturdays and by appointment only. A billion “Catholics” all over the world who think they don’t need Confession, who effectively reject it as a sacrament, wherefore rejecting the Divine Mercy. Woe to them. Christ’s offer of peace, cited twice in today’s Gospel, comes only through the Spirit, blood, and water of Divine Mercy, conferred by Grace.
Christ instructed Sister Faustina: “My daughter, tell the whole world about my inconceivable mercy. I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls and especially for poor sinners. On that day, the very depths of my tender mercy are opened…the divine floodgates through which grace flows are opened. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet…Mankind will not have peace until it turns to the font of my mercy.”
“even though its sins be as scarlet…” <raises hand>
Thanks be to God for His Divine Mercy.
It is completely and utterly false, blasphemous and insulting (in particular) to Our Lady, the holy Mother of God.
So Divine Mercy is false and blasphemous?
Yes, yes it is.
Sr. Faustina wrote that our Lord told her she was the purest of all creatures, that He was uniting Himself to her fuller than any other creature, that she would not be judged, etc.
Sr. Faustina was neither His Mother not the Immaculate Conception.
Perhaps she meant purest of all LIVING creatures.
Ambiguity – specifically – has no place in such matters; God does not confuse His Church via ambiguity. Nonsense.
Mark, I have no objection to the reality of the Divine Mercy. I do object to this particular devotion, in part because I object to most if not all “canonizations” since that dreadful Council. I am also profoundly suspicious of this because it was approved (after initially not being approved, if I recall correctly) by the man who gave us the Assisi debacle and the “Luminous Mysteries.” I simply don’t see the need for Sr. Faustina’s “revelations”. That in no way means that I am trashing or rejecting God’s Divine Mercy.
…. And anyone who contemplates the Seven Dolors daily should know such.
I’m really glad you posted this. I’ve never understood the blowback against this feast day.
My wife and I went last night on Saturday and I asked the priest if going on Saturday would get us the same graces and he confirmed that it would.
This devotion brought me back to Holy Church years ago.
Read it. Prayed the chaplet.
Which brought me back to the Rosary.
Then..
Confession
Holy Mass on Sundays
More confession
Daily Masses. At a NO.
Adoration
More daily Masses, now 7 days a week
And then…
The TLM up the road. Daily Mass there and everything.
Good fruit.
I will never ever bad-mouth the Divine Mercy devotion.
I used to pray it daily and attribute the practise to leading to me to recite the holy Rosary daily which, hitherto, I simply couldn’t even countenance the thought of.
The chaplet’s actual prayers are not heterodox and many have received graces from reciting it, however that is not a proof of authenticity and do not make the mistake of thinking otherwise: God rewards prayers and devotions made in good faith. I was once Protestant and am absolutely convinced that I received both graces and signals from God in my pursuit of seeking Him out – these are and were not an endorsement of Protestantism.
The same can be said for Medjugorje. Do I believe sincere, deeply devoted Catholics have gone there to venerate Our Lady? Absolutely. Do I believe those people may have received spiritual graces from their prayers there? Yes I do.
That doesn’t change the reality that Medjugorje is an obvious fraud.
Thank you JR. So much good info in a few comments.
Bravo!
This post pretty well illustrates the reason for trad apprehension.
Only in the context of Divine Mercy can it be that: “It’s OK that I’m Not OK.”
Assorted excerpts from a little tract I penned on this wretched Polish Devotion (apologies for the absence of foot-notes):
It may be pertinent to consider here, albeit briefly, the ascendancy of the Polish Devotion (i.e. the ‘Divine Mercy Chaplet’) and, in so doing, to acknowledge that since its introduction the faithful recitation of the Holy Rosary has declined, often via substitution, and that formal devotion to the Sacred Heart has been virtually eclipsed. In a visible sense one might be fortunate to encounter, in any given parish church, any iconography depicting the Sacred Heart – the very symbol of Christ’s Love – however will be almost certain to see the quasi-ubiquitous display of the Polish image which some commentators characterise as “the Sacred Heart without the Heart.” It is lamentable that the unequivocally authentic and divinely-willed devotion to the Sacred Heart is seldom practised and is rendered largely forgotten…
Whether the Polish Devotion is authentically Catholic or more imbued with the ‘once saved, always saved’ heresy of Protestantism, Your correspondent is not one to adjudge, though does present the opinion of others that this devotion stresses unconditional mercy, which places it in stark contrast to that of the Sacred Heart (and obviously Church teachings), which promises infinite mercy on condition of contrition and reparation. Why is any formal requirement for contemplation of our Lord’s bitter Passion and Death during the recitation of this chaplet ostensibly absent? (cf. Fr. Peter R. Scott, SSPX writings on this) …
The reader should be mindful that this devotion was condemned by Pius XII (the last authentic pope) and the writings of Sr. Faustina placed on the Vatican’s Index of Prohibited Books (Librorum Prohibitorum); even false pope Roncalli (‘John XXIII’) condemned it twice, the second time focusing on the image specifically…
Pius XII was not concerned with the actual prayers in this devotion, which are orthodox (indeed, the chaplet is almost identical to the Chaplet of the Holy Wounds, save the absence of any requirement for contemplation and invocations to the Precious Blood), though rather with the circumstances of the alledged apparitions and their content…
Apologists of the Polish Devotion are quick to advance the ‘problems in translation’ talking-point, citing erroneous translations of Sr. Faustina’s diaries into Italian which are responsible for the Pre-Conciliar condemnations. This may be reasonable, however it seems incredulous that there was no cleric from Poland (the most Catholic country in Europe) who was competent in both languages at hand and ready to assist prior to the 1970s. Indeed, when John XXIII opened and read the Third Secret of Fatima in August 1959, he was able to organise a Portugese translater to offer an authentic rendering (and is reported to have subsequently fainted at the contents). Might it be – perish the thought, however it is worth musing – that the some-what ambiguous ‘problems in translation’ card is some foil or tool for deception? The reader can consider this for himself…
[CONTINUES …]
In any event, here are some selected extracts from the presumably now free-of-translation-error version and the Catholic should judge for himself:
• “I am uniting Myself with you so intimately as with no other creature.” (p. 288) How this can be reconciled with His union to the Immaculate and Sorrowful Heart of Mary, His Mother, the Immaculate Conception and herself a creature, is unclear. This appears prima facie, on a whole-sale level, irreconsilible with Catholic Dogma and, on this apparent blasphemy alone, it is difficult to fathom how the prohibitions were ever lifted.
To consider further: at the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple, the holy and aged Simeon “blessed them and said to Mary His Mother: … And thy own soul a sword shall pierce that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed” (St. Luke: 2:34-35) and St. Alphonsus de Liguori gives commentary:
The injury of that stroke [the piercing of Jesus’ Heart with a lance] was offered to Jesus, but the pain was inflicted on Mary: Christ, says the devout Lanspergius, shared with His mother the infliction of that wound, for He received the insult and His Mother the pain. The holy Fathers explain this to be the very sword predicted to the Virgin by St. Simeon; a sword, not of iron, but of grief, which pierced through her blessed soul in the Heart of Jesus, where it always dwelt. Thus, among others, St. Bernard says: The spear which opened His side passed through the soul of the Virgin, which could not be torn from the Heart of Jesus. And the divine Mother herself revealed the same to St. Bridget, saying: When the spear was drawn out, the point appeared red with blood; then I felt as if my heart were pierced when I saw the Heart of my most dear Son pierced.” The angel told St. Bridget, that such were the sufferings of Mary, that she was saved from death only by the miraculous power of God.
This passage, from a Doctor of the Church, quoting itself the holy Fathers’ discernment of Sacred Scripture regarding the inexorable union between the Hearts of Jesus and Mary and, further, the writing of St. Bernard of Clairvaux (another Doctor of the Church), as well as divine revelations given by both the Blessed Virgin herself and an angel to St. Bridget of Sweden (one of the Church’s most celebrated saints) on the subject is, by any sensible measure, immediately and manifestly incompatible with any allegation such as “I am uniting Myself with you so intimately as with no other creature”, made by anyone and everyone except the Blessed Virgin Mary.
In the following extract from the Revelations of St. Bridget, our Lord gives explicit explanation why He preferred and loved His Mother above all and every other creature and, of significance, knew from all eternity that there would never be another of her equal. St. Bridget (Birgitta) was canonized in 1391 (which was confirmed by the Council of Constance in 1415) and the orthodoxy of her spiritual revelations was further confirmed by the Council of Basel in 1436:
“You ask why I preferred My Mother Mary above all others and loved her above every creature. This is because a special mark of virtue was found in her. … When the fire of divine love, which in itself is immutable and eternal, began to kindle and be seen, and the deity wished to become incarnate, there was no creature more capable and fitter to receive this fire of love than the Virgin Mary, for no creature burned with such divine charity as she. And although her love has been shown and revealed in the last age, yet it was foreseen before the beginning of the world. Thus it was predetermined in the deity from all eternity that just as no one was found like her in charity, so too no one would be equal to her in grace and blessing.”
The CDF’s Norms Regarding the Manner of Proceeding in the Discernment of Presumed Apparitions or Revelations (25th February, 1978) set forth authoritative guide-lines for bishops in the discernment of private apparitions and stated that any such must be free from “Doctrinal errors attributed to God himself, or to the Blessed Virgin Mary” and, as mentioned above, it seems very difficult to reconcile this particular diary entry, alone, with Church teaching.
• “From now on, do not fear God’s judgment, for you will not be judged.” (p. 168) This also appears irreconsilible with Catholic Dogma.
• “For your sake I will withhold the hand which punishes; for your sake I will bless the Earth.” (p. 191) This diary entry was made in 1937, two years before the out-break of World War II, in which Poland suffered terribly both during the war (and for much of the remainder of the twentieth century), and, by observable fact, patently contradicts the (realised) Second Secret of Fatima, viz.: that after the imminent end of the ‘Great War’ (which occurred in the following year), an even worse war will break out if people do not cease offending God and that “When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that He is about to punish the world.” The extra-ordinary Aurora Borealis (or so attributed) over Europe of January 25-26, 1939 portended the Second World War, the deadliest military conflict in human history where an estimated 70,000,000 – 85,000,000 souls perished (roughly 3 per cent of the global population), when National Socialist (Nazi) Germany annexed Austria mere weeks after this night of unknown lights and subsequently invaded Poland, where-upon Britain and her allies formally declared war upon the German aggressor. Poland, for its part, is estimated to have lost close to 6,000,000 (over 17 per cent) of its population during the conflict, was occupied for the duration, and then suffered various iterations of communist rule (including eight years of Stalinism) until 1989. Clearly, God did not ‘withhold the hand which punishes’ and did not ‘bless the earth’; rather, and consistent with the authentic apparitions of Fatima (and also with the warnings given Berthe Petit, a contemporary of Sr. Faustina), He ‘punish[ed] the world’ with ‘a worse [war]’ which culminated in the use of atomic weapons. To be most sure, God works in mysterious ways, though He does not seek to confuse or confound His people with mixed messages and does not contradict His Church.
• “You are a sweet grape and a chosen cluster; I want others to have a share in the juice that is flowing within you.” (p. 176) This seems an unusual thing for God to say. Unless, of course, one regards what gushes out of Medjugorje as super-natural in origin.
• “And know this, too, my daughter: All creatures, whether they know it or not, and whether they want to or not, always fulfill my will… My daughter, if you wish, I will this instant create a new world, more beautiful than this one, and you will live there for the rest of your life.” (p. 247) This does not appear at all consistent with Catholic Doctrine.
• “I see your love so pure, purer than that of the angels.” (p. 400) There is only one Immaculate Conception, the Queen of Angels, and irrespective of her reported and authentic piety, it was not Sr. Faustina.
• “I bear a special love for Poland, … From her will come forth the spark that will prepare the world for My final coming.” (p. 612) Perhaps not in quite the manner the reader may anticipate. Q. What will spark the tremendous end of days and the coming of the Just Judge? A. The reign of the Anti-Christ. Q. What will spark the reign of the Anti-Christ? A. An apostate Church, which the Holy Mother of God has been warning about for centuries.
• After receiving Communion: “Jesus transform me into another host!…. You are a great and all-powerful Lord; you can grant me this favor. And the Lord answered me, ‘You are a living host.’” (p. 643) This does not appear to be consistent with Catholic Doctrine.
[CONTINUES]
• “The host came out of the Tabernacle and came to rest in my hands and I, with joy, placed it back in the Tabernacle. This was repeated a second time, and I did the same thing. Despite this, it happened a third time.” (p. 23) Church teaching declares that only – and only – a priest’s consecrated hands can touch the Eucharist or handle the Sacred Vessels.
The reader may be familiar with the curious incident when St. Teresa of Avila was visited by ‘Jesus’, and who greeted the vision – with neither pause nor hesitation – with “Get behind me, Satan!” It was, indeed, the devil in disguise and, somewhat crest-fallen, he enquired “How did you know it was me?” to which the great saint and Doctor of the Church responded “You have no Wounds. Jesus has Wounds.” It is validly said of the original Polish image, the 1934 Eugeniusz Kazimirowski portrait (the imagery of which some regard as having ‘Masonic over-tones; i.e. the triangular form, with the finger serving as the loathsome eye), that there are no discernible Wounds save, perhaps, a modest suggestion of red on the left hand. This is not of any necessary significance for despite the painting of this image being personally supervised by Sr. Faustina, it is plainly a portrait rather than a vision. None of this is mentioned – categorically – to suggest or infer that Sr. Faustina was in some manner ‘in league’ with ‘Old Nick’ or any like thing; however it is none-the-less prudent and sensible to be aware that the Enemy of Souls and his minions loathe and detest priests and religious, those consecrated unto God, and go to all manner of lengths to deceive and corrupt them, such as was borne out in the un-happy case of Spanish religious, Sr. Magdalena of the Cross (1487 – 1560)…
St. John warns us that “many false prophets are gone out into the world”(1 John 4:1) and Fr. Mark Slatter (CC), in regarding this Scriptural warning, gives a brief account of some of the Church’s greatest saints who were themselves the personal focus of such wickedness:
“To see the truth of this, we should note the many examples of “erroneous revelation” in the lives of the great saints. It is thought that Catherine of Siena believed the Lord told her that the Immaculate Conception did not happen. Joan of Arc had an interior locution concerning her death, but misinterpreted both the date and manner. Ignatius of Loyola determined through discernment that one series of mystical visions he experienced was generated from the “evil spirit,” even though at the time they seemed to be from the Holy Spirit. Now, if these giants knew error, can others among us refrain from slipping into the same?”
•••
Considering some of Sr. Faustina’s writings concurrently, viz.: “I am uniting Myself with you so intimately as with no other creature” … “you will not be judged” … “I see your love so pure, purer than that of the angels” … “You are a living host”, and in all manner of reasonable and courteous enquiry, one may legitimately enquire if, from the content of these alleged messages received directly from the Creator, whether Sr. Faustina was assumed bodily into heaven. Was she? Is her tomb empty? Has this been investigated? If not, is her body incorrupt? If not, how could this be the case?
Hither to lifting the prohibitions on the writings of Sr. Faustina, Holy Church taught that only the Blessed Virgin Mother of God was to be exempt from particular and general judgements – even St. John the Baptist, born immaculate, will be judged – because she is Immaculate and was preserved from both stain of original sin and guilt of personal sin, with a love purer than the angels and so intimately and inexorably united to her Son in so singular a manner that it is simply not able to be replicated by any other pure creature.
AND FURTHER:
If the reader is looking for an authentic – and quick – devotion, laden with the most generous graces & promises (temporal & eternal; including, seemingly, the avoidance of purgatory), look absolutely no further than the daily contemplation of the SEVEN SORROWS of Our Lady, which, at a minimum, requires no more than the pious recitation of 7 Hail Marys.
For more information, see: https://traditionalcatholicprayers.com/2020/02/09/seven-sorrows-of-mary/
GRACES & PROMISES
OF THE SEVEN SORROWS OF MARY DEVOTION
According to St. Alphonsus de Liguori (“The Glories of Mary”) it was revealed to St. Elizabeth that at the request of Our Lady, Our Lord promised four principal graces to those devoted to Her Sorrows:
1) That those who before death invoke the divine Mother in the name of Her Sorrows will obtain true repentance of all their sins;
2) That He will protect all who have this devotion in their tribulations, and will protect them especially at the hour of death;
3) That He will impress on their minds the remembrance of His Passion;
4) That He will place such devout servants in Mother Mary’s hands to do with them as She wishes and to obtain for them all the graces She desires.
In addition to these four graces there are also seven promises attached to the practice of daily praying seven Hail Marys while meditating on Our Lady’s Tears and Sorrows. These seven promises were revealed to St. Bridget of Sweden:
1) “I will grant peace to their families.”
2) “They will be enlightened about the divine Mysteries.”
3) “I will console them in their pains and I will accompany them in their work.”
4) “I will give them as much as they ask for as long as it does not oppose the adorable will of My divine Son or the sanctification of their souls.”
5) “I will defend them in their spiritual battles with the infernal enemy and I will protect them at every instant of their lives.”
6) “I will visibly help them at the moment of their death — they will see the face of their Mother.”
7) “I have obtained this grace from My divine Son, that those who propagate this devotion to My tears and sorrows will be taken directly from this earthly life to eternal happiness, since all their sins will be forgiven and My Son will be their eternal consolation and joy.”
As private revelation, the diary itself and the church’s sleight-of-hand dismissal of its problematic passages (only the bad stuff was translation error, apparently) are reason enough for me to avoid all things Divine Mercy. That’s not to say they’re the only reasons, but if they were, they’d be sufficient. I find Faustina’s writings to be deeply disturbing at times, and that makes me highly skeptical of her massages. I’ve seen no evidence that those writings were the product of erroneous translation, nor have I seen any comparable self-obsession in the writings of other saints. Mistakes are one thing. Saying Jesus Himself came to you and personally granted you “first place among the virgins” is just… no. Sorry, Sister, you lost me right there.
I’m also very uncomfortable with a once-rejected private revelation being not only elevated to a Feast Day, but the claim that on this Feast Day, the fundamental nature of the sacrament of Penance is transformed into something radically different than what it was established to be… and what it had always been prior to the era of novelty and innovation. The standard for approving a private revelation this consequential, one that directly impacts the meaning of a sacrament, should be incredibly high. I don’t believe it was in 1978. If there was a re-translation of Sr. Faustina’s diary that mitigated all of the problems with it, I missed that. It seems more like a power move was made by the men of the council, with the new church asserting itself over the old, overruling the 1959 ban, and paving the way for a Polish saint to be canonized by the incoming Polish Pope in the process. I know that sounds cynical, but it’s hard not to be these days.
It’s also hard not to notice that in the Novus Ordo church, the Divine Mercy has completely replaced the Sacred Heart devotion. Something of which the enemies-within would surely, enthusiastically approve.
This is always a difficult Sunday for me, since my FSSP parish fully embraces the Divine Mercy (the image is on the altar, the homily is specific to DM, the chaplet is prayed, etc). We can all make our own judgements about private revelation and which devotions speak to our hearts, but having this one imposed on my family so aggressively, in an ostensibly traditional parish, is a little bit upsetting. We steer clear of the Luminous Mysteries, we’d like to be able to steer clear of this devotion as well.
Tremendous & insightful comments.
God bless you for writing this. When is it ever bad for God’s mercy to operate in your soul and go to confession? Without God’s mercy and grace how many of us would be in the Church?
When the sacrament is expanded to include a Get Out of Purgatory Free card on the basis of questionable visions from a potentially afflicted woman, questions need to be asked and answered… not rubber stamped by an incoming papal administration without any serious explanation.
Nobody is doubting God’s mercy, which is as real and perfect as His justice. The questions concern Faustina’s diary, the entire basis for the devotion and Feast Day.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/37248/the-original-image-of-divine-mercy-its-not-where-you-might-think
The original Divine Mercy image shows Christ without His wounds. That’s enough for me to discount it. By the way, it is the only image Faustina ever saw.
Also, EVERY good confession will absolve your sins, no matter how ‘scarlet’ they may be. Not just especially so on ‘Divine Mercy’ Sunday.
Trad here. I’m pretty much opposed to anything newer Ethan 1962 in the Trad community simply on the basis of lacking truly organic integration of anything anymore, and generally everything new is foisted upon us as a tool to destroy tradition. Until that gets corrected, I’m opposed to incorporating new feast days into the calendar, even if it’s a decent devotion.
JPII was also notorious for fudging details and just plain making stuff up for the sake of canonizing those who bolstered certain narratives (e.g. Maximillian Kolbe’s “martyrdom” which was neither a martyrdom by definition, nor was he killed with that infamous injection of carbolic acid nor starved to death.) he died of typhus, like pretty much everyone else.
Oh Mark how very Francis of y – @@@@PERMABANNED@@@@
To most people it sound too good to be true, like Christianity. If these are indeed the end times, I can see why God would offer them, considering that Purgatory will close during the great tribulation and that nevertheless nothing impure will go to heaven.
I’m late here & no expert, but the Divine Mercy *devotion* does seem to me as a case of edging out the GREAT with the GOOD.
Of course Divine Mercy for repenting believers in Our Lord, leading to eternal life with God, is the essence of the Good News. And if this particular devotion is technically orthodox and got you going – Wonderful. My compliments.
But I have other fish to fry – first. Keeping up a good life, including daily rosary as given by Our Lady of the Rosary in 1214 with undoubted orthodoxy (sorry JP2, but your tweaks to it were only confusing modernist presumption), is higher-priority and challenge enough.