My Journey with Divine Mercy
Fr. Shane offers a reflection on Divine Mercy, the importance that it has played in his priestly ministry and what a gift it is to the faithful.
By Fr. Shane Gallagher
Pope Francis celebrating Holy Mass. (Public Domain)
St Thomas Aquinas by Carlo Crivelli. (Public Domain)
In the summer of 2006, I was asked by my bishop to finish my priestly studies in Rome. I immediately said yes and a two-year adventure in Rome began. As I look back on that period, I saw how I was so blessed to have spent two years in the Eternal City. I had made many new friends, seen a good part of the famous city and I had met Pope Benedict XVI on a number of occasions. The Dominican Fathers in the Angelicum University where I attended told all of us that we wouldn’t be getting as much work to do compared to the poor students down the road in the Gregorian University as the Dominicans realised that there was a city to be seen and discovered during our time there.
The Dominicans were fantastic teachers and one man in particular encouraged me to study well but also to live the delights of Rome. Fr. Luke Buckle O.P. an American really assisted me in my studies. He was a great mentor and friend and I’m indebted to him for his good counsel. In this two-year period I was asked to pick a topic of study and thesis title for the Licence of Theology. I decided to pray and one of my favourite places to pray in Rome was in a little Church not far from the Vatican called the Church of Santo Spirito in Sassia. This little Church was consecrated to the Divine Mercy by Pope St. John Paul II many years earlier. I would sit down for hours in that little Chapel and stare up at the huge image of Divine Mercy. It didn’t take me long to see that my thesis for study would be “Divine Mercy”. The official title of my thesis was “Divine Mercy in the writings of Pope John Paul II”.
Original Divine Mercy image. (Public Domain)
As the months passed by I spent my days in Roman libraries looking for anything that was related to Divine Mercy. I spoke with various religious and priests and focused particularly on my Polish brothers and sisters in Rome finding out what they knew about Pope St. John Paul II and Divine Mercy. I had quickly come to the conclusion that Divine Mercy was something that was badly needed in the life of the Church, of the laity and of priests. God was offering something to humanity that humanity urgently needed and it is His Mercy. If you could ever imagine yourself giving a most beautiful expensive gift to someone who had offended you greatly and had not apologised, then this is on a par with God’s gift of Divine Mercy. God is offering us something that we do not deserve and as I read the writings of Pope St. John Paul II in particular his encyclical “Dives in Misericordia” (Rich in Mercy), I realised that humanity was blind to God’s offer of mercy particularly through the prayers that Jesus had given to a little Polish nun called Sr. Faustina later to be St. Faustina. Jesus in His messages to this Polish nun asks the world to turn to him. He asks that we abandon sin and ask humbly for His Mercy which He is willing to give. The gift of mercy is authentic. I would like you to imagine a bank manager calling his mortgage customers into the bank and telling them that their debts are wiped out even though they may owe another twenty years of repayments. Jesus offers the same thing to wipe out our debt of sin through a good confession and devotion to the Divine Mercy. Jesus told Faustina that even praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy just once could be the salvation of the most hardened sinner.
The gift offered by God through this little Polish saint was forgiveness and mercy, and it was clear to me as a student at the time and even clearer to me now as a priest that many people were and still are not accepting it. The reason for this was twofold - human pride and humans becoming desensitized to sin. If the Bank Manager were to make a one-time offer to clear mortgages tomorrow morning then I can bet that there would be a massive crowd standing outside the bank. What Jesus offers through his messages to St. Faustina is much greater and yet souls have become so indifferent to God’s offer. Sin is no longer frowned upon and sins that we would have called disgraceful years ago are widely accepted and even promoted. Is it any reason why we need to accept God’s mercy? Jesus in His messages to St. Faustina tells her that the time of mercy will come to an end and that it will be replaced by a time of justice. Justice according to St. Thomas Aquinas is giving a person their due. Justice is giving someone what they deserve. Mercy is giving someone what they do not deserve.
St. Faustina. (Public Domain)
The crisis in the Catholic Church today can be summarised in two statements. The first is this; Man no longer sees God in the Holy Eucharist or in any aspect of life. The second is this; Man has become desensitized to sin. They are interrelated. If man no longer sees God in the Eucharist then he no longer sees sin as being offensive to God because God for him isn’t relevant. The more and more man becomes immune to sin and its effects then the more blinded he becomes to God. Divine Mercy is a remedy to this. We are reminded through the messages of Jesus to St. Faustina that He Truly exists in the Holy Eucharist and His healing forgiveness exists in the Sacrament of Confession. We need to come to a point where we can turn again to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and in Confession. The medicine is Jesus who is Divine Mercy personified. Human beings must humble themselves and come back to God whilst His Mercy is on offer.
A prison chapel in Madagascar funded by Aid to the Church in Need. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)
Rosary beads. (Public Domain)
As I wrote up my thesis in those days in Rome, I had no idea that this beautiful devotion would later flood my life in a most powerful way as a priest. In the middle of 2014, I was appointed a Hospital Chaplain by my bishop. A devotion to Divine Mercy is something that is needed in the life of every priest but particularly in the life of a priest who works in a hospital. From then until now, I have recited the Chaplet of Divine Mercy on countless occasions over the sick and the dying. I decided to get a little Divine Mercy Prayer Card printed in 2014 and I get a couple of thousand of these printed regularly since. The design is quite simple-Jesus on one side and the words of the Chaplet on the other. My chosen topic on Divine Mercy indeed turned out to be providential as it gave me an appreciation of it on a personal level and made me realise how necessary it is for a poor ailing humanity that is moving further and further away from God. The printed cards are very popular and they are now at hospital beds from one end of the hospital to the other. The popularity of the Divine Mercy Chaplet also tells me that people are hungry for something but they do not know what that something is. The answer is God’s Mercy. Over the past few years nothing has given me greater pleasure as a priest than to hear the confessions of patients who have been away from the Church and confession for years. Many return to the faith in the hospital and the simple visit of a priest with a gentle image of Divine Mercy often softens the ground and allows them to ask the priest to come back for a second visit and then hopefully too confession. Many souls in hospital have been brought back to God through the devotion of Divine Mercy and people even in the last hour of their lives have sought out a priest so that they could make their peace with God.
As I was putting my thoughts together on what I could say about Divine Mercy, my attention was directed to the many friends, relatives, colleagues that we have who no longer acknowledge God or live His commandments. Parents come to me as a priest lamenting their sons or daughters who are living pagan lifestyles. People unfortunately will turn from God because they have a thing called free will. However you also through your free will can pray to Jesus through the Divine Mercy Chaplet for their conversion. Do not forget Our Lady, the Mother of Mercy who intercedes for all of her children. St. Faustina who received the messages of mercy from Jesus in the 1920’s and 1930’s also intercedes for people whose hearts have hardened to God. In confidence turn to this most wonderful devotion which touched my heart in Rome in 2007. Jesus I Trust in You