A large gathering of parishioners and guests assembled for the Divine Mercy Sunday Holy Hour at Our Lady of Sorrows Church (OLS) on April 24. They celebrated the feast day beginning at 3 p.m. with exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, a homily, hymns, prayers from St. Faustina Kowalska’s diary, praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and Benediction. OLS Pastor Rev. Msgr. Martin M. Muller’s homily centered on mercy and trust. “We’re asking for mercy,” he said. “We don’t deserve it…. It’s His gift to us,” Msgr. Muller explained. “If it was something we deserved, it wouldn’t be mercy.” He went on to point out that Jesus wants to be trusted. “We come with a spirit of gratitude, a spirit of trust…trust that He really is on our side. He has a better plan.”

In 1931 Jesus appeared to Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun who kept a diary of her revelations.

In one vision Jesus appeared in a white garment with his right hand raised in blessing, his left hand near his heart, and two rays, one red and one white, coming from His heart. The red ray represents blood, and the white ray represents water. She said Jesus told her to have the image painted for veneration. The words “Jesus, I trust in You” were to be included in the painting.

St. Faustina was canonized and Divine Mercy Sunday was instituted in 2000 by Pope St. John Paul II.

The Holy Hour gave congregants the opportunity to privately pray before the Divine Mercy image and two relics of St. Faustina.