Introduction to the Divine Mercy

Saint Faustina was born Helena Kowalska in the village of Glogowiec west of Lodz, Poland, on August 25, 1905. She was the third of ten children. When she was almost twenty, she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, whose members devote themselves to the care and education of troubled young women.

The following year she received her religious habit and was given the name Sister Maria Faustina, to which she added "of the Most Blessed Sacrament," as was permitted by her Congregation's custom.

In the 1930s, Faustina received from the Lord a message of mercy that she was told to spread throughout the world. She was asked to become the apostle and secretary of God's mercy, a model of how to be merciful to others, and an instrument for reemphasizing God's plan of mercy for the world.

The message of mercy that Faustina received has now spread throughout the world as a universal devotion second only the Holy Rosary. She has been canonized by the Church under Pope Saint John Paul II. Her diary, Divine Mercy in My Soul, has become the handbook for devotion to The Divine Mercy.

She would not have been surprised, for she had been told that the message of God's mercy would spread worldwide for the great benefit of souls.
Through Saint Faustina, Jesus revealed special ways to live in His mercy, the foundation of which is praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy—as a novena (Part C, below) and each day at the three o'clock to commemorate the hour of His death (although it can also be offered at any other time of day).

St Jude Catholic Parish

The Chaplet of Divine Mercy is recited after the morning Mass Monday to Friday.