Here are a few of the promises regarding Jesus’ Divine Mercy: “I promise that the soul that will venerate this image (of Divine Mercy) will not perish. I also promise victory over (its) enemies already here on earth, especially at the hour of death. I Myself will defend it as My own glory.” (Diary, 48)“Whoever will recite it will receive great mercy at the hour of death.” (Diary, 687)“The souls that say this chaplet will be embraced by My mercy during their lifetime and especially at the hour of their death.” (Diary, 754)“When this chaplet is said by the bedside of a dying person, God’s anger is placated, unfathomable mercy envelops the soul, and the very depths of My tender mercy are moved for the sake of the sorrowful Passion of My Son.” (Diary, 811)“Souls who spread the honor of My mercy… at the hour of death I will not be a Judge for them, but the Merciful Savior.” (Diary, 1075)“To priests who proclaim and extol My mercy, I will give wondrous power; I will anoint their words and touch the hearts of those to whom they will speak.” (Diary, 1521) The Catechism of the Catholic Church (paragraphs 1846-1848) teaches us, The Gospel is the revelation in Jesus Christ of God’s mercy to sinners. The angel announced to Joseph: “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” The same is true of the Eucharist, the sacrament of redemption: “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”“God created us without us: but he did not will to save us without us.” To receive his mercy, we must admit our faults. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”As St. Paul affirms, “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” But to do its work grace must uncover sin so as to convert our hearts and bestow on us “righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Like a physician who probes the wound before treating it, God, by his Word and by his Spirit, casts a living light on sin:Conversion requires convincing of sin; it includes the interior judgment of conscience, and this, being a proof of the action of the Spirit of truth in man’s inmost being, becomes at the same time the start of a new grant of grace and love: “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Thus in this “convincing concerning sin” we discover a double gift: the gift of the truth of conscience and the gift of the certainty of redemption. The Spirit of truth is the Consoler. Yes, the Church has fully approved the Divine Mercy devotion. While the devotion has its origin in private revelation, and thus is not a matter of the Faith, the Divine Mercy itself is a doctrine of the Church and the particular forms of this devotion have received the highest possible approval. This includes the canonization of the mystic (affirming the certainty of her holiness, and thus the veracity of her claims) and the institutionalization of the devotion in the life of the Church, as the Feast of Divine Mercy and the Divine Mercy Indulgence. Pope St. John Paul II is the great Mercy Pope. In 1981, he said, Right from the beginning of my ministry in St. Peter’s See in Rome, I consider this message [of Divine Mercy] my special task. Providence has assigned it to me in the present situation of man, the Church and the world. It could be said that precisely this situation assigned that message to me as my task before God. As Archbishop of Krakow before he was elected Pope, he had promoted the Cause for Canonization of Sr. Faustina, and sought to advance devotion to the Divine Mercy. During his pontificate he was able to realize these efforts, canonizing Sr. Faustina, as well as satisfy the requests of Our Lord. He died on April 2nd, 2005, on the eve of the Feast of the Divine Mercy. While Pope St. John Paul II can rightly be called the Pope of Mercy, Pope Benedict XVI, who served as his doctrinal prefect, spoke especially about the Divine Mercy in its ministerial aspect, saying on the Feast of Divine Mercy in 2008, [M]ercy is the central nucleus of the Gospel message; it is the very name of God, the Face with which he revealed himself in the Old Covenant and fully in Jesus Christ, the incarnation of creative and redemptive Love. May this merciful love also shine on the face of the Church and show itself through the sacraments, in particular that of Reconciliation, and in works of charity, both communitarian and individual. May all that the Church says and does manifest the mercy God feels for man, and therefore for us. When the Church has to recall an unrecognized truth or a betrayed good, she always does so impelled by merciful love, so that men and women may have life and have it abundantly (cf. Jn 10:10). From divine mercy, which brings peace to hearts, genuine peace flows into the world, peace between different peoples, cultures and religions. Pope Francis has likewise shown great concern to bring God’s mercy to the sinner, and humanly to the marginalized. Early in his pontificate he called an Extraordinary Jubilee of Divine Mercy, designated priests as “Missionaries of Mercy” with special faculties to reconcile certain classes of penitents and established simpler norms for the handling of difficult marriage cases. He has also frequently advocated for those “on the peripheries” of human society, whether the poor or migrants. On Divine Mercy Sunday in the Jubilee Year he drew attention to the healing aspects of the Divine Mercy, especially as it comes to others through us, saying, In God’s mercy, all of our infirmities find healing. His mercy, in fact, does not keep a distance: it seeks to encounter all forms of poverty and to free this world of so many types of slavery. Mercy desires to reach the wounds of all, to heal them. Being apostles of mercy means touching and soothing the wounds that today afflict the bodies and souls of many of our brothers and sisters. Curing these wounds, we profess Jesus, we make him present and alive; we allow others, who touch his mercy with their own hands, to recognize him as “Lord and God” (Jn 20:28), as did the Apostle Thomas. This is the mission that he entrusts to us. Christ’s first act in appearing to the Apostles on Easter night was to empower them to forgive sin in the Sacrament of Reconciliation (John 20:19-23). Unsurprising, the Grace of complete reconciliation, even of the temporal punishment due to our forgiven sins, begins with a good confession. 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 open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day all the divine floodgates through which grace flow are opened. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. (Diary, 699) This request of Our Lord recognizes a fact of justice the Church herself recognizes, which is, while the Sacrament of Penance is sufficient to remit the eternal penalty for serious sin (separation from God), the penitent’s degree of sorrow, the thoroughness of his conversion, and the obligations of reparation he must satisfy, are often imperfectly satisfied. This “temporal guilt” must be resolved, whether in this life, or in purgatory. Through St. Faustina, therefore, the Lord calls us to renew our trust in Him so that we are disposed to receive even such a great grace. Only OUR will is missing from the equation. God, however, WILLS IT! Trust in Him. I want to grant complete pardon to the souls that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion on the Feast of My mercy. (Diary 1109)The graces of My mercy are drawn by means of one vessel only, and that is trust. The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive. (1578).