Apostles of Divine Mercy

     2008 Spring Newsletter

Dear Fellow Apostles,

I have some good news! There are 2 new DVDs available to help us in our work in helping Jesus to save souls. One is the DVD of the Abundant Life on EWTN with Johnnette Benkovic and I which is available by calling 1-800-558-5452 or by going to www.LHLA.org and ordering show 407. The other is our own DVD “How to Celebrate Mercy Sunday” which covers very important new discoveries.

The Lord, in His great mercy, has willed that the celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday be observed immediately following that exclusive feast of Easter, which providently has, by far, the greatest attendance of any other Sunday or Holyday.

What does that mean for us as Apostles? As we go deeper into understanding Divine Mercy Sunday we can see why Jesus requested a Feast of Mercy directly following Easter Sunday. What could be a more opportune time to instruct and invite Luke-warm Catholics back to the practice of their faith? The churches are usually full to overflowing on Easter Sunday more than any other day of the year.

Most people today don’t celebrate Easter correctly. Easter is not only just one day, but a string of 8 days all tied together. Easter is such a great and spectacular feast that the Church celebrates it for an entire week that goes from Easter Sunday to the very next Sunday. That next Sunday is referred to as the Octave of Easter. The Church has only 2 octaves, the Octave of Christmas and the Octave of Easter.

The days of the week between Easter and the octave Sunday are also very much considered part of the feast. The “Gloria” is recited every day, just like we do on Sundays, and those particular days of the week are called Easter Monday, Easter Tuesday, and so on, all the way up to and including Easter Saturday. The feast ends at the close of the eighth day, on Sunday, which is the Feast of Divine Mercy.

The name “octave” is given to an eight-day period after a very important liturgical feast, as well as to the “eighth day” itself. This eighth or octave day of the feast is thus itself considered as a recurrence of the first day. The octave day of a feast is always considered to be the greatest day of the entire feast. This last day of Easter is filled with extraordinary graces that our Lord wants to lavish on every one of us.

A Grand Finale

In our secular world too, the last day of a festival is usually the greatest day where the fireworks go off and the “grand prizes” are drawn. This practice does not take away from the first day itself, which usually has a grand opening, but it actually enhances that entire festival with a “grand finale” to show the greatness of it. The last day of a feast wraps up the entire festival and offers the most generous gifts.

With this in mind, we can surmise that Divine Mercy Sunday (the Octave day of Easter) must be the greatest day of all, because Easter itself has no comparison in the liturgical calendar. The Lord Jesus wants to lavish on us, on this day, the total forgiveness of sins and punishment. The Church has backed this up with a special plenary indulgence specifically designed for this octave, “Divine Mercy Sunday”.

Nothing on Earth can compare to the grand prize on the “grand finale” of Easter. What could possibly equal the total forgiveness of all sins and punishment?

Jesus has promised us: “the Feast of Mercy [is] 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 graces flow are opened. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity.” (Diary entry #699)

Let us make Jesus happy!

What a tragedy it would be if Catholics did not celebrate this great Feast of Mercy on this special “Octave day of Easter”. Don’t let this become a reality anywhere! If you find a parish not celebrating Divine Mercy Sunday and using it correctly as a “refuge for sinners” then take it upon yourself and get busy helping Jesus to save souls! Don’t wait around for someone else to respond, remember what Jesus said,

“Do whatever is within your power to spread devotion to My mercy. I will make up for what you lack.” (1074) “Souls perish in spite of My bitter Passion. I am giving them the last hope of salvation; that is, the Feast of My Mercy. If they will not adore My mercy, they will perish for all eternity…Tell souls about this great mercy of Mine, because the awful day, the day of My justice is near.” (965)

Trust that Jesus will give you all the help that you need. Do whatever you can by first getting started. Ask Jesus for His guidance by spending some time in front of Him in the Most Blessed Sacrament. It won’t be long before you have good ideas.

Motivation

One of the great motivators for me is the words of Jesus over the loss of just one soul, “The loss of each soul plunges Me into mortal sadness” (Diary 1397). Did you ever stop and try to figure out how many Easter-only Catholics die in the state of mortal sin every year? We know that they are in mortal sin because they don’t go to Mass every Sunday. How about all the other Fallen-away Catholics in sin?

Now how do you think Jesus feels about all of this? Put yourself in Jesus’ shoes: You die on the cross, you set up a Feast of Mercy to completely forgive souls of all sin and punishment, and as a last hope of salvation, and not a word is spoken to all the Easter-only and Fallen-away Catholics that will die in the state of mortal sin and go to hell. The loss of each one of these souls plunges Him in mortal sadness.

Our clergy have the means and the power to make Jesus happy and to remove this pain. What are you going to do to help? If you remain silent, you will be partly responsible for the loss of many souls. If you are reading this, you are called! Get busy studying everything on our website and ask Jesus to guide you. You should focus all of your efforts on trying to convince your pastor to help Jesus save souls.

Not a party for devotees

You would not believe the amount of calls and e-mails that we get from people who are trying to make the celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday into some type of a private party for devotees. OK, maybe I shouldn’t use the word “private” here, but sometimes it surely seems that way. Many organize special devotions in their parishes that only devotees attend while Jesus continues to suffer the loss of souls.

This might sound harsh to some of you who have been working very hard to set up devotions during the afternoon at the Hour of Mercy or for just one Divine Mercy Mass on Divine Mercy Sunday, but I ask you, who ends up attending these special devotions? How would you feel if you labored greatly to make a special feast or dinner and all of your guests arrived with full bellies from just eating at a buffet?

How do you think Jesus feels? Don’t you think that Jesus would rather see all the Easter-only and Fallen-away Catholics coming to Mass on Divine Mercy Sunday? Well then, we need to focus on getting these people to Mass on that day! Forget focusing your attention on devotees and put all of your attention on poor sinners. Every mass on Mercy Sunday is a Divine Mercy Sunday mass, including the vigil.

Jesus made it very clear when He said “I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners” (Diary 699) Jesus said “Gather all sinners from the entire world and immerse them in the abyss of My mercy. I want to give Myself to souls; I yearn for souls…go through the whole world and bring fainting souls to the spring of My mercy. I shall heal and strengthen them” (Diary 206). Notice here, that Our Lord said fainting souls and not devotees, but rather poor sinners and “the entire world”.

The Last Hope of Salvation

This is not mentioned very often, but we need the whole truth. Jesus told Saint Faustina “Souls perish in spite of My bitter Passion. I am giving them the last hope of salvation; that is, the Feast of My Mercy. If they will not adore My mercy, they will perish for all eternity…Tell souls about this great mercy of Mine, because the awful day, the day of My justice is near” (Diary 965).

When I was given the miracle of an outpouring of an ocean of graces on the Feast of Mercy (read testimony: http://www.divinemercysunday.com/testimony.htm ), I heard Jesus speak these specific words to me “When I say something, I mean it”. Let there be no doubt that everything that Jesus told us in the diary of St. Faustina will prove to be true. We are in the last days and we need to be real serious about helping Jesus to save souls. We will be accountable before Him at the Judgment.

We should do everything that we possibly can!

We have to pull out all the stops every year and work hard as though this may be the last Feast of Mercy. It will be for many, and it could be for all of us, including our family and friends. We are always to be expecting the return of Jesus. Let’s face it; the signs are all around us. The evil one wants us to fall asleep, but as the Apostles of Divine Mercy we must do everything that we possible can for Jesus.

Now that we know that Our Lord Jesus is really hurting and that we have a real serious problem with the majority of Catholics in mortal sin, what are we going to do? Have we truly done all that we can? We will all stand before the Lord and He will be judging us for how much we have loved Him. The greatest love we can give to Jesus is to help Him to save poor sinners so that they may attain Heaven.

Final instructions to Fr. Sopocko

These are the final instructions to St. Faustina’s confessor, just before her death, who was given the task by Jesus to fulfill His will concerning the Feast of Mercy:

I should not stop spreading devotion to the Divine Mercy, and especially not to stop work on establishing its feast day on the first Sunday after Easter. Never can I say that I've done enough. Even if difficulties should surmount, even if one would think that God Himself does not want this, I must not stop. For the depth of the Divine Mercy is inexhaustible and our life is not enough to extol it. Already, not too long from now the world will cease to exist. God still wants to give graces to people before the end so that no one will be able to say during the judgment, that he did not know about the goodness of God and did not hear about His Mercy.

Let these words be our guide and help us to stay motivated. It might be a good idea to share parts of this newsletter with your bishop, pastor and other priests that you know. We will all stand before the Lord someday and be accountable for all that we did and didn’t do. Be merciful to your clergymen and tell them the truth.

What can we say to our priests?

Sometimes it is not too easy to approach a priest, but if we keep our focus on Jesus Crucified and His sadness at the loss of so many souls, the Holy Spirit will give us the words to speak. Making Jesus happy should be our main motivating force. If we love Jesus then we will surely love all humanity. Share with your priests these following words concerning priests and let them know that you will help them out.

Jesus said “Tell My priests that hardened sinners will repent on hearing their words when they speak about My unfathomable mercy, about the compassion I have for them in My Heart. To priests who proclaim 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). “Oh if sinners knew My mercy, they would not perish in such great numbers. Tell sinful souls not to be afraid to approach Me; speak to them of My great mercy” (Diary 1396). “I desire that priests proclaim this great mercy of Mine … The flames of mercy are burning Me, clamoring to be spent; I want to pour them out upon these souls” (Diary 50)

Ask your pastor to organize a parish program to go out and find the lost sheep. Tell him that you will do everything that you can to help. Ask him if he can invite during the homily or at the end of Mass, on Easter Sunday, all of the Easter-only Catholics that are attending Mass, to go to Confession and to come and celebrate the Feast of Divine Mercy on the following Sunday. This takes very little energy and results in the greatest number of souls being saved with the smallest of efforts.

Jesus is in the Confessional

Ask the priests to share the words of Jesus Himself being in the Confessional. He could share it during a homily, especially on Easter Sunday, when there are a lot of people in attendance who are afraid of confessing or even talking to a priest.

Our Lord gave us many words of comfort that could ease the fears of those who would be reluctant to enter into the Sacrament of Confession. Jesus said “When you approach the confessional, know this, that I Myself am waiting there for you. I am only hidden by the priest, but I Myself act in your soul. Here the misery of the soul meets the God of mercy (Diary 1602). Make your confession before Me. The person of the priest is, for Me, only a screen. Never analyze what sort of a priest it is that I am making use of; open your soul in confession as you would to Me, and I will fill it with My light” (Diary 1725).

Consider asking your priests to make a merciful and motivating homily that could include words such as these: “If you haven’t had the chance to make your yearly confession, don’t miss out on this great opportunity to take advantage of what the Church is offering for next Sunday. Next Sunday is our new feast called Divine Mercy Sunday. What our Church is offering is called a plenary indulgence and in simple terms what this means is that if we go to Confession and receive Holy Communion, we can obtain the complete forgiveness of sins and punishment”.

Give these Divine Mercy Sunday special Plenary Indulgence Instructions to your priests that were taken directly from the official Vatican website www.vatican.va .

Duty of priests:  inform parishioners, hear confessions, lead prayers

Priests who exercise pastoral ministry, especially parish priests, should inform the faithful in the most suitable way of the Church's salutary (useful, helpful) provision. They should promptly and generously be willing to hear all their confessions. On Divine Mercy Sunday, after celebrating Mass, Vespers, and during devotions in honor of Divine Mercy, with the dignity that is in accord with the rite, they should lead the recitation of the prayers that have been given above. Finally, since "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy" (Mt 5, 7), when they instruct their people, priests should gently encourage the faithful to practice works of charity or mercy as often as they can, following the example of, and in obeying the commandment of Jesus.

In the most suitable way

Could this be on Easter Sunday? It wouldn’t be very wise to wait until the feast itself to follow the Vatican instruction. We must use the most suitable time and there is no better time than on Easter because our churches are full to overflowing on that day. What more suitable time could there be because the feast is directly on the following Sunday? We can’t afford to let this great opportunity pass us by!

Priests leading the prayers

Ask your priests if they could follow the instructions given in the indulgence and actually lead the prayers for the indulgences after all the Masses, Vespers, and/or devotions on Divine Mercy Sunday. This way everyone will benefit from them.

Extra time: For many years there has been questions concerning the amount of time someone had to go to Confession to obtain the plenary indulgence. Many would ask to go to Confession on the feast itself. While this is commendable in order to receive Holy Communion in as near a perfect state of grace as possible, the Vatican has determined that about 20 days, before or after, is sufficient, but it would be wise to make a perfect Act of Contrition just before Holy Communion.

Those persons who have already gone to Confession to prepare for Easter could make room for those that haven’t gone to Confession. It would probably be of great benefit for our priests to make this known to parishioners on Easter Sunday.

There is no better incentive for souls to come back then the promise of the total forgiveness of all sins and punishment. The mere mention of a feast that includes the complete forgiveness of sins and punishment readily opens the eyes of people.

Jesus knew exactly what He was doing by setting this feast on the Sunday right after Easter. Easter is a time when people are considering a renewal of their faith.

Sanctification of the greatest sinners

Jesus said to Faustina “How very much I desire the salvation of souls! … I want to pour out My divine life into human souls and to sanctify them, if only they were willing to accept My grace. The greatest sinners would achieve great sanctity, if only they would trust in My mercy” (1784) [Let] the greatest sinners place their trust in My mercy. They have the right before others.” (1146).

Is the Image of Divine Mercy a requirement?

The image is necessary for the correct celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday. Jesus said “I demand the worship of My mercy through the solemn celebration of the Feast and through the veneration of the image. On that day, priests are to tell everyone about My great and unfathomable mercy. By means of this image I shall grant many graces to souls, so let every soul have access to it” (742, 570).

On another occasion Jesus said “I desire that this image be displayed in public on the first Sunday after Easter. That Sunday is the Feast of Mercy” (Diary 88). And then again He said “I want the Image to be solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter, and I want it to be venerated publicly so that every soul may know about it” (Diary 341). We can rightly assume, from Our Lord’s words, that it would be necessary to have an image and Pope Benedict XVI supports the need for such an image in all the churches to prepare for the final coming of Jesus.

A Feast of Mercy at all the Masses

Focus on all the Masses on Divine Mercy Sunday. We have to remember that the Feast of Mercy is most particularly a refuge for poor sinners. We have to try to bring back home as many souls as possible to all of the masses on Divine Mercy Sunday. Every single one of the Masses on that day is a Feast of Mercy, whether people realize it or not. The Divine Mercy image should be venerated by all!

There can be no greater need or no greater mission for us than to be working to save souls through the promotion of the celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday in every single parish throughout the world. Do the very best that you can to help Jesus save souls by ensuring the celebration in every parish, diocese, and country!

If you need any assistance at all please contact me by calling 1-772-343-9475 or by e-mail me at: robertallard@divinemercysunday.com anytime.

Consider starting an EADM (Eucharistic Apostles of The Divine Mercy) Cenacle in your parish or area. For more details go to our links page.

May God richly bless all of your heroic efforts!

Robert R. Allard, Director, www.DivineMercySunday.com