• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
The Divine Mercy image is seen above the altar at the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Mass., in this undated image. (OSV News photo/courtesy National Shrine of the Divine Mercy )

Divine Mercy Sunday opens ‘floodgates of mercy’ through Eucharist, confession

April 14, 2023
By Gina Christian
OSV News
Filed Under: Divine Worship, News, World News, Worship & Sacraments

STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. (OSV News) — Divine Mercy Sunday opens the “floodgates of mercy” for all through the sacraments of confession and holy Communion, said a priest renowned for promoting the liturgical feast and its accompanying devotion.

“A soul that’s been to confession and receives holy Communion (on that day) will receive this extraordinary promise that Jesus gave us … which is not only the complete forgiveness of all sin, but the remission of all punishment,” Father Chris Alar, provincial superior of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, said.

Father Chris Alar, provincial superior of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, speaks at the 2022 celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday at the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Mass. (OSV News photo/courtesy National Shrine of the Divine Mercy)

Observed on the second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday was established in 2000 by St. John Paul II during his canonization of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, a 20th-century Polish mystic. As a Sister of Our Lady of Mercy, the unassuming saint shared how she enjoyed numerous visions in which Christ urged her to promote devotion to his mercy through various prayers, an annual feast, and an image featuring rays of blood and water issuing from his heart.

Father Alar said he and his fellow Marian priests are expecting more than 15,000 to attend an April 15-16 Divine Mercy Sunday weekend at the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy, located along with the order’s U.S. provincialate in Stockbridge, Mass..

Atlanta Auxiliary Bishop Bernard E. Shlesinger III will celebrate the weekend’s April 16 liturgy at the site’s Mother of Mercy outdoor shrine. Along with Father Alar, speakers at the event will include Marian Fathers Donald Calloway and Joseph Roesch, author and radio host Michael O’Neill, and author Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle.

With the Catholic Church in the U.S. amid a National Eucharistic Revival, this year’s Divine Mercy Sunday gathering will explore the profound relationship between the Eucharist and the devotion to Divine Mercy, said Father Alar.

“All of the Divine Mercy devotion is focused on two very simple things: getting us back to the sacraments of confession and Communion,” he said. “And that’s the whole point.”

The grace and healing conferred by both sacraments are more needed than ever, he added.

“Scripture says that ‘where sin abounds, grace abounds more,'” said Father Alar, citing St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans (Rom 5:20). “God keeps heaping up mercy, because sin keeps getting worse and worse.”

According to the diary St. Faustina was instructed to keep by her spiritual director, Christ promised to grant to those who fulfill the Divine Mercy Sunday conditions complete forgiveness of sins, as well as remission of the temporal punishment they incur, “something we normally don’t get in the confessional,” said Father Alar.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) teaches that sin incurs a “double consequence” (No. 1472). If grave in nature, sin can result in eternal punishment, while temporal punishment — entailed in every sin, even venial — follows from an unhealthy attachment to creatures.

While the sacrament of reconciliation “(restores) us to God’s grace … joining us with him in intimate friendship” (CCC, No. 1468), the “temporal punishment of sin remains” (CCC, No. 1473), requiring purification through works of mercy, charity, prayer and penance to complete the soul’s conversion. Such temporal punishment can also be remitted, in whole or in part, through indulgences granted by the church — and through fulfilling the Divine Mercy Sunday conditions, said Father Alar.

“Normally, we are just forgiven of sins, but we have to still atone for the consequences,” he said. “But now, Jesus promises to wipe even that away. … He gives us this day to become spotless, to wipe clean all our past mess, our mistakes of the past.”

But there is one catch to that sweeping promise, Father Alar said.

“Every other sin — lying, stealing, abortion, murder, adultery — is forgivable,” he said. “The Bible tells us there’s one unforgivable sin, and that sin is called the sin against the Holy Spirit,” described in Matthew 12:31-32.

“It simply means refusing to accept the mercy of God,” Father Alar said. “All you have to do is ask for it. … There’s nothing God can’t cleanse, clean, and forgive in you if you simply ask with a contrite heart. You will be forgiven no matter what. Jesus’ mercy is greater than any sin.”

Shrine to only approved U.S. Marian apparition gets ready for first solemnity

Cardinal Dolan: Are Sunday Masses just too long?

How to defeat the liturgy of the wandering mind

Vatican confirms pope sent envoy to India to resolve liturgical dispute

Where will God move you if you say ‘yes’ to adoration?

Vatican provides Bible readings for Mass to pray for continence

Copyright © 2023 OSV News

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Gina Christian

Our Sunday Visitor is a Catholic publisher serving millions of Catholics globally through its publishing and communication services. Gina Christian is a national reporter for OSV News. Follow her on Twitter at @GinaJesseReina.

View all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Three more pro-life activists convicted on federal charges for blockade at abortion clinic
  • Cardinal Dolan: Are Sunday Masses just too long?
  • St. Maria Goretti High School faces uncertain future after difficult decision by archdiocese
  • Archbishop Lori announces appointments, including three associate pastors
  • Bishop Strickland will not resign, but says he will respect Pope Francis’ authority if removed

| Latest Local News |

Radio Interview: Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage

St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore awarded $2 million VA grant

‘The Following of Christ’: The ‘hidden’ book that helped make Mother Seton a saint

| Latest World News |

U.S. Border Patrol records sharp increase in arrests; situation of migrants in Mexico deteriorates

English police apologize to woman arrested for silently praying outside abortion facility

Papal commission incorporates global feedback in safeguarding guidelines

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Question Corner: Does insufficient faith keep us from being healed?
  • U.S. Border Patrol records sharp increase in arrests; situation of migrants in Mexico deteriorates
  • English police apologize to woman arrested for silently praying outside abortion facility
  • Papal commission incorporates global feedback in safeguarding guidelines
  • U.S. bishops, advocacy groups caution against government shutdown
  • Para compensar todos los reclamos de abuso: la Arquidiócesis considera reorganización
  • Radio Interview: Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage
  • God has the same love for all, pope says at Angelus
  • Take leap of faith and dare to love your family, those in need, pope says

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2023 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED