• 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
  • CR Radio
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
An attendee of the Divine Mercy Sunday Mass holds religious items for blessing by Archbishop William E. Lori at Holy Rosary Church in Fells Point April 8. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

Holy Rosary offers encounter with God’s love on Divine Mercy Sunday

April 9, 2018
By George P. Matysek Jr.
Filed Under: Divine Worship, Feature, Local News, News, Video

Mass attendees kneel in prayer during the Divine Mercy Sunday Mass celebrated by Archbishop William E. Lori at Holy Rosary Church in Fells Point April 8. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

One by one, a steady stream of people approached the confessionals at Holy Rosary in Fells Point on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 8.

Some were in their teens. Others had white hair and used walkers. Many stood in line for an hour or more as four priests granted absolution inside the draped, wooden boxes of mercy.

For some, it was the first time they had received the sacrament in decades. At least one woman left the confessional with tears of joy streaming down her face.

“It’s just so amazing and so beautiful seeing so many people taking advantage of the graces of this day,” said Elissa Voss, a wedding photographer from Tennessee who heard about the Divine Mercy Mass while shooting a wedding at St. John the Evangelist in Frederick the day before.

Voss rescheduled her flight home so she could attend the Divine Mercy Mass in Baltimore.

“I just love the message of mercy,” said Voss, who befriended the people around her as they waited in line for their turn in the confessional. “God wants to give us a reminder that he will do anything to show that his heart is longing for us.”

More than 570 people from across the Archdiocese of Baltimore and around the country gathered at Holy Rosary for the special celebration of a feast that has been on the church’s liturgical calendar since the Jubilee Year 2000.

Divine Mercy Sunday is connected to Christ’s private revelations to St. Faustina Kowalska, a 20th century Polish nun who had visions of Christ.

In her diary, the nun wrote that Christ promised that on the Feast of Divine Mercy “the soul that will go to confession, and receive Holy Communion, shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment.”

Celebrated on the second Sunday of Easter, the feast’s readings focus on God’s mercy. The Holy Rosary celebration included readings and hymns in English and Polish.

Power of forgiveness

In his homily, Archbishop Lori emphasized the power of forgiveness. He recalled his friendship with Bishop David Foley, the retired bishop of Birmingham, Ala.

Archbishop Lori first met the future bishop while a seminarian at Mount St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg.  Then-Monsignor Foley, pastor of a parish not too far from the seminary, was well known as an ever-cheerful person, Archbishop Lori said.

On the day of Bishop Foley’s ordination, Archbishop Lori recalled, he revealed the reason he’s always so happy: going to confession every two weeks.

“If God loves me so much that he forgives my sins,” Bishop Foley said, “what do I have to be sad about?”

Now nearing the end of a battle with cancer, Bishop Foley retains that same cheerfulness. His soul, Archbishop Lori said, is at peace.

“He is as cheerful about dying as he was about living,” the archbishop said. “Why? Because he lived his life surrounded by the mercy of God.”

Divine Mercy Sunday is a “wonderful opportunity to experience more deeply the peace of Christ and the joy of receiving his mercy anew,” Archbishop Lori said.

 

 

New chapel

Holy Rosary has a special association with St. Faustina because Father Ronald Pytel, a former pastor, was cured of congestive heart failure when prayers were offered to St. Faustina for her intercession on the priest’s behalf. Father Pytel’s unexplained recovery in 1995 became the second miracle needed for St. Faustina’s canonization.

The official archdiocesan Shrine of the Divine Mercy is located at Holy Rosary.

Archbishop William E. Lori blessing the new Divine Mercy Chapel at Holy Rosary Church in Fells Point April 8. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

During the Divine Mercy Sunday liturgy, which included the sung Chaplet of Divine Mercy and a eucharistic procession, Archbishop Lori blessed a new Divine Mercy chapel which complements the existing shrine in the church.

The new shrine, located in the narthex, features a painting by Polish artist Ewa Mika that depicts Christ as he appeared in a vision to St. Faustina. Christ is dressed in white with his left hand held near his heart, emanating red and white rays symbolizing the blood and water that gushed from the heart of Christ at his crucifixion.

The new shrine also includes paintings of St. Faustina and St. John Paul II.

Relics of St. John Paul II, St. Faustina and Blessed Michael Sopocko (St. Faustina’s confessor) are located in the new chapel, where many worshippers solemnly kissed and venerated the sacred objects.

Society of Christ Father Ryszard Czerniak, pastor of Holy Rosary, said the idea for establishing the new Divine Mercy chapel came from his predecessor, Society of Christ Father Andrej Totzke.

Three years ago, Father Totzke discussed the idea for the shrine with a visitor named Victor B. Majka. On the spot, the man offered $100,000 in memory of his wife, a former parishioner, to help make the new chapel a reality.

“Our people are very happy,” Father Czerniak said. “They have been waiting for this shrine, but it was going slowly. Now, it is here just in time for Divine Mercy Sunday.”

The pastor noted that marble for the shrine was imported from Vietnam. The total cost for the project was $142,000, he said.

Mass attendees venerate relics of St. John Paul II, St. Faustina and Blessed Michael Sopocko (St. Faustina’s confessor) at the new Divine Mercy Shrine at Holy Rosary in Fells Point April 8. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

Daily Masses will be celebrated at the new chapel Monday through Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in English. On Fridays, there will be a 3 p.m. Mass in English and a 7 p.m. Mass in Polish. Divine Mercy devotion and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament will follow the 3 p.m. Friday Mass until 6:45 p.m. An 8:30 a.m. Mass in Polish will be offered on Saturdays. Confessions are held 30 minutes before every Mass.

Daniel Waclawski, a parishioner of Christ the King in Glen Burnie, called the new worship space “beautiful.”

“We’ve watched it while it was under construction,” said Waclawski, whose fiancée, Krystyna Obrebska, is a music minister at Holy Rosary who sang for the Divine Mercy Mass.

“The paintings are beautiful,” he said, “particularly the vision of Jesus. It’s very expressive, very joyful – and the painting of John Paul II is so life-like. They’re all great pieces.”

Bella Czuhajewski, a parishioner of Our Lady of Peace at Fort Meade, hopes more people will be drawn to Divine Mercy.

“We want to spread that mercy and forgiveness,” she said. “Touching one person, you can change them.”

Email George Matysek at gmatysek@CatholicReview.org.

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

George P. Matysek Jr.

George Matysek, a member of the Catholic Review staff since 1997, has served as managing editor since September 2021. He previously served as a writer, senior correspondent, assistant managing editor and digital editor of the Catholic Review and the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

In his current role, he oversees news coverage of the Archdiocese of Baltimore and is a host of Catholic Review Radio.

George has won more than 100 national and regional journalism and broadcasting awards from the Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association, the Catholic Press Association, the Associated Church Press and National Right to Life. He has reported from Guyana, Guatemala, Italy, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.

A native Baltimorean, George is a proud graduate of Our Lady of Mount Carmel High School in Essex. He holds a bachelor's degree from Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore and a master's degree from UMBC.

George, his wife and five children live in Rodgers Forge. He is a parishioner of the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Homeland.

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 |

  • All are welcome: Finding a home at Mount St. Joseph
  • Priest who offered up cancer for clerical abuse victims says he was healed at Lourdes
  • Catholic pro-life activist Mark Houck acquitted of federal charges
  • Pope clarifies remarks about homosexuality and sin
  • New translation tweaks to sacrament of penance take effect this Lent

| Latest Local News |

Clarksville school shapes educators in faith formation

From robotics to hip-hop: Elementary schools offer wide range of clubs

Tuition at Catholic high schools in Baltimore archdiocese significantly lower than other area private schools

| Latest World News |

Affordable child care key component of post-Roe response, advocates say

Ukraine’s embattled religious orders keep faith and hope alive amid war

Speakers address how local churches can protect lives of mothers, unborn children from domestic violence

| 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

  • 4 tips for building a media-smart family
  • Affordable child care key component of post-Roe response, advocates say
  • Movie Review: ’80 for Brady’
  • Ukraine’s embattled religious orders keep faith and hope alive amid war
  • Here is the simplest way to share faith with kids
  • Speakers address how local churches can protect lives of mothers, unborn children from domestic violence
  • Clarksville school shapes educators in faith formation
  • Papal farm, gardens will be home to new center promoting sustainability
  • Pope, Anglican, Presbyterian leaders push South Sudanese to make peace

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