Here is the talk I gave on Divine Mercy Sunday:

St. Faustina was deeply devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary.  The congregation she joined, because no other congregation would accept her, was the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy.  This was a providential event since Sr. Faustina would become the great apostle of Divine Mercy.  Sr. Faustina was very fervent in the celebrations of the Feasts of Our Lady. One example is found in paragraph 1206 of her diary:

1206 Today, I started a novena to Our Lady of the Assumption for three intentions: first, that I may see the Reverend Dr. Sopocko; second, that God would hasten this work; and third, for the intention of my country.

There is one other reference to the Assumption in her diary, found in paragraph 1244:

August 15, 1937. During meditation, God’s presence pervaded me keenly, and I was aware of the Virgin Mary’s joy at the moment of Her Assumption Towards the end of the ceremony carried out in honor of the Mother of God, I saw the Virgin Mary, and She said to me, Oh, how very pleased I am with the homage of your love! And at that moment She covered all the sisters of our Congregation with Her mantle. With Her right hand, She clasped Mother General Michael to herself, and with Her left hand She did so to me, while all the sisters were at Her feet, covered with Her mantle. Then the Mother of God said, Everyone who perseveres zealously till death in My Congregation will be spared the fire of purgatory, and I desire that each one distinguish herself by the following virtues: humility and meekness; chastity and love of God and neighbor; compassion and mercy. After these words, the whole Congregation disappeared from my sight, and I remained alone with the Most Holy Mother who instructed me about the will of God and how to apply it to my life, submitting completely to His most holy decrees. It is impossible for one to please God without obeying His holy will. My daughter, I strongly recommend that you faithfully fulfill all God’s wishes, for that is most pleasing in His holy eyes. I very much desire that you distinguish yourself in this faithfulness in accomplishing god’s will. Put the will of God before all sacrifices and holocausts. While the heavenly Mother was talking to me, a deep understanding of this will of God was entering my soul. 1245 My Jesus, delight of my heart, when my soul is filled with Your divinity, I accept sweetness and bitterness with the same equanimity. One and the other will pass away. All that I keep in my soul is the love of God. For this I strive; all else is secondary.

Let us look closely at this passage and reflect upon the connection between Divine Mercy and the Assumption of the Blessed Mother. The first thing Sr. Faustina became aware of after the presence of God was the Virgin Mary’s joy at the moment of Her Assumption. If you do a word search in Sr. Faustina’s diary you will have 225 hits for the word “joy”. We could perhaps state that Divine Mercy is the bridge between the joy of Mary in Her Assumption and our joy in the resurrection and entry into Divine Beatitude.

At the very beginning of her Diary, we find the theme of joy in Notebook 1, paragraph 1:

O Eternal Love, You command Your Sacred Image to be painted And reveal to us the inconceivable fount of mercy, You bless whoever approaches Your rays, And a soul all black will turn into snow. O sweet Jesus, it is here You established the throne of Your mercy To bring joy and hope to sinful man, From Your open Heart, as from a pure fount, Flows comfort to a repentant heart and soul. May praise and glory for this Image Never cease to stream from man’s soul.

Sr. Faustina was given a share in Mary’s joy in the gift of being freed of all temptations against chastity. We see that Mary’s purity was a source of her joy, a joy she now shares with Sr. Faustina. In Notebook 1, paragraph 40 we read:

During Holy Mass, before Communion, we had the renewal of vows. When we had left our kneelers and had started to recite the formula for the vows, Jesus appeared suddenly at my side clad in a white garment with a golden cincture around His waist, and He said to me, I give you eternal love that your purity may be untarnished and as a sign that you will never be subject to temptations against purity. Jesus took off His golden cincture and tied it around my waist. Since then I have never experienced any attacks against this virtue, either in my heart or in my mind. I later understood that this was one of the greatest graces which the Most Holy Virgin Mary had obtained for me, as for many years I had been asking this grace of Her. Since that time I have experienced an increasing devotion to the Mother of God. She has taught me how to love God interiorly and also how to carry out His holy will in all things, O Mary, You are joy, because through You God descended to earth [and] into my heart.

Mary’s purity came from her freedom from original sin. Her Immaculate Conception, the foundation of her Divine Motherhood, gave her a joy and freedom that sinners can hardly imagine. The joy of her Divine Motherhood had its source in the purity of her Immaculate Heart.

The joy of the Blessed Mother in entering Heaven is what we all hope to experience. Mary wishes this for us. Our prayers for the poor souls can help them to come to experience this joy.  Even the sufferings of purgatory are meant to prepare us for the joy of the beatific vision. Here is a vision that Sr. Faustina had as related in Notebook, paragraph 58:

One night, a sister who had died two months previously came to me. She was a sister of the first choir. I saw her in a terrible condition, all in flames with her face painfully distorted. This lasted only a short time, and then she disappeared. A shudder went through my soul because I did not know whether she was suffering in purgatory or in hell. Nevertheless, I redoubled my prayers for her. The next night she came again, but I saw her in an even more horrible state, in the midst of flames which were even more intense, and despair was written all over her face. I was astonished to see her in a worse condition after the prayers I had offered for her, and I asked, “Haven‟t my prayers helped you?” She answered that my prayers had not helped her and that nothing would help her. I said to her, “And the prayers which the whole community has offered for you, have they not been any help to you?” She said no, that these prayers had helped some other souls. I replied, “If my prayers are not helping you, Sister, please stop coming to me.” She disappeared at once. Despite this, I kept on praying. After some time she came back again to me during the night, but already her appearance had changed. There were no longer any flames, as there had been before, and her face was radiant, her eyes beaming with joy. She told me that I had a true love for my neighbor and that many other souls had profited from my prayers. She urged me not to cease praying for the souls in purgatory, and she added that she herself would not remain there much longer. How astounding are the decrees of God!

We see in this passage the great connection between the love in the soul of the intercessor and the effectiveness of her prayers for the poor soul. One of the crowning works of mercy of God is to give us a pure intercessor whose love is perfect and, therefore, whose prayers are perfect. Sr. Faustina has a soul that reflects that of the Blessed Mother. Her prayers are effective because of her love. She also perseveres in prayer even though her prayers seemed hopeless.

In the painting of the Assumption of the Blessed Mother here in our Church, Mary’s hands are coming together in prayer as she is lifted up to Heaven. Her love reaches its perfect goal in the vision of God while her love reaches its perfect work in praying for the Church militant and for the Church Penitent.

The next statement in Sr. Faustina’s vision of the Assumption is this:  “and She said to me, Oh, how very pleased I am with the homage of your love!”

Mary’s perfect love make her also perfectly lovable. As Mary is assumed into Heaven not only does she have the vision of God, but God, especially her Divine Son, is looking upon her with perfect love. While not a member of the Trinity she is immersed in the eternal, divine love of the Blessed Trinity. Through the Holy Spirit, this love is shared with the Church. The love of the Church for her Blessed Mother is a participation in God’s love for her, as more particularly specified by Jesus’ love for her as his Mother.

The delight she expresses in the Sister’s love for her is the delight of a Mother who is loved by her children. But, for Mary, the love her children have for her is also an extension of Jesus’ love for her. While our love for her is imperfect, Mary does see through our imperfect love the perfect love of her Son.

This is also an aspect of the Divine Mercy shown in the Assumption. By loving our Blessed Mother, we participate in Jesus’ love for his Mother. This taste of the perfect love of the Son for his Mother and of the Mother for her Son gives us great joy in our devotion to the Blessed Mother.

The next sentence we will consider says:  Then the Mother of God said, Everyone who perseveres zealously till death in My Congregation will be spared the fire of purgatory, and I desire that each one distinguish herself by the following virtues: humility and meekness; chastity and love of God and neighbor; compassion and mercy.

Mary, conceived without sin, had no need for a purification. She was, by a singular grace, spared both original sin and personal sin. Therefore, there was never any disordered attachment to any created thing from which she needed to be purified. Her Immaculate Conception led naturally to her Assumption. After her course of life had reached its conclusion, there was no other place for her to be than in Heaven.

Can we imagine attaining Mary’s perfection? Such a thing would seem impossible. But, Mary gives this promise to each of the sisters who perseveres in the congregation. The list of virtues and gifts that Mary gives describes her perfectly. She speaks of these virtues as attainable by the sisters. This is God’s mercy; that, he saves us by removing sin and the effects of sin. He makes us to be like his own Mother. The grace given to Mary was given in a singular way.  But, it is the grace merited by Christ on the Cross, the same grace given us in baptism and the sacraments. The grace is given to us after our conception in original sin. We still wrestle with sin and the effects of sin. But, while Mary received this grace at her conception, she still sympathizes with us and understands our plight. She saw her Son’s love for us in dying for our salvation. She also saw her Son die for her salvation. Remember, the grace of her Immaculate Conception was merited by Jesus’ death on the Cross. Mary owes as much to her Divine Son as we do. Her love for her Son for his sacrifice has the same foundation as ours.

Because of this, Mary can call upon us to imitate her in her virtues. She does this because she knows the great gift of grace that was given to her and to us. The virtues she lists in this passage are those that confront and defeat sin in the world. That is Mary’s primary mission and the mission she wishes to share with us.

Humility and meekness are antidotes to the pride and arrogance of Satan. Chastity is the remedy to the immodesty and lust of a sinful world. Love of God and neighbor fulfill the law and set all men in right relationship with God and each other. Compassion and mercy reverse the coldness and selfishness of sinners.

Those with all these virtues would have no need for the cleansing fires of Purgatory. They, like Mary assumed into Heaven, would be ready for the Beatific Vision with nothing to keep them from loving God completely.

The last section of this passage deals with the will of God in Sr. Faustina’s life:

After these words, the whole Congregation disappeared from my sight, and I remained alone with the Most Holy Mother who instructed me about the will of God and how to apply it to my life, submitting completely to His most holy decrees. It is impossible for one to please God without obeying His holy will. My daughter, I strongly recommend that you faithfully fulfill all God’s wishes, for that is most pleasing in His holy eyes. I very much desire that you distinguish yourself in this faithfulness in accomplishing god’s will. Put the will of God before all sacrifices and holocausts. While the heavenly Mother was talking to me, a deep understanding of this will of God was entering my soul.

Each of us has a calling in life, a way to fulfill God’s will, to do what is most pleasing in His Holy eyes. While Mary had all the virtues just mentioned, she had, above all, a deep love for the will of God. The most important words that Mary ever spoke were simply these:  “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”

Sr. Faustina received a great gift in having a deep understanding of the Will of God in her soul. Most of us grope in the darkness for God’s will. We seek the signs in our own lives to see where God is leading us. Sr. Faustina, although she had a deep understanding of God’s will still had to work out that will in her own life. Mary had to do the same thing. She had a deep understanding of her mission as the Mother of God. But, she still learned through Simeon that a sword of sorrow would pierce her heart. She still had to stand by and watch her Son whipped and crucified. She still had to stand beneath the Cross.

Our problem in having a deep understanding of God’s will is that we fear the Cross. We think if we just knew God’s will everything would be alright. I would just do what God wants. But, that is probably not the case. God reveals his will according to our freedom and readiness to do his will. If we seek God’s will then we first need to seek the grace that will open us to do His will. The two go hand in hand. While Mary was ready to do God’s will since she lived in perfect freedom, we need to obtain freedom from sin and fear to be open and ready to do God’s will.

Mary, assumed into Heaven, prays for us that we might obtain this freedom. She knows how weak we are but she also knows the freedom that is available to us through the death and resurrection of her Son. She wishes for us to have her freedom that we might have her openness to the will of God.

The final part of the passage sums up the freedom we need to do God’s will:

My Jesus, delight of my heart, when my soul is filled with Your divinity, I accept sweetness and bitterness with the same equanimity. One and the other will pass away. All that I keep in my soul is the love of God. For this I strive; all else is secondary.

Mary had a perfect equanimity in accepting sweetness and bitterness. Who can comprehend the sweetness of Mary’s life? Untroubled by sin or temptation; perfectly loving to everyone; visited by an angel; giving birth to God incarnate; holding him as a baby in her arms; watching him grow up, the Son of God in her very home; the sweetness of a chaste and devoted husband. Mary’s life abounded in sweetness. It also abounded in bitterness: Her seven sorrows, most particularly the passion and death of her Son; the death of Joseph her beloved spouse; the hidden bitterness of seeing sinners damage each other and themselves through their vicious and corrupt words and actions; seeing her Son’s disciples abandon him; seeing her beloved nation turn against her Son; finally, the horror at watching those she loved destroy themselves in seeking to destroy the Son of God.

Despite all this, she understood that all of this would pass away, leaving only the love of God. Her assumption into Heaven rewarded her equanimity in facing all that her life, and the following of God’s will her life, brought her way. She knew her reward would be great Heaven. That is why she experienced inexpressible joy in her Assumption. Divine Mercy, and the devotion to Divine Mercy given to us through St. Faustina, is God’s gift to us to help us love him above all things, to experience an equanimity in facing the sweetness and bitterness of doing God’s will. That we too, like Mary, will know the joy of seeing God face to face.