Dear St. Patrick family,
The Second Sunday of Easter, is known as Divine Mercy Sunday. The message of Divine Mercy is a reminder of the depth of love in the Heart of Jesus and the invitation for us to trust in His Merciful love.
The Gospel passage we read to commemorate this feast is powerful. Jesus appears to His Apostles, identifying Himself by the wounds of His crucifixion, and extends His peace to them. Jesus forgives His closest friends - the men who abandoned and betrayed Him - and restores them to friendship with God.
In the 1930's, Jesus appeared to Saint Faustina Kowalska, making her a champion of God’s mercy to all, especially sinners. Devotion to Divine Mercy - especially in the venerated image on which is inscribed, “Jesus, I trust in You” - has since spread throughout the Church to every corner of creation.
The three main themes of the Divine Mercy Devotion - and the focus of the recitation of the Divine Mercy Chaplet - are:
1. to ask for and obtain the mercy of God,
2. to trust in Christ's abundant mercy, and
3. to show mercy to others and act as a conduit of God's mercy towards them.
Here we see the power that comes from trusting in Jesus: in him we receive the mercy of God, and in Him we are made vessels of His mercy-His bountiful and forgiving love, to everyone we encounter.
As we approach the Divine Mercy Sunday, I encourage you to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet with the intention of imploring God to end the war in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar and all other troubled nations, may all nations experience a lasting peace, the peace that only God can give us.
Please join our parish next Sunday, the Divine Mercy Sunday for the Holy Hour in the Church at 3:00 pm. The Divine Mercy Image will be on display, we will offer the sacrament of reconciliation/confession, and the Divine Mercy Chaplet will be sung.
Now is the ideal time to pray the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy, we need God’s mercy now more than ever.
Kyrie Eleison! Lord, have mercy!

Blessings,
Father Charles