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| John
Paul II and Divine Mercy |
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Here
I have come to this shrine as a pilgrim to take part in the unending
hymn in honor of Divine Mercy. The Psalmist of the Lord had intoned it,
expressing what every generation preserved and will continue to preserve
as a most precious fruit of faith. There is nothing that man needs more
than Divine Mercy — that love which is benevolent, which is
compassionate, which raises man above his weakness to the infinite
heights of the holiness of God. In this place we become particularly
aware of this. From here, in fact, went out the Message of Divine Mercy
that Christ himself chose to pass on to our generation through Saint
Faustina. And it is a message that is clear and understandable for
everyone. |
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can come here, look at this picture of the Merciful Jesus, his Heart
radiating grace, and hear in the depths of his own soul what Saint
Faustina heard: "Fear nothing. I am with you always" (Diary,
q. II). And if this person responds with a sincere heart: "Jesus, I
trust in you!", he will find comfort in all his anxieties and
fears. In this dialogue of abandonment, there is established between man
and Christ a special bond that sets love free. And "there is no
fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear" (1 Jn 4:18). |
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The
Church re-reads the Message of Mercy in order to bring with greater
effectiveness to this generation at the end of the Millennium and to
future generations the light of hope. Unceasingly the Church implores
from God mercy for everyone. "At no time and in no historical
period — especially at a moment as critical as our own — can the
Church forget the prayer that is a cry for the mercy of God amid the
many forms of evil which weigh upon humanity and threaten it [...] |
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The more the
human conscience succumbs to secularization, loses its sense of the very
meaning of the word "mercy", moves away from God and distances
itself from the mystery of mercy, the more the Church has the right and
the duty to appeal to the God of mercy "with loud cries"
(Dives in Misericordia, 15). Precisely for this reason this shrine too
has found a place on my pilgrim itinerary. I come here to commend the
concerns of the Church and of humanity to the merciful Christ. On the
threshold of the Third Millennium I come to entrust to him once more my
Petrine ministry — "Jesus, I trust in you"! |
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Message of Divine Mercy has always been near and dear to me. It is as if
history had inscribed it in the tragic experience of the Second World
War. In those difficult years it was a particular support and an
inexhaustible source of hope, not only for the people of Krakow but for
the entire nation. This was also my personal experience, which I took
with me to the See of Peter and which in a sense forms the image of this
Pontificate. I give thanks to Divine Providence that I have been enabled
to contribute personally to the fulfillment of Christ's will, through
the institution of the Feast of Divine Mercy. Here, near the relics of
Saint Faustina Kowalska, I give thanks also for the gift of her
beatification. I pray unceasingly that God will have "mercy on us
and the whole world" (Chaplet). |
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