PHOTO: MATTHEW BIDDLE
Devotions in honour of the feast of Divine Mercy were held at several parishes around Perth on Sunday, April 7.
In the city, at St Mary’s Cathedral, almost 300 attended the afternoon Mass at which Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB was the main celebrant.
During his homily, the Archbishop said that, as recipients of God’s mercy, all need to show the same mercy towards others.
“We are called to continue [Jesus’] mission … to make his love and his mercy known to others,” he said.
“It’s a frightening responsibility, but it is our responsibility.”
The Archbishop reflected on the Divine Mercy image, stating that the red and white rays emanating from the side of Jesus represented the gifts of Baptism and the Eucharist.
“The mystery of Divine Mercy is summed up in the simple but divine prayer, ‘Jesus I trust in you’,” he said.
“This is what Divine Mercy looks like … between husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters … the offering and acceptance of forgiveness.”
The Mass was followed by Benediction and veneration of first-class relics of St Faustina Kowalska, her spiritual director, Fr Michael Sopocko, and Pope John Paul II.
In Maddington, the Holy Family parish celebrated the Divine Mercy feast for the fifth year, with a large crowd taking part in the annual procession.
Other parishes, including St Bernadette’s in Glendalough and St Thomas More in Bateman, also held devotions and prayers at 3pm, the hour of mercy. St Faustina was a Polish nun in a convent of the Congregation of Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy who lived in the early 20th century.
She received extraordinary revelations from Jesus Christ during the 1930s, which formed the basis of the Divine Mercy devotions.
She recorded these revelations or messages in her notebooks.
Pope John Paul II established the first Sunday after Easter as a feast for the universal Church, soon after the canonisation of St Faustina in 2000.