Q. 1. What can you tell me about "Divine Mercy?" I understand it is a devotion.

A. 1. The Divine Mercy message is very simple. It emphasizes that Jesus loves us, all of us. In return, He wants us to recognize that His mercy is greater than our sins, so that we will call upon Him with trust, receive His mercy, and let it flow through us to others. Consequently, all will come to share in His joy.

The Divine Mercy message is threefold:

• Ask for His (Jesus') Mercy.

• Be merciful.

• Completely trust in Jesus.

This Divine Mercy message and devotion to Jesus as the Divine Mercy is based on the writings of St. Faustina Kowalska, an uneducated Polish nun who, in obedience to her spiritual director, wrote a diary of about 600 pages. In it, she recorded the revelations that she received about God's mercy. Even prior to her death in 1938, the devotion to the Divine Mercy had begun to spread.

Pope John Paul II, both in his teaching and personal life, strove to live and teach the message of Divine Mercy. As the great Mercy Pope, he wrote an encyclical on Divine Mercy:

"The Message of Divine Mercy has always been near and dear to me... which I took with me to the See of Peter and which it in a sense forms the image of this Pontificate."

In his writings and homilies, he stated that Divine Mercy is the answer to the world’s problems and the message of the third millennium. He beatified and canonized Sr. Maria Faustina Kowalska, the nun associated with the messages, and he did it in Rome and not in Poland to underscore that Divine Mercy is for the whole world.

When Pope John Paul canonized Sr. Faustina, on the same day, he established Divine Mercy Sunday for the Entire Church. The feast day falls on the Second Sunday of the Easter season.