(OSV News) -- Amid papal mourning, an annual celebration of the Divine Mercy reminds the faithful that Easter joy triumphs over tears, with thousands marking the upcoming feast through liturgy, prayer and art.
Observed on the Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday -- which in 2025 falls on April 27 -- was established in 2000 by St. John Paul II during his canonization of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, a 20th-century Polish mystic.
As a Sister of Our Lady of Mercy, the unassuming saint shared how she enjoyed numerous visions in which Christ urged her to promote devotion to his mercy through various prayers, an annual feast, and an image featuring rays of blood and water issuing from his heart.
This year, however, the solemnity will take place as the church and the world grieve the loss of Pope Francis, who died April 21, and whose funeral will take place the day prior to it.
"It's kind of a dichotomy of emotions," admitted Father Chris Alar, provincial superior of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Marian Fathers oversee the National Shrine for the Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, which is also home to the order's U.S.provincialate and which hosts an annual Divine Mercy Weekend that draws thousands to its 350-acre campus.
"In one sense, we're called to celebrate and rejoice … because every day of the (Easter) octave is a solemnity, and every day of the octave is Easter," Father Alar told OSV News. "But … obviously with the loss of Pope Francis, there is mourning."
Still, said Father Alar, "the eight days of the Easter octave are primary," and "nothing trumps them, not even the death of a pope, so we have to focus on these eight days of joy and celebration. … This is what the church has always taught."
The novendiali, or nine consecutive days of Masses in honor of Pope Francis that will begin with his April 26 funeral liturgy, will then be "our days of mourning," said Father Alar.
Middle schoolers in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston got a head start on their Divine Mercy celebration by participating in an annual sacred poetry contest sponsored by the Houston-based Catholic Literary Arts organization, which fosters spiritually based creative writing by children and adults.
This year's competition focused on the Divine Mercy, and saw a total of 1,200 entries in two categories for students in the greater Houston area: the first for those who attend archdiocesan schools and the second for those who attend independent Catholic schools or are homeschooled. Winners and finalists, chosen in early April, will read their poetry May 5.
On April 22, the St. John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, unveiled a temporary exhibit titled "The Happiest Day of My Life: Divine Mercy with St. John Paul II and St. Faustina," honoring the Polish pope's legacy of advancing the devotion while canonizing the saint to whom it was privately revealed. The exhibit, on display through Pentecost Sunday, June 8, includes a first-class relic of St. Faustina, whom St. John Paul named "the messenger of the Lord's merciful love."
That love is needed more than ever, said Father Alar, quoting the words of Christ to St. Faustina and describing it as mankind's "last hope of salvation."
According to the diary St. Faustina was instructed to keep by her spiritual director, Christ promised to grant to those who fulfill the Divine Mercy Sunday conditions complete forgiveness of sins, as well as remission of the temporal punishment they incur.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that sin incurs a "double consequence" (CCC No. 1472). If grave in nature, sin can result in eternal punishment, while temporal punishment -- entailed in every sin, even venial -- follows from an unhealthy attachment to creatures.
While the sacrament of reconciliation "(restores) us to God's grace … joining us with him in intimate friendship" (CCC, No. 1468), the "temporal punishment of sin remains" (CCC, No. 1473), requiring purification through works of mercy, charity, prayer and penance to complete the soul's conversion. Such temporal punishment can also be remitted, in whole or in part, through indulgences granted by the church.
St. John Paul granted a plenary indulgence on the Second Sunday of Easter, or Divine Mercy Sunday, under the usual conditions (receiving sacramental confession and holy Communion, and praying for the pope's intentions) to faithful who take part in Divine Mercy devotions with complete detachment from affection for sin.
St. Faustina recorded in her diary that in a vision regarding Divine Mercy Sunday, Christ promised special graces to those participating in the devotion, telling her that "the soul that will go to confession and receive holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment."
"And that way, Divine Mercy Sunday wipes away not only all sin, but all punishment," said Father Alar. "So that's why we call this like a 'second baptism.' It's not a second baptism, but that's what it's like.
