A depiction of Christ, wearing white, with his hand raised in blessing.

Two rays emanate from Christ’s heart: one pale and one red.

The pale one represents water for baptism; the red represents Jesus’ Blood for the Eucharist.

This image — emblazoned with “Jesus, I Trust in You” — is known the world over as the Divine Mercy image that was entrusted to Polish nun Sister (now St.) Faustina Kowalska in the 1930s.

This year, the Church celebrates the image’s 90th anniversary of public veneration.

“It was April 28, 1935, when that Divine Mercy image was first venerated in Vilnius [Lithuania],” Marian Father Joseph Roesch, superior general of the Marian Congregation worldwide, told the Register.

Along the way, Pope St. John Paul II canonized St. Faustina, recipient of the mercy message, as the first saint of the new millennium, on April 30, 2000, and at the same time declared Divine Mercy Sunday a universal feast of the Church.

Today, Father Roesch and other Marians share some of the fruits and challenges from these 90 years — and what might be the future for this devotion as it spreads to new generations.

Father Roesch said we will never truly know all the fruits (because they’re spiritual and only God can see in the hearts of people).

And he added, “Basically, the fruits are that it has become so well known. It just spread like wildfire throughout the world. It was from a little nun in a convent in Poland, and now it’s worldwide.”

He pointed out, “What could be better: the message that God is merciful and that he loves us and he wants to forgive us. The last three popes have said the same thing: that this message is the heart of the Gospel.”

Peace Prompts Action

Speaking of the fruits, Dr. Bryan Thatcher, founder of the Eucharistic Apostles of the Divine Mercy (EADM), a lay apostolate of the Congregation of Marians of the Immaculate Conception in more than 45 countries, also well knows the merciful fruits. The medical doctor, as well as a Divine Mercy devotee, has witnessed “a spectrum of things, but in our prayer groups, which are in the thousands just in this country, I’ve been told stories of individual healings, spiritual healings, medical healings. People found peace in their lives, finally.”

Particular EADM fruits include not only cenacles (groups) worldwide but, as Thatcher said, Divine Mercy put into action through countless works of mercy among the poor.

Eucharistic Apostles of the Divine Mercy has built wells for villages in South Sudan, helped young women learn computer skills and rebuilt houses and a village in the Philippines; nationally, it encourages cenacles in works of mercy such as supporting parish pro-life efforts and praying for the dying during Eucharistic adoration.

“What’s exciting for me to see over the years is how it has changed lives,” he said.

That happens if “people would take this quote from the Lord [to St. Faustina] — ‘Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to my mercy.’ People are really looking for peace. They have to just look at that image and let it penetrate their heart and say, ‘Jesus, I am going to trust you more. And a big part of all this is thy will be done.”

Thatcher referenced a quote from Faustina: “She said, ‘Love is the flower; mercy is the fruit.’ So we become filled with God’s love, and that carries out, and our heart becomes full of grace as best as our human heart can, and we want to help others. So mercy is the fruit.”

Devotees visit the sick in nursing homes, pray the Rosary, help at food banks and contribute to other charitable endeavors.

Message and Devotion

For his part, Marian Father Chris Alar, provincial superior of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy Province of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception and host of EWTN’s Living Divine Mercy, looks heavenward when assessing the mercy message.

“The fruit has brought mankind access to heaven, and the devotion of Divine Mercy has brought the fruit of growing in virtue so that we can now walk into heaven. In other words, the fruit of the message of Divine Mercy is: Heaven has been opened. We grow in virtue, and we walk through that door.”

The key, he explains, “is Divine Mercy is unique in that it’s not just another devotion. Pope Benedict said, ‘Mercy is the central nucleus of the Gospel.’ Divine Mercy is both a message and devotion. It’s a message from God and a devotion to God. That’s the difference in every other devotion to a saint.”

Beacons of Hope

In his new book about to be released, Saint Faustina: Doctor of Divine Mercy, Robert Stackpole, director emeritus of the John Paul II Institute of Divine Mercy, finds fruits in the message and elements of Divine Mercy given to the Church through St. Faustina.

“[T]he image, the feast, the chaplet and the Diary [where Faustina detailed what Jesus told her about mercy] itself served as beacons of hope to a broken and bleeding world and a persecuted and martyred Church.”

He pointed out that several times, “John Paul II referred to Faustina’s life and witness as a special remedy for the ills of the 20th century,” proclaiming in his beatification homily, “Her mission continues and is yielding astonishing fruits. It is truly marvelous how her devotion to the Merciful Jesus is spreading in the contemporary world and gaining so many human hearts!” Stackpole added, “Through St. Faustina, Our Lord offers us a remedy and a sure source of renewal for a world full of cold, disillusioned hearts and broken human relationships.”

Challenges Past and Present

One challenge concerned the time when this devotion was halted between 1959 to 1978 because of a defective translation of Faustina’s Diary.

This caused “a huge misunderstanding that St. Faustina was condemned as a heretic,” Father Alar said, adding, “There was a halt put on her writings because there was a bad translation from the Polish to the Italian. We have to realize that it was not that she was banned or were her writings.”

To examine the original, then-Cardinal Karol Wojtyla had a prominent Polish theologian examine the Diary. He lifted the ban six months before becoming John Paul II.

Another challenge, Father Alar explained, is that some people incorrectly believe the Divine Mercy message is usurping the Sacred Heart devotion.

“The answer is, ‘Absolutely not.’ Divine Mercy does not replace the Sacred Heart. It completes and fulfills the Sacred Heart. There is a big difference.”

Father Roesch also finds another current challenge: not fully understanding the devotion, including its celebration on the Second Sunday of Easter.

“If you look at the readings, if you look at the prayers, they’re already all about mercy. So it was just a matter of coming to understand what it means and how Easter and mercy fit together, the Paschal mystery, the suffering, the death, the Resurrection.”

“A very important component is that feast, that God wants that second Sunday to be celebrated as the feast of Mercy,” he continued.

“Mercy Sunday is such a spiritual powerhouse,” he emphasized. “He wants to give us the graces of forgiveness and healing and a new baptism, a new life. We can’t imagine how much he wants to pour out on us on that day.”

“This message is all about a merciful God who loves us, who’s not abandoning us,” Father Roesch underscored.

“This message is timeless, and it has a great future because we’re always in need of God’s mercy and his love.”