On April 11, 2021 join us to celebrate God's Divine Mercy

~Mass time will be announced shortly~

Bar Harbor

Bucksport

Ellsworth

       On May 5, 2000, Pope Saint John Paul II decreed that the Second Sunday of Easter, the Octave of Easter, would be known as Divine Mercy Sunday. The feast was established by the pope after he canonized Saint Faustina, a humble Polish nun to whom Jesus revealed his message of divine mercy. A member of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, Sister Faustina says the Lord appeared to her several times beginning in February 1931. During her visions, she says the Lord communicated to her the depth of his mercy and his desire that all be merciful to one another.

       She shared the messages she received in a diary, writing that the Lord told her, ‘I desire to grant unimaginable graces to those souls who trust in my mercy' (Diary No. 687). The diary includes 14 occasions on which Jesus asks that a Feast of Divine Mercy be established. The day Christ chose, according to Saint Faustina, is the first Sunday after Easter, and Jesus asked that the Feast of the Divine Mercy be preceded by a Novena to the Divine Mercy to begin on Good Friday. On each of the nine days, prayers are to be offered for a different group.

       During the novena and on Divine Mercy Sunday, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy is recited (www.portlanddiocese.org/content/chaplet-divine-mercy). The chaplet was given to Saint Faustina by Jesus with this promise: “Whoever will recite it will receive great mercy at the hour of death ... Even if there were a sinner most hardened, if he were to recite this chaplet only once, he would receive grace from my infinite mercy” (Diary No. 687). Jesus also gave St. Faustina the Divine Mercy Novena, nine intentions for which to pray the Chaplet.

       In 2002, Pope Saint John Paul II decreed a plenary indulgence associated with the devotion of Divine Mercy Sunday “to ensure that the faithful would observe this day with intense devotion.” A plenary indulgence is the "full remission of the temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven." Through the sacrament of confession, our sins are forgiven, but some of the worldly effects of those sins may remain. A plenary (full) indulgence completes the healing process.

       To receive a plenary indulgence, you must go to confession, receive holy Communion and pray for the intentions of the Holy Father. That should be done in the days leading up to the feast. Then, on Divine Mercy Sunday, you must “in any church or chapel, in a spirit that is completely detached from the affection for a sin, even a venial sin, take part in the prayers and devotions held in honor of Divine Mercy, or who, in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament exposed or reserved in the tabernacle, recite the Our Father and the Creed, adding a devout prayer to the merciful Lord Jesus.”