Detroit — Many observances of Divine Mercy Sunday will take place throughout the Archdiocese of Detroit May 1 (and at Vigil Masses the evening before), but the effect of Divine Mercy in people’s lives goes on year-round.
Msgr. John Budde, pastor of Divine Mercy Parish in Davisburg is among those who make that point.
In fact, because the four-year-old Oakland County parish is still renting space in a local school for weekend Masses, it’s own observance of Divine Mercy Sunday will only include recitation of the Divine Mercy Chaplet before the 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. Sunday Masses, with a social gathering after the Sunday Mass.
“We’ll do a little more than just have coffee and doughnuts — we’ll have hors d’oeuvres,” Msgr. Budde says.
But throughout the year, the parish has a poster-sized Divine Mercy image — a picture of Christ with rays of life emanating from His heart — that circulates among parish families, staying with each for a week at a time.
“The families gather together to pray the chaplet every day at 3 o’clock or whenever the kids get home from school,” Msgr. Budde explains.
The practice “brings a family together to pray, and seems to have an energizing effect on family life,” he continues.
“One family told me their 7-year-old son said he hopes they will be able to get the image again, ‘because we’re better when it’s here,’” Msgr. Budde says.
He adds that he always tries to work the idea of mercy into his homilies whenever it appears in Scripture — whether referring to God’s mercy or our own opportunities to engage in works of mercy.
Observances of Divine Mercy Sunday and devotions to the Divine Mercy are still increasing, says Catherine Lanni, foundress and director of the Divine mercy Center in Eastpointe.
“There are still some people who think that it is just a Polish devotion, but it is really a very timely devotion for all of us. The Mercy of God, as seen throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament, is calling out to us today,” she says.
The Divine Mercy Center, on the Eastpointe campus of Holy Innocents-St. Barnabas Parish, holds regular Divine Mercy devotions every Wednesday and a special program of devotions on Divine Mercy Sunday at St. Barnabas Church, beginning at 1 p.m. and concluding with fellowship and refreshments following a 4 p.m. Mass.
But Lanni stresses that the Divine Mercy message is not mainly about devotions on one day a year, or even one day a week, but rather “the embracing of the Mercy of God as a way of life — and the bottom line is healing in Jesus.”
And she says this healing manifests itself on every level — physical, spiritual and emotional.
“The more we can trust, the more we open our hearts to Jesus, the more mercy descends on us, spreading like a wildflower throughout the whole world,” Lanni continues.
Coming together to pray the Divine Mercy devotions on Wednesdays does, however, provide the opportunity to learn the effectiveness of God’s Mercy, she says, as participants share their stories of how their prayer intentions — lifted up by the entire group — have been answered.
The annual Divine Mercy Sunday celebration at the Shrine Chapel of Our Lady of Orchard Lake will begin at 1 p.m. with a live Internet transmission from Rome featuring Fr. Timothy Whalen, chancellor of the Orchard Lake Schools, Fr. Stanislaw Krol and some of the Orchard Lake seminarians studying abroad.
That will be followed by the rosary, then by Mass celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop Francis Reiss, and recitation of the Divine Mercy Chaplet afterwards.
The events will be part of the Orchard lake Schools’ two day, April 29-May 1, celebration of Polish Constitution Day and of the beatification of Pope John Paul II.
