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THE IMAGE OF MERCIFUL JESUS

(The DIARY of Saint sister Faustina) PLOCK, Poland
"22 February, 1931 In the evening, when I was in my cell, I saw Our Lord Jesus clothed in a white garment. One hand was raised in the gesture of blessing; the other was touching the garment, at the breast. From beneath the garment, slightly drawn aside at the breast, there were emanating two large rays, one red, and the other pale. In silence I kept my gaze fixed on Our Lord; my soul was struck with awe, but also with great joy. After a while, Jesus said to me, "paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the inscription: Jesus, I trust in You".
(...) I promise that the soul that venerates this image will not perish. I also promise victory over its enemies already here on earth, especially at the hour of death.
(...) I desire that there be a Feast of Mercy. I want this image, which you will paint with a brush, to be solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter; That Sunday is to be the Feast of Mercy. I desire that priests proclaim this great mercy of Mine towards the souls of sinners. Let the sinner be not afraid to approach Me.
(...) Once, exhausted because of these various difficulties that had befallen me because of Jesus speaking to me and demanding to paint this image, I made up my mind to approach Father Andrasz before my perpetual vows, and to ask him to dispense me from all these interior inspirations and from the duty of painting this image. After having heard my confession, Father Andrasz gave me this answer:
"I will dispense you from nothing, Sister; it is not right for you to turn away from these interior inspirations, but you must absolutely - and I say, absolutely - speak about them to your confessor; otherwise you will go astray despite the great graces you are receiving from God. For the present you are coming to me for confession, but understand, Sister, that you must have a permanent confessor; that is to say, a spiritual director". I was very upset by this. I thought that I would get myself free from everything, and it turned out quite the opposite - an explicit command to follow the requests of Jesus. And now, another torment, as I had no permanent confessor.
(...) But the goodness of Jesus is infinite; He had promised me visible help here on earth and a little while later I received it in Vilnius, in the person of Father Sopocko.
I had already known him before coming to Vilnius, thanks to an interior vision. One day I saw him in our chapel between the altar and the confessional and suddenly heard a voice in my soul say "This is the visible help for you on earth. He will help you carry out My will" (Diary, 47-53).

The task Lord Jesus asked of Sister Faustina was humanly impossible, as she did not have
the basic artistic skills. Despite that fact, trying to obey God's will, she attempted to paint
the image herself, but did not succeed. She was painfully torn between the Lord Jesus’ urging
and the fact that her confessors and superiors did not entirely believe her. During her time
in Plock (for about 3 years), and then in Warsaw, she kept thinking about the unfulfilled
will of Jesus even more, as He let her feel that there was a great role for her in God's design.

"Suddenly, I saw Our Lord who said to me: Remember, that if you neglect the matter of the painting of the image and the whole work of Divine Mercy, you will be responsible for a multitude of souls on the Day of Judgment" (Diary, 154).

After taking her vows, sister Faustina was transferred to a convent in Vilnius (25 May, 1933). Here, she found the help she had been promised – confessor and spiritual guide Fr Michal Sopocko,
who was determined to try and fulfill Jesus' will.

“Driven by curiosity about the image rather than by faith in the truth of these visions,
I asked painter Eugeniusz Kazimirowski to paint this picture” (Fr Sopocko’s Memoirs).

The image of Merciful Jesus was painted in the aura of God’s presence and the mystical experiences of St. Faustina. Fr. Sopocko partially familiarized the painter with sister Faustina’s mission and obliged him to keep the secret for himself. While painting the image of Merciful Jesus, this highly regarded and well-educated painter (see Kazimirowski) gave up his own artistic ideas
to paint exactly what sister Faustina told him to.
She would come to his studio at least once a week for half a year to request the necessary corrections or additions. She wanted the image of Merciful Jesus to look exactly as she saw
it in her vision.
Fr Sopocko actively participated in the painting of the image – he founded it, and at the painter’s request, posed dressed in an alb. The time they spent painting the image resulted in a deeper understanding of its message. The questions they could not agree on were solved by the Lord Jesus himself (Diary 299; 326; 327; 344). The conversation sister Faustina had with Jesus about
the picture that was being painted was very telling:

"When I was visiting the artist who was painting the image, and saw that it was not as Jesus is, I felt very sad about it, but I hid this deep in my heart. (…) Mother Superior stayed in town to attend to some matters while I returned home alone. I went immediately to the chapel and wept a good deal. I said to Our Lord: Who will paint You as beautiful as You are? Then I heard these words: Not in the beauty of the color, nor in the brush lies the greatness of this image, but in My grace" (Diary, 313).

This conversation emanates the sincerity of a person endowed with supernatural grace, who
in her mystical experiences saw the beauty of the resurrected Saviour (see Fr. Sopocko’s Memoirs).
Many times Jesus appeared to sister Faustina in the form which was rendered in the image
(Diary 473; 500; 851; 1046; 1565) and also many times demanded that the image be exhibited
for everyone to worship. This shows that the icon was accepted by Our Lord Jesus,
who sanctified it with his living presence.

Due to Fr Sopocko’s efforts, the image of the Merciful Saviour was displayed in a window
of the gallery at the chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of Mercy in the Gate of Dawn
in Vilnius from 26th to 28th April, 1935. For the first time, it was publicly worshipped during
the ceremonial closing of the jubilee of the 1900th anniversary of the Redemption of the World.
On the last day of the feast, the first Sunday after Easter, sister Faustina participated in the service, and Fr Sopocko preached a sermon about the Divine Mercy, just as the Lord Jesus demanded.

"For three days it was exposed and received public veneration. Since it was placed at the very top of a window at the Gate of Dawn (Ausros Vartai), it could be seen from a great distance. During these three days, the closing of the Jubilee of the Redemption of the World was being celebrated, at the Gate of Dawn, marking the nineteen hundred years that have passed since the Passion of our Savior. I see now that the work of Redemption is bound up with the work of mercy requested by Our Lord"
(Diary, 89).

"When the image was displayed, I saw a quick movement of the hand of Jesus, as He made a large sign of the cross. In the evening of the same day, (...) I saw the image going over the town, and the town was covered with what appeared to be a mesh and nets. As Jesus passed, He cut trough all the nets..." (Diary, 416).

When I was in the Gate of Dawn to attend the ceremony during which the image was displayed, I heard a sermon given by my confessor (Father Sopocko). This sermon about Divine Mercy was the first of the things that Jesus had asked for so very long ago. When he began to speak about the great Mercy of Our Lord, the image came alive and the rays pierced the hearts of the people gathered there, but not all to the same degree. Some received more, some less. Great joy filled my soul to see the grace of God" (Diary, 417).

"Toward the end of the service, when the priest took the Blessed Sacrament to bless the people, I saw Our Lord Jesus as He is represented in the image. Our Lord gave His blessing, and the rays extended over the whole world. Suddenly, I saw an impenetrable brightness in the form of a crystal dwelling place, woven together from waves of brilliance unapproachable to both creatures and spirits. Three doors led to this resplendence. At that moment, Jesus, as He is represented in the image, entered this resplendence through the second door to the Unity within" (Diary, 420).

For Sister Faustina, the celebration at the Gate of Dawn was a sign and the fulfillment
of the promised graces – a public display of the power of the Divine Mercy.

Shrine of Our Lady above the Gate of Dawn (Ausros Vartai)
to the city of Vilnius (Lithuania) (see the Gate of Dawn)

On 4 April, 1937, with the consent of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Vilnius, Romuald Jalbrzykowski, the image of the Most Merciful Saviour was blessed and placed next
to the high altar in St Michael's Church in Vilnius. There, the icon was beautifully displayed
(until 1948) in a magnificent gilded frame and emanated with holiness.
It was worshipped and given many votive offerings, and the cult of the Divine Mercy
rapidly spread outside Vilnius. In an extraordinary way, despite the limited possibilities,
it soon reached millions of people thorough the world.

Later on, in her letter to Fr Sopocko sister Faustina wrote: “God let me know that he was pleased with what we have already done. When I was praying and was close to God, I felt in my soul great calmness about this mission. (...) And as regards these pictures (small copies) (...) People start buying them and many souls have experienced God's grace through them. As it is the case with everything, it will take time. These pictures are not as beautiful as the big one is. They are bought by those who desire God's Grace..." (excerpt from a letter, Cracow, 21 February, 1938).

As a result of the war (1939-1945), the painting of Merciful Jesus was transported to the USSR
and for a few dozen years it was inaccessible to pilgrims. Despite many dangers (it was hidden
in an attic, often stored in a rolled form, kept in improper conditions, in moisture and cold,
ineptly restored) it survived the communist era by an act of Divine Providence.
It was kept in the following places: in St Michael’s Church in Vilnius (1937-1948), in a church
in Nowa Ruda, Belarus (1949-1986) and in the Church of the Holy Ghost in Vilnius (1987-2005).
Since 2005, it has been worshipped in the Divine Mercy Shrine in Vilnius.
(see The history of the painting)

On September 5th, 1993, during his pilgrimage to Lithuania, in the Church of the Holy Ghost
in Vilnius, Pope John Paul II prayed before the image. In his speech to the faithful, he called
the painting

"A HOLY IMAGE".

In the history of Divine apparitions, there is only one recorded case when Jesus Christ expressed his wish for an image of him to be painted. He disclosed his visual representation himself
– many times he revealed his living presence in a form that was rendered in the image. Furthermore, with his promise of extraordinary graces that would be granted to the worshippers
of the image, he bestowed it with exceptional religious value.

"By means of this Image I shall be granting many graces,
so may every soul have access to it" (Diary, 570).

The image in the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Vilnius.

"I am offering people a vessel with which they are to keep on coming for graces
to the fountain of mercy. That vessel is this image with the inscription:
Jesus, I trust in You" (Diary, 327).

"The two rays (in the image) denote blood and water. The pale ray stands for the water which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the blood that is the life of souls. These two rays issued forth from the very depths of My tender mercy when My agonized Heart was opened by a lance on the Cross (...). Happy is the one who will dwell in their shelter, for the just hand of God shall not lay hold of him" (Diary, 299).

"Today, I saw two enormous pillars implanted in the ground; I had implanted one of them, and a certain person, S. M. (Sopocko M.), the other. (...). These two pillars were close to each other, at the image width. And I saw the image, raised up very high and hanging from these two pillars. In an instant, upon these two pillars, both inside and outside, there stood a large temple. I saw a hand finishing the temple, but I did not see the person. There was a great multitude of people, inside and outside the temple, and the streams issuing from the Compassionate Heart of Jesus were flowing down upon everyone" (Diary, 1689).

"I DESIRE THAT THE WHOLE WORLD KNOW MY INFINITE MERCY" (Diary, 687).

THE SHROUD OF TURIN FRAGMENT - ANIMATION

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