Press Release: Jubilee for those devoted to the Spirituality of Divine Mercy

30-03-2016 pcpne

Divine ingl

From 1-3 April, one of the Major Jubilee Events: prayer, catechesis, and an audience with the Pope for those who follow the Spirituality of Divine Mercy.

Simultaneously, the European Apostolic Congress for Mercy begins on March 30.

 

Prayer, catechesis, conferences and testimonies: with a particular intensity the program for the Jubilee for Divine Mercy Spirituality is being announced.  The participants are coming from associations, movements, and religious institutes from all over the world to meet in Rome from 1 to 3 April, concluding on the Feast of Divine Mercy.  This Major Jubilee event will be an occasion to deepen the theme of the present Holy Year.

 

 “The Church is commissioned to announce the mercy of God, the beating heart of the Gospel, which in its own way must penetrate the heart and mind of every person - wrote the Pope in the Bull of Indiction (M.V.,12) .

 

These days dedicated to Divine Mercy will begin on Friday, 1 April with a Night of Reconciliation planned at the Church of Santo Spirito in Sassia and in the three Jubilee Churches of San Salvatore in Lauro, San Giovanni Battista dei Fiorentini and Santa Maria in Vallicella, where from 20:00 to 24:00 there will be Eucharistic Adoration, the possibility of Confession, and individual lectio divina. The same program will take place the following morning, Saturday 2 April, from 9:00 to 14:00, in the same churches (except for Santa Maria in Vallicella)--a day which is the 11th anniversary of the birth into heaven of Saint John Paul II.  In the afternoon, the Major Jubilee Event will continue with a pilgrimage to the Holy Door in Saint Peter's Basilica, entrance into the Piazza, and a space dedicated to testimonies and music.  It will culminate at 18:00 with the Prayer Vigil with the Holy Father, who will also celebrate the Holy Mass the next morning, the Feast of Divine Mercy.  The Mass at 10:00 will conclude these three intense days.

 

This year, the anniversary of the return of Saint John Paul II to the Heavenly Father's house coincides, just as it did in the year of his death, with the Vigil of the Feast of Divine Mercy.  He instituted this Feast for the entire Church in 2000, on the Sunday after Easter, also called “Domenica in Albis". According to the visions of Sister Faustina Kowalska, the Polish religious canonized by Wojtyla in 2000, Jesus himself wanted this Feast.  About Saint Faustina Kowalska, Apostle of Divine Mercy, Pope Francis wrote: “May she, who was called to enter the depths of divine mercy, intercede for us and obtain for us the grace of living and walking always according to the mercy of God and with an unwavering trust in his love” (M.V., 24).

 

Simultaneously with the Major Jubilee Event, the European Apostolic Congress of Mercy is being held from 30 March to 4 April: organized by WACOM, Word Apostolic Congress of Mercy, and presided by the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the Congress includes two days of reflection and study with talks and conferences offered by presenters of the highest level.  Its participants will join those of the Jubilee for Divine Mercy Spirituality on the evening of 1 April (http://www.wacom2017.org/PROGRAMA-DEL-CONGRESSO-APOSTOLICO-EUROPEO-DELLA.html).