Saint Faustina Saw What Happens When You Say “Jesus, I Trust in You” — It Changed Everything

This is the story of a young Polish nun with only three years of formal education who claimed to have direct conversations with Jesus ChriSt. Conversations that would be suppressed by the Vatican investigated for decades and ultimately transformed the spiritual lives of over 100 million Catholics worldwide.

Sister Maria Fina Kowalsska witnessed something in a convent cell on a February evening in 1931 that sparked the largest grassroots devotional movement in Catholic church history.

The phrase she received that night, “Jesus, I trust in you,” has since been translated into more than 20 languages, printed on over a million copies of her diary and become one of the most recognized prayers in modern Christianity.

Fina’s path to saintthood twisted through bans, skepticism, and doubt from her own sisters in the convent.

And yet the Vatican would eventually declare her message so critical that a pope would die with her words on his lips on the very feast day he had established in her honor.

Today we’re going to explore everything St. Faina witnessed. From her terrifying vision of hell to her glimpses of heaven.

From the precise instructions Jesus gave her about the divine mercy image to the prophecies she recorded about the end times.

We’ll examine the controversy that nearly erased her legacy and the chain of events that restored it.

Understanding what Fina witnessed requires knowing who she actually was because nothing in her background suggested she would become one of the 20th century’s most influential mystics.

Helena Kowalsska came into the world on August 25th, 1905 in the small village of Guovc in central Poland.

And two days later she was baptized at the parish church of Schwinis Varki. Her parents Stanniswave and Mariana Kowalsski worked as poor peasant farmers struggling to feed their large family and Helena arrived as the third of what would eventually be 10 children.

Her formal education lasted just three years of elementary school. That detail matters when you consider what came later.

Six notebooks totaling approximately 700 printed pages of sophisticated theological reflection and mystical experience. All produced by a woman with barely any schooling.

Religious stirrings came early, starting at age seven during exposition of the blessed sacrament. First holy communion followed at 9.

When Helena asked her parents as a teenager for permission to enter a convent, they refused because the family simply couldn’t afford to lose her income and help.

At 16, she left home to work as a housekeeper. First in Alexandruff, then Wajge, and later Ostrovc, sending money back to support her parents and nine siblings.

Four years passed with Helena living the ordinary life of a domestic servant. Everything changed in July of 1924 when she turned 19.

While attending a dance with her sister Natalia, Helena experienced a vision of the suffering ChriSt. And in that moment, Jesus commanded her to leave immediately for Warsaw and enter a convent.

She obeyed. Traveling alone to the capital with no connections, no plan and no money, Helena knocked on convent doors and faced rejection again and again.

The congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy finally agreed to accept her.

See, on one condition, she would need to work for approximately a year first to save money for her convent Truso.

And that’s what she did. On August 1st, 1925, 20-year-old Helena Kowalsska entered the convent on Jitnia Street in Warsaw.

April 30th, 1926 brought her religious habit and new name. Sister Maria Fainina of the Blessed Sacrament.

First vows followed in April 1928 with her parents in attendance and her perpetual vows came on May 1st 1933.

13 years of religious life stretched from 1925 until her death in 1938 during which Sister Fainina served in Warsaw, Kov, Hac and Vios.

Her duties stayed humble. She worked as a cook, a gardener, a porter, and a shop assistant in the convent bakery.

And the Vatican biography captures something telling here. Externally, nothing revealed her rich, mystical interior life.

Other sisters saw an unremarkable nun doing simple work, a cook scrubbing pots, a gardener pulling weeds.

But beneath that ordinary surface, Fina experienced visions, loutions, and mystical encounters that would reshape Catholic spirituality for generations.

The foundational vision, the one that launched the entire divine mercy devotion, came on a Sunday evening during Lent in 1931.

February 22nd, 1931 was the first Sunday of Lent, and Sister Fina occupied her cell at the Pac Convent about 70 mi northwest of Warsaw.

Another nun named Sister Christine later reported that rays of light from the window were visible that night, drawing attention from people outside the convent.

Something unusual was unfolding. Fastina’s own account appears in paragraph 47 of her diary. She wrote, “In the evening, when I was in my cell, I saw the 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, the other pale.

In silence, I kept my gaze fixed on the Lord. My soul was struck with awe, but also with great joy.

That vision became the template for the divine mercy image now hanging in churches, homes, and institutions across the world.

Fina, in that small convent cell, had no idea what it would become. Jesus spoke to her and paragraphs 47- 49 of the diary preserve his instructions in the words that would drive the rest of her mission.

Paint an image according to the pattern you see with the signature Jesus I trust in you.

I desire that this image be venerated first in your chapel and then throughout the world.

Promises followed. I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish.

I also promise victory over its enemies already here on earth, especially at the hour of death.

I myself will defend it as my own glory. Consider Fina’s position in that moment.

A cook and a gardener with three years of education, no artistic ability, no money, no influence, and she had just been told to paint an image of Jesus Christ and have it venerated throughout the world.

How could she possibly accomplish this? Fastina herself had no answer, and for several years she struggled with the commission to uncertain how to proceed.

She even attempted painting the image herself, producing predictably poor results. The solution didn’t begin to emerge until 1933 when she transferred to Vnius and met the priest who would become her most important advocate.

Father Mikos Pochko first met Sister Fainina in June or July of 1933 in Vnius, which at the time belonged to Poland, though it now sits in Lithuania.

His assignment was to serve as confessor for the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy.

Skepticism defined his initial reaction. A simple nun claiming direct conversations with Jesus ChriSt. Such claims rarely proved genuine.

And Sopko actually considered asking to be released from his duties as her confessor because her revelations troubled him.

Before taking her seriously, he requested that Fstaina undergo psychiatric evaluation, and examiners deemed her mentally stable and described her as one of the best nuns in the convent.

Once satisfied that delusion or mental illness wasn’t driving her experiences, Father Sappichko began listening more carefully.

The more he heard, the more convinced he became that something genuine was happening. He also found the solution to the painting problem.

A Polish artist named Eugenius Kazmirovski lived in his acquaintance, a painter trained at the Kroof Academy of Fine Arts, who had also studied atmies in Munich, Paris, and Rome.

Kazimarovski happened to lodge in the same house where Sopko resided. Between January and June of 1934, Kazmirovski painted the first Divine Mercy image under Fina’s direction.

She visited his studio to describe her vision in detail, and Father Sapoko himself reportedly posed for Jesus’s hands.

When the painting was finished, Fina wept. “Who will paint you as beautiful as you are?”

She asked. The image didn’t match her vision, falling far short of what she had seen.

But Jesus in a subsequent revelation told her not to worry. Paragraph 313 of her diary records his words.

Not in the beauty of the color, nor of the brush lies the greatness of this image, but in my grace.

That original Kazmirovski image still exists housed at the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Vius, Lithuania.

Father Sopochko arranged the first public display of the image on April 26th to 28th, 1935 at the gate of dawn in Vius.

On April 28th, he preached the first divine mercy sermon marking the first public proclamation of the message Fina had received.

The writing also began at Soochko’s instruction. Jesus himself had commanded this as well, telling Fina in paragraph 1,142.

My daughter, be diligent in writing down every sentence I tell you concerning my mercy, because this is meant for a great number of souls who will profit from it.

Between 1934 and 1938, Fastina filled six notebooks with visions, conversations with Christ, and spiritual reflections.

Those notebooks eventually became Divine Mercy in my soul, the text Pope John Paul II would later call the Gospel of Mercy, written from a 20th century perspective.

Father Sopko never wavered. During World War II, he founded the congregation of the Sisters of Merciful Jesus to help spread the divine mercy message and he continued promoting the devotion until his death in 1975.

For that lifetime of faithful service, Imha Sapochko was beatified on September 28th, 2008. Before continuing with what else Fainina witnessed, we need to understand what the divine mercy image actually means because every element carries theological significance that Jesus himself explained.

At the center stands Jesus Christ dressed in a white garment. One hand rises in blessing while the other touches the garment at his breast where the fabric draws slightly aside.

From beneath that opening, two large rays stream outward, one red and one pale or white.

At the bottom appears the signature Jesus commanded. Jesus, I trust in you. The two rays carry specific meaning that Jesus explained in paragraph 299 of the diary.

The two rays denote blood and water. The pale ray stands for the water which makes souls righteous.

And the red ray stands for the blood which 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.

That explanation connects directly to the Gospel of John 19:34 where a soldier pierces the side of the crucified Jesus and immediately blood and water came out.

Water represented by the pale ray symbolizes baptism and purification. Blood represented by the red ray symbolizes the eukarist and divine life flowing into souls.

Together they represent the sacramental life of the church streaming from Christ’s wounded heart. Paragraph 327 records Jesus telling Fina, “I am offering people a vessel with which they are to keep coming for graces to the fountain of mercy.”

And that vessel is this image with the signature, “Jesus, I trust in you.” The signature functions as our prayer, not Christ’s statement.

It’s not Jesus telling us to trust him, though he does want that. Instead, it’s meant as the prayer of whoever views the image.

Looking at the divine mercy image, you’re supposed to make those words your own. Jesus, I trust in you.

Trust became the central theme of the entire devotion for this reason. Paragraph 1,578 contains what may be the most important explanation Jesus gave about the message.

The graces of my mercy are drawn by means of one vessel only and that is truSt. The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive.

Trust serves as the vessel, the means of accessing divine mercy. Without trust, the graces cannot flow.

But not because God withholds them, but because we’re not positioned to receive them. The image of a cup turned upside down captures it well.

Water is ready to pour, but the cup needs turning right side up firSt. That turning, that disposition of openness and confidence in God’s mercy is exactly what the words, “Jesus, I trust in you,” are meant to cultivate.

Beyond the image, Jesus gave Fina a specific prayer to spread, what we now know as the chaplet of divine mercy.

The revelation came on September 13th to 14th, 1935 in Vius. Fina first saw an angel of God’s wrath prepared to strike the earth with lightning and thunder filling the sky.

Desperate prayer for mercy followed and she found herself brought before the Holy Trinity. In that state she heard for the first time the prayers that would form the chaplet.

Eternal Father, on I offer you the body and blood, soul and divinity of your dearly beloved son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.

And for the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

The next day, Jesus dictated the complete structure, explaining how to use ordinary rosary beads and specifying the words for each section.

Extraordinary promises accompany the chaplet. Paragraph 1,541 records. When they say this chaplet, it will please me to grant everything they shall ask for.

Paragraph 811 adds, “When people say the chaplet at a dying person’s bedside, God’s anger is placated and unfathomable mercy embraces the soul.”

Jesus also promised in paragraph 1541, “I will stand between my father and the dying person in not as a just judge but as a merciful savior.”

That last promise, Jesus positioning himself as merciful savior rather than just judge at the hour of death, has made the chaplet one of the most commonly prayed prayers for the dying in Catholic tradition.

Countless families have gathered at hospital bedsides and in homes, praying these words as loved ones prepare to meet God.

October 1936 brought one of Fina’s most disturbing visions during an 8-day retreat. An angel escorted her to hell.

Paragraph 741 of her diary documents seven general torments that souls in hell suffer. Loss of God comes firSt. This forms the fundamental torture, the source from which all other sufferings flow.

The soul was created for union with God. And in hell, that union becomes forever impossible.

A perpetual remorse of conscience follows as the second torment. An unending awareness of what was lost and why.

Third is that one’s condition will never change. No hope exists, no possibility of improvement, no end to the suffering.

Fourth is spiritual fire lit by God’s anger penetrating the soul. This differs from ordinary physical fire because it burns the spirit itself.

Fifth is continual darkness combined with a suffocating smell. Sixth is constant company of Satan.

Seventh is horrible despair, hatred of God and continual curses and blasphemies. Fina wrote, “I, Sister Fina Kowalsska, by the order of God, I have visited the abysses of hell so that I might tell souls about it and testify to its existence.”

She added an observation that should give everyone pause. Most of the souls there are those who disbelieved that there is a hell.

This vision wasn’t given to Fina for its own sake, but to warn others. Hell’s reality combined with the possibility of ending up there makes the message of divine mercy all the more urgent.

God’s mercy is available, but it must be sought and received through truSt. Earlier in her religious life in 1926, Fainina experienced another vision of the afterlife.

This time of purgatory. Her guardian angel led her to what she described as a misty place full of fire in which there was a great crowd of suffering souls.

When she asked these souls about their greatest suffering, they answered, she recorded, one in one voice that their greatest torment was longing for God.

The theological significance here runs deep. Souls in purgatory are saved and will eventually reach heaven.

But they are not yet ready for the full vision of God and must be purified firSt. During that purification, what they feel most intensely is not fire and not isolation, but longing for God from whom they are temporarily separated.

Fastina also witnessed the Virgin Mary visiting purgatory and bringing refreshment to the suffering souls.

They called her the star of the sea, one of Mary’s ancient titles. This vision reinforced the Catholic teaching that we can and should pray for souls in purgatory.

The Divine Mercy Chaplet specifically includes prayers for the dead. And Fainina frequently offered her own sufferings for the souls in purgatory throughout her religious life.

November 27th, 1936 brought Fina a glimpse of heaven itself. Paragraphs 777 through 779 preserve her account.

Today I was in heaven in spirit and I saw its inconceivable beauties and the happiness that awaits us after death.

I saw how all creatures give ceaseless praise and glory to God. This source of happiness is unchanging in its essence, but it is always new, gushing forth happiness for all creatures.

Where hell was characterized by loss of God, heaven is characterized by the fullness of his presence.

Where hell featured despair and hatred, heaven features joy and praise. Where hell was static suffering, heaven is dynamic blessing.

Always new, a gushing forth happiness. These three visions together, hell, purgatory and heaven, gave Fina a comprehensive understanding of the eternal stakes involved in the divine mercy mission.

Souls were heading toward one of these destinations, and the message of divine mercy offered a lifeline and salvation to those who would trust in it.

Throughout her diary, Fainina recorded warnings and prophecies that Jesus shared about the future. Paragraph 83 contains one of the most striking.

Before I come as the just judge, I am coming first as the king of mercy.

This suggests a sequence. First mercy, then justice. The current age, what we might call the age of divine mercy, is a time when God’s forgiveness is especially available.

But it will not last forever. And a day of justice is coming. The paragraph 1,146 records Jesus saying, “He who refuses to pass through the door of my mercy must pass through the door of my justice.”

Two doors exiSt. Everyone must go through one. The choice belongs to us. Paragraph 848 describes divine mercy as a sign for the end times after it will come the day of justice.

Paragraph 1,732 contains a prophecy specifically about Poland. From her will come forth the spark that will prepare the world for my final coming.

Many Catholics interpret that prophecy as referring to Pope John Paul II who was Polish championed the Divine Mercy devotion and established Divine Mercy Sunday for the universal church.

The spark from Poland that would prepare the world. Could there be a better description of Carol Voitwa’s pontificate?

And as revelations continued and the diary filled with pages, Fastina’s health was failing. Tuberculosis of the lungs and digestive system ravaged her body.

By 1936, she was critically ill, spending more than 8 months at the hospital in Kovnnik.

Rather than complaining, Fostina offered her sufferings as voluntary sacrifice for sinners, viewing her illness as another form of participation in Christ’s redemptive work.

Her last diary entries carry dates from June 1938, just 3 months before the end.

On October 5th, 1938, Sister Maria Fina Kowalsska died at the convent of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Kraov Wagvniki.

33 years old. The same age tradition assigns to Jesus at his crucifixion. Her funeral took place on October 7th, 1938 with burial in the convent cemetery.

On today her remains rest beneath the altar in the divine mercy sanctuary at Wagi of Niki.

Before death came, Fina made a striking promise. Paragraph 1,582 records. I shall not forget you, oh poor earth, though I feel I shall immediately sink completely in God.

Being submerged in God will give me unlimited scope for action. Death wouldn’t end her mission.

She believed it would expand it. Submerged in God, she would have unlimited scope for action.

Given what happened after her death, arguing with her seems difficult. Fastina seems to have known her mission wouldn’t proceed smoothly after death.

In 1935, she recorded a prophecy in paragraph 378. The devotion would be suppressed for some time after her death but then be accepted again.

20 years after Fainina’s death on March 6th, 1959 of the Holy Office in Rome, the Vatican Department responsible for doctrinal matters issued a formal notification forbidding the diffusion of images and writings promoting the devotion to divine mercy under the form proposed by Sister Fostina.

Devastating doesn’t capture the impact. No more images allowed. No more distribution of the diary.

The devotion spreading throughout Poland and beyond was suddenly shut down by the highest authority in the Catholic Church.

Several factors led to the suppression. First and most importantly, the Vatican possessed only faulty Italian and French translations of Fina’s diary containing what have been described as gross distortions of her original Polish text.

The Holy Office was evaluating a corrupted version of her writings. Second, the original Polish text remained largely inaccessible.

Here this was the height of the Cold War with Poland behind the iron curtain and communication between Poland and Rome moved with difficulty.

Third, no comprehensive theological analysis existed. The Vatican was being asked to approve something it hadn’t properly studied.

Fourth, some Polish bishops expressed discomfort with the Divine Mercy image because its red and white rays resembled Poland’s national flag colors too closely, giving it an inappropriately nationalistic appearance.

Fifth, concerns arose that emphasizing God’s mercy might come at the expense of his justice, potentially encouraging spiritual presumption.

Cardinal Alfredo Otavani, head of the Holy Office, had tried to persuade Pope Pius I 12th to condemn the devotion, but the Pope refused.

After Pope John the 23rd was elected in October 1958, Seotavani tried again and this time succeeded in getting Fina’s works added to the list under consideration for banning.

The 1959 notification stopped the devotion in its tracks. For nearly 20 years, faithful Catholics who had embraced divine mercy found themselves in an impossible position, devoted to something their own church had forbidden.

Providence seems to have placed the man who would restore the divine mercy devotion in view of the very convent where Fainina died.

Carl Voya was a young man during the Nazi occupation of Poland, working at a chemical factory from which he could see the Wagyavniki convent, the place where Fainina had spent her final years and where her body lay buried.

1940 brought Voiwa his first introduction to divine mercy when fellow seminarian Andrew Desker shared the devotion with him.

See the message resonated deeply and would shape his entire spiritual life. In 1964, Boya became Archbishop of Kov, the dascese that included Wagi of Nikki and Fainina’s tomb.

Authority to address the suppressed devotion now rested with him. With Vatican approval, Archbishop Vuiwa initiated a fresh investigation into Sister Fostina’s writings and visions in 1965.

Cardinal Otavani himself, the same man who had pushed for the ban, encouraged Voiwa to proceed while witnesses who had known Fina were still alive.

Commissioned father Ignati Rojitski a distinguished theologian to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the diary and devotion.

Rojitsk’s work proved exhaustive producing a 500page theological study that examined every aspect of Fina’s writings and the conclusion exonerated Fainina of all suspicions of heterodoxy.

Nothing heretical appeared in her diary and the problems lay with faulty translations rather than her original text.

Rojitsk’s study laid the theological foundations for the devotion as practiced today. On April 15th, 1978, the congregation for the doctrine of the faith, successor to the holy office, formally lifted the ban.

The official statement read, “This sacred congregation, having now in possession the many original documents unknown in 1959, and having taken into account the profoundly changed circumstances, declares no longer binding the prohibitions contained in the notification.

Divine mercy was free again. After nearly 20 years of suppression, Catholics could once more venerate the image, pray the chaplet.

Oh, and read Fina’s diary without disobeying church authority. And that’s when everything changed. Just 6 months after the ban lifted on October 16th, 1978, Carroll Voiwa was elected Pope.

He took the name John Paul II. Pope John Paul II’s connection to divine mercy ran deeply personal.

In 1997, he visited the shrine of divine mercy in Kov and spoke openly about this connection.

His words that day, the message of divine mercy has always been near and dear to me.

This was also my personal experience which I took with me to the sea of Peter and which in a sense forms the image of this pontificate.

Consider what that statement means. A sitting pope declaring that a devotion he had championed since seminary days forms the image of this pontificate.

He wasn’t merely permitting divine mercy. He was building his papacy around it. Where in 1980 came the encyclical dives in misericordia Latin for rich in mercy.

Fastina’s writings heavily influenced this document which presented divine mercy as essential to understanding God’s relationship with humanity.

April 18th, 1993 brought Fstaina’s beatatification, the first formal step toward saintthood and the moment when the church officially recognized her life of heroic virtue and granted permission for public veneration.

7 years later on April 30th, 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized Fina Kowalsska, declaring her a saint of the Catholic Church.

At that same ceremony, he established divine mercy Sunday as a feast for the universal church to be celebrated every year on the second Sunday of Easter.

His canonization homaly called Fina God’s gift to our time. He repeated that phrase three times and emphasizing its weight.

The timing carried its own message. Canonization took place at the turn of the millennium, a moment of global transition in Rome, proclaimed by a Polish pope who had first learned of the devotion 60 years earlier in Nazi occupied Poland.

He had worked in view of Fina’s convent, championed her cause as archbishop of Kov, lifted the Vatican ban just months before his election to the papacy.

Evidence of divine orchestration would be hard to find in more compelling form. Pope John Paul II died on April 2nd, 2005 at 9:37 p.m. Rome time.

Saturday evening, the vigil of divine mercy Sunday. In the Catholic lurggical calendar, feast days begin with their vigil mass the evening before, which means John Paul II died on the very feast he had established, celebrating the saint he had canonized while honoring the devotion he had championed his entire life.

His final prepared message ended with these words. Jesus, I trust in you. Have mercy upon us and upon the whole world.

The same words from the chaplet of divine mercy. The same phrase Jesus had given Fstaina in her convent cell years before.

Fainina had written that she would not forget poor earth after death. That being submerged in God would give her unlimited scope for action.

Pope John Paul II seems to have joined her in that mission. The two are now linked forever.

The simple Polish nun and the Pope who brought her message to the world, both associated eternally with Divine Mercy Sunday.

Something might confuse viewers who search for the Divine Mercy image online. Two major versions exist and they look quite different.

The first is the original painted by Eugenius Kazmirovski between January and June of 1934 in Vnius under Fina’s direct supervision.

Jesus appears in profile in this version, his gaze slightly averted with a more somber and contemplative expression.

This is the painting that made Fstaina weep because it didn’t capture what she had seen.

The second and far more famous version was painted by Adolf Haiwa in 1943 in Kov.

Haiwa created the image as a votive offering for his family’s survival during World War II.

His version places Jesus facing the viewer directly appearing as what has been called a divine physician approaching with hand raised in blessing.

The rays stand out more prominently. The colors appear brighter and the overall impression feels more approachable and comforting.

The highway’s image is now the most reproduced version worldwide. It’s the one appearing in most churches, homes, and Catholic publications, hanging over the main altar at the Divine Mercy Sanctuary in Kov Wagy.

Both images carry legitimacy. Both contain the essential elements Fina described. The white garment, the blessing hand, the two rays, and the inscription, “Jesus, I trust in you.”

The church has never required one version over the other. The original Kazmirovski image, the one Fina herself supervised, still exists and receives veneration at the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Vnius, Lithuania.

Pilgrims wanting to see the image closest to Fina’s original vision can visit it there.

Jesus asked Fina to spread specific practices that deserve careful examination. Divine Mercy Sunday falls on the second Sunday of Easter about one week after Easter Sunday.

And that date wasn’t chosen randomly. The gospel readings for that day describe the risen Jesus appearing to the apostles saying, “Peace be with you.

As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” He breathes on them saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” That day marks when Jesus instituted the sacrament of confession, the sacrament of mercy.

Jesus made specific promises to Fstaina about this feaSt. Complete cleansing, what some theologians have called a second baptism, awaits those who go to confession and receive holy communion on divine mercy Sunday while praying for the Pope’s intentions.

The church has officially attached a plenary indulgence to this practice when the novena to divine mercy begins on Good Friday and continues for 9 days ending on divine mercy Sunday.

Jesus dictated specific intentions for each day of this novena to Fainina. Jesus also emphasized the hour of mercy at 3:00 in the afternoon.

According to the Gospels, this is the hour when Jesus died on the cross. Fastina received instructions to particularly honor Christ’s passion.

At this hour, making time for prayer, even briefly, to immerse yourself in my passion, particularly in my abandonment at the moment of agony.

Many Catholics now pause at 300 p.m. to pray the chaplet of divine mercy or simply reflect on Christ’s sacrifice.

The numbers tell their own story. Over 100 million Catholics worldwide now practice divine mercy, a figure that priest Father Benedict Gchel described in 2010 as a modest estimate.

That makes it the largest grassroots devotional movement in Catholic Church history. Fastina’s diary, Divine Mercy in My Soul, has been translated into more than 20 languages with over 1 million copies sold and the trade edition now in its 30th printing.

The Maran Fathers, official custodians of the Divine Mercy message in the United States, produce approximately 50 million pieces of Divine Mercy literature and images annually.

In 2019, a global rosary relay for the intention of divine mercy included 84 shrines across 46 countries.

The shrine of divine mercy in Kraov Wagyavniki receives approximately 2 million pilgrims every year.

The new basilica built between 1999 and 2002 is an enormous ellypoidal ebot-shaped structure holding 5,000 people featuring a 77 m observation tower and the largest stained glass window in Kov at 148 m.

Three popes have visited this shrine. John Paul II in 1997 and 2002. Benedict I 16th in 2006 and Pope Francis in 2016.

Before the ban by the 1950s, Marian fathers were already printing holy cards of the divine mercy image in over 60 languages and dialects.

The devotion spread faster than almost anyone anticipated. Digital age expansion continues. The official Divine Mercy app has surpassed 1 million downloads and live online transmissions from the Krov Shrine allow Catholics around the world to participate in prayers and masses in real time.

Divine mercy has remained central to the Catholic Church in the 21st century and Pope Francis has made mercy a defining theme of his pontificate.

In 2015, he declared an extraordinary jubilee of mercy, a special holy year running from December 2015 through November 2016.

Churches around the world opened special holy doors through which the faithful could pass to receive particular graces.

During World Youth Day 2016, Pope Francis visited the Divine Mercy Shrine in Kov, the same shrine where Fainina’s body rests, the same shrine John Paul II had visited before him.

In 2020, Pope Francis added St. Fina’s memorial, October 5th, marking the anniversary of her death, to the general Roman calendar as an optional memorial for the universal church.

Any Catholic church anywhere in the world can now officially celebrate her feast day. The year 2025 marks several significant anniversaries.

April 30, 2025. I brings the 25th anniversary of Fstaina’s canonization and the establishment of Divine Mercy Sunday.

April the 26th to 28th, 2025 marks the 90th anniversary of the first public display of the Divine Mercy image at the Gate of Dawn in Vnius.

September 13th to 14th, 2025 marks the 90th anniversary of the chaplet Revelation. August 25th, 2025 marks 120 years since Fina’s birth.

What are we to make of all this? A peasant girl with three years of education experienced visions that reshaped Catholic spirituality worldwide.

Her writings were banned and then vindicated. A Polish Pope died on the very feast day he had established to honor her message.

If Fainina’s visions were genuine, and the Catholic Church after extensive investigation concluded they were, and then we are living in what she called the time of mercy, a time when God’s forgiveness is especially available, a time before the day of justice, a time when the words, “Jesus, I trust in you,” carry particular power.

Paragraph 83 of her diary preserves what Jesus told her. Before I come as the just judge, I am coming first as the king of mercy.

The king of mercy is here. The door of mercy stands open. The question is whether we will walk through it.

Fastina saw what happens when someone says, “Jesus, I trust in you.” She saw the graces that flow, the mercy that embraces the transformation that becomes possible.

She also saw what happens to those who refuse mercy. The hell of eternal separation from God.

Torments that never end. These visions weren’t given to terrify but to motivate. Not to condemn but to call.

And the entire divine mercy devotion exists because Jesus according to Fina wanted humanity to know how much he desires to forgive.

How eager he is to show mercy to anyone who will trust him enough to ask.

The graces of my mercy are drawn by means of one vessel only and that is truSt. The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive.

That’s what Fina witnessed. That’s what changed everything and that’s what continues to change lives today.

Over 100 million Catholics and counting, all drawn by those same words written on an image of the risen ChriSt. Jesus, I trust in you.

Thank you for watching. Fina’s complete diary is available in translation for those wanting to learn more.

And the divine mercy shrine in Kov welcomes pilgrims from around the world. The chaplet of divine mercy can be found online and the hour of mercy at 3:00 in the afternoon can be observed anywhere.

The door of mercy remains