The annual retreat for worshipers of Divine Mercy will take place on June 24-26 at the Jesuit retreat house in Prešov, Slovakia. The retreat with God’s greatest attribute, which is His mercy, will be led by Sr. M. Benediktína Fečová ISMM from the Košice community of the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy together with the Jesuit Fathers from the Prešov community.
On June 26th, the 25 years’ anniversary of service in Kazakhstan will be celebrated by Sisters of the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy in Petropavlovsk. Superior General, M. Miriam Janiec, and Sr. Natalia Wideł, Econome General of the Congregation, will take part in the celebrations.
On June 22, 1997, the first community of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy was established in Petropavlovsk. The Sisters set out on their mission to Kazakhstan to preach the merciful love of God there, by witness of life, deed, word and prayer, as a gift of gratitude for the first papal pilgrimage made by St. John Paul II to the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow-Łagiewniki.
The Sisters have served in various ways in Petropavlovsk and other localizations in Kazakhstan, cooperating with priests in the Church that became a Shrine of Divine Mercy in 2012. They also served in a filial convent at Taiynsha, where they took care of many Polish expatriates. The Sisters run a dormitory for girls, and teach religion in many parishes and villages across the country. Since a law that prohibits religious meetings in the public space was introduced in the country, service in prisons has been suspended, along with ones in schools and hospitals. The Sisters are also involved in the Clean Heart Movement and apostolic work among girls and women. They are holding various meetings and offering teachings in real life and online.
The anniversary will also offer an opportunity to give thanks for the Sisters’ service in Kazakhstan and ask for the blessing of many more years the charismatic mission of the Congregation to continue there to preach the message of the merciful love of God for every human being.
On June 24-25, the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow-Łagiewniki will be visited by the Icon of the Holy Family, wandering around the Archdiocese of Krakow since December 26, 2021. After greeting the Icon in front of the basilica, Holy Mass will be celebrated at 6 pm. At 8 pm, the icon will be moved in procession to the chapel with the miracle-famous Divine Mercy Image and the tomb of St. Faustina, where the rosary is prayed every day at 8.30 pm, for families and couples in crisis. After the Marian call, a night vigil of Sisters from the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy and people connecting via on-line transmissions at Faustyna.pl and its 7 language versions will begin. The next morning after the Eucharist at 6.30 am and Lauds, the Icon will return to the basilica, from where, after the Hour of Mercy and the Chaplet, it will be transferred to the John Paul II Center.
The purpose of this pilgrimage is, above all, to pray for married couples and families so that they may be strong in God. The highlight of the event in each parish is the Eucharist of thanksgiving for the sacrament of marriage and the gift of family life, the best example of which is the Holy Family.
Such is the title of the 3th episode of our short film clip series about the Message of Mercy from Jesus, based on the Diary of Sister Faustina. Every episode contains a dialog between Jesus and St. Faustina. In this episode, Jesus is saying: „My love and mercy know no bounds” (Diary, 718). Saint Faustina responds. „I see that His greatest love, the infinite depth of His mercy, is in the Incarnation of the Word, in the Redemption He accomplished, and hence I learned that this is the greatest of God’s attributes” (Diary, 651).
The script for a series of short films featuring Jesus’ message of mercy was written by Sr. M. Elżbieta Siepak, ISMM. This message reveals God’s merciful love and calls us to respond to it with an attitude of trust in God, that is, by doing His will, and by doing good to others through deeds, words and prayer. The narrators are Fr. Canon Jason Ashleigh Jones and Sr. M. Teresa de la Fuente ISMM, and the music was written by the Krakow composed and musician, Paweł Bębenek. The one-minute film clips with beautiful outdoor scenes are produced by the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in cooperation with TVP. You can watch them all on you YouTube channel: Faustina.pl.
On June 22, in the church of St. Joachim in Rome (Prati district), there will be another meeting of the community of the Faustinum Apostles of Divine Mercy. It will be hosted by Fr. Łukasz Brus, priest of the Lublin diocese studying at the Gregorianum in Rome, and Sisters from the Roman community of the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy. The main topic of the meeting will be the Mother of Mercy. The activities planned include prayer at the Hour of Mercy and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, conferences and Adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
On June 22nd at 7 pm, in the Łagiewniki Shrine’s chapel of the Divine Mercy image and the tomb of St. Faustina, the traditional monthly youth meeting, dubbed the Łagiewniki 22, will take place. This year, the Sisters and participants of the meetings are following a new theme: Come and Trust! In prayer, the young people will entrust all the difficult matters of the Church, the world and their personal problems to the merciful Lord. The evenings of adoration will also be a spiritual preparation for the 20th anniversary of the act of entrusting the world to Divine Mercy, which was done by St. Pope John Paul II in 17 August 2002 at the Łagiewniki Shrine.
On June 22th, at the John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C., another Evening with Merciful Jesus will take place. Sisters from the Washington community of the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy will host the event. This time, a conference will be delivered by Sr. Inga Kvassayová ISMM. After the speech, Adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament will take place. At the end, the young meet to share refreshments. “Evenings with Merciful Jesus” are organized for young people who want to follow in the footsteps of St. Faustina and St. John Paul II to discover a new quality of life in friendship with Merciful Jesus.
The 6th General Assembly of the Faustinum Divine Mercy Apostles’ Association will take place from 17 to 18 June 2022 at the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow-Łagiewniki. Members from many cities in Poland and other European countries will participate. An event like this, according to the statutes of Faustinum, is organized every 5 years to sum up the activities of the Association, to make suggestions for the future and to elect lay members to the Faustinum Council.
The General Assembly will begin at 12.30 p.m. with Holy Mass in the chapel of the miracle-famous Divine Mercy Image and the tomb of St. Faustina. The meeting will be presided over by the Spiritual Guardian of the Association, Fr. Marek Wójtowicz, S.J. During this ceremony, new members of the Faustinum will be formally welcomed in the Association.
On June 18th at 8 pm, in the Basilica of Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow-Łagiewniki, the 20th night vigil of the Padre Pio Groups will begin. Holy Mass at midnight will be presided by Bishop Janusz mastalski. In addition, the night vigil will include: Appeal of Jasna Góra, lecture (9.30 pm), testimonies and Adoration. The meeting will conclude with a solemn blessing and kissing of the relics.
On 16 June, Thursday, the Church is celebrating the feast of Feast of Corpus Christi (Corpus Domini). Holy Mass at the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow-Łagiewniki will be celebrated according to the Sunday schedule. Before noon, the procession of Corpus Christi will set out from the Wawel Hill to the Market Square in Krakow, and in the afternoon, other processions will take place in individual parishes. In the parish church in Łagiewniki, the Eucharistic procession to four altars will begin with Mass at 5:00 pm. The faithful will proceed along the street Siostry Faustyny in the direction of the Shrine of the Divine Mercy. At the basilica, the procession will conclude with a thankful Te Deum and a solemn blessing of the Holy Sacrament. Divine Mercy Mass for the intercession of St. Faustina in the intention of prayers and thanks from the faithful will be celebrated at 7 pm at the convent chapel.
On 10-12 June, a vocational retreat for girls and women will take place in the Discalced Carmelites monastery in Lorinčík near Košice in the south of Slovakia, themed “The Heart of a Woman”. It will be led by Fr. Andrej Valent, O.C.D., and Sr. Benediktína Fečová from the Košice community of the Congregation of the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy.
On 11-12 June, Sr Clareta Fečová from the convent of the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy at the Shrine in Kraków-Łagiewniki will share the spiritual heritage of St. Faustina recorded in her Diary with the faithful at the parish of Divine Mercy in Zielona Góra. The event will also include a meeting with the Faustinum community. In this meeting, Sr. Clareta will be accompanied by a member of the Faustinum community who will speak about his experience of formation in this association and will give testimony of the action of God’s mercy in his life.
On June 5-7th, at the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow-Łagiewniki, the 25th anniversary of the first papal pilgrimage by John Paul II to the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow-Łagiewniki will be celebrated. The program includes:
June 5th
- 7 am – Holy Mass presided over by Archbishop Marek Jędraszewski, the Metropolitan Bishop of Krakow, broadcast by TVP1.
- 30 pm – performance of The Secretary in the John Paul II Hall.
June 7th
- 5 pm – Holy Mass presided over by Bishop Jan Zając, honorary custodian of the Shrine of Divine Mercy.
- 7 pm – Concert.
We invite you to participate in these events, during which – remembering the first papal pilgrimage to Łagiewniki – we will give thanks for two great apostles of Divine Mercy: St. Faustina and St. Paul II.
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the first papal pilgrimage of John Paul II to the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow-Łagiewniki, on June 5th, a performance of The Secretary, which premiered at the Jerzy Szaniawski Dramatic Theatre in Płock last year, will be staged at 3.30 p.m. in the auditorium next to the Basilica. The monodrama performed by Barbara Misiun was based on the Diary of St. Faustina and shows her in the everyday life of her cell and hospital room, where she meets Merciful Jesus, who strengthens her in the prophetic mission of proclaiming the message of Mercy to the world.
On 5 June, on the Solemnity of Pentecost, Sr. Wincenta Mąka from the Roman community of the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy will meet with Apostles of the Divine Mercy at the Church of St. Christina in Turin. She will deliver a conference on “the Merciful Spirit at work in the Church” based on the Diary of St. Faustina, as well as Sr. Wincenta’s personal testimony of the Holy Spirit’s power at work in her life.
The program also includes a traditional Holy Mass, communal Hour of Mercy and Chaplet of Divine Mercy as well as honoring relics of St. Faustina.
After the Ascension of the Lord, this year on May 30 (Monday), in Poland and in those countries where Ascension is celebrated on the Seventh Sunday of Easter, the six-day prayer preparation for the Solemnity of Pentecost begins. In chapels of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, including the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow-Łagiewniki, at the Image of Divine Mercy and the tomb of St. Faustina, prayer to the Holy Spirit will be combined with the evening service at 7 pm, and on Sundays and holidays, at 6.30 pm. It is also possible to participate in it through on-line live broadcasting, to implore for the light and gifts of the Holy Spirit so necessary for the development of supernatural life. May the Holy Spirit lead us to a full knowledge of Jesus, reveal the depth of His merciful love to us, teach us to see His presence and action in our daily lives, and shape our lives in a spirit of trust in God and mercy towards our neighbor.
This Saturday, June 4th, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Płock at the Old Market Square will host another meeting with refugees from Ukraine. The event will be delivered by Sr. Leonia from the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy, who served for many years in in Ukraine’s Tavriisk, Sr. Majela, and the Sisters from the Płock convent. The main theme of the meeting will be to talk about the merciful love of Jesus, to pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and to praise God with singing. The program also includes a discussion and a shared Agape.
The Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy has received over 200 refugees from Ukraine, and over 30 children are attending the Congregation’s kindergarten in Derdy near Warsaw. The Sisters from the Łagiewniki Shrine served in the “Mercy” tent on the Polish-Ukrainian border in Hrebenne. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, we have constantly prayed for justice and peace in this country, joined by online users from many countries of the world as part of the Perpetual Chaplet at www.faustyna.pl and its 7 language versions.
On May 27-29, at the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow-Łagiewniki, a retreat for young women will take place. The theme will be “You have stolen my heart with one glance of Your eyes.” The retreat, based on the Gospel and the Diary of St. Faustina, will be delivered by Fr. Krzysztof Kowal, M.S., and Sr. M. Emanuela Gemza, OLM. The topic of the reflection will be the heart of the woman who wants to be loved. Retreatants will look for an answer to the question: how to find your true value? How to look at oneself through the eyes of God? Where to look for answers to the deepest questions of the heart of a girl and a woman? The message for this retreat will be the words of Jesus: “O My specially beloved child, apple of My eye, rest for a while upon My heart and taste of the love which you will enjoy for all eternity” (Diary, 1489).
On May 28th (Saturday), after a communal prayer in the Basilica of the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow-Łagiewniki at 7:30 am, the 15th Pilgrimage to Kalwaria Zebrzydowska will begin. The pilgrims will make the distance of 33 km on foot. They will visit the churches of Mary Queen of Poland in Krakow’s Nowy Ruczaj and in Rzozów, and the church of the Most Holy Trinity in Przytkowice as they go. The arrival to Kalwaria Zebrzydowska is planned at 6:345 pm. After a Holy Mass, they will return to Krakow by buses.
On May 28th, at the Parish of St. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael the Archangels in Aleksandrów Łódzki, the 100th anniversary of the Confirmation of St. Faustina will be celebrated. The ceremony will begin at the former house of the Bryszewski family, where 16-year-old Helena Kowalska (Sister Faustina in the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy) lived and served for about a year. At 3 p.m. there will be prayer in the Hour of Mercy and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, recited along the route traveled by the Apostle of Divine Mercy, with a March of the Youth to the church, where the Metropolitan Bishop of Lodz, Abp Grzegorz Ryś will deliver the Sacrament of Confirmation and celebrate a solemn service. The program of the ceremony also includes a shared Agape and a concert of worship.
St. Faustina received the Sacrament of Confirmation in this parish in February 1922, about which she herself testified during the exam Fr. Dr. Stanisław Rospond on April 21, 1926, which took place before she took the veil.
May 27th is the 16th anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s pilgrimage to the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow-Łagiewniki. The Holy Father prayed before the grace-famous painting of Merciful Jesus and at the tomb of St. Faustina, in the chapel of Perpetual Adoration, and in the Basilica he met with the sick, who – as he said – are the most eloquent witnesses of God’s Mercy and have an active part in the salvation of the world. On a general audience in Rome, he recalled this pilgrimage to the Shrine in Łagiewniki: I had the opportunity to point out that only Divine Mercy illuminates the mystery of man. … Contemplating the illuminating wounds of the risen Christ, Sister Faustina Kowalska received a message of trust to humanity, the message of God’s Mercy … This message is indeed the main message of our time: mercy as God’s power and as the boundary for the evils of the whole world.
On May 22nd at 8 pm, in the Łagiewniki Shrine’s chapel of the Divine Mercy image and the tomb of St. Faustina, the traditional monthly youth meeting, dubbed the Łagiewniki 22, will take place. This year, the Sisters and participants of the meetings are following a new theme: Come and Trust! In prayer, the young people will entrust all the difficult matters of the Church, the world and their personal problems to the merciful Lord. The evenings of adoration will also be a spiritual preparation for the 20th anniversary of the act of entrusting the world to Divine Mercy, which was done by St. Pope John Paul II in 17 August 2002 at the Łagiewniki Shrine.
On May 21-22, an annual retreat for Divine Mercy devotees will be held at the Holy Trinity Church in Varíne, Slovakia. Sister M. Alžbeta Mikušová from the Košice community of the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy will be the retreat giver.
On May 21th (Saturday), the 11th pilgrimage counting several thousand Greek Catholics from Slovakia will arrive to the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow-Łagiewniki. At 9.15 am, Akathistos will be sung in honor of the Blessed Mother of God. The solemn Byzantine Rite Mass at 10 am will be chaired by Archbishop Jan Babjak, S.J., the retired Metropolitan of Presov. After lunch break (about 2.15 pm), Sister M. Clareta Fečova from the convent of the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy in Krakow-Łagiewniki will provide a conference about on trust and prayer. The pilgrims will pray at the grace-famous image of Merciful Jesus next to the tomb of St. Faustina. The pilgrimage will end officially at 3 pm with prayer at the Hour of Mercy, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and a pastoral blessing.
On Saturday, May 21st, there will be a spring pilgrimage to the Rock Shrine of Divine Mercy on Mount Butkov in Slovakia. Celebrations will start with communal prayer at the Hour of Mercy and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy led by the Sisters of the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy from the convent at the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow-Łagiewniki. Solemn Mass in honor of St. John Paul II at 3.30 p.m. will be presided over by Bishop Tomáš Galis of Žilina. The site devoted to the worship of Divine Mercy located at Mount Butkov (11th floor of a stone quarry), where a large illuminated cross, in addition to statues of St. Faustina and St. John Paul II have been placed, is part of the Rock Shrine of Divine Mercy with a church in Ladce.
The Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy would like to thank all those who have supported the on-line broadcasting from the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow-Łagiewniki at www.saint-faustina.org, on You Tube and on our mobile Faustyna.pl app for Android and iOS. Thanks to these broadcasts, people can virtually travel to the Łagiewniki Shrine 24 hours a day to participate in the Liturgy and pray for their intentions.
For all the Contributors and Benefactors of this work, on May 18th, at 5 p.m., Holy Mass will be celebrated in the chapel of the miracle-famous image of Merciful Jesus and the tomb of St. Faustina. We commend everyone to the Mercy of God in daily prayer in this holy place.
On May 18th, faithful across Australia and Oceania will join in prayer of the Divine Mercy Chaplet at 3 pm for the 5 time. The action is the fruit of the Congress of Divine Mercy held in Melbourne in 2018 and involves joining in prayer twice a year: on May 18, which is the anniversary of the birth of St. John Paul II, and on September 13—the anniversary of the revelation of the Divine Mercy Chaplet, above all, by the faithful of Australia and Oceania. Also Sisters of the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy have joined in this prayerful action. Also Sisters of the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy have joined in this prayerful action. On May 18th, all those participating will pray for the following intentions: More information and how to join: www.worldchaplet.org
When the Congregation chose Mary for the Heavenly Superior General, St. Faustina had a vision where she saw all the sisters covered under Mary’s coat and heard the words of a great promise: “Everyone who perseveres zealously till death in My Congregation will be spared the fire of purgatory, and I desire that each one distinguish herself by the following virtues: humility and meekness; chastity and love of God and neighbor; compassion and mercy”. After these words, the whole Congregation disappeared from my sight, and I remained alone with the Most Holy Mother who instructed me about the will of God and how to apply it to my life, submitting completely to His most holy decrees. It is impossible for one to please God without obeying His holy will. “My daughter, I strongly recommend that you faithfully fulfill all God’s wishes, for that is most pleasing in His holy eyes. I very much desire that you distinguish yourself in this faithfulness in accomplishing God’s will. Put the will of God before all sacrifices and holocausts” (Diary, 1244).
On 13 May, in Derdy near Warsaw, at the election session of the 19th General Chapter of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, the ministry of Superior General was entrusted for a second term to Sr. MiriamJaniec. Sister Petra Kowalczyk was elected Vicaress General. The following Sisters have been elected for the General Council: Sr. Nicola Kwiecińska, Sr. Stella Boruch and Sr. Gaudia Skass. The office of the General Treasurer will be held in the next six years by Sr. Natalia Wideł.
On May 4 begins the 19th General Chapter of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. During the Chapter, the sisters will elect a new General Superior and board of the Congregation for a 6-year term of office and discuss many aspects of the charismatic mission of cooperating with the saving Mercy of God in various ways, especially in works of charity and spreading the message of Mercy which Jesus entrusted to St. Faustina. The sisters participating in the Chapter will also debate in current challenges faced by the Congregation.
