Click here to subscribe today or Login.
LAFLIN — Several Catholic churches around the area will observe Divine Mercy Sunday this weekend with special prayers, benediction and Eucharistic adoration.
“Last year I had at least 400 people, probably more. I’m just overjoyed that they all come,” said Cathy Mack, who has organized her 11th annual Divine Mercy service, set to begin at 1 p.m. April 23 at St. Maria Goretti Church on Laflin Road.
People who attend the services believe they are fulfilling the wishes Jesus Christ revealed in visions to a Polish nun, now known as St. Faustina, during the 1930s. “Everything is in her 600-page diary,” Mack said. “Jesus told Faustina that he wanted this Feast of Mercy on the Sunday after Easter.”
“She had these visions before World War II, and it’s worse now,” Mack said. “We need his mercy more than ever.”
Urging people to attend, she said, “It’s like getting a second baptism.”
The services at St. Maria Goretti Church begin at 1 p.m. with the sacrament of reconciliation (confessions) and recitation of the rosary followed at 2 p.m. by blessing of the image of Divine Mercy and Mass, with exposition of the blessed sacrament and blessing with a first-class relic of St. Faustina at 3 p.m. “It’s a small piece of bone,” Mack said, explaining the relic.
Divine Mercy services also will be held April 23 in Nanticoke at the Parish of St. Faustina, 520 South Hanover Street, with confessions at 1 p.m., Eucharistic adoration at 2 p.m. and the recitation of the Divine Mercy Novena at 3 p.m.
The Parish of St. Andrew, 316 Parrish St., Wilkes-Barre, will have a “Holy Hour” of prayer at 2 p.m. April 23, with Eucharistic adoration, the Divine Mercy chaplet, rosary and benediction.
And, at St. Lucy Church, 949 Scranton St., Scranton, the services begin at noon with rosary and confessions, followed by Mass at 2 p.m. and the chaplet of Divine Mercy, blessing with a relic of St. Faustina and benediction at 3 p.m.