Saint John Paul II at the Shrine of Divine Mercy

(Vatican Radio) This Sunday we celebrate the Feast of Divine Mercy. A year ago on this same feast day Pope Francis canonised John Paul II together with John XXIII. The choice of this date related in a special way to the new Polish Saint who had a personal devotion to Divine Mercy.

The last time he travelled to Poland in August 2002 he dedicated a brand new Shrine of Divine Mercy at Lagiewniki, a Krakow suburb.

A programme presented and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick: 

On this occasion he said he was convinced this was a special place chosen by God to sow the grace of mercy. As we know this devotion is linked to the visions of Sister Faustina Kowalska and as he said on this August day his wish was to solemnly entrust the world to Divine Mercy with the burning desire that the message of God’s merciful love, proclaimed here through her be made known to all the peoples of the earth and fill their hearts with hope. 

"Today", Pope John Paul said, "I’d like to repeat the simple words of Sister Faustina in order to join her and all of you in adoring the inconceivable and unfathomable mystery of God’s mercy....Like Saint Faustina, we wish to proclaim that apart from the mercy of God there is no other source of hope for mankind. We desire to repeat with faith: Jesus, I trust in you! This proclamation, this confession of trust in the all-powerful love of God, is especially needed in our own time, when mankind is experiencing bewilderment in the face of many manifestations of evil. The invocation of God’s mercy needs to rise up from the depth of hearts filled with suffering, apprehension and uncertainty, and at the same time yearning for an infallible source of hope”.

On a more personal note, on this occasion Saint John Paul II shared some thoughts relating to his ties with this place so dear to him:“…many of my personal memories are tied to this place. During the Nazi occupation, when I was working in the Solvay factory near here, I used to come here. Even now I recall the street that goes from Borek Falecki to Debniki that I took every day going to work with the wooden clogs on my feet. They're the shoes that we used to wear then. How was it possible to imagine that one day the man with the wooden clogs would consecrate the Basilica of the Divine Mercy at Lagiewniki of Kraków.