EXPERIENCE FIRST HAND

The mercy of God is a proclamation made to the world, a proclamation which each Christian is called to experience at first hand.

MYSTERY OF GOD'S MERCY

The mystery of divine mercy is revealed in the history of the covenant between God and His people Israel. God shows Himself ever rich in mercy, ever ready to treat His people with deep tenderness and compassion ...

GOD'S WAY

Mercy "expresses God's way of reaching out to the sinner, offering him a new chance to look at himself, convert, and believe" (Misericordiae Vultus), thus restoring his relationship with him.

MERCY TRANSFORMS

God's mercy transforms human hearts; it enables us, through the experience of a faithful love, to become merciful in turn.

THE MIRACLE OF MERCY

In an ever new miracle, divine mercy shines forth in our lives, inspiring each of us to love our neighbor and to devote ourselves to ... the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.

WORKS OF MERCY

These works remind us that faith finds expression in concrete everyday actions meant to help our neighbors in body and spirit: by feeding, visiting, comforting and instructing them. On such things we will be judged. For this reason, I expressed my hope that "the Christian people may reflect on the corporal and spiritual works of mercy; this will be a way to reawaken our conscience, too often grown dull in the face of poverty, and to enter more deeply into the heart of the Gospel where the poor have a special experience of God's mercy" (Misericordiae Vultus).

NEVER SEPARATE

The corporal and spiritual works of mercy must never be separated. By touching the flesh of the crucified Jesus in the suffering, sinners can receive the gift of realizing that they too are poor and in need.

DON'T WASTE TIME

Let us not waste this ... favorable ... time for conversion! We ask this through the maternal intercession of the Virgin Mary, who encountering the greatness of God's mercy freely bestowed upon her, was the first to acknowledge her lowliness (cf. Lk 1:48) and to call herself the Lord's humble servant (cf. Lk 1:38).

(Source: Message for Lent 2016, dated 10/4/2015, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi)