In Perilous Times, ‘Put the Divine Mercy Image on Your Doors’

“The Lord promises us through St. Faustina that the soul that will venerate, or honor, this image will never perish.”

Father Chris Alar
Father Chris Alar (photo: Courtesy of Marians of the Immaculate Conception / Marians of the Immaculate Conception)

“Do not fear, only believe,” Jesus told the synagogue ruler when he approached our Lord to heal his desperately ill daughter.

Jesus’ first response are words to remember during these harrowing times of the coronavirus, which is also like one of the 10 plagues in Egypt. The Marian Fathers at the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy are asking you to trust and to believe by joining in an easy yet very powerful act to safeguard your family and you.

“We urge you to post an image of Jesus, the Divine Mercy, on your front doors, facing outward, to express your trust in the Lord’s promise of protection,” explains Father Chris Alar of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception.

Father Alar calls the display of the Image of Divine Mercy “a simple but incredibly powerful act of faith.” He goes on to say, “the Lord promises us through St. Faustina that the soul that will venerate, or honor, this image will never perish.”

The Lord told St. Faustina, “By means of this Image I shall be granting many graces to souls; so, let every soul have access to it” (Diary, 570).

He also promised: “victory over [our] enemies already here on earth, especially at the hour of death” and to “defend [us] as [his] own glory” (Diary, 47-8).

This time approach Easter reminds us of the victory of Christ over his enemies, and by extension, ours through him too.

It also reminds us of that first Passover when God told Moses to have the Israelites mark their doorposts with the blood of lambs so the angel of death that was about to inflict punishment on the Egyptians would pass over those doors and leave the Jews safe.

What does this mean for us today?

Father Alar reminds us that “Jesus is the sacrificial Lamb of God… by the outpouring of his Blood and Water, he freed us from eternal death and sealed us for eternal life.”

As Father Alar explained of the Divine Mercy picture, “The Image represents the Lord, the Lamb sacrificed for us, from whose heart flows blood and water, the streams of God’s mercy upon the whole world. The Lord promises us through St. Faustina ‘that the soul that will venerate [honor] this image will not perish’” (Diary, 47-8).

Here is something else to consider for these times.

Father Alar recounts how Blessed Michael Sopocko, who was St. Faustina’s confessor, had this to say about further promises our Lord Jesus made through Faustina regarding the image: “When chastisements for sins come upon the whole world, and your own country will experience utter degradation, the only refuge will be trust in my Mercy.”

Further, the Lord said, “Let everyone procure for their homes this Image because there will yet come trials, and those homes and entire families and everyone individually who will hold this image of Mercy in deep reverence, I will preserve from every sort of misfortune.”

In light of all this, Father Alar urges, “Put the image of the Divine Mercy with the inscriptionJesus, I Trust in You’ upon your doors, as many have done in times of calamity. Remember, it is Jesus whom we worship in this image.”

For those who don’t have one, the Marians are giving one free. Just go to TheDivineMercy.org/DivineMercyImage. Download it for free. Print it out. Put it on your doors.

Father Alar gives this further direction: With the situation in various places and dioceses, if you are not able to have a priest bless it, “the Church allows you to invoke a blessing yourself. The Catechism of the Catholic Church [in 1669] teaches that lay people, on account of their baptismal priesthood, may administer certain blessings.”

How to invoke such a blessing upon the image of Divine Mercy in this circumstance? He instructs: “While making the Sign of the Cross over the image say, ‘O Lord I seek your blessing upon this image, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.’”

It’s also good to remember two of the promises of Our Lord to St. Margaret Mary for those devoted to his Sacred Heart which are related to the promises he made as the Divine Mercy: “Sinners shall find in my Heart the source and the infinite ocean of mercy.” “I will bless every place where a picture of my Heart shall be set up and honored.”

The message is very, very clear: Honor the image of the Divine Mercy.

And “while this act of faith may not guarantee your family won’t be affected physically by the virus,” Father Alar emphasizes, “it will guarantee that, by your trust in Jesus, you will obtain his promises of love and mercy, which will surround you and remain in you forever.”

That’s yet another reason why he urges us to “put this image of the Divine Mercy with the inscription Jesus I Trust in You upon your doors.”

 

See Father Alar’s video at https://www.marian.org/news/Seal-the-Doorposts-8714