Father Tom Wilson and his staff not only needed to plan a Divine Mercy Sunday celebration for parishioners of four parishes, they needed to figure out how to offer activities and engage parishioners during a pandemic.
For one, strict guidelines for safe social distancing were vital.
Father Wilson’s parish, All Saints in Lakeville, takes turns with three others — St. Nicholas in Elko New Market, St. Michael in Prior Lake and St. Michael in Farmington — to host annual Divine Mercy celebrations. Attendance is typically 300 to 500 people, he said.
With “coronavirus complications” this year, the parish planned to have people take in the Divine Mercy celebration from inside their cars. “We have a radio transmitter that allows us to broadcast over a short-distance frequency into people’s cars,” he said.
Activities will include: exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Sunday’s Gospel and homily, a parishioner’s testimony to the power of divine mercy and the Divine Mercy Chaplet.
The celebration will end with a “vehicular procession,” allowing participants to adore Jesus in the Eucharist and venerate the image of Divine Mercy.
A number of parishes in the archdiocese plan to hold activities for Divine Mercy Sunday, April 19. It is celebrated the Sunday after Easter, the final day in the Octave Day of Easter. Celebrations grew after Pope St. John Paul II designated that day as the feast of Divine Mercy.
One message reinforced during the celebration is God’s mercy overcoming sin in people’s lives.
Father Wilson said the need for mercy is ongoing, and no greater during a pandemic than any other time. But the crisis could bring the need for God’s mercy to the forefront, he said.
“I think the world is in desperate need of mercy, and has been and probably will continue to be,” Father Wilson said. “I think God’s mercy is ever present and ever needed, and I’m not sure … a pandemic changes that at all. It might open people’s eyes to it more, but I don’t think the need is any different.”
Some parishes that had planned celebrations canceled them due to coronavirus-related restrictions and concerns, said Elaine Grendahl. Since 1997, Grendahl has contacted parishes throughout Minnesota to learn and share their plans for Divine Mercy celebrations. In recent years, the information was listed on a website. But not this year because of difficulty tracking parishes that decided against having celebrations.
“Parishes can’t celebrate this year in ways they’ve done before, but some people have found innovative ways to do it,” Grendahl said.
Archbishop Bernard Hebda plans to celebrate the Divine Mercy Vigil Mass at 4:30 p.m. April 18 at St. John the Baptist, New Brighton (live streamed on YouTube and aired locally on CTV Channels 15 and HD859), and Mass at 10 a.m. April 19 at Our Lady of Lourdes, Minneapolis (live streamed on its website and Facebook page).
Archbishop Hebda also will be the main celebrant at a 2 p.m. Mass on Sunday at Divine Mercy Parish in Faribault. Following Mass, a musician will sing the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Both the Mass and chaplet will be livestreamed.
Divine Mercy Sunday grew out of Jesus’ appearances to a Polish nun and mystic, Sister Faustina Kowalska, in 1931, with a message of mercy for all mankind.
She reported seeing a vision of Jesus, who called on her to have a painting made of his image. She wrote in her diary: “I saw the Lord Jesus clothed in a white garment. One hand raised in the gesture of blessing, the other was touching the garment at the breast. From beneath the garment, slightly drawn aside at the breast, there were emanating two large rays, one red, the other pale.” Jesus promised that the soul that venerates this image in the chapel and throughout the world will not perish.
Pope John Paul II canonized Sister Faustina in 2000.
Here is a list of some additional Divine Mercy celebrations in the archdiocese:
- St. Bonaventure in Bloomington is recording a Divine Mercy service this Saturday and airing it on Sunday. It will include an image blessing, homily, chaplet and Benediction with Deacon Jon DeLuney.
- Our Lady of the Prairie in Belle Plaine is livestreaming the exposition of the Eucharist, Rosary for Life and Chaplet of Divine Mercy in song and benediction. Confession will take place on Father Brian Lynch’s front porch across from the church.
- St. Maximillian Kolbe in Delano will livestream the chaplet after 10:30 a.m. Mass.
- Our Lady of Grace in Edina will livestream the chaplet after 9:30 a.m. Mass.
- St. Hubert in Chanhassen is holding a “drive-in Mass” at 10:30 a.m. Participants can tune in to the audio through their car’s FM radio station. Confession will be held from 2 p.m. to 2:50 p.m. Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Divine Mercy Chaplet and reflection begin at 3 p.m., ending with benediction at 3:30 p.m.
- Parishioners at St. Michael Catholic Church in St. Michael can participate in a community-wide Eucharistic procession. Livestreamed prayer from the church begins at 3 p.m., then church clergy will process with the Eucharist by vehicle to St. Alber in Albertville, making several stops in St. Michael and Albertville.
- Divine Mercy will be celebrated by livestream following 10 a.m. Mass at Saint John the Baptist in Savage. Parishioners are then invited to drive to a “Divine Mercy Blessing” from noon to 1 p.m. at church door #10.
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