The Legion Apostolate of Divine Mercy

This year both the Christians of the West following the Gregorian calendar and our brothers and sisters of the Eastern Churches who follow the Julian Calendar will celebrate Easter on the same day. On 2nd April we celebrate Good Friday and this day is also the 5th anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005.

I remember, when I was a student living in Italy many years ago, visiting provincial art galleries in the towns of Umbria and seeing a great many painting of the crucifixion in one gallery. However, they were not the portrayals of the Crucifixion I had grown up with. These were different. In every case it seemed that rivers of blood were coming from the wounds of the Crucified Christ, his hands and feet and side. In some depictions the blood was being gathered by angels into chalices. I came to appreciate that these were representations in art of our belief that in his death Jesus poured out his life for us.

Each Good Friday the Liturgy is a celebration of the Lord’s Passion. On this day having pondered St John’s account of the Passion, we pray the general intercessions or Universal Prayer following the wording and form handed down by an ancient tradition. This could be said to be a forerunner of the Prayer of the Faithful in today’s liturgy. The Liturgy offers us ten different intercessions. We pray for the Church; for the Pope; for Bishops, priests and deacons and all the laity of the Church; for those preparing for baptism; for the unity of Christians; for the Jews; for non-Christian believers; for those who do not believe in God; for all in public office and finally for all in special needs.

When we make these prayers we are uniting ourselves in a special way to the prayer of Christ who has shed his blood for all so that sins may be forgiven. In this way the Church commemorates its own origin and its mission to extend to all peoples the blessed effects of Christ’s passion. (Cf. Ceremonial of Bishops, 312).

Good Friday also marks the first day of a novena of prayer that prepares for the Feast of Mercy on the Sunday after Easter. In this increasingly popular devotion, Our Lord first asked St. Faustina that she lead souls to him, each day a different group. From sinners the first day, priests and religious, the devout, unbelievers, our separated brothers and sisters, the meek and humble, those devoted to the divine mercy, those in Purgatory and then finally the lukewarm.

In the Legion of Mary we honour she who is “Mediatrix of all Graces”, anxious that all her children share in the Mercy of her Son. We know that the first praesidium of the Legion was given the title Our Lady of Mercy. As Mary’s Legion, we seek to be instruments of mercy not for a day, not even for nine days. Instead our commitment is to be that each and every day. Christ has shed his blood for us and for the whole world. Let us not hesitate to propose the Legion as a path to true holiness, a means of growing in God’s merciful love, and as a preferential path to bringing the mercy of God to all.