At the dawn of the third millennium, Saint John Paul II called the Church to “take up her evangelizing mission with fresh enthusiasm,” and to “open wide the doors to Christ!” for “the Church needs the spiritual and apostolic contribution of a renewed and revitalized consecrated life.” (Vita Consecrata, 13)
In 2013 Pope Francis in his Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, tells us that our faith in Christ, who became poor, and was always close to the poor and the outcast, is the basis of our concern for the integral development of society’s most neglected members (no. 186).
In 2015 Bishop Frederick Bernard Henry, our Founder, stepped out in faith to take up this challenge by establishing a new religious community that combines the message of The Divine Mercy with a commitment to the New Evangelization for the well-being of the faithful.
Through the profession of the evangelical counsels (the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience) the characteristic features of Jesus Christ, along with a contemplative emphasis on Eucharistic adoration, The Divine Mercy devotion, and Marian devotion, our community exists for the greater glory of God, the salvation of souls and the proclamation of God’s infinite mercy, especially for poor sinners and those who have lost hope in God’s mercy.
“Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men” (Matt 4:19). What astonishes here is not the fact that Jesus called those He did not know to abandon their business and follow Him. What really astonishes is the reaction of those Jesus called: “And at once they left their nets and followed Him” (Matt 4:20). It is astonishing to note the spontaneity which those called responded to the Lord’s voice. Once called, they became free not from their responsibilities but free from those things which made their responsibilities an unpleasant burden.
The first sets of disciples called by the Lord were fishermen. The Lord called them to become “fishers of people”. The Lord did not call the first disciples to abandon their responsibilities. He called them to follow Him and serve God while exercising their occupation in a completely new way and with a radically new spirit. Initially, the disciples chose to be fishermen. Now God claims their occupation for Himself, and sends them out as "fishers of people" for God’s own glory. Their occupation became approved by God and a mission entrusted to them by God.
Today, the Lord is still looking for people to call as the first disciples to bear witness to Him in the ordinary courses of life with the spontaneity and faith with which the first disciples responded to their call.
Jesus is still walking by the Sea of Galilee looking for people to call. If anyone has not heard the call to be among the missionary of today, that person is either deaf to the summons resounding in her heart and that person is not located along the shore of the Sea of Galilee where the Lord is walking.
God is looking for a person in the words of Primo Mazzolari “is ready to lose without feeling destroyed, who is ready to put his convictions to doubt without losing his faith, who has nostalgia for God, for the Church, for the people and for the poverty of Jesus; a person who does not confuse prayer with habitual repetition of words, who does not identify spirituality with sentimentalism or service with settlement”.
The Lord is urgently and calling people whose interest will become the Lord’s interest. God is urgently looking for people who are not worried with what they will get, but who are concerned with what to contribute. God is urgently looking for people who will not serve in the vineyard with the spirit of mercenaries but with the spirit of the Good Shepherd, for whom the Lord’s work and harvest is a priority.
Yes, God is urgently looking for someone to send among her colleagues and to the world in order to advertise His Name "Mercy" by going about her daily business with God’s business. God is daily looking for someone to call and send.
WHOM SHALL I SEND? WHO SHALL GO FOR US?
HERE I AM LORD SEND ME.
"May you be witnesses to Mercy!" - St. John Paul II
Our Mission is to practice mercy, proclaim mercy, and plead for mercy. By the example of Saint Faustina and Saint John Paul II's lives and writings, both have inspired and challenged us to be "Apostles of Divine Mercy" with a commitment to the spirit of the New Evangelization.
“After Holy Communion today, Jesus said, 'My daughter give Me souls.
Know that it is your mission to win souls for Me by prayer and sacrifice,
and by encouraging them to trust in My mercy.'" (Diary 1690)