Lenten Campaign 2025
This content is free of charge, as are all our articles.
Support us with a donation that is tax-deductible and enable us to continue to reach millions of readers.
While many Catholics know that St. John Paul II died on the eve of the feast of Divine Mercy Sunday, a little known fact is that immediately following Divine Mercy Sunday in 2005 was the feast of the Annunciation.
Often when March 25 lands in Holy Week, its celebration is postponed until after the Octave of Easter. This meant, in 2005, that the liturgical observance of the Annunciation was moved to the next available date of April 4.
Archbishop Leonardo Sandri read the Pope's prepared reflection for Divine Mercy Sunday, which included a short paragraph connecting the feast of Divine Mercy Sunday and the feast of the Annunciation.
Seeing Divine Mercy with Mary's eyes
St. John Paul II saw a profound connection between these two feasts:
The liturgical solemnity of the Annunciation that we will be celebrating tomorrow urges us to contemplate with Mary's eyes the immense mystery of this merciful love that flows from the Heart of Christ. With her help, we will be able to understand the true meaning of Easter joy that is based on this certainty: the One whom the Virgin bore in her womb, who suffered and died for us, is truly risen.
For John Paul II, Mary can help us to see the love that flows out of her Son's pierced side. She carried him in her own womb for nine months and treasured this time "in her heart."
St. John Paul II wrote much about Mary and her connection to Divine Mercy in his encyclical Dives in Misericordia. There, he writes about how she was aware of God's mercy at the moment of the Annunciation:
These words of the Church at Easter re-echo in the fullness of their prophetic content the words that Mary uttered during her visit to Elizabeth, the wife of Zechariah: "His mercy is ... from generation to generation." At the very moment of the Incarnation, these words open up a new perspective of salvation history.
Furthermore, he explains why Mary is called the "Mother of Mercy:"
Mary, then, is the one who has the deepest knowledge of the mystery of God's mercy. She knows its price, she knows how great it is. In this sense, we call her the Mother of mercy: our Lady of mercy, or Mother of divine mercy; in each one of these titles there is a deep theological meaning, for they express the special preparation of her soul, of her whole personality, so that she was able to perceive, through the complex events, first of Israel, then of every individual and of the whole of humanity, that mercy of which "from generation to generation" people become sharers according to the eternal design of the most Holy Trinity.
St. John Paul II's last parting words to us all were to look at Jesus and his Divine Mercy, with Mary at our side. She is that Mother of Mercy, who knows her Son's mercy on a very intimate level and can provide for us a proper lens to see the bounty of his Mercy.
