Saint Faustina

Today we celebrate the Feast of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, a polish modern day saint. She entered the congregation of Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy at the age of twenty-five. She was born in the year 1905 and died at the age of thirty-three in Cracow, Poland. She lived through World War I  and her mission and message was sent to the world right before World War II. As God sends His saints as messengers to people to address particular needs for that time, so did He send Saint Faustina around a time when human civilization was going out of control from greed for power and control and had lost it's sensitivity to violence. 
Saint Faustina had frequent visions of Jesus, Mary and saints during her life time and in those encounters she was asked by Jesus to proclaim the message of God's divine mercy to the world. In short, God does not wish to punish mankind, he wishes to save us and restore peace in the world provided the world would accept the divine merciful love that God offers us through Jesus Christ's passion, death  on the cross and resurrection. She was ordered by Jesus to write down this message in a diary and this has been published around the world in several languages.
He also asked her to have an image painted for our veneration of the divine mercy of God. The devotion of this image has spread to all parts of the world and most Catholic homes now have an image of divine mercy on display.
There are several messages which were conveyed in this diary for us including the Chaplet of Divine Mercy which was taught by Jesus to Saint Faustina to be recited as often as possible especially when we enter the chapel where the Blessed Sacrament is housed. It has become one of the most popular devotions after the Rosary devotion. Jesus has promised to grant any prayer request so long as it conforms with God's will, if we meditate on His passion during the three o'clock hour, the hour of his death on the cross. Special graces were promised by Jesus  on the first Sunday after Easter for those who venerate the image of divine mercy, do a corporal or spiritual work of mercy, go to confession and receive the Holy Eucharist, now this day is celebrated throughout the Catholic Church worldwide as the Divine Mercy Sunday.  The special grace would give a complete remission of all the sins committed by the soul including any temporal punishments due to those sins, thus making the soul as innocent as a newly baptized person. 
Saint Faustina was declared a saint by Pope John Paul II on April 30, 2000. She is the "Great Apostle of Divine Mercy" and as Jesus declared to her, she was sent to us by God for the new millennium and to prepare us for His second coming. 
Saint Faustina, pray for us that we may approach the mercy of God confidently no matter how far away from God and how deep in sin we may be!