A special thought goes to the many pilgrims who are gathered today at the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow, where 20 years ago Saint John Paul II performed the Act of Entrustment of the World to Divine Mercy.
More than ever before, we see today the meaning of that gesture, which we must renew in prayer and in witness of life. Mercy is the way of salvation for every one of us, and for the entire world.
And let us ask the Lord for special mercy, mercy and pity for the martyred Ukrainian people.
With these words, Pope Francis recalled John Paul II’s entrustment of the world to Divine Mercy, which he performed on August 17, 2002, during his last visit to his homeland.
The Polish Pope was in Krakow to dedicate the Shrine of Divine Mercy.
And he made a prayer that the world would find hope:
In this Shine, I wish solemnly to entrust the world to Divine Mercy. I do so with the burning desire that the message of God’s merciful love, proclaimed here through Saint Faustina, may be made known to all the peoples of the earth and fill their hearts with hope.
May this message radiate from this place to our beloved homeland and throughout the world. May the binding promise of the Lord Jesus be fulfilled: from here there must go forth “the spark which will prepare the world for his final coming” (cf. Diary, 1732).
Conquer evil!
Pope John Paul II offered this beautiful prayer:
God, merciful Father,
in your Son, Jesus Christ, you have revealed your love
and poured it out upon us in the Holy Spirit, the Comforter,
We entrust to you today the destiny of the world and of every man and woman.Bend down to us sinners,
heal our weakness,
conquer all evil,
and grant that all the peoples of the earth
may experience your mercy.
In You, the Triune God,
may they ever find the source of hope.Eternal Father,
by the Passion and Resurrection of your Son,
have mercy on us and upon the whole world!Amen.
Wooden shoes
Before he concluded the ceremony, John Paul II, only three years from his death, recalled how his personal history was linked to the shrine:
At the end of this solemn liturgy, I desire to say that many of my personal memories are tied to this place.
During the Nazi occupation, when I was working in the Solvay factory near here, I used to come here. Even now I recall the street that goes from Borek Falecki to Debniki that I took every day going to work on the different turns with the wooden shoes on my feet. They’re the shoes that we used to wear then. How was it possible to imagine that one day the man with the wooden shoes would consecrate the Basilica of the Divine Mercy at Lagiewniki of Kraków.
And today we celebrate...