Shrine of Divine Mercy at OLR

Why Does Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church Have a Shrine of Divine Mercy?

You are probably familiar with many kinds of shrines: home altars, historical shrines of antiquity, roadside shrines that pop up to memorialize the death of someone important, and pilgrimage shrines commemorating saints and sites of religious significance. What all these shrines have in common is that they are places of memory and veneration.

Our Lady of the Rosary’s Shrine of Divine Mercy, located in the Lower Church, is, first and foremost, a shrine to Jesus, King of Divine Mercy, personified in the large image at its center. From His Sacred Heart flow rays of Blood and Water—the “Water which makes souls righteous” and the “Blood which is the life of souls.” (Diary of St. Faustina, 299)

Our shrine also venerates the memory of St. Faustina Kowalska, the Apostle of Divine Mercy, and of Pope Saint John Paul II, the Great Mercy Pope. Their first-class relics are contained beneath their impressive statues. It was Saint Faustina who received the Image and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy in apparitions from Jesus in the 1930s, and it was Pope Saint John Paul II who canonized her as the first saint of the new millennium in 2000. On that occasion he also declared that the first Sunday after Easter would henceforth be celebrated as Divine Mercy Sunday throughout the universal church. Prayer kneelers and votive candlestands offer visitors a haven for reverencing the saints’ relics and for quiet prayer. Fittingly, our Divine Mercy shrine also serves as our columbarium, where mourners may come to honor those interred.

While the tabernacles where the Eucharist is reposed are the most sacred sites within our church, our Shrine of Divine Mercy is also a holy oasis where you may pause, meditate, and implore the mercy of Jesus and the prayers of St. Faustina and Pope St. John Paul II. Lent is an especially appropriate time to seek out our shrine in devotion and to participate in reciting the Chaplet of Divine Mercy after all weekday Masses.

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