Happy Easter to all and may we all have a fruitful Easter Octave leading to Mercy Sunday on April 7th. I was meditating on the Divine Mercy image, the original one, and it struck me suddenly: the halo around Christ's head is dark. Usually halos on icons and paintings are light colored, since they represent the Light of God, the Sun. But on the DM image, painted under the guidance of Sr Faustina, the halo is black with a rim. It is an eclipsed sun! Divine Mercy Sunday is April 7th, the eclipse in the US (babylon) is on the 8th - seems like this was painted for this particular Sunday. I have more thoughts but like Jonah am reluctant to post for some reason. Maybe later, for now ponder this and may it contribute to making this a Holy Octave.
Maybe, but there are so many icons with the Sacred Heart and always with bright halos. The light came out when His Heart was pierced, after His death and there was darkness over the earth then too, so the link with an eclipse is something that people know about. I see many pagans and new agers who view the whole bible story as fictional, but see the halo as an image of the sun - which is still considered like a symbol of God even today. And we have this image available now as a tool to evangelize. Catholics in the US especially on the path of this eclipse should be handing prayers cards out to people this week and during the eclipse. It seems like a lot of new agers and others will see right away that the halo is eclipsed and it could lead them to research the apparition. Where is Fr Alar's Sanctuary based? Is it on the path? They should be evangelizing now on this aspect of the image too. Souls could repent, that is what this is about, no?
. My Divine Mery image doesn’t look like an eclipse. Perhaps, not the original . Can someone upload the photo please?
The Shrine of Devine Mercy is located in Stockbridge, MA. It will be a deep partial eclipse of 95.3%.
It might not be a crucial detail. I have noticed many paintings of the Risen Lord from medieval and Renaissance times, some featuring the Wounds and some not.
The original, nearly deteriorated at one time has undergone restorations After its completion in 1934, the Kazimirowski painting first hung in the Bernardine Sisters' convent near the church of St. Michael, where Sopoćko was a rector. In her diary, Kowalska wrote that Jesus told her to inform her confessor that the proper place for the painting was in a church, not in the hallway of a convent. The first public exposition of the Kazimirowski painting was on 26–28 April 1935, at the Church of the Gate of Dawn in Vilnius.[7] In 1937, on the Sunday after Easter, later instituted as Divine Mercy Sunday by Pope John Paul II, the painting was put on display beside the main altar in St. Michael's Church in Vilnius.[26] The image, including small reproductions of it on various devotional materials, was used by Sopoćko in promoting devotion to the Divine Mercy.[25][27] In 1948, the Soviet authorities, who then occupied Lithuania, closed St. Michael's Church. The painting remained in the disused church building until 1951, when two pious women from Vilnius, Bronė Miniotaitė and Janina Rodzevič, bought the canvas from a guard and concealed it in an attic for several years. Later, they gave it to the parish priest at the Dominican Church of the Holy Spirit for safekeeping, but he chose not to display it in the church. Sopocko, who had relocated to Poland but was unable to take the painting with him, expressed concern about it to his friend Józef Grasewicz, who obtained the painting and moved it to his own parish church in Nova Ruda, Belarus. There, it was displayed and venerated by the local parishioners. In 1970, the Soviets closed that church and used it as a storage warehouse but left the painting hanging in the disused church, where parishioners continued to venerate it in secret. In 1986, Grasewicz arranged for the painting to be replaced by a copy and the original to be secretly transported back to the Church of the Holy Spirit in Vilnius, where it underwent a restoration that significantly changed its appearance, and it was then displayed and venerated in the church. In 2003, the painting, which had deteriorated because of exposure, attempts at cleaning, and the previous restoration, was professionally restored to its original look. In 2005, it was moved to its current location, above the main altar in the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy in Vilnius.[25][27] Divine Mercy image - Wikipedia
I found this excellent video on miracles of Divine Mercy. Well worth a listen to! Happy Feastday! Real-Life Miracles Through Divine Mercy 35 min
Maybe it’s because of Divine Mercy Sunday but I just waited over an hour to have confession. 2 priests. Very long line. Typically I’m a very impatient person but the Lord graced me to be prayerful and patient. It was a joy to see such a line.
I know this has been posted before but good reminder to see how the Shroud and image of Divine Mercy match. Happy feast day all!
My parish will pray the Chaplet at 3pm today. For those who cannot get out, I will keep your intentions with me. peace
