October 4, 2020

National shrine to host online prayer event on St. Faustina feast day

REGIONAL
Staff report

(Photo from Bing images)

STOCKBRIDGE — On Oct. 5, the feast of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, the Marian Fathers at the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy will host a special online program of prayer and reflection beginning at 3 p.m. (EST).

The shrine itself remains closed to the public, but the program will be livestreamed on TheDivineMercy.org and facebook.com/DivineMercyOfficial.

Emceed by Marian Father Chris Alar, the program will include a talk on the life and spirituality of St. Faustina by Marian Father Kaz Chwalek, the Marian Fathers’ provincial superior; praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, the rosary, and Benediction; and a blessing with the relic of St. Faustina.

The shrine’s livestream will be part of a 22-day virtual “Triumph Tour 2020,” a prayer and fasting initiative organized by the Coalition of Eucharistic and Marian Apostolates (CEMA). Each day from the feast of the Archangels, Sept. 29, through Oct. 20, Catholic shrines and parish churches across North America will join in virtual prayer for “our families, our nations, and our world.”

“In times of darkness and uncertainty, we hold fast to hope, knowing that the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary will ultimately triumph,” CEMA said in a statement.

Pope John Paul II canonized Polish Sister Faustina Kowalska in 2000. (CNS photo)

On Oct. 5, CEMA will host a public ZOOM event beginning at 2:30 p.m., with commentary by Dave and Joan Maroney of Mother of Mercy Messengers (MOMM), an apostolate of the Marian Fathers. For more information, visit TriumphTour2020.com.

“This Oct. 5, the feast of St. Faustina will be celebrated all around the world for the first time since it was entered into the General Roman Calendar,” said Father Alar, who serves as director of the Association of Marian Helpers.

On May 18, on the 100th anniversary of St. John Paul II’s birthday and on the birthday and feast day of the Marian Fathers’ founder St. Stanislaus Papczynski (1631-1701), the Vatican announced that St. Faustina’s Oct. 5 feast would be entered into the General Roman Calendar and liturgical books for the celebration of the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours.