Testimony to the

Testimony to the “Ocean of Graces”

It was Divine Mercy Sunday in 1996 and I will forever be grateful to Our Lord.

I had been away from the Church and regular Sunday mass attendance for about 25 years when in 1993, after having been shown my sins and the destruction I had left in my life, I was led to purchase the diary of St. Faustina for future reading.

When I finally picked up the diary, after about 3 years, and cracked it open, and realized that Jesus had appeared to St. Faustina, I couldn’t put it down. I had no idea that Jesus had ever appeared to saints.

When I read about Jesus requesting that a Feast of Mercy be established in the Church and the promise for the total forgiveness of all sins and punishment, I just had to take advantage of it.

If you can imagine, I had been back to the Church for about 3 years, had become an Extra-ordinary Minister of Holy Communion to the homebound, but I had not yet been to Confession since I had originally fallen-away about 28 years before.

I guess that I thought, like many people do nowadays, that I didn’t have to confess my sins. I guess that it was the overwhelmingly convincing truth of Jesus’ words in the diary that motivated me to prepare for the celebration of the Feast of Mercy.

About halfway through Lent I called my pastor to ask if our parish could celebrate the Feast of Divine Mercy. He responded by saying “Not this year, but maybe next year”. I pleaded with him 2 more times but was told about the same thing.

Well, like anyone who has read the diary, I was thinking of the poor souls that would not hear about the promise of Jesus and die in the state of mortal sin before next year. I was thinking “how can we put off not telling everyone about this?”

So what I did was to start telling people about Jesus’ promise on my own. When I took Holy Communion to the homebound I would tell them about it and provide them with booklets and leaflets so that they may also prepare. I urged them all to go to Confession in preparation to receive Jesus on the Feast of Mercy.

It was then the Saturday before the feast and I finally made my Confession in the late afternoon. I was inspired to constantly remain in prayer so that I would not fall back into sin, in thought, word, or deed. I kept praying the rosary and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy until I fell asleep.

On the following day, which was the Feast of Divine Mercy (now known as Divine Mercy Sunday), I remained in prayer until I got to mass. After mass I made it a point to take Holy Communion to all of my homebound because I wanted them to get a chance to receive communion right on the feast itself. The normal routine was to deliver Holy Communion just on Fridays.

When I got done I went home and made breakfast for my two handicapped parents that I was taking care of at the time. After we had finished breakfast, I was in the kitchen cleaning off the counter, when all of a sudden it felt as though someone had come up behind me and was pouring “a bucket of liquid peace all over me”.

I thought that I had peace already, but this peace was unbelievable. It actually felt as though liquid peace was being poured all over me. As I was experiencing this, I heard these words within me, “When I say something, I mean it”. Our Lord was showing me that what He said about His mercy in the diary was absolutely true.

It wasn’t till some time later when I reread these words “I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who trust in My mercy”, that I realized why Jesus had given me that sensation of “liquid peace being poured all over me.”

Ever since receiving those graces, on that day, I just can’t keep quiet about that great Feast of His Mercy “Divine Mercy Sunday”.

I immediately wrote to my bishop and requested a diocesan-wide Feast of Mercy for the next year and had a positive response. When the next year came around nothing had been organized for a diocesan celebration. I was told by the diocesan liturgical director that he himself did not know what to do to celebrate the feast.

I then contacted Fr. George Kosicki at the John Paul II Institute of Divine Mercy in Stockbridge Massachusetts and was invited to participate in a training program for Divine Mercy leaders. I can still remember his words to me after our half hour phone conversation “You better come up here, you’re on fire!” The rest is history.

I started a group called the Apostles of Divine Mercy in my local parish that led to the start of our website www.DivineMercySunday.com . The website provides the basic information that is needed for the celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday.

It is my hope that all souls may trust in the promises of Jesus and not be afraid to approach Him in the confessional so that they may be renewed and refreshed by the “ocean of graces” that are available in abundance on the Feast of His Mercy.

Sincerely for all souls,

Robert R. Allard