Origin of The Sanctuary of The Divine Mercy at St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish

In 1999, St. Stanislaus Kostka parish was struggling financially and desperately in need of a new roof and major repairs to the exterior of the church building. For four long years the pastor, Father Anthony Buś, tried unsuccessfully to raise the money needed for the renovation until he consecrated the parish to Our Lady at her request making her Mother and Queen of the parish.

Just three days after the consecration, the Archdiocese of Chicago gave the church an $850,000 capital grant, followed shortly thereafter by an additional $1,000,000 for the badly needed church renovations. Since that time, the consecration of the parish to Our Lady has been the catalyst for a series of many other unusual and unprecedented events. As Father Anthony’s reflections confirm, “Since then I have never withheld the fruit of my prayer and I have unceasingly invited anyone and everyone to walk with me in this journey of faith, parishioners and non-parishioners alike.”

Our Lady’s Call to Sanctuary back to top

The idea of the sanctuary is not the decision of a committee or council, nor the decision of a group of like-minded individuals. Heaven has planted the seed and is utilizing a wide variety of people to bring it to fruition. Our Lady has the plan and she guides us in her own mysterious and unpredictable way.

Here in the heart of Chicago, Heaven is reaching out to humanity in a gesture of mercy to enkindle within the soul a desire for God. Our Lady, the tabernacle that so long ago concealed the Holy of Holies, continues her apostolic mission to make Jesus known, loved and served and to gently and tenderly, gracefully and mercifully remind a wandering people that they, too, are known, loved and served by a living God.

Her request for a Sanctuary of Divine Mercy is a Mother’s plea to her children to seek refuge in God. To this end she prepares holy ground where sacred silence gives way to the sound of God’s voice. She will not permit the cacophony of the world to shout into silence the voice of the living God. She will provide the means to draw the pilgrims to the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy and into the silence of the Adoration Chapel where Jesus will give to drink from the fountain of mercy.

The Need for Sanctuary back to top

The Sanctuary of The Divine Mercy is a truly creative initiative designed to meet the spiritual needs of a world continually threatened by international and domestic terrorism, overwhelmed by constant external stimulation and often overburdened with responsibility. In the extreme, the consequences of these excesses manifest themselves in social problems such as substance abuse, violence and crime. In more subtle ways, the problems are apparent in the loss of civility in our society and an ever-increasing decline in moral standards. Too often, these misguided attempts to exercise the right to freedom are made at the expense of the innocent and, more sadly, at the expense of individual integrity.

One of the goals of the Sanctuary is to promote a true form of freedom that will lead to virtue and ultimately to faith, that is, a Catholic faith based on the ancient traditions of the Church, guided by Our Lady and nourished by exposure to the Blessed Sacrament. We should recognize the need to return to our Father’s house and there experience the embrace of a loving and merciful God who holds us responsible and accountable for the well-being of society. Only in submission to God and adhering to the Ten Commandments can we really claim victory.

Vigilant and Persevering Prayer back to top

Our Lady invites all her children, but shows a particular concern for those keeping vigil – for those who intercede on behalf of all humanity for the atonement of sin. Increasingly, the Catholic is perceived as a stranger in a foreign land because increasingly, the world shows hostility to the way of Christ. A sincere Catholic – one who walks in humility and humbly in solidarity with sinful humanity is compelled to intercede and to make atonement.

Our Lady, then, knowingly and consciously, is preparing holy ground to draw the sinners and the saints, the poor and the rich, the healthy and the sick to the Fountain of Mercy. She is insuring for them a resting place in the crossroad where, alongside Chicago’s Loop, north meets south at the parish church of Saint Stanislaus Kostka. It is here that they will drink from the Fountain of Mercy. It is here that the mysticism of the Church weaves itself into the religious imagination so that Jesus be known and loved and served.

In sanctuary, Our Lady offers holy ground for vigilant and persevering prayer while keeping the hope expressed in the Sacred Liturgy ever present to perpetually satisfy the deep hunger of the soul’s search for rest. As an extension of the Sacred Liturgy, sanctuary is an encounter with the Incarnate God who, without beginning and without end and by virtue of Baptism, has grafted us into his very body. Contemplation in the sacred silence of sanctuary has the potential to eradicate falsehood from the life of the adorer and reveal the truth that lies in the deep recesses of the soul; that is, the human person is loved into life and created in the very image and likeness of God.

Formation: The Parish’s Prayerful Preparation back to top

• The Holy Eucharist is celebrated twice daily; in the morning at 7:30 and in the evening at 7:00.
• The Hour of Mercy is observed daily from 3:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy is prayed again during the celebration of the evening Mass.
• The rosary is prayed daily at 6:30 in the evening in thanksgiving for blessings received throughout the world and in atonement for sins committed.
• The Sacrament of Reconciliation is offered Monday thru Friday from 4:00 to 6:00 in the afternoon and again on Sunday morning.
• A small adoration chapel is open in the rectory from Monday thru Saturday beginning at 8:00 a.m. until the Blessed Sacrament is transferred to the church for the 3:00 Hour of Mercy. Exposition of the Holy Eucharist lasts until Mass begins at 7:00 p.m.

Divine Mercy Devotion back to top

On February 22, 1931 a young Polish nun, Sr. Faustina Kowalska, saw a vision of Jesus with rays of mercy streaming from His Heart. He told her to have an image painted to represent this vision and to sign it "Jesus, I Trust in You!" Calling her the Apostle and Secretary of His mercy He ordered her to begin writing a diary so others would come to know and trust in Him. In a series of revelations that followed between 1931 and 1938, He taught her that His mercy is unlimited and available even to the greatest sinners. He revealed special ways for people to respond to His mercy in their lives, and He gave her several promises for those who would trust in His mercy and show mercy to others.
By the time of Sr. Faustina's death in 1938, devotion to The Divine Mercy had already begun to spread throughout Eastern Europe. In July of 1940, Fr. Joseph Jarzebowski, a Polish Marian priest black-listed by the Nazi SS, prayed to the merciful Savior to help him escape, vowing to spend the rest of his life spreading the Divine Mercy Devotion.
He arrived safely on American soil in May, 1941, and Marian communities in Detroit and Washington, D.C. were soon distributing Mercy of God materials. In 1944, a group of Marians opened a new house and apostolate on Eden Hill in Stockbridge Massachusetts and began spreading the Devotion on a large scale. By 1953, the Marian apostolate on Eden Hill had become the international center for the Divine Mercy Devotion, distributing more than twenty-five million pieces of mercy literature per year. In 1960, with donations from all over the world, the Marians on Eden Hill completed construction of a shrine to the Mercy of God. The shrine has now become the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy-spiritual home of the Association of Marian Helpers-and the apostolate has become the headquarters for the Marian Helpers, a modern religious publishing house spreading devotion to the Mercy of God and Mary Immaculate. In 1966, through the efforts of Karol Cardinal Wojtyla (now Pope John Paul II), the informative process for the beatification of Sr. Faustina was begun. The message of mercy is now being spread throughout the world, and the Diary of Sister Faustina has become the handbook for the Devotion to The Divine Mercy.

SOURCE: The Freeman Metro Journal (June 1994)

Excerpts from the Diary of St. Faustina,
the Secretary of God's Mercy back to top

367. On one occasion, Jesus gave me to know that when I pray for intentions which people are wont to entrust to me, He is always ready to grant His graces, but souls do not always want to accept them: My Heart overflows with great mercy for souls, and especially for poor sinners. If only they could understand that I am the best of Fathers to them and that it is for them that the Blood and Water flowed from My Heart as from a fount overflowing with mercy. For them I dwell in the tabernacle as King of Mercy. I desire to bestow My graces upon souls, but they do not want to accept them. You, at least, come to Me as often as possible and take these graces they do not want to accept. In this way you will console My Heart. Oh, how indifferent are souls to so much goodness, to so many proofs of love! My Heart drinks only of the ingratitude and forgetfulness of souls living in the world. They have time for everything, but they have no time to come to Me for graces.

So I turn to you, you--chosen souls, will you also fail to understand the love of My Heart? Here, too, My Heart finds disappointment; I do not find complete surrender to My love. So many reservations, so much distrust, so much caution. To comfort you, let Me tell you that there are souls living in the world who love Me dearly. I dwell in their hearts with delight. But they are few. In convents too, there are souls that fill My Heart with joy. They bear My features; therefore the Heavenly Father looks upon them with special pleasure. They will be a marvel to Angels and men. Their number is very small. They are a defense for the world before the justice of the Heavenly Father and a means for obtaining mercy for the world. The love and sacrifice of these souls sustain the world in existence. The infidelity of a soul specially chosen by Me wounds My Heart most painfully. Such infidelities are swords which pierce My Heart.

635. March 25. In the morning, during meditation, God's presence enveloped me in a special way, as I saw the immeasurable greatness of God and, at the same time, His condescension to His creatures. Then I saw the Mother of God, who said to me, Oh, how pleasing to God is the soul that follows faithfully the inspirations of His grace! I gave the Savior to the world; as for you, you have to speak to the world about His great mercy and prepare the world for the Second Coming of Him who will come, not as a merciful Savior, but as a just Judge. Oh, how terrible is that day! Determined is the day of justice, the day of divine wrath. The angels tremble before it. Speak to souls about this great mercy while it is still the time for [granting] mercy. If you keep silent now, you will be answering for a great number of souls on that terrible day. Fear nothing. Be faithful to the end. I sympathize with you.

St. Faustina Kowalska, Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul (Stockbridge, MA: Marians of the Immaculate Conception, 1999)

back to top