The History of the Conference

The first International Conference of Divine Mercy was held in the R.D.S. 18 years ago this month (Written in 2008). We celebrate our eighteenth conference in the knowledge that Sister Faustina is now Saint Faustina. The theme of the first conference was “Mercy Our Mission”. The theme and the speakers were the product of much prayer and discernment by a committee of men and women gathered together in Eucharistic adoration under the spiritual direction of Fr. Cathal Price.

The committee, as we came to be known, had only a conference theme, speakers, and a donation of five hundred pounds to start us off. It was not long before the theme of “Mercy Our Mission” captured the attention of the Parish of the Divine Mercy, Lucan South. Many of the parishioners there, offered their services for the many different functions of administration, stewarding, ticket selling etc. that a conference of this nature and size demanded. In addition many offers of assistance came from outside the parish. The more we prayed and trusted the more it seemed that Divine Mercy was being poured out to us. Many of us who worked on that first conference were to discover that the conferences became a school of spirituality where the broken hearted received healing, the troubled rest for their souls, and those in need of reconciliation found forgiveness and mercy. Jesus spoke to Faustina telling her that: “There is no misery that could be a match for my Mercy” (1273)

As we experienced these words happening in the hearts of people a transformation happened and the whole place seemed filled with an atmosphere of mercy. After the conference was over and the bills paid we had the sum of £500 to begin the next conference. We have, in obedience to what was discerned, held a conference ever year since. Each conference was based on a passage from the sacred scriptures and reflected a different element of the spirituality of Divine Mercy. This year the theme is “His Mercy is from Age to Age” (Lk1: 50).

Throughout the pages of Sister Faustina's diary Jesus invites us time and time again to reflect on His Mercy with the words: “I want to give myself to souls: I yearn for souls”(206). This year our mission of mercy invites us to seek Jesus at a deeper level of intimacy remembering His mercy through the ages. After ten years of receiving the spirituality of Divine Mercy can we say with Saint Faustina, after Jesus had offered to create a whole new world for her: “I want no new worlds -only You- Lord”
(By Gerard Duff M.A.)

Diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul © 1987 Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception, Stockbridge, MA 01263. www.thedivinemercy.org Used with permission and gratitude.