The Healing Power of Divine Mercy
Hope and healing in a tumultuous world can be found in Divine Mercy.
All shall be well …
This famous quote from St. Julian of Norwich is beautiful, yet it can be difficult to believe during times when we’re overwhelmed with emotional chaos and compounding trauma. When one thing after another hits us with ferocity, how can we cling to the truth that all things work for good for those who love God (Rom 8:28)?
We can start answering that question with a brief yet fun history lesson.
From the outset, the fourteenth century was an era of tragedy and trauma.
In 1303, at the command of King Philip of France, 86-year-old Pope Boniface VIII was kidnapped. For three days he was abused by the agents of France; he soon died as a result of the shock and mistreatment. The next pope was elected due to the unyielding influence of King Philip, and out of fear Clement V remained in France rather than returning the Holy See to Rome. This began the “Babylonian Captivity,” with the popes residing in Avignon for the next 75 years.
Christendom was shocked by this religious upheaval, but that wasn’t all they had to worry about. The weather had taken a a turn for the worse; temperatures dropped, ushering in what is now called the “little ice age”—a cooling trend that didn’t begin to correct itself until the mid-nineteenth century. Crops failed due to lack of nourishing warmth and too much rain, resulting in famine and malnourishment. Floods, earthquakes, and a turbulent war between England and France caused people to wonder if they’d entered the days of the Apocalypse.
This suspicion only deepened when the Great Pestilence—now more commonly known as the Black Death—hit the entire known world from 1346 to 1351. Malnourished citizens easily succumbed to the ravishing disease, reducing the population of many countries by half. The plague continued to return throughout the course of the century, further traumatizing the population.
Yet despite such devastation—or likely because of it—God sent messengers of hope to spread His message of Divine Mercy to all the known world. Two such messengers of mercy were St. Julian of Norwich and St. Catherine (Caterina) of Siena.