The Divine Mercy image is a depiction of Jesus based on the devotion initiated by Saint Faustina Kowalska.
Jesus is shown in most versions as raising his right hand in blessing, and pointing with his left hand on his chest from which flow forth two rays: one red and one white (translucent). The depictions often contains the message "Jesus, I trust in You!" (Polish: Jezu ufam Tobie). The rays streaming out have symbolic meaning: red for the blood of Jesus (which is the Life of Souls), and pale for the water (which justify souls) (from Diary - 299). The whole image is symbolic of charity, forgiveness and love of God, referred to as the "Fountain of Mercy". According to the diary of St Faustina, the image is based on her 1931 vision of Jesus.
A number of artistic renditions of the image have appeared since Faustina directed the painting of the first image in Poland. These are widely venerated by Catholics worldwide, and are used in the celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday.
Famous quotes containing the words divine, mercy and/or image:
“If God is male, then male is God. The divine patriarch castrates women as long as he is allowed to live on in the human imagination.”
—Mary Daly (b. 1928)
“A man gazing on the stars is proverbially at the mercy of the puddles in the road.”
—Alexander Smith (1830–1867)
“... But all the feelings that evoke in us the joy or the misfortune of a real person are only produced in us through the intermediary of an image of that joy or that misfortune; the ingeniousness of the first novelist was in understanding that, in the apparatus of our emotions, since the image is the only essential element, the simplification which consists of purely and simply suppressing the factual characters is a definitive improvement.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)