SIDNEY — Holy Angels Church will celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday on Sunday, April 23, at 3 p.m. with an hour of prayer. The worldwide celebration is held annually the Sunday after Easter. This is the eighth year Holy Angels has participated in the hour of prayer.

According to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, “Divine Mercy is not a secondary devotion, but an integral dimension of Christian faith and prayer.”

The Rev. Frank Amberger will be leading the prayer service Sunday at Holy Angels. Members of the congregation will be praying the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy with organ accompaniment and vocals from the church’s choir. Everyone in attendance will participate in the prayer service.

Amberger will also be sharing words for reflection and delivering a homily during the service. The hour of prayer will conclude with Praises of Divine Mercy sung with music accompaniment and the choir.

Divine Mercy focuses on the heart of sacred scripture and is the center of the Catholic faith. The message of Divine Mercy is associated with a Polish nun who died in 1938, about a year before the start of World War II. She’s known today as St. Maria Faustina Kowalska. Faustina was a mystic and received experiences of Jesus in prayer.

Jesus shared a prophetic message with Faustina for a particular time in history. He wanted to remind people of the heart of sacred scripture, which says, “Now is the time of extraordinary mercy! Now is a time when I want to give great graces to the human race. I want to pour out My mercy in a big way.”