Father Quinlivan will sign new book on Divine Mercy

The diary of St. Faustina Kowalska has fascinated and intrigued Catholics for decades. Now, Buffalo’s own Father Bill Quinlivan has examined the subject in his latest book, “Divine Mercy In and Out of Season.”   

Father Quinlivan has spent most of his priesthood learning about St. Faustina and her message of Divine Mercy. “I admittedly was a hesitant believer in the private revelation, just because at a certain point when it first came around and I started hearing about it, I felt like people were pushing it really hard on me. And so, I hesitated to consider it because it felt forced,” he said.

After meeting Amy Betros and Norm Paolini, and seeing how they were living Divine Mercy at St. Luke’s Mission of Mercy, he began to learn how to pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and began reading St. Faustina’s diary. He finds it “very inspiring.”

He began writing his book during the early days of the Covid pandemic, when churches and just about everything else was closed.

“The original idea was to do a book about Lent and Easter, but the more I started trying to think of things to write about that it led me to what I have been celebrating for years, which is Lent, preparing for Holy Week and Easter and then Divine Mercy Sunday, the following week, and then Easter season.”

Written from a pastor’s point of view, he tried to avoid what others have done by presenting material in a scholarly fashion.

“My hope is that this book gives a sort of boots on the ground approach to Divine Mercy for parishes and that the life and faith of the believers in the Church within parish life,” he said.

The book includes quotations from St. Faustina’s diary, and Father Quinlivan’s reflections. He also references the diary of Blessed Father Michael Sopocko, St. Faustina’s spiritual director and confessor.

There’s one story in the book that stands out as a practical example of how you can integrate the message of Divine Mercy into parish life.“When I was pastor (of Blessed Sacrament) in Tonawanda, we decided to have all during the season of Lent, a celebration of the Lord’s mercy and call it the Prodigal prom. In the early days of the Easter season, we had a dance. Anyone who went to confession during lunch or early Easter season was given a ticket to this prom to come and dance with the joy of the auxiliary exhilaration and freedom that come from receiving God’s forgiveness. We projected the Divine Mercy image on the wall of the parish center, and we had red and white streamers forming the rays of mercy coming down onto the dance floor.

“That’s probably something you don’t see in a lot of parishes,” he said.

Although written from his own priestly perspective, Father Quinlivan intends the book to be for everybody. 

“My hope is that anybody who loves Jesus could read it and get something out of it,” he said. “The book’s  main audience would probably be a Catholic segment of the population just because of their familiarity with the saint and the blessed.”

“Divine Mercy In and Out of Season” is available through amazon.com, OLV Basilica, Our Lady of Fatima Shrine, St. Gregory the Great’s Catholic Store, and Terra Gift Shop. It’s also downloadable for a Kindle.

Father Quinlivan will be doing two book signings, with the first one at OLV National Shrine & Basilica on Sunday, July 30 from 1-3 p.m., and then at the Buffalo Irish Center on Friday, Aug. 11 from 5 -7 p.m. in the pub during the fish fry. “I will be signing books with ketchup,” he said.

For more on Father Quinlivan, visit frbillsings.com.