It seems fitting that Saint Gemma Galgani’s feast day falls on Divine Mercy Sunday this year. She was, after all, a saint who longed to make others aware of the great mercy of our Lord. In her diary she wrote, “Let us run to Jesus, Heart of Love, Heart full of tenderness. Let us ask Jesus to give us the riches of His pure love—to breathe only for love, to live only for love.”

Saint Gemma’s hope was that by encountering Christ’s mercy, people would turn from their sins and to the cross — the cross which Gemma spent most of her life meditating upon. She was no foreigner to suffering. In fact, suffering was such a defining experience of this young saint’s life that she became known as the “Daughter of the Passion” because of her profound union with Christ’s Passion.