It started simply enough, a conversation between two women.

Alice Prichard, a member of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Carmichael, wanted to share some exciting news with her friend Leslie Fairchild, a member of neighboring St. Mel Parish in Fair Oaks.

Prichard had read an article about a billboard blitz in Ohio that focused the attention of thousands of people on a message of Divine Mercy.

Fairchild describes herself as growing up “a cafeteria Catholic, picking and choosing to live life as I pleased.”

Then she heard a message delivered on Divine Mercy Sunday that literally transformed her life.

“I found out that Jesus would answer my urgent needs if it was according to God’s will,” Fairchild said. “What a gift.”

The Divine Mercy devotion, begun in the 1930s, was spread by St. Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun known for her prayers and sacrifices for sinners, who was canonized by the late Pope John Paul II in 2000.

Divine Mercy Sunday, the feast day celebrated on the Sunday after Easter, also had it’s origin in St. Kowalska’s visions.

Word of the billboard approach to spreading news of the healing grace of the Divine Mercy devotion reached other Sacramento-area Catholics, and last September “Divine Mercy for All” was launched.

The billboard campaign features 40 twelve and a half by 25-foot signs placed throughout the greater Sacramento area and Butte and Shasta counties. They feature the image of Jesus, one hand raised in benediction, the other on his breast, issuing two rays of light.

The accompanying message simply reads, “Jesus I trust in you.”

Jean Mark, another member of the campaign, is a member of Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in Carmichael.

Mark said the billboards are proving to be “a powerful instrument to reach people just walking along in everyday life.”

“We’re trying to bring the image of Jesus and his mercy out to into the community,” she said.

According to CBS Outdoor, a national advertising company, an average of 110,000 people view billboards per day, or in the case of the Divine Mercy campaign, 1.5 million in just over four months.

A key member of the Divine Mercy billboard effort is Deacon Don DeHaven, who serves at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Sacramento.

Fairchild recalled informing Deacon DeHaven about the billboard campaign one day outside the cathedral.

Upon hearing the news, she said Deacon DeHaven’s eyes lit up. “He said, ‘Did you know I’ve been in the billboard business?”

For several months now, Deacon DeHaven has been making Divine Mercy devotion presentations at parishes throughout the diocese.

“The Lord sort of urged me to go out and give the message — that his mercy is overflowing for all,” he said. “We have to live that message every day.”

Deacon DeHaven has also spread the word to several Knights of Columbus councils which have generously supported the billboard campaign.

His initial contact was with Dale Edwards, grand knight of the Knights of Columbus at the Newman Catholic Community in Sacramento.

The two ran into each other one Sunday morning having breakfast at a local restaurant.

“The Lord put me there and the grand knight next to me at the one seat left at the counter,” Deacon DeHaven said. “It was the first time Edwards had been in that restaurant.”

Response to the billboard campaign has been amazing, according to Mark.

“People started calling immediately, primarily out of gratitude for being reminded of Jesus in the middle of rough times,” Mark said.

One of them was her husband David, who was driving their daughter Jenna home from a soccer tournament in Chico and spotted a Divine Mercy billboard as he drove through Oroville.

“He called and said, ‘You’ll never believe what I saw from half a mile away,’” Mark said.

Divine Mercy for All committee members are now gearing up for a new campaign leading up the Divine Mercy Sunday, celebrated this year on April 15.

While the scope of the upcoming billboard campaign is depends on funding, organizers hope to run the monthly sequence of 10 billboards at various locations throughout March and April.

For more information about the Divine Mercy devotion, visit the Web sites, www.thedivinemercy.org or www.divinemercysacramento.org, or call Jean Mark at (916) 801-1242.

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