AMDG
Dear OSJ Family,
Today in the Church calendar besides being the Second Sunday of Easter is popularly known as “Divine Mercy Sunday.” Saint John Paul II formally instituted this feast in the Church’s liturgical calendar during his pontificate. He first encountered this devotion while growing up in Poland. Between 1930 and 1938 Our Lord appeared to a young Polish nun, Sister Maria Faustina, a Sister of the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy in Poland who first initiated the Divine Mercy devotion. Sister Faustina, now a canonized saint of the Church, was also a mystic. For a number of years, Jesus himself appeared to Faustina in various visions and inspired in her, and subsequently the entire Church, the devotion to Divine Mercy . On Good Friday, 1937, Jesus requested that Faustina make a special novena from Good Friday through the following Saturday. Jesus also asked that a picture be painted according to the vision of Himself as the very fountain of mercy. He also gave her a chaplet to be recited and said that it was appropriate to pray the chaplet at three o’clock each afternoon (the Hour of Great Mercy).
Because of her promotion of this devotion, she has rightfully earned the title of “Apostle of Divine Mercy”. Notably, in one of her visions, Jesus said to Sr Faustina: ‘Humanity will never find peace until it turns with trust to the Mercy of God.’ How true.
For your personal prayer on this feast, I provide the Divine Mercy Chaplet below. (The Chaplet of Mercy is recited using ordinary rosary beads of five decades.)
- Make the Sign of the Cross
- The Our Father
- The Hail Mary
- The Apostle’s Creed
- The Eternal Father
Recite: Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your Dearly Beloved Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.
- On the ten small beads of each decade
Recite: For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
- Repeat for the remaining decades
Saying the “Eternal Father” (6) on the “Our Father” bead and then 10 “For the sake of His sorrowful Passion” (7) on the following “Hail Mary” beads.
- Conclude with Holy God (Repeat three times)
Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
Together let us continue to trust in God’s abundant mercy and commend all of our prayers and needs to God’s infinite love now, in this Holy Easter Season, and in the days to come.
In the Lord,
Fr Phil Florio, SJ
Pastor
