Jesus, I trust in you.
The Novena, the Chaplet, and the Feast.
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The official novena began on Good Friday, but considering the parable of the laborers in the vineyard and how all were paid equally despite the time of day they were hired, if you didn't begin the novena on that solemn day, begin now, joining your prayer to the prayer of those who were hired first - or rather, those who began on time. The novena and devotion is all about trust, so have confidence that Jesus in his Divine Mercy anticipated your participation - even though you began late.
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The prayers of the novena given to St. Faustina were meant for her personal use, yet those intentions seem to have been adopted as the official exercise of the novena. Nevertheless, one may add their own particular intentions, or souls they bring to the Divine Mercy each day. That said, the pre-eminent prayer Our Lord requested for all of us to pray was the chaplet of Divine Mercy. Attached to the chaplet are many amazing graces. Anyway, these practices are the means used in preparation for the feast day, which is observed on the Second Sunday of Easter.
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If indeed Easter is something of a psychological 'let down' - naturally speaking - it has been my experience that nothing is more spiritually consoling than praying the Divine Mercy chaplet while venerating the image of Divine Mercy in preparation for the feast of Divine Mercy, which this year also includes the beatification of John Paul II, the Pope of Divine Mercy, who once said: "The Message of Divine Mercy has always been near and dear to me... which I took with me to the See of Peter and which in a sense forms the image of this Pontificate."
Jesus' words to Sister Faustina:
"Say unceasingly this chaplet that I have taught you. Anyone who
says it will receive great Mercy at the hour of death. Priests
will recommend it to sinners as the last hope. Even the most
hardened sinner, if he recites this Chaplet even once, will
receive grace from My Infinite Mercy. I want the whole world to
know My Infinite Mercy. I want to give unimaginable graces to
those who trust in My Mercy...."
"....When they say this Chaplet in the presence of the dying, I
will stand between My Father and the dying person not as the just
judge but as the Merciful Savior".
What once was so beautiful has been tarnished in my parish by the insistence of certain people that the novena "must be prayed in such-and-such a manner including the prayer that EWTN uses...etc." I am not interested in doing it publically next year if people who insist they cannot lead it are telling me how and when to do it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Angela, I don't like prayers being adapted and 'taken on the road' like a theatre show. However, perhaps this is the only way some people get to hear about them and therefore make the time to learn to pray them. Mindyou, however one prefers to pray, the only stage God sees, is the heart, from which the words spring forth so I imagine either way is valid to Him.
ReplyDeleteIn my former parish, those of us who said the chaplet had to keep the painting of Divine Mercy (a beautifully framed version, by the way) in the sacristy closet and haul it out to prop up on a chair whenever we we prayed the devotion. It was considered too old-fashioned for our modern church to display permanently, even in the out-of-the way chapel.
ReplyDeleteJesus in the closet.
Still ticks me off.