The Divine Mercy Chaplet

As Catholics we have rich history of beautiful spiritual practices and devotions that are said alone or with others. Among these spiritual practices are Chaplets – a form of prayer said on beads like the Rosary. An example is the Divine Mercy Chaplet. It is said here at St. John of the Cross at 2:30 p.m. on Mondays as Eucharistic Adoration begins in the Mary Chapel.

“Tell aching mankind to snuggle close to My merciful Heart, and I will fill it with peace. I am Love and Mercy itself. When a soul approaches Me with trust, I fill it with such an abundance of graces that it cannot contain them within itself, but radiates them to other souls.” This is from the diary of St. Faustina a Polish nun from Krakow. Jesus appeared to Sr. Faustina in a vision in 1931. She was instructed to have an image painted as she saw him – white garment, with his right hand raised in a blessing and his left hand touching his garment by his heart with two rays, one red and white. This is the image we know today with Jesus, I trust you at the bottom.

At the canonization of St. Faustina, Pope John Paul II spoke: “The two rays, Jesus himself explained to her one day, represent blood and water. Sr. Faustina wrote in her Diary: I feel tremendous pain when I see the sufferings of my neighbors. All my neighbors’ sufferings reverberate in my own heart; I carry their anguish in my heart in such a way that it even physically destroys me. I would like all their sorrows to fall upon me, in order to relieve my neighbor’ (Diary, p. 365). This is the degree of compassion to which love leads, when it takes the love of God as its measure! It is this love which must inspire humanity today, if it is to face the crisis of the meaning of life, the challenges of the most diverse needs and, especially, the duty to defend the dignity of every human person. Thus the message of divine mercy is also implicitly a message about the value of every human being. Each person is precious in God’s eyes; Christ gave his life for each one; to everyone the Father gives his Spirit and offers intimacy.”

Pamphlets are available at the exits of the church and in the kiosk of the vestibule of church that describe the Divine Mercy Chaplet and how it is prayed on Rosary beads. Join your fellow parishioners in praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet at 2:30 p.m. Mondays at the beginning of Eucharistic Adoration in the Mary Chapel.