27 April 2025

27 April 2025 - Divine Mercy Sunday

Transcript

Reading:  

The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy

Write:  

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.

Reflect:   

By the time you listen to this, I will be either on my way to my retreat or at my retreat. I am very much in need of getting away, and the retreat is a great way to do that. If you speak with the office staff, I’m sure they would agree with me – I have not exactly been the easiest person to work with the last month or so. Hopefully getting this retreat will realign my thought processes. Please keep me in prayer this week. But I digress.

The Divine Mercy Sunday, as well as the Divine Mercy Chaplet, were promoted for the universal church by Pope St. John Paul the Great. There are some people who disagree with calling him “the Great,” but I think it is deserved. Pope St. John Paul legitimized the Divine Mercy Devotion that was begun by a fellow Pole – Saint Faustina. She has a diary that has been published of her visions and conversations with Jesus. It is still on my list of books to read. But I digress again.

And I have one more digression. Shortly after the Divine Mercy Chaplet was promoted, I was speaking with a friend of mine who has a very strong Marian devotion. I told my friend that I believe the Divine Mercy Chaplet will become more important than the Rosary. Well, she didn’t think much of my comment. The Divine Mercy Chaplet, as you know, is prayed on a set of Rosary beads. So it is a similar prayer in that sense only.

So much for my digressions. What is the important point for us to think about in connection with the Divine Mercy Chaplet? Other than in our father Hail Mary and the apostles Creed, I said the opening line of the Divine Mercy Chaplet at the start. Listen to that again: “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.”

That prayer is Eucharistic. It focuses on the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus. We are offering that most Sublime Sacrament to the Father every time we pray the Chaplet.

This should not be dismissed lightly! This is what the priest does at Mass. So, when you pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, you are participating in the Mass, regardless of whether you are attending a Mass or not. When you pray the Chaplet, you are doing so with the power of the priesthood of all believers, offering to God what he finds acceptable. Here is the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and how to pray it.

For brevity, I have left out of the podcast the optional prayers, but you can find them online, or in my text version of the podcast. Let’s pray a decade Chaplet of Divine Mercy now.

Apply:   

1. Make the Sign of the Cross

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[2. Optional Opening Prayers

St. Faustina’s Prayer for Sinners
O Jesus, eternal Truth, our Life, I call upon You and I beg Your mercy for poor sinners. O sweetest Heart of my Lord, full of pity and unfathomable mercy, I plead with You for poor sinners. O Most Sacred Heart, Fount of Mercy from which gush forth rays of inconceivable graces upon the entire human race, I beg of You light for poor sinners. O Jesus, be mindful of Your own bitter Passion and do not permit the loss of souls redeemed at so dear a price of Your most precious Blood. O Jesus, when I consider the great price of Your Blood, I rejoice at its immensity, for one drop alone would have been enough for the salvation of all sinners. Although sin is an abyss of wickedness and ingratitude, the price paid for us can never be equaled. Therefore, let every soul trust in the Passion of the Lord, and place its hope in His mercy. God will not deny His mercy to anyone. Heaven and earth may change, but God's mercy will never be exhausted. Oh, what immense joy burns in my heart when I contemplate Your incomprehensible goodness, O Jesus! I desire to bring all sinners to Your feet that they may glorify Your mercy throughout endless ages (Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 72).
 
You expired, Jesus, but the source of life gushed forth for souls, and the ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world. O Fount of Life, unfathomable Divine Mercy, envelop the whole world and empty Yourself out upon us.
 
(Repeat three times)
O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us, I trust in You! ]

3. Our Father

Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, Amen.

4. Hail Mary

Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen.

5. The Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; He descended into hell; on the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from there He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the Resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.

6. The Eternal Father

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.

7. On the 10 Small Beads of Each Decade

For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

[8. 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. ]

9. Conclude with Holy God (Repeat three times)

[And then conclude with:] Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

[10. Optional Closing Prayers

Eternal God, in Whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion — inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself.
 
 O Greatly Merciful God, Infinite Goodness, today all mankind calls out from the abyss of its misery to Your mercy — to Your compassion, O God; and it is with its mighty voice of misery that it cries out. Gracious God do not reject the prayer of this earth's exiles! O Lord, Goodness beyond our understanding, Who are acquainted with our misery through and through, and know that by our own power we cannot ascend to You, we implore You: anticipate us with Your grace and keep on increasing Your mercy in us, that we may faithfully do Your holy will all through our life and at death's hour. Let the omnipotence of Your mercy shield us from the darts of our salvation’s enemies, that we may with confidence, as Your children, await Your [Son’s] final coming — that day known to You alone. And we expect to obtain everything promised us by Jesus in spite of all our wretchedness. For Jesus is our Hope: through His merciful Heart, as through an open gate, we pass through to Heaven (Diary, 1570). ]

11. Final Blessing

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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As I said, I believe the Chaplet of Divine Mercy will prove to be a very important prayer for the life of the church. I think it is still quite early in the history of this prayer for it to become as great of a thing as I believe it will be.

One last point with this. I pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy in a very specific way. The first decade I pray – selfishly – for myself. The second decade I pray for my family – my brothers and sisters. The third decade I pray for all my brother priests. The fourth decade I pray for my parishioners. The fifth decade I pray for the universal church. Because there are no meditative thoughts in the Chaplet as there are in the Rosary, you can fill in your petitions for any intention you want. Just remember, you are offering these in union with the Eucharistic Christ.

I pray that you will have a marvelous Divine Mercy Sunday. And, again I ask for your prayers while I am on retreat this week. God bless you.

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