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Devotion to the Divine Mercy

Thank you to Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska and Our Lord for the gift of the Divine Mercy Chaplet. This devotion speaks to the ever present mercy of God for His children. Jesus poured out everything for us on the cross and as the lance was thrust into His side, blood and water poured out. Is there any better image to remind us that Jesus loves us and desires to have us cleansed of our sin by His passion. This beautiful devotion was embraced by Saint John Paul II and is a joy for those who pray the chaplet.

The Chaplet of Divine Mercy


Using your rosary beads, the order of prayers is as follows:


The Sign of the Cross

The Our Father

The Hail Mary

The Apostles Creed


On the large beads-

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 small beads -

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


Concluding Prayer -

Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Amen

My favorite way of praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet is to

meditate on the Five Wounds of Christ.

With the first decade (ten small beads) I begin with his feet and with the awareness of my feet. I consider what His time on the cross was like. My feet seem so small but Jesus was fully human and His feet were more similar to mine than not.


Beginning the second decade, I attend to the wound in His side, I consider how difficult it was for Mary to stand and watch this final act to her only son. The dramatic scene as Saint Longinus reacts in conversion as the blood and water from Christ's side heals, frees and changes him. I can only imagine what the scene was like, amazing.


The third and fourth decades focus on Jesus' right and left hands. Once again the smallness of my hands strikes me and how domestic they are. It is through my hands that every act of service begins and so much more it is of Jesus. Consider these same hands out-stretched were the same hands that mixed the mud and applied it to the blind man, curing him. These are the same hands that placed on lepers and withered hands restored them. One could meditate a lifetime on the hands of Jesus.

We can meditate on what these same hands, now wounded, were like as a tiny baby, reaching towards His mother. These hands reached up as a toddler to hold the hand of Saint Joseph. These are the same hands of the cross.


During the final decade, I meditate on the holy wounds caused by the crown of thorns. How easy to imagine these wounds; we must accept the challenge to mediate on this crown Jesus wears. Our King serves us, loves us and forgives us.


How far God traveled to bring us into union with him, to bring us home. Thank you, Jesus we trust in You!

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