Click on each day for the prayers for different souls prayed for on each day of the novena are:
DAY 1 (Good Friday) - All mankind, especially sinners
DAY 2 (Holy Saturday) - The souls of priests and religious
DAY 3 (Easter Sunday) - All devout and faithful souls
DAY 4 (Easter Monday) - Those who do not believe in Jesus and those who do not yet know Him
DAY 5 (Easter Tuesday) - The souls of separated brethren
DAY 6 (Easter Wednesday) - The meek and humble souls and the souls of children
DAY 7 (Easter Thursday) - The souls who especially venerate and glorify Jesus' mercy
DAY 8 (Easter Friday) - The souls who are detained in purgatory;
DAY 9 (Easter Saturday) - The souls who have become lukewarm.
"O my Jesus, transform me into Yourself, for You can do all things (163).
Through the passion and death of Jesus, an infinite ocean of mercy was made available for all of us. But God, who created us free, will not force anything on us, not even His mercy. He must wait for us to turn from our sinfulness and ask: "Ask and it will be given to you … for everyone who asks receives" (Mt 7:7, 8).
The message of The Divine Mercy is simple. It is that God loves us — all of us. And, he wants us to recognize that His mercy is greater than our sins, so that we will call upon Him with trust, receive His mercy, and let it flow through us to others. Thus, all will come to share His joy.
The Divine Mercy message is one we can call to mind simply by remembering ABC:
A - Ask for His Mercy. God wants us to approach Him in prayer constantly, repenting of our sins and asking Him to pour His mercy out upon us and upon the whole world.
B - Be merciful. God wants us to receive His mercy and let it flow through us to others. He wants us to extend love and forgiveness to others just as He does to us.
C - Completely trust in Jesus. God wants us to know that the graces of His mercy are dependent upon our trust. The more we trust in Jesus, the more we will receive.
This message and devotion to Jesus as The Divine Mercy is based on the writings of Saint Faustina Kowalska, an uneducated Polish nun who, in obedience to her spiritual director, wrote a diary of about 600 pages recording the revelations she received about God's mercy. Even before her death in 1938, the devotion to The Divine Mercy had begun to spread.
Works of Mercy
Be Merciful as Your Father is Merciful
We are not only to receive the mercy of God, but to use it by being
merciful to others through our actions, our words, and our prayers; in
other words, we are to practice the Corporal and Spiritual Works (Acts)
of Mercy.
The Lord wants us to do these works of mercy, because even the strongest
faith is of no use without works.
What are the Works of Mercy?
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Corporal Works
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Spiritual Works
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Jesus' Call to Mercy
"I demand from you deeds of mercy, which are to arise out of love for
Me. You are to show mercy to your neighbors always and everywhere. You
must not shrink from this or try to excuse or absolve yourself from it.
I am giving you three ways of exercising mercy
toward your neighbor:
the first — by deed, the second — by word, the third — by prayer. In
these three degrees is contained the fullness of mercy, and it is an
unquestionable proof of love for Me. By this means a soul glorifies and
pays reverence to My mercy.
Many souls ... are often worried because they do not have the material
means with which to carry out an act of mercy. Yet spiritual mercy,
which requires neither permissions nor storehouses, is much more
meritorious and is within the grasp of every soul.
If a soul does not exercise mercy somehow or other, it will not obtain
My mercy on the day of judgment. Oh, if only souls knew how to gather
eternal treasure for themselves, they would not be judged, for they
would forestall My judgment with their mercy" (1317).
Feast of Mercy
March 30, 2008
Chaplet of the Divine Mercy
Chaplet of Mercy is recited using ordinary rosary beads of five decades.
At the National Shrine of Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts the
Chaplet is preceded by two opening prayers from the Diary of Saint
Faustina and followed by a closing prayer.
Optional Opening Prayers
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.
O
Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a
fountain of Mercy for us, I trust in You!
Begin with the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Apostle's
Creed:
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.
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.
The
Apostle's 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
Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was
crucified; died, and was buried. He descended into Hell; the third day
He arose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, sitteth at the
right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from thence He shall 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 the life everlasting. Amen.
Then, on the large bead before each decade:
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, say:
For
the sake of His sorrowful Passion,
have mercy on us and on the whole world.
Conclude with (Say 3 Times):
Holy
God,
Holy Mighty One,
Holy Immortal One,
have mercy on us
and on the whole world.
Optional Closing Prayer
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.
Our Lord said to Saint Faustina:
Encourage souls to say the Chaplet which I have given you ... Whoever
will recite it will receive great mercy at the hour of death ... 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 ... Priests will recommend it to sinners as their last
hope of salvation. Even if there were a sinner most hardened, if he were
to recite this chaplet only once, he would receive grace from my
infinite mercy. I desire to grant unimaginable graces to those souls who
trust in My mercy ... Through the Chaplet you will obtain everything, if
what you ask for is compatible with My will.