Divine Mercy Sunday: Jesus, I Trust in You!

The Chaplet of Divine Mercy

 The Chaplet of Divine Mercy is to be recited using ordinary rosary beads.  

Opening Prayer (to be prayed on the first large bead of the rosary)

You expired, Jesus, but the source of life gushed forth for souls, and an 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.

Response: O Blood and Water which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us, I trust in You!  (Repeat 3 times.)

On the three small introductory beads:
Pray one Our Father, One Hail Mary, and one 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,

Response: in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world

On the 10 small beads, repeat:

For the sake of His sorrowful passion,

Response: Have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Repeat the above for each of the 5 decades.

End with:

Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
(Repeat 3 times.)

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.  Amen.

Jesus, I trust in You.  (Repeat 3 times.)
Mother of Sorrows, Pray for us.
St. Faustina, Pray for us.

Pope Francis: Prayer

When God Takes Over and Works in Our Lives. We just have to step aside, trust, and let Him be God! Lessons Learned:

My day started with a rude awakening

at 3 AM.

My tooth had been hurting,

and I had been to the dentist earlier in the day.

This was 3 AM,

and

my tooth was throbbing.

I don't remember pain like this.

Nothing seemed to help,

but,

at long last,

the Tylenol kicked in and took the edge off.

I slept fitfully until 5 AM.

The pain was raging again.

This time,

I showered

and waited for my dentist's office to open.

I had to miss Mass, but this pain was more than I could handle.

I was told to come right in.

The dentist would deaden the pain, and then we would see what he suggested.

The xray the day before had shown nothing was wrong with my tooth.

Although His Hand was in this,

here's where God's glory began to shine.

My dentist deadened my mouth.

The pain was gone!

While he did this, the secretary was calling to get me an emergency appointment with an endodontist.

I decided to go to Perkins and get a pancake since pancakes are soft.

I had only been there 5 minutes when my mouth exploded in pain, again.

I went back to my dentist.

When he arrived, the receptionist was on the phone with the endodontist.

I had an appointment at 1:30 PM.

I was in the chair in minutes and the dentist was deadening my mouth again.

(See how God is working?  I had nothing to do with this. If this had happened today, things would have been more difficult.)

Fast forward to 10 AM.

The medication was wearing off.

I swallowed my Tylenol and took a nap.

This was good.  I woke up at 11:30.  I could eat lunch.

By the time I arrived at the endodontist, the pain was coming back.

He decided that my tooth was not salvagable, but they didn't pull teeth.

I just looked at them.

I didn't know what to say.

The receptionist was on the phone.

My dentist was gone for the weekend.

(I had no choice here but to let God be God.  Miracles do happen.)

She was like a dog that won't let go of a bone.

Another call to some maxillary specialists in town.

His nurse said he was at the hospital, but she would call him.  

The time between calls was about 10 minutes.

She started out by saying that she was only the messenger.

The doctor would extract my tooth, but he would only do it if I agreed to be put under.

I also needed a driver, and I should get up to their office as soon as possible.

I was stuck again.

(Letting God do the work was great!)

I happened to be at Hobby Lobby.

 I checked out.

A call to one friend.  No one answered.

I called another friend.

Yes, she'd be more than willing to drive me.

She'd be at my house in ten minutes.

It would take me 15 to get home.

She had the rest of the afternoon free.

I got home.

Sue was there.

I parked my car in the garage.

We were off.

This was at 2.

The procedure was completed at 5:30.

No more pain.

No more tooth, but that's okay.

God bless, Sue, she waited the entire time.

Throughout all of this,

I didn't do a thing.

God simply took over.

I was in too much pain to try to orchestrate the afternoon.

Then, as I was eating my applesauce,

I saw this amazing sunset.

God's closing gift to me for that day.

Lessons learned:
Let God be God.
Offer it Up, which I did.
God will take care of you, even if His ways are not our ways.
Trust.
Pray.
Hope.
Don't go to Hobby Lobby before a procedure!
 

When there are No Words, and Fear overtakes Faith...

Then silence is best.

Worry is least.

Consider this::

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  

 

Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?   

 

And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?   

 

And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.   

 

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 

Matthew 6: 24-30 

 

Peace

Truth

Mercy

Love

 

Worth Revisiting::Mary in the Incarnation, in Faith, In acts of Mercy, and in Praise, and in her role as Mother.

Mary in the Incarnation::

"The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.  And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” 
 Luke 1: 35-37

 Mary in Faith::
Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
Luke 1:38

 Mary In Acts of Mercy::
Elizabeth said:
"And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?"
Luke 1:43

Mary in Praise::
 “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.     Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me and holy is his name."

1:45-49

Mary in Her Role as Mother::
His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

John 2: 5

To Love the Unlovable. To Pardon the Unpardonable. G.K. Chesterton

Francesco de Zurbaran - "Christ on the Cross"

"To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable."
G.K. Chesterton

This is the Divine Mercy of God.

 

For though we are unlovable, 

we are loved.

 

For though we are unpardonable,

we are pardoned.

 

Therefore, we are entrusted to love  all

and

 forgive all.

 

This is

 Divine Mercy.

 

To those whom we believe are unlovable,

we must awaken love in our hearts for them.

Through this love for the 

"unlovable"

we realize that they are lovable in God's eyes.

(And, they are.)

 

To those whom we believe are unpardonable,

we must pardon,

because we are all unpardonable but for the love of God.

(And we are.)

 

 

The Mercy of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

is the gift of love and forgiveness intertwining so that one cannot exist without the other

and remembering that if 

God ceased to love us,

we would not be,

but God chooses to love us,

He chooses to forgive us,

and

His Mercy flows out to humanity

who can accept or reject this gift.

 

Divine Mercy!

Divine Love!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Imagine

Imagine a place you’ve never seen before, a place you might not have believed was real.  A place covered in a mist so thick that you cannot see your hands or your feet, yet, it’s solid and real.  Imagine a place of great suffering, filled with the cries of longing, moaning, and groaning, but a place of incredible joy!  Imagine a place where, before you entered,  you had seen the Face of God, and now, your longing for God causes such great pain, you fear your heart will break.  Imagine a place where the pain is so great, you know that if the skin was burned off your body, leaving only raw nerves exposed to the air, you would feel less pain.  Imagine a place where a fire burns so coldly that the pain caused to your body by a hot flame would be a welcome respite.

The time for merit is over when we die.  We know that God is a God of great Mercy.  What we often forget is that God is a God of Justice, too.  Justice must be met by each of us in our judgment.  One of the gifts of God’s Mercy, in the expiation of our sins, is Purgatory.  Purgatory is a place of final cleansing for our souls, so that one day, when we have paid our debt to our merciful and loving God, we will meet Him face to face, never again fearing Hell, but knowing that we are safe and in Paradise.  satan is no longer a threat to our immortal souls.  We rejoice!

The souls in Purgatory cannot help themselves.  They are completely dependent on the mercy of God and on our prayers and sacrifices on their behalf.  Masses said for the souls bring them great relief.  The Mass can also shorten the time of the souls in Purgatory, and it can bring about their release.  The souls have no recourse except to stay in Purgatory until their debt is paid or to depend on us, the living, for relief and release. 

While in Purgatory the souls can pray for their loved ones (which are all people) on earth.  They can pray for their intentions.  They cannot pray for themselves.  The souls become wonderful intercessors while they are cleansed of their sins in Purgatory, and they do so with great joy!  They are saved.  They know this, but they also know that they must make up for what evil they did on earth.  (Sin is evil.)

Their pain is nearly unbearable, but the pain must be borne by the souls who were not purified on earth.  The souls rejoice because they have been saved from hell.  They know that because of God’s love for all, they are in Purgatory.  They know that the pain they feel is great, but it will lead to great joy when they see God in His Glory!

The souls also pray for those who intercede for them on earth.  They do this with great joy, in spite of their great pain.  The souls in Purgatory can be your intercessors while they are there.  When they reach heaven, they do not forget you.  They continue to pray and intercede for you.  In heaven, they are more powerful than they were on earth.  Ask the souls for help.  Trust them. They will do their best for you.  They will love you with incredible love because you helped them.

The souls in Purgatory are so dear to me.  They have helped me.  They have prayed for me.  They have brought about great spiritual healing for me.  Pray for them daily.  They can only love now.  They are full of love, but they suffer in ways greater than we can imagine, and they do so with great love and joy. 

Help them. 
Have masses said for them.
Offer your masses for them.
Pray the St. Gertrude prayer daily.  It is said to release 1,000 souls each time it is prayed.  Yes, there are a lot of souls in Purgatory!

Eternal Father,
I offer you the Most Precious Blood of Your Divine Son, Jesus,
in union with all the Masses offered today,
for the Holy Souls in Purgatory,
for sinners everywhere,
for sinners in the Universal Church,
those within my own home and within my family.
Amen.

Pray a rosary, daily, for the souls.
Offer a fast up for them.
Give up that candy bar for the souls.
Give up that immoral TV show for the souls.

Continue to pray for your loved ones who have gone before you.  They might not be out of Purgatory yet. 

As Our Lady says, “Pray, Pray, Pray.”

The Souls will love you for it.  One day, if you aren’t ready to enter heaven yet, and you aren’t hell bound, then you will find yourself in the mist of purgatory suffering willingly for your sins.  Joy will fill your heart!  You will welcome any help you can get from the souls on earth.  Pray now!  You will have intercessors in heaven to help you reach Paradise! They will greet you at the door of heaven, and join you at the Throne of God when you behold His face.  

As St. Paul says,
“Pray without ceasing.”
Remember the Souls when you do!