If Your Mind Wanders During the Divine Mercy Chaplet...

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I was recently talking about prayer with a group of young adults, when a young woman asked me what I focused upon mentally while praying the decades of the Divine Mercy Chaplet. When praying the ten Hail Marys of the Rosary we have the mysteries to meditate upon, but what specifically do we meditate upon during the Chaplet?

In the Chaplet we petition the Father, through Christ's Passion, to have mercy upon us and the world. We can focus our petitions for mercy upon specific people and intentions, as our Lord taught St. Faustina to do in the Novena to Divine Mercy. I will sometimes picture a different person's face for each of the fifty times I pray, "For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy upon us and on the whole world" - family members, friends, clergy, government leaders. 

The majority of the time, however, I try to focus my mind upon what calls forth the Father's mercy, our Lord's Passion. I will focus each decade upon a different one of our Lord's wounds - His back, crown of thorns, hands, feet, side. I sometimes meditate upon the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary. I don't use images very often in my prayer, but one of the young adults I spoke with shared how she will gaze at a crucifix while praying the Chaplet.

There really are a variety of ways to maintain our mental focus while praying the Chaplet. The next time our minds wander during its five decades let's resolve to implement one or more of these methods.

DON'T FORGET - Divine Mercy Novena Starts Today!

For those unfamiliar with it, the Divine Mercy is a beautiful devotion consisting of several elements to unite our prayers with Jesus’ offering on the Cross.  One of those elements is a Novena (nine days of prayer) beginning today, Good Friday.  Here's a quick summary:  

On February 22, 1931, St. Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun, saw an apparition of our Lord.  He was clothed in a white garment, one hand raised in blessing, and the other slightly parting the garment at his chest.  Two large rays, one red and the other pale, emanated from his heart.  The Lord directed her to, “Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the signature, ‘Jesus, I trust in You.’  I desire that this image be venerated. . .throughout the world”[1]  When asked to explain the image, our Lord responded, “The two rays denote Blood and Water.  The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous.  The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls. . .These two rays issued from the very depths of My tender mercy when My agonized Heart was opened by a lance on the Cross.”[2]

“Jesus, I trust in You.”  Trust, the absolute conviction that Jesus’ heart is filled with mercy for us, is a striking feature of the devotion.  Faustina reported the Lord saying, “The graces of my mercy are drawn by means of one vessel only, and that is – trust.  The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive. . . I am sad when souls ask for little, when they narrow their hearts.”[3]To implore God’s mercy, Jesus imparted a prayer to Faustina.  It has become known as the Chaplet of Divine Mercy:

First of all, you will say one Our Father and Hail Mary and the I Believe in God.  Then on the Our Father beads you will say the following words: “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 Hail Mary beads you will say the following words:  “For the sake of His sorrowful Passion have mercy on us and on the whole world.”  In conclusion, three times you will recite these words: “Holy God, Holy Might One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.”[4]

The chaplet recalls the great truths that we are a priestly people (1 Peter 2:9) and that Jesus’ sacrifice is the most precious offering we can bring before the Father, the reason for all the grace that flows to us.  With this central truth in mind, we listen to the promise made to Faustina: “My daughter, encourage souls to say the chaplet which I have given to you.  It pleases Me to grant everything they ask of Me by saying the chaplet.  When hardened sinners say it, I will fill their souls with peace, and the hour of their death will be a happy one.”[5]

Jesus further instructed Faustina to immerse herself in prayer for his mercy from 3 to 4 p.m. daily  – the hour of his death:

Invoke [My mercy’s] omnipotence for the whole world, and particularly for poor sinners . . . it was the hour of grace for the whole world . . . try your best to make the stations of the Cross in this hour . . . and if you are not able . . . immerse yourself in prayer there where you happen to be, if only for a brief instant.[6]

Jesus also told Faustina that he wanted the Sunday following Easter to be a celebration of Divine Mercy.  He promised, “Whoever will go to confession and Holy Communion on that day will receive complete forgiveness of sin and punishment.”  In preparation, he requested that Faustina make a yearly novena, nine days of prayer to begin on Good Friday and finish on the Saturday before the feast.  “On each day you will bring to My Heart a different group of souls, and you will immerse them in this ocean of My mercy:”[7]

1.      All humanity, especially sinners

2.      Priests and religious

3.      Devout and faithful souls

4.      Non-Christians and atheists

5.      Christians not united to the Church

6.      The meek and humble, and children

7.      Those who glorify and love Jesus’ mercy

8.      Souls in purgatory

9.      Those who are lukewarm

Like the Solemn Intercessions of Good Friday, these intentions invite us to participate in Jesus’ intercession.

As a matter of private revelation the Church can never make the Divine Mercy Devotion incumbent upon her people.  I doubt anyone reading this however would dispute it as a singular way to enter into the intercession Jesus made through his Passion.  John Paul II was devoted to it.  In the year 2000 he invited the entire Church to turn anew to God’s mercy by establishing the Second Sunday of the Easter season as Divine Mercy Sunday and attaching a plenary indulgence to its celebration – but more on that later.

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[1] Kowalska, Mary Faustina, Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul, (Stockbridge, Massachusetts: Marians of the Immaculate Conception, 1996), p.24.

[2] Ibid, p.139.

[3] Ibid, p.561.

[4] Ibid, p.207-208.

[5] Ibid, p.547.

[6] Ibid, p.558

[7] Ibid, p.435.  The intentions for each of the nine days are discussed in detail on pp.436-442.

What is "Divine Mercy Sunday"?

It is the Second Sunday of Easter.

The Feast of the Lord’s Resurrection is so great that eight of our calendar days are folded into one, great liturgical day!  That’s right, we celebrate the Octave of Easter; the preface of the Eucharistic prayer on the “following” Sunday is exactly the same as that for Easter morning, “We praise you with greater joy than ever on this Easter day…”  Just as Jesus stood up “on the last day of the feast [of Tabernacles], the great day,” and promised that the living water of the Spirit would flow from his heart to ours; so the Church recognizes the fulfillment of his promise on the last day of its octave.  To help us understand the significance of the Easter Octave, Pope John Paul II declared that the Second Sunday of Easter would be known throughout the Church as Divine Mercy Sunday.

When he did so, at the canonization Mass of St. Mary Faustina Kowalska, he invited each of us to “accept the whole message that comes to us from the word of God on this Second Sunday of Easter ... In the various readings, the liturgy seems to indicate the path of mercy which, while re-establishing the relationship of each person with God, also creates new relationship of fraternal solidarity among human beings.”  He continued:

"The Church sings. . .as if receiving from Christ’s lips these words of the Psalm. . . 'Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; is steadfast love endures for ever' (Ps.118:1) ... Jesus shows his hands and his side.  He points, that is, to the wounds of the Passion, especially the wound in his heart, the source from which flows the great wave of mercy poured out on humanity ... [He] bears the great message of divine mercy and entrusts it to the ministry of the Apostles in the Upper Room: 'Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, even so I send you ... Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained'” (Jn.20:21-23).[1]  

As an incentive for the faithful’s special celebration of the day, John Paul also made it an opportunity for gaining a plenary indulgence.  His reasons for doing so are quite moving: “so that the faithful might receive in great abundance the gift of the consolation of the Holy Spirit. In this way, they can foster a growing love for God and for their neighbor, and after they have obtained God's pardon, they in turn might be persuaded to show a prompt pardon to their brothers and sisters.” [2]   

To obtain the indulgence a person must: 

a) “take part in the prayers and devotions held in honor of Divine Mercy,” or 

b) “recite the Our Father and the Creed, adding a devout prayer to the merciful Lord Jesus (e.g. ‘Merciful Jesus, I trust in you!’)” 

These are of course in addition to the usual requirements: sacramental Confession, detachment from affection for even venial sin, receiving the Eucharist, and praying for the intentions of the Pope.          

Divine Mercy Sunday is now one of the Church’s great treasures, an opportunity for all of us to appropriate the graces won by our Lord’s Passover.  Tied as it is to the very heart of the Gospel, it is an unassailable development of the liturgical year.  The impetus for John Paul to recognize the value in such a development however, was a matter of private devotion, the Divine Mercy Devotion.

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 [1] Homily for The Canonization of Sr. Mary Faustina Kowalska, April 30, 2000,