The Divine Mercy Chaplet Part 2

 

PRAYER SERIES.

Holy Spirit: Prayer series Icon.

 

THE DIVINE MERCY CHAPLET PART 2

 

Do you ever feel dry in prayer, stopped praying, would like to explore a different way to pray?

Throughout this series I would like to present some different ways to pray.  Many of them you will have heard of before, some of them you have already tried but might like to revisit and others may provide a different way into prayer.

 

In today’s post I would like to focus again on The Divine Mercy Chaplet. If you are unfamiliar with the Chaplet and how to pray it, I would recommend that you read my post The Divine Mercy Chaplet Part 1.

   The Divine Mercy Chaplet can be prayed at any time of the day or 
   night.  It can be prayed as a decade or even the short prayer, as an 
   invocation.  

   The Divine Mercy is most often prayed as a Novena starting on Good
   Friday leading up to the Feast of Divine Mercy, which is the Second

   Sunday of Easter. St Pope John Paul the Great introduced this feast
   into the Church.

  

However, it was the wish of Jesus Himself that a feast honouring His Divine Mercy be created. It was through a Polish nun St Faustina in 1935 that this wish was made known.

Along with the basic prayers of the Chaplet itself, there are 9 groups of people that Jesus asks us to bring to Him during this novena.  They are:

Day 1: All mankind especially sinners.  (NB mankind is an inclusive term as it means the whole of humanity).

Day 2. The Souls of Priests and Religious.

Day 3: All devout and faithful souls.

Day 4: Those who do not believe in Go and those who do not yet know Me.

Day 5: The souls of those who have separated themselves from the Church.

Day 6: Meek and humble Souls and the souls of little Children.

Day 7: The souls of those who especially venerate and glorify My mercy.

Day 8: The souls who are detained in Purgatory.

Day 9: Souls who have become lukewarm.

 

Before reciting the chaplet, there is a prayer each day for these intentions. These prayers can be acquired as a pamphlet, CD, Video or on the internet.

 

I have been praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet for some time, then I  stopped and then I started again last year during the pandemic. From my own experience, having a focus for the day for the Chaplet is helpful.   Now that I have been praying it regularly, I like to vary it slightly by asking for the whole world in the first decade, my own country/state in the second decade, my own parish and virtual parish in the third decade, and the fourth and fifth decades, I leave up to the Holy Spirit to inspire me  around the theme of the day. This has opened up a wider range of people within the theme of the day.

 

I have also decided to explore praying each day for a week. This was partly I was forgetting the actual day where I was at especially if I had missed a day- it was becoming a little confusing.  I was also not feeling so well earlier in the year when I decided to explore this possibility.so I needed to change it to suit my needs at that time.

My personality likes variety as well so I created my own set of intentions as well. This was useful because it has helped to me think of other people’s needs and pray for them, which I have to say was not a major focus in my prayer life previously.  I have been able to recall a group and say a decade/chaplet for those people ( eg for those who are thinking of having an abortion, those who have had an abortion, those who work in abortion clinics, those who perform the abortion, those who suffer because of the abortion and need/ want to receive the healing of Jesus

What I want to say here is that whatever devotion we use, our intention is to be closer to God.  When the devotion becomes routine, stale or not meeting our needs in some way and our attention is directed to the devotion rather than God, then it is definitely time to review.  God always has be first place in our prayer life and the devotion/prayer is a means not the end goal.

 

SUGGESTED ACTION PLAN FOR THIS WEEK.

1. Explore the Divine Mercy Chaplet and begin to pray it with the 9 intentions.  Get a feel for it and consider it as part of your prayer life starting on Good Friday to Feast of Divine Mercy.
   
   
2. Do some research on the Devotion.  There are many valuable resources but always be discerning on what you read and learn.
   
   
3. Talk to Jesus about what you have learned and ask Him to show you how you can apply what you have learned in your life this week.
   
   
4. Buy my Divine Mercy Hymn which was written during Coronavirus in 2020.  It is available on the album Gospel Reflections in Song at my other blog.

 

 There is so much that could be written about this Devotion of the Divine Mercy and in fact has been.  I invite you to explore.

 

This prayer series is about opening up possibilities, exploring new ways of praying, revisiting ways we have prayed previously. Some suggestions may suit you, others not, but what I hope is that you explore your relationship with God.  When it is dry, become routine or needs a shake up, or you need variety, God provides for us something suitable for our need at that particular time.

 

I like to think of this series as a tool kit where you may choose the right tool for the right situation and where necessary tweak it for your own need so these tools are your own.  After all, we all have an unique relationship with God and so our prayer life which is our conversation with God is also unique.

 

Next Week: Praying with Art.