The Divine Mercy Chaplet and the Dying
The Divine Mercy Chaplet originated from a vision Saint Faustina had of an angel, the executor of divine wrath. (Diary, 474-476). Her plea for the angel not to punish mankind was nothing in the face of Divine anger.
However, at that time, she felt the power of Jesus' grace in her soul, and the words with which she entreated God were: 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; for the sake of His sorrowful passion have mercy on us and on the whole world.
The next morning, when entering the chapel, she heard these words interiorly: Every time you enter the chapel, immediately recite the prayer which I taught you yesterday. After reciting the words, she heard, This prayer will serve to appease My wrath. You will recite it for nine days, on the beads of the rosary, in the following manner. 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 Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world."
Saint Faustina's Mission, as is ours, is in saving souls. On another occasion when entering the chapel, the Lord said to her: "My daughter, help me to save a certain dying sinner. Say the Chaplet that I have taught you for him. When I began to say the Chaplet, I saw the man dying in the midst of a terrible torment and struggle. His Guardian Angel was defending him, but he was, as it were, powerless against the enormity of the soul's misery. A multitude of devils was waiting for the soul. But while I was saying the Chaplet, I saw Jesus just as He is depicted in the Image.
The rays which issued from Jesus' heart enveloped the sick man, and the powers of darkness fled in panic. The sick man peacefully breathed his last. When I came to myself I understood how very important the Chaplet was for the dying. It appeases the anger of God" (Diary, 1565).
There are many promises associated with recitation of the Divine Mercy Chaplet. The Lord told her to Say unceasingly the Chaplet that I have taught you. Whoever will recite it will receive great mercy at the hour of death. 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 the chaplet only once, he will receive grace from My infinite mercy. I desire that the whole world know My infinite mercy. I desire to grant unimaginable graces to those souls who trust in My mercy (Diary, 687). 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 soul with peace, and the hour of their death will be a happy one (Diary, 1541).
Any discussion on God and dying is a difficult one, as it is a time when we will meet our Lord face to face and be held accountable for the life we have led. It is at this moment of our encounter with Jesus that we will realize the gravity of our sins, and wonder if God could ever forgive us. Yet, we take comfort in the words from Exodus 34:5-7, "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin."
Jesus spoke of prayers for the dying on numerous occasions to St_ Faustina, and also of her mission of being involved in saving souls. He made it clear that trust is the hallmark, the essence, of receiving His mercy. Imagine the number of souls saved, if the faithful prayed unceasingly the Divine Mercy Chaplet with trust in His Mercy, for the thousands dying hourly, all over the world! Our Lord promised that He would grant unfathomable mercy at the hour of death for the soul praying the Chaplet, as well as for every soul being prayed for. But trust is at the core of the promise. We have to have the faith of a child, as in Mark 10:15, "Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it."
As Eucharistic Apostles of the Divine Mercy, we encourage a deeper understanding and love of the Eucharist, as well as knowledge of the promises associated with recitation of the Divine Mercy Chaplet. We encourage hourly recitation of the Chaplet in adoration chapels worldwide, imploring mercy for the souls dying in that hour. In Diary entry, 1541, St. Faustina wrote that the Lord told her, Write that 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. As God has no limitation of time or space, we can only pray and have the trust of a child in His mercy. We pray the Chaplet with trust not only for those dying in that hour, but for those already dead, and those dying in the future.
The Divine Mercy Chaplet is a Eucharistic prayer, as in it we join Jesus in offering Himself to the Father, in atonement for our sins, in imploring mercy for the whole world. As the Church teaches that Jesus is present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Blessed Sacrament, we are offering to the Father His only Son, a gift He cannot refuse. We unite with the sacrifice of Jesus offered up on the cross for the salvation of the world. The prayer embodies the Eucharist, the Cross and the love that the Merciful Father and His Son have for each of us. Our Lord wants us to visit and adore Him in the most Blessed Sacrament. St. Faustina wrote: "When I steeped myself in prayer, I was transported in spirit to the chapel, where I saw the Lord Jesus, exposed in the monstrance. In place of the monstrance I saw the glorious face of the Lord, and He said to me, What you see in reality these souls see through faith. Oh, how pleasing to me is their great faith! You see, although there appears to be no trace of life in me, in reality it is present in its fullness in each and every Host. But for Me to be able to act upon a soul, the soul must have faith. Oh how pleasing to me is living faith!" (Diary, 1420).
And in Diary entry, 1572, she wrote that the Lord told her, My daughter, try your best to make the Stations of the Cross in this hour, provided that your duties permit it; and if you are not able to make the Stations of the Cross, then at least step into the chapel for a moment and adore, in the Blessed Sacrament, My Heart, which is full of mercy.
In the Holy Father's letter to the Bishop of Liege, Belgium of May 28, 1996, Pope John Paul II wrote, "I encourage Christians regularly to visit Christ present in the Blessed Sacrament, for we are all called to abide in the presence of God. In contemplation, Christians will perceive ever more profoundly in the mystery at the heart of Christian life."
An Apostolic Blessing has been given by His Holiness, John Paul II, to those who pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet for the sick and dying during Eucharistic adoration.
The promise is that Jesus will grant immeasurable mercy at the hour of death, to every soul praying the Chaplet and every soul prayed for. Thus, we must trust in His unfathomable Mercy in what He said to St. Faustina, My Daughter, ... your duty will be to trust completely in My goodness, and My duty will be to give to you all you need. I am making Myself dependent upon your trust: if your trust is great, then My generosity will be without limit (Diary, 548).
As we pray the Chaplet of Mercy with an attitude of trust in the presence of Our Lord during adoration, we can be assured that we will be a vessel of Mercy, as we reflect on these words: "Once, the image was being exhibited over the altar during the Corpus Christi procession. When the priest exposed the Blessed Sacrament, and the choir began to sing, the rays from the image pierced the Sacred Host and spread out all over the world. Then I heard these words: These rays of mercy will pass through you just as they have Passed through this Host, and they will go out through all the world. At these words, profound joy entered my soul (Diary, 441)."
On another occasion she wrote, That same day, when I was in church waiting for confession, I saw the same rays issuing from the monstrance and spreading throughout the church. This lasted all through the service. After the Benediction, [the rays shone out] to both sides and returned to the monstrance. Their appearance was bright and transparent like crystal. I asked Jesus that He deign to light the fire of His love in all souls that were cold. Beneath these rays a heart will grow warm, even if it were like a block of ice; even if it were hard as a rock, it will crumble into dust (Diary, 370).
We encourage praying the Litany of the Holy Eucharist and the Divine Mercy Chaplet hourly worldwide for the sick and dying, especially during Eucharistic Adoration, in the presence of Our Merciful Lord. Not only are we to receive the Eucharist, we must also live this Eucharist. We are to let Jesus enter into every cell of our body, and we are to be expressions of His great love. We are to be icons of mercy, radiating love and mercy out to others. Those same rays, which came from the area of His Heart, will radiate to us, through us, and out to a world that is crying out for His mercy.
Pope John Paul II made a special visit to the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Poland June 7, 1997 and after praying at the tomb of St. Faustina, gave a personal reflection on Divine Mercy:
I have come here to this shrine as a pilgrim to take part in the unending hymn in honor of Divine Mercy. The Psalmist of the Lord had intoned it, expressing what every generation will preserve and will continue to preserve as a most precious fruit of faith.
There is nothing that man needs more than Divine Mercy that love which is benevolent, which is compassionate, which raises man above his weakness to the infinite heights of the holiness of God. In this place we become particularly aware of this. From here, in fact, went out the message of Divine Mercy that Christ Himself chose to pass on to our generation through St. Faustina. And it is a message that is clear and understandable for everyone. Anyone can come here, and look at this image of the merciful Jesus, His Heart radiating grace, and hear in the depth of his own soul what St. Faustina heard: Fear nothing; I am always with you (Diary, 586). And if this person responds with a sincere heart: "Jesus, I trust in You," he will find comfort in all his anxieties and fears.
In this dialogue of abandonment, there is established between man and Christ a special bond that sets love free. And, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts our all fear" (1 Jn 4:18). As the Church, we proclaim the message of Mercy in order to bring with greater effectiveness to this generation at the end of the Millennium and for the future generations, the light of hope. ...
Unceasingly, the Church implores from God mercy for everyone. At no time and in no historical period — especially at a moment as critical as our own — can the Church forget the prayer that is a cry for the Mercy of God amid the many forms of evil which weigh upon humanity and threaten it.
Thus, we see that the message of Divine Mercy is not a new message. It merely echoes what Jesus said in Sacred Scripture, "Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy" (Mt 5:7). Mercy is love that seeks to lessen the misery of others. And we are to be merciful to others as Jesus is to us. Jesus made surely a demand when He said in John 15:12, "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." We express this charity through the spiritual and corporal work of mercy, seeing Jesus in everyone we encounter.
Mercy expresses the disposition that we should have toward our fellow men. Our Lord told St. Faustina, 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 your love for Me. By this means a soul glorifies and pays reverence to My Mercy (Diary, 742).
Thus, we are to receive the Eucharist and then live the Eucharistic love and mercy of God. And, we can see that devotion to the Divine Mercy involves a total commitment to God as mercy. It is a decision to trust completely in Him, to accept His Mercy with thanksgiving, and to be merciful to others, as He is merciful to us.
The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy presented by the Second Vatican Council teaches that popular devotions of the Christian people are warmly commended as long as they are in accord with the laws and norms of the Church. The devotion must lead us to the Eucharist, "the source and summit of the Christian life" (Catechism of Catholic Church, #1324). We are to live our Faith and be the hands and feet of Jesus. We can be assured that He will never save us if we are the people who "draw near with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, while their hearts are far from Me "(Is 29:12). We must realize that we are the light of the world. Scripture says in Matthew 5:14, "A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." As we continue to learn the Faith, let us also begin to discern how we can best live that Faith to be the hands and feet of Jesus in our local areas, and to build up our family, our neighbors and our local church.