Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska
the apostle of the Divine Mercy
and "Secretary" of His Divine Mercy
and "Secretary" of His Divine Mercy
(1905-1938)
On 5 October, we celebrate the optional memorial of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun, born Helen Kowalska, she had a religious vocation from the age of seven, after being rejected by a number of congregations, she finally entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Warsaw in 1925. Faustina was chosen by Jesus to remind the world of the mystery of God's merciful love, the devotion to Divine Mercy. Jesus appeared to her as "King of Divine Mercy" and said to Faustina, "Today I am sending you with my mercy to the people of the whole world." It is his desire to heal the aching world, to draw all people into his merciful heart of love. In her spiritual life she also distinguished herself with a love of the Eucharist and a deep devotion to the Mother of Mercy.
St. Faustina's mission was to spread devotion to God's Mercy, which she called His greatest attribute. She was to do this by founding a congregation of religious devoted to the Divine Mercy and by having an image painted of Christ's mercy (Jesus with red and white rays radiating from His Heart, with the legend "Jesus, I trust in you"). She is spread the Divine Mercy Chaplet, a devotion revealed by Jesus to her and to ask the Holy Father to establish the Sunday after Easter as the Feast of Divine Mercy. Jesus promised great graces to those who would pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy.
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The Chaplet of Divine Mercy
is prayed on an ordinary rosary.
Sign of the Cross
Begin with the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Apostle's Creed. Then, on the Our Father beads, pray:
Eternal Father,
I offer Thee the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity
of Thy dearly beloved Son,
our Lord, Jesus Christ,
in atonement for our sins
and those of the whole world.
On the Hail Mary beads, pray:
For the sake of His sorrowful Passion,
have mercy on us and on the whole world.
At the end, recite the following three times:
Holy God,
holy Mighty One,
holy Immortal One,
have mercy on us
and on the whole world.
Sign of the Cross
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Faustina was declared Faustina Venerable on 7 March, 1992 by Pope John Paul II and later beatified on 18 April, 1993, and finally canonized by Pope John Paul II, on 30 April, 2000. The first Sunday after Easter was declared Divine Mercy Sunday.
O God, who manifest your almighty power above all by pardoning and showing mercy, bestow, we pray, your grace abundantly upon us and make those hastening to attain your promises heirs to the treasures of heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. AMEN.
This year 2013 marks
the 75th Anniversary of St. Faustina's death.
St. Faustina, Virgin (Optional Memorial)
Reading
| Baruch 4: 5 - 12, 27 - 29 | |
| 5 | Take courage, my people, O memorial of Israel! |
| 6 | It was not for destruction that you were sold to the nations, but you were handed over to your enemies because you angered God. |
| 7 | For you provoked him who made you, by sacrificing to demons and not to God. |
| 8 | You forgot the everlasting God, who brought you up, and you grieved Jerusalem, who reared you. |
| 9 | For she saw the wrath that came upon you from God, and she said: "Hearken, you neighbors of Zion, God has brought great sorrow upon me; |
| 10 | for I have seen the captivity of my sons and daughters, which the Everlasting brought upon them. |
| 11 | With joy I nurtured them, but I sent them away with weeping and sorrow. |
| 12 | Let no one rejoice over me, a widow and bereaved of many; I was left desolate because of the sins of my children, because they turned away from the law of God. |
| 27 | "Take courage, my children, and cry to God, for you will be remembered by him who brought this upon you. |
| 28 | For just as you purposed to go astray from God, return with tenfold zeal to seek him. |
| 29 | For he who brought these calamities upon you will bring you everlasting joy with your salvation." |
Psalm
| Psalms 69: 33 - 37 | |
| 33 | For the LORD hears the needy, and does not despise his own that are in bonds. |
| 34 | Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves therein. |
| 35 | For God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah; and his servants shall dwell there and possess it; |
| 36 | the children of his servants shall inherit it, and those who love his name shall dwell in it. |
Gospel
| Luke 10: 17 - 24 | |
| 17 | The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!" |
| 18 | And he said to them, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. |
| 19 | Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you. |
| 20 | Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." |
| 21 | In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, "I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will. |
| 22 | All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." |
| 23 | Then turning to the disciples he said privately, "Blessed are the eyes which see what you see! |
| 24 | For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it." |
Almighty and ever-living God
who revealed to Saint Faustina
the pierced side of your Risen Son
flowing with water and with blood,
grant, through her intercession,
that we may enter into the merciful designs of his Heart
for the salvation of sinners
and for the joy of his one Bride, the Church.
Through Christ our Lord.
AMEN.
Prayer of St. Faustina before the Most Blessed Sacrament
I adore You, Lord and Creator, hidden in the Most Blessed Sacrament. I adore You for all the works of Your hands, that reveal to me so much wisdom, goodness and mercy, O Lord. You have spread so much beauty over the earth and it tells me about Your beauty, even though these beautiful things are but a faint reflection of You, incomprehensible Beauty. And although You have hidden Yourself and concealed Your beauty, my eye, enlightened by faith, reaches You and my soul recognizes its Creator, its Highest Good, and my heart is completely immersed in prayer of adoration.
My Lord and Creator, Your goodness encourages me to converse with You. Your mercy abolishes the chasm which separates the Creator from the creature. To converse with You, O Lord, is the delight of my heart. In You I find everything that my heart could desire. Here You light illumines my mind, enabling it to know You more and more deeply. Here streams of graces flow down upon my heart. Here my soul draws eternal life. O my Lord and Creator, You alone, beyond all these gifts, give Your own self to me and unite Yourself intimately with Your miserable creature.
O Christ, let my greatest delight be to see You loved and Your praise and glory proclaimed, especially the honor of Your mercy. O Christ, let me glorify Your goodness and mercy to the last moment of my life, with every drop of my blood and every beat of my heart. Would that I be transformed into a hymn of adoration of You. When I find myself on my deathbed, may the last beat of my heart be a loving hymn glorifying Your unfathomable mercy. Amen.
prayer source:EWTN
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