A Selection from the Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska
… I waste no time in dreaming.
I take every moment singly as it comes,
for this is within my power.
The past does not belong to me;
the future is not mine;
with all my soul I try to make use
of the present moment.
Prayer Tempo: Adagio
THE DIVINE MERCY CHAPLET: INTRODUCTORY PRAYERS
The Our Father
Our Father, Who art in heaven, Hallowed by Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy Will be done, On earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil.
Amen.
The Hail Mary
Hail Mary, Full of grace, The Lord is with thee, Blessed art thou among women, And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pray for us sinners, Now, and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
The Apostles’ Creed
I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead.
On the third day He rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
Amen.
THE DIVINE MERCY CHAPLET: THE FIRST DECADE
Recite the following prayer once:
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.
Recite the following prayer ten times:
For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
THE DIVINE MERCY CHAPLET: THE SECOND DECADE
Recite the following prayer once:
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.
Recite the following prayer ten times:
For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
THE DIVINE MERCY CHAPLET: THE THIRD DECADE
Recite the following prayer once:
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.
Recite the following prayer ten times:
For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
THE DIVINE MERCY CHAPLET: THE FOURTH DECADE
Recite the following prayer once:
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.
Recite the following prayer ten times:
For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
THE DIVINE MERCY CHAPLET: THE FIFTH DECADE
Recite the following prayer once:
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.
Recite the following prayer ten times:
For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
CONCLUDING DOXOLOGY & CONCLUDING PRAYER
Recite the following prayer three times:
Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, Have mercy on us, And on the whole world.
Recite the following prayer once:
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.
Aspiring to God in short, spontaneous prayer
Vive, Jésus!
O Divine Majesty, …!
O Divine Wisdom, …!
O Lord of Love, …!
O Christ the Courageous, …!
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.
1. Proclaim the gospel for Holy Mass (in other words, read the passages of Sacred Scripture aloud, even if it is only in a whisper). You can find the readings if you type the following into your internet search engine:
https://bible.usccb.org/
2. For the one Scripture passage that most touches your heart, go back and try to identify one of the following Fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, or self-control.
3. Pray the following prayers: “St. Francis de Sales’ Spiritual-Bouquet Prayer” and “O Mystical Rose: A Spiritual-Bouquet Prayer.” To find them, simply go back to the Prologue, and scroll to the heading entitled “Prayer at Dawn.”
4. If you are serving as a lector for mass, then repeat the same process again later in the day.
1. Proclaim the psalm for Holy Mass (in other words, read the passages of Sacred Scripture aloud, even if it is only in a whisper). You can find the readings if you type the following into your internet search engine:
https://bible.usccb.org/
2. For the one Scripture passage that most touches your heart, go back and try to identify one of the following Fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, or self-control.
3. Pray the following prayers: “St. Francis de Sales’ Spiritual-Bouquet Prayer” and “O Mystical Rose: A Spiritual-Bouquet Prayer.” To find them, simply go back to the Prologue, and scroll to the heading entitled “Prayer at Dawn.”
4. If you are serving as a lector for mass, then repeat the same process again later in the day.
Selections from Section 16
On the threshold of the Third Millennium,
my hope for all of you who are artists
is that you will have an especially intense experience
of creative inspiration.
May the beauty which you pass on
to generations still to come be such
that it will stir them to wonder!
Faced with the sacredness of life
and of the human person,
and before the marvels of the universe,
wonder is the only appropriate attitude.
From this wonder there can come
that enthusiasm of which Norwid spoke
in the poem to which I referred earlier.
People of today and tomorrow
need this enthusiasm if they are to meet
and master the crucial challenges
which stand before us.
Thanks to this enthusiasm, humanity,
every time it loses its way,
will be able to lift itself up and set out again
on the right path.
In this sense it has been said with profound insight
that “beauty will save the world”….
Beauty is a key to the mystery
and a call to transcendence.
It is an invitation to savour life
and to dream of the future.
That is why the beauty of created things
can never fully satisfy.
It stirs that hidden nostalgia for God
which a lover of beauty like Saint Augustine
could express in incomparable terms:
“Late have I loved you,
beauty so old and so new:
late have I loved you!”….
Artists of the world,
may your many different paths all lead
to that infinite Ocean of beauty
where wonder becomes
awe, exhilaration, unspeakable joy.
May you be guided and inspired
by the mystery of the Risen Christ,
whom the Church in these days
contemplates with joy.
May the Blessed Virgin Mary be with you always:
she is the “tota pulchra” portrayed
by countless artists, whom Dante contemplates
among the splendours of Paradise
as “beauty that was joy in the eyes
of all the other saints”….
Selections from Section 15
The Spirit is the mysterious Artist of the universe.
Looking to the Third Millennium, I would hope
that all artists might receive in abundance
the gift of that creative inspiration
which is the starting-point of every true work of art.
Selections from Section 14
Human beings, in a certain sense,
are unknown to themselves.
Jesus Christ not only reveals God,
but “fully reveals man to man”…..
All believers are called to bear witness to this;
but it is up to you, men and women
who have given your lives to art,
to declare with all the wealth of your ingenuity
that in Christ the world is redeemed:
the human person is redeemed,
the human body is redeemed,
and the whole creation which,
according to Saint Paul,
“awaits impatiently the revelation
of the children of God” (Rom 8:19),
is redeemed.
The creation awaits the revelation
of the children of God also
through art and in art.
This is your task.
Humanity in every age, and even today,
looks to works of art to shed light
upon its path and its destiny.
Selections from Section 11
On this basis, at the end of the Council
the Fathers addressed a greeting
and an appeal to artists:
“This world -- they said -- in which we live
needs beauty in order not to sink into despair.
Beauty, like truth, brings joy to the human heart
and is that precious fruit
which resists the erosion of time,
which unites generations and enables them
to be one in admiration!”….
In this spirit of profound respect for beauty,
the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy
Sacrosanctum Concilium
recalled the historic friendliness of the Church
towards art and, referring more specifically
to sacred art, the “summit” of religious art,
did not hesitate to consider artists
as having “a noble ministry” when their works
reflect in some way the infinite beauty of God
and raise people's minds to him.
Selections from Section 10
It is true nevertheless that, in the modern era,
alongside this Christian humanism
which has continued to produce
important works of culture and art,
another kind of humanism,
marked by the absence of God
and often by opposition to God,
has gradually asserted itself.
Such an atmosphere has sometimes led
to a separation of the world of art
and the world of faith,
at least in the sense that many artists
have a diminished interest in religious themes.
In so far as it seeks the beautiful,
fruit of an imagination
which rises above the everyday,
art is by its nature a kind of appeal to the mystery.
Even when they explore
the darkest depths of the soul
or the most unsettling aspects of evil,
artists give voice in a way
to the universal desire for redemption.
Selections from Section 7
While architecture designed the space for worship,
gradually the need to contemplate the mystery
and to present it explicitly to the simple people
led to the early forms of painting and sculpture.
There appeared as well the first elements of art
in word and sound.
Among the many themes treated by Augustine
we find De Musica;
and Hilary of Poitiers, Ambrose, Prudentius,
Ephrem the Syrian, Gregory of Nazianzus
and Paulinus of Nola, to mention but a few,
promoted a Christian poetry which was often
of high quality not just as theology
but also as literature.
Their poetic work valued forms
inherited from the classical authors,
but was nourished by the pure sap of the Gospel,
as Paulinus of Nola put it succinctly:
“Our only art is faith and our music Christ”….
A little later,
Gregory the Great compiled the Antiphonarium
and thus laid the ground for the organic development
of that most original sacred music
which takes its name from him.
Gregorian chant, with its inspired modulations,
was to become down the centuries
the music of the Church's faith
in the liturgical celebration of the sacred mysteries.
The “beautiful” was thus wedded to the “true”,
so that through art too souls might be lifted up
from the world of the senses to the eternal.
Selections from Section 6
The knowledge conferred by faith
is of a different kind:
it presupposes a personal encounter with God
in Jesus Christ.
Yet this knowledge too can be enriched
by artistic intuition.
An eloquent example of aesthetic contemplation
sublimated in faith are, for example,
the works of Fra Angelico.
No less notable in this regard is the ecstatic lauda,
which Saint Francis of Assisi twice repeats
in the chartula which he composed
after receiving the stigmata of Christ
on the mountain of La Verna:
“You are beauty... You are beauty!”
Selections from Section 1
That is why artists,
the more conscious they are of their “gift”,
are led all the more to see themselves
and the whole of creation
with eyes able to contemplate and give thanks,
and to raise to God a hymn of praise.
This is the only way for them
to come to a full understanding
of themselves, their vocation and their mission.
Selections from Section 4
The link between good and beautiful
stirs fruitful reflection.
In a certain sense,
beauty is the visible form of the good,
just as the good is the metaphysical condition
of beauty….
It is in living and acting that man establishes
his relationship with being,
with the truth and with the good.
The artist has a special relationship to beauty.
In a very true sense it can be said
that beauty is the vocation bestowed on him
by the Creator in the gift of “artistic talent”.
And, certainly, this too is a talent
which ought to be made to bear fruit,
in keeping with the sense of the Gospel parable
of the talents (cf. Mt 25:14-30).
Here we touch on an essential point.
Those who perceive in themselves
this kind of divine spark
which is the artistic vocation --
as poet, writer, sculptor, architect,
musician, actor and so on --
feel at the same time the obligation
not to waste this talent but to develop it,
in order to put it at the service of their neighbour
and of humanity as a whole.
A prayer that an angel taught in 1916 to São Francisco Marto, Santa Jacinta Marto, & Venerable Lucia Dos Santos
My God,
I believe,
I adore,
I hope, and
I love you!
I beg pardon
for all those
that do not believe,
do not adore,
do not hope, and
do not love you!
Amen.
Ai piedi della croce
di Nostro Signore
tutte le nostre amarezze
diventano dolci.
(At the foot of the cross of Our Lord
all our bitterness becomes sweet.)
Le notti sono dei giorni
quando Dio è nel nostro cuore,
e i giorni sono delle notti
quando Egli non vi è.
(The nights are like days
when God is in our heart,
and the days are like nights
when He is not in our heart.)
O Vergine Santa,
gli occhi di tutti i credenti
sono fissi su di te!
(O Holy Virgin,
the eyes of all believers
are fixed on you!)
I roseti producono
prima le spine,
poi le rose.
(Roses first produce the thorns,
then the roses.)
Dobbiamo fare tutto per amore
e niente per forza.
(We must do everything for love
and nothing by force.)
Non è per la grandezza
delle nostre azioni
che piacciamo a Dio,
ma per l’amore
con lo quale lo facciamo.
(It’s not by the greatness of our actions
that we please God,
but by the love with which we do it.)
Oh! Quanto la pace
è una merce santa
che merita di essere acquistata
a prezzo molto caro!
(Oh, how much is peace a holy good
that merits to be acquired at a dear price.)
Daily rotation of pearls of wisdom by St. Francis de Sales
La preghiera ottiene da Dio
più di quanto chiede.
(Prayer obtains from God
more than what we ask.)
Dio si prende cura
di coloro che
a lui si abbandonano.
(God takes care of those
who abandon themselves to Him.)
Nessuno confida in Dio
senza ricevere poi
i frutti della sua confidenza.
(No one trusts in God without then
receiving the fruits of his confidence.)
I roseti producono
prima le spine,
poi le rose.
(Roses first produce the thorns,
then the roses.)
Dobbiamo fare tutto per amore
e niente per forza.
(We must do everything for love
and nothing by force.)
Non è per la grandezza
delle nostre azioni
che piacciamo a Dio,
ma per l’amore
con lo quale lo facciamo.
(It’s not by the greatness of our actions
that we please God,
but by the love with which we do it.)
Oh! Quanto la pace
è una merce santa
che merita di essere acquistata
a prezzo molto caro!
(Oh, how much is peace a holy good
that merits to be acquired at a dear price.)
Ai piedi della croce
di Nostro Signore
tutte le nostre amarezze
diventano dolci.
(At the foot of the cross of Our Lord
all our bitterness becomes sweet.)
Le notti sono dei giorni
quando Dio è nel nostro cuore,
e i giorni sono delle notti
quando Egli non vi è.
(The nights are like days
when God is in our heart,
and the days are like nights
when He is not in our heart.)
O Vergine Santa,
gli occhi di tutti i credenti
sono fissi su di te!
(O Holy Virgin,
the eyes of all believers
are fixed on you!)
Beauty, whether that of the natural universe
Or that expressed in art,
Precisely because it opens up and broadens
The horizons of human awareness,
Pointing us beyond ourselves,
Bringing us face to face with the abyss of Infinity,
Can become a path towards the transcendent,
Towards the ultimate Mystery,
Towards God.
Que Dieu vous bénisse!
Gott segne euch alle.
Que Dios os bendiga.
God’s blessings upon you all!