DIVINE MERCY NOVENA: DAY 3 OF 9

Hi, everyone!

Happy Easter! He is risen! Alleluia!

I hope and pray that you and your loved ones will have a joyous celebration today of Our Lord's resurrection.

Today we will talk about the magnificent treasure of Divine Mercy Sunday, which is one week from today. The immense blessings of that day are indescribably beautiful. Now a number of you are probably familiar with Fr. Chris Alar, MIC. But for those of you who don't yet know him, he is a great proponent of the Divine Mercy devotion, and also has a very deep love for Our Lady. 

He has such wonderful enthusiasm, and he speaks about "The Divine Mercy Sunday" far more eloquently than I ever could. Therefore, I'm going to share the following link with you so that you can hear him tell you about it himself:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=chris+alar+divine+mercy+youtube&atb=v314-1&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D4R2tOEFddig

It's relatively short, I believe about 10 minutes in length or so. Please try to watch it sometime today on Easter Sunday. Hopefully, it will give you something to rejoice about in a special way for the next week. 

Also, I recommend that you plan which mass you will attend to celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday next week.

Now for one more day, our sacred art will focus on the first part of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, so it will be the same sacred art as yesterday, in order that we can enter more deeply into Our Lord's Passion. Then, tomorrow we will move forward artistically to the next phase of The Passion. 

In order to find the prayers, as well as the links to magnificent sacred art, please do the following items: 

1. Click the following link:

http://www.josephpeteranthony.com/divine-mercy-novena

2. Scroll down, and if you haven't already done so, please read "How to Pray with the Booklet," "How to Pray without the Booklet," and "The Benefit of Praying with Sacred Art"

3. Scroll down a little further and click the link entitled "Divine Mercy Novena: Day 3" (this will take you to the prayers and the sacred art)

If you have any questions, then please let me know. I'm always happy to help if I can.

God bless you, and may the magnificent and dazzling light of Divine Mercy always shine brightly in your hearts!

Joe

DIVINE MERCY NOVENA: DAY 2 OF 9

Hello, everyone,

By God's grace, hopefully all went well in your first day of praying the novena. However, as many of you have probably experienced at different times in your life, the evil one oftentimes tries to wreak havoc in our lives and get us busy so that we won't have time to pray. I think it's probably one of his oldest tricks. He knows -- far better than we do -- how powerful this novena really is, and he despises it. 

So, in a worst-case scenario, if you weren't able to pray the novena yesterday, then just try to double up today to catch up. And then make a valiant effort, as a knight of Christ, to keep on track for the remainder of the novena. If you're able to do so, I'm sure that God will richly bless you.

Also, in order to most fully benefit from the novena, I highly recommend that you try to go to confession between now and Divine Mercy Sunday, which falls on ​April 7. Time can fly by very, very quickly in a novena, so I want to give you a timely reminder while there's still an opportunity to do so. If possible, I recommend that you go as close to Divine Mercy Sunday as you can. 

I say this because you will have the opportunity to gain a plenary indulgence on Divine Mercy Sunday, and perhaps even something more beautiful than that. But tomorrow I'll share with you some wonderful information about the magnificent treasure of Divine Mercy Sunday. 

Once again, for the first three days of the novena, the sacred art will focus on the first part of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, so it will be the same sacred art as yesterday, in order that we can enter more deeply into Our Lord's Passion.

In order to find the prayers, as well as the links to magnificent sacred art, please do the following items: 

1. Click the following link:

http://www.josephpeteranthony.com/divine-mercy-novena

2. Scroll down, and if you haven't already done so, please read "How to Pray with the Booklet," "How to Pray without the Booklet," and "The Benefit of Praying with Sacred Art"

3. Scroll down a little further and click the link entitled "Divine Mercy Novena: Day 2" (this will take you to the prayers and the sacred art)

If you have any questions, then please let me know. I'm always happy to help if I can.

God bless you, and may the magnificent and dazzling light of Divine Mercy always shine brightly in your hearts!

Joe

DIVINE MERCY NOVENA: DAY 1 OF 9

Hello, everyone,

We're finally here. Now it's time to pray the beautiful and powerful Divine Mercy Novena. 

For these first three days, the sacred art will focus on the first part of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

In order to find the prayers, as well as the links to magnificent sacred art, please do the following items: 

1. Click the following link:

http://www.josephpeteranthony.com/divine-mercy-novena

2. Scroll down a little bit and please read the instructions entitled "How to Pray with the Booklet," "How to Pray without the Booklet," and "The Benefit of Praying with Sacred Art"

3. Scroll down a little further and click the link entitled "Divine Mercy Novena: Day 1" (this will take you to the prayers and the sacred art)

If you have any questions, then please let me know. I'm always happy to help if I can.

God bless you, and may the magnificent and dazzling light of Divine Mercy always shine brightly in your hearts!

Joe

ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA

Inspired by the writing of this great saint

You stand atop a holy bridge,

A bridge that has several levels,

Like the historic Ponte Vecchio,

And the waves of the worldly waters

Are swarming with sea demons who

Obsessively seek souls to rip open

With their blade-like bloody teeth,

And their cold cadaverous claws,

To torture them in The Endless Death;

But some souls, through God’s grace, 

Cling to the edge of the first level

Of the bridge, dripping wet and

Shivering, terrified of going to hell,

So they clutch tightly to the bridge,

Fearing that they will fall back into

The turbulent black river of doom;

Other souls, through God’s strength, 

Climb up higher to the second level

Where they are safe from the evil

Threat below, in a place of serene

Consolation, where happiness can

Finally reign in their grateful hearts;

However, there are still others who

Through their passionate prayers 

And through total surrender

To Jesus’ most Holy Cross,

Climb to the top of the bridge,

And there -- yes, there! -- they are

Pierced by the overwhelming beauty

Of the magnificent heavenly realm,

Where Jesus’ peace surrounds them, 

Where Jesus’ joy enthralls them, 

Where Jesus’ love embraces them.

WILLIE THE WORRIER

Willie the Worrier woke up in bed,

He was quickly filled with horrible dread;

His main goal in life was to get ahead,

Yet he stumbled and fell behind instead;

Never satisfied with his daily bread,

Now this stressaholic is door-nail dead.

TIME

When there is a crash on the

Superhighway of sensations,

Time painfully slows down,

And we live in boredom,

Crawling lethargically along,

Bumper to bumper,

In the dreadful dullness

Of the traffic jam of life.

When we are behind schedule

In the crowded city of Chaos,

Time urgently speeds up,

And we live in anxiety,

Racing with our hair on fire,

Chasing and being chased,

In the nail-biting frenzy

Of the rat race of life.

But when there’s surrender,

And we give our lives to Him,

Time dissolves into eternity,

Love smiles upon us —

Then, nothing else matters,

We are attached to the Vine,

And our little branches are full

Of the sweet fruit of the Spirit!

RICKY THE RUSHER

Ricky rushes madly all the day long,

He’s petrified things will turn out all wrong;

His two nervous eyes seem made of green rock,

That shift like the pendulum of a clock;

Keep up with the Joneses, he must, he must,

Or all of his dreams will turn to grey dust;

His sad sour life is a merry-go-round,

And Fear chases him like a hungry hound;

Tragically, he lives at a breakneck pace,

With worrisome wrinkles on his blank face;

Ricky’s afraid he just might go crazy,

The truth is that his future’s quite hazy;

He needs to run, run, run, and buy, buy, buy,

But he never stops to ask himself why.

PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING IN THE DARK NIGHT OF UNKNOWING

Thank you, Jesus,

For the gift of your love.

Thank you, Jesus,

For the gift of your joy.

Thank you, Jesus,

For the gift of your peace.

Thank you, Jesus,

For the gift of your patience.

Thank you, Jesus,

For the gift of your kindness.

Thank you, Jesus,

For the gift of your generosity.

Thank you, Jesus,

For the gift of your faithfulness.

Thank you, Jesus,

For the gift of your gentleness.

Thank you, Jesus,

For the gift of your self-control.

Thank you, Jesus,

For the gift of your divine wisdom.

Thank you, Jesus,

For the gift of your divine mercy.

Amen.

THE DAY TRADER

Ignoramus Maximus is his name,

And playing the stock market is his game;

With a dark ghoulish smile and fiendish eye,

Greed burns inside him and will never die;

He listens to the experts on TV,

Thinking these people the future can see;

As the stock market climbs to all new highs,

He trades hundreds of stocks of every size;

Thinking of nothing but buying and selling,

His addictive life is very telling;

To the god of riches does he succumb,

So that his sick brain becomes very numb;

But seeing his statement, he starts to choke,

He finally learns he’s totally broke.

BLOWING BUBBLES

I like to chew bubblegum,

I chew it until my lips are numb;

Even though it makes me cough,

It gives me a chance to show off;

I chew with a great deal of vigor,

To blow my bubbles even bigger;

My jaw churns like a runaway train,

As if I were absolutely going insane;

Then I blow a bubble ever so big,

Almost as big as the face of a pig;

Then it explodes all over my face,

And, humiliated, I am in utter disgrace;

Why do I always have to be the best?

And be such a stupid arrogant pest?

I try way too hard to seem so cool,

But I’m really, honestly, just a big fool.

THE OPERA SINGER

"Pride goeth before a fall"

As the titanic tenor sings a tune,

Pride inflates him like a hot air balloon;

With an arrogant wrinkle of his brow,

He revels in a long slow snooty bow;

The crowd erupts in explosive applause,

And he smiles a plastic smile with his jaws;

But then something unexpected takes place,

A vine-ripened tomato hits his face;

The singer gives the guy a dirty glance,

But then abruptly trips and rips his pants.

THE LITTERBUG

Ignoramus Incredibilis is his name,

Or call him Litterbug -- it’s just the same;

He wipes his hands on his ketchup-stained shirt,

And drops his wrapper right into the dirt;

A stroll to the trash can is just too far,

So he tosses the bottle from his car;

But here is a fact pondered by the wise,

That Litterbug wears a sneaky disguise;

In truth, he’s very hard for us to see,

He actually looks just like you and me.

OUR LADY'S LITTLE LANTERN

O Mystical Rose,

Surrounded by the

Dazzling and brilliant Light,

You open your little lantern

And fill it to the brim

With the Light of Love,

Then you humbly and gently

Shine it upon the whole world,

Transfiguring it,

With His glorious goodness,

With His transparent truth,

With His benevolent beauty!

THE TWILIGHT

Whoever says he is in the light,

Yet hates his brother or sister,

Is still in the darkness --

But beware of The Twilight,

Neither fully in the light,

Nor fully in the darkness,

The Land of the Lukewarm,

Like the Laodiceans of old,

Who are neither hot nor cold,

Who will be spit out like

Salt that has lost its flavor,

Like vines that have no fruit,

They will be thrown out

And they will wither,

Ever so slowly wither,

Into the black earth.

THE DARKNESS OF DOOM

Act I

There was midnight madness

in the heart of darkness,

where lustful lovers caroused

and burned with wild passion,

and although they were

warned by pilgrims who

were on their way to Rome,

they lived the philosophy

of carpe diem:

they could always repent

tomorrow;

but early in the morning

on the very next day,

an event took place

that forever changed

the world of Pompeii:

it was August 24, 79 AD, and

proud Pompeii was bathed

in warm peaceful sunshine

when the earth began to quake

to the awakening heartbeat

that began to stir deep inside of

the voluptuous Vesuvius,

and here and there the roof tiles

of the stately city of Pompeii

undulated in a rhythmic motion,

up and down, and up and down,

before resting quietly

and slumbering again,

as Vesuvius silently and stealthily

yawned a slow stream of

thin white smoke into the

clear blue sky.

Act II

By the afternoon,

there was a light veil

of white smoke that now

draped Vesuvius’ verdant body,

but when she suddenly and

violently erupted in anger,

belching coal-colored smoke

from her crater’s trembling lips

and spewing it high into

the pale blue sky,

it was only a matter of seconds

before flaming black rocks,

like Mephistophelian meteorites,

revengefully rained down

from the swiftly darkening sky,

smashing the roof tiles and

crushing the marble statues

above the villas’ courtyards;

meanwhile, the stunned citizens

scrambled and stumbled around

as the vigorous heartbeat

of the vain Vesuvius

pounded powerfully,

and a cataclysmic earthquake

ripped through Pompeii:

the sleeping giant

was now fully awake;

as the terrified men and women

raised their wild eyes

to the sullen sky,

they screamed like savages

and cursed their pagan gods

for punishing them,

and they spat in the air

at their pathetic gods.

Act III

Several hours later,

above the hellish rubble

of this humbled city,

the black sun approached the

black horizon and ominous clouds

suffocated the helpless sky:

Pompeii wailed in pain

and writhed woefully

under the victorious Vesuvius,

who was bathed in the seductive

red glow of liquid lava;

electric bolts of

volcanic lightning danced

like convulsive demons

and lit up the murky sky

as ashen rain fell feebly

to the flaming ruins below;

maimed dogs howled in horror

at the shockingly surreal and

apocalyptic spectacle,

while the lonely human survivors,

their psyches severely shattered,

huddled together for cover

under the crumbling columns

that were sinking in a sea of

charcoal-gray ashes.

Act IV

As the sun slowly rose

the next morning,

the new day dawned with

a deep deafening silence,

and the sickly sun shuddered

as it peered through the

broken black clouds,

lamenting the loss of the

once grand city of Pompeii;

as the scattered survivors

clutched ever so tightly to

their shredded sliver of hope,

it appeared that perhaps the

volcanic storm had finally

exhausted itself,

and the remaining citizens,

with empty expressions

on their blank faces,

slowly and weakly

began the process of

putting the splintered pieces

of their lives back together again;

but in the distance

they suddenly heard a

thunderous roar that

rapidly and frighteningly

crescendoed as it drew nearer,

sounding very much like

a stampede of the gods;

with great trepidation,

the people lifted their

bloodshot eyes and they saw a

massive wall of

whirling gray clouds --

as tall as Vesuvius herself --

rushing madly along the

surface of the ground and

coming right towards them;

it paused momentarily,

as if trying to catch its breath,

before making one last

diabolical attack upon its enemy;

then in a twinkle of time,

the voracious cloud of hot ash

charged through and hungrily devoured

the crumpled carcass

of pitiful Pompeii.

Act V

As Time drearily dragged the

morning into afternoon,

the poor Pompeians

were forever frozen

and cemented into history,

buried alive under a twelve-foot

blizzard of blazing ashes;

the solitary sun looked down

sadly upon the waveless

gray ocean of volcanic ash,

and Pompeii was nothing more

than a desolate wasteland --

even the powerful Vesuvius

was left seriously crippled,

with her cone blown off

by the explosiveness of her fury;

when the news of this event finally

reached the imperial city of Rome,

Pope Cletus gathered for mass

with his flock and, together,

they fervently prayed for

the souls of the victims who perished

in the very dark tragedy of

the doomed city of Pompeii.

WHO WAS JUDAS ISCARIOT?

Was he actually

humble?

Or did his pride

puff

like swollen eyelids and make him

stumble?

Was he possibly

kind?

Or did silent envy

creep

like a serpent into his

mind?

Did he patiently

wait?

Or did his simmering anger

boil

as he smelled that costly nard with

hate?

Did he have

zeal?

Or was his faith

sluggish

like at his last supper

meal?

Did he perchance

share?

Or did his fingers

clutch

the silver coins to keep in his

lair?

Did his temperance avoid every

snag?

Or was he a glutton who

gobbled

all the leftover loaves from the

bag?

Did he have self-

control?

Or did he pant and burn for

power

since killing the Romans was his

goal?

Did he ultimately

repent?

Or did his faithless soul

fall

through the noose like

cement?

BLOWING BUBBLES

I like to chew bubblegum,

I chew it until my lips are numb;

Even though it makes me cough,

It gives me a chance to show off;

I chew with a great deal of vigor,

To blow my bubbles even bigger;

My jaw churns like a runaway train,

As if I were absolutely going insane;

Then I blow a bubble ever so big,

Almost as big as the face of a pig;

Then it explodes all over my face,

And, humiliated, I am in utter disgrace;

Why do I always have to be the best?

And be such a stupid arrogant pest?

I try way too hard to seem so cool,

But I’m really, honestly, just a big fool.

MR. LECHEROUS LOVERBOY

Lecherous Loverboy is his true name,

Pornography is his heart-thumping game;

Peeking at pics of sexy Doll Tearsheet,

He meanly treats her like a hunk of white meat;

The more he looks at his sensual pets,

The more his eyes swell, and larger they gets;

Like the wooden nose of Pinocchio,

Each one of his eyeballs just grow and grow;

Loverboy’s lewd obsession never stops,

Then like a balloon each eye loudly pops;

He listens to Emotion’s lustful lies,

So that’s why Loverboy suddenly dies.

MR. HERROD WACKFORD

When a student doesn’t 

   answer him right,

He growls real loud 

   as if ready to bite;

His anger explodes 

   and his mustache curls,

And, glaring, his cold eyes 

   look like black pearls;

He treats his students 

   like runaway slaves,

Then they all get F’s -- 

   except for his faves;

Why doesn’t he show 

   heartfelt compassion?

It must be intellectually 

   out of fashion.

O DEAREST LADY OF LOURDES

As I gently finger the beads of the rosary,

  I touch your warm soft hands,

I gaze into your merciful, majestic eyes,

  And I contemplate your loveliness;

Together our precious prayers mingle,

  And rise up like sweet incense,

Its scent perfumes the halls of Heaven,

  And delights the Lord of Light.