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Learning How to Pray |
Spiritual Counsels |
Books |
About CSF
Introduction |
Introductory Prayer |
Preliminary Prayers |
The Circlet of Beads |
Concluding Prayer |
The Three O’Clock Hour
 N THE
EVENING of
Friday, September 13, 1935, Saint Faustina had a vision of an Angel, “the
executor of divine wrath.” Seeing this sign of divine wrath that was
about to strike the earth,
 the saint implored the Angel to stay his hand, and
she began to plead with God for mercy on the world. The words with which
she entreated God were restated more perfectly the next day in another interior
vision in which the Chaplet of The Divine Mercy was fully defined
(Diary, 474–476).
 In
her diary, Saint Faustina provides a profound description of the role of
self-sacrifice and suffering
 in Christian life. Now, it is true that Saint
Margaret Mary Alacoque has, through her writings and her life example, left
us a definitive explanation of the meaning of Christian
suffering in general, but the modern world, defiled as it is by all the
diabolical terrors of modernism beginning with World War I, has its own
particularly urgent need for repentance and mercy. And Saint Faustina’s
Diary expresses this urgency in poignant
clarity.
The Chaplet of The Divine Mercy
has the full approval of the
Church,[1]
and so it is fitting that we pray it constantly, that God might mitigate
His wrath on a world growing increasingly sinful and corrupt. As
natural disasters today become more severe and
destructive, our prayers must become more intense.
Introductory
Prayer
 The Sign of
the Cross. The Chaplet
of The Divine Mercy is prayed on traditional Rosary
beads. So, to begin, hold the crucifix of the Rosary in your right hand and
make the Sign of the Cross, touching the crucifix to your forehead, chest,
and left and right shoulders. Make the sign deliberately, and with reverence,
for, when you do make the Sign of the Cross, you are mystically accepting
the crucifixion of your own identity. That thought should give you
pause.
|
(Forehead) |
IN
the Name of the Father |
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(Mid-chest) |
and of the
Son |
|
(Left
Shoulder) |
and of the
Holy |
|
(Right
Shoulder) |
Spirit. |
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Amen. |
Preliminary
Prayers
The Our
Father.
By the way, be
careful not to slur together the seven petitions of the Our Father
(Matthew 6:9–13) like the “elemeno P” of the grammar school
alphabet. Say this prayer slowly, carefully, and distinctly.
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OUR
Father, Who art in Heaven, |
(1) |
hallowed be Thy
Name, |
(2) |
Thy Kingdom
come, |
(3) |
Thy will be
done, on Earth as it is in
Heaven. |
(4) |
Give us this day our
daily bread; |
(5) |
and forgive us our
trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; |
(6) |
And lead us not into
temptation, |
(7) |
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. While still
holding the crucifix, pray the Apostles’ Creed.
I
BELIEVE in God
the Father Almighty
creator of Heaven and Earth;
and in Jesus Christ,
His only son,
our Lord,
who was conceived
by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died,
and was buried.
He descended to the dead;
on the third day
He rose again from the dead.
He ascended into Heaven,
and is seated at the right hand
of God, the Father Almighty.
From thence He will come
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 life everlasting.
Amen. |
The Circlet of
Beads
On the single bead before each
decade:
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 ten beads of each
decade:
FOR
the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole
world. |
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Concluding
Prayer
HOLY
God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole
world. (Three times)
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The 3 O’Clock
Hour
Jesus told Saint Faustina, “I
remind you, My daughter, that as often as you hear the clock strike the third
hour, immerse yourself completely in My mercy, adoring and glorifying it;
invoke its omnipotence for the whole world, and particularly for poor sinners;
for at that moment mercy was opened wide for every soul. . . .
try your best to make the Stations of the Cross in this hour”
(Diary, 1572).
Notes
1.
This, in itself, is the cause of some pernicious argument today. Some traditional
Catholics claim that Church approval of Saint Faustina’s writing came
about because of liberal Vatican II ideology. Now, the truth is, many liberals
today are so theologically ignorant that they have lost respect for traditional
ceremony and discipline. But it is just as true that many traditionalists
are so conceptually arrogant that they have cast
humility from their lives. Therefore, it would
do everyone well to keep in mind that real Christianity demands a
humble, chaste lifestyle of constant prayer
and on-going sacrifices and acts of mercy towards others. The Chaplet of
the Divine Mercy is one way to fulfill that obligation in the midst of a
battle that, far from being between yourself and others around you, is really
between you and the devil.
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Learn
what asking for mercy really means 
The
difference between the Sacred Heart revelations