Meditations for the Chaplet of Divine Mercy

A Chaplet of Reparation The Chaplet of Divine Mercy is a meditative prayer to God Our Father. Contemplating the suffering of Jesus with compassion is a way to enter into His suffering and offer reparation for our sins and the sins of the whole world. These meditations can be used at each decade. I.  Before the Last Supper, Jesus said His goodbye to His Mother.  They both knew it was their final embrace before His death.  How much Jesus suffered knowing He could do nothing to lessen Her sorrow. II. At the Last Supper, Jesus gave His own Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity to His Apostles.  In spite of the love he received and in spite of the warnings of his fate, Judas still chose to betray Jesus.  How much Jesus suffered from the coldness of Judas’s heart. III. Jesus, the King of the Universe, is brought before Pontius Pilate who treats Him as a curiosity, an amusement.  Without compassion Pontius Pilate orders the scourging of a man he knows is innocent.  How much Jesus suffered for the indifference of Pontius Pilate. IV. Simon of Cyrene stood before Jesus, saw His blood-stained cloak, the sweat and blood pouring down the face of Jesus, His cheeks covered by the spittle of the crowd -- and felt no pity.  He had to be forced to help carry the cross.  How much Jesus suffered from the contempt of those for whom He was dying. V. The Romans nailed His wrists at the point where so many nerves come together that even morphine cannot kill the pain.  He suffered the humiliation of the world gloating over His naked, tortured body as He convulsed in agony. ---------- A Chaplet of Reparation - Praying with the Saints I. Saint Joseph suffered the loss of the child Jesus for three days.  In sorrow he searched for Him without consolation and offered up his suffering to join it with the suffering of abandonment Jesus would feel in the garden of Gethsemane when all of His disciples ran away.  We too offer up the times we felt abandoned by family and friends in reparation for the times we too abandoned or neglected God.  We ask Saint Joseph to intercede for us so that Our Lord will give us the grace of constancy and perseverance in times of trial. II. Saint Maria Goretti was devoted to chastity and resisted her rapist because she did not want him to commit a sin.  She suffered 14 stab wounds and joined her suffering to Jesus’s suffering in the scourging.  We too offer up the times when others have offended our chastity whether in word or deed in reparation for the times we were unchaste in our thoughts, in our words, or in our deeds.  We ask Saint Maria Goretti to intercede for us so Our Lord will give us the grace of purity of heart. III. Saint Venantius suffered torture and attempted execution five times by the Roman authorities, but his Guardian Angel…

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Good Friday

A non-religious friend of mine asked me, “What’s so good about Good Friday?  What’s so good about Jesus being tortured and dying?” It got me thinking about how lazy we have become in our language.  In Shakespeare’s time the average person used about 30,000 different words; we use about 5,000.  We substitute one word to mean so many things that the word loses its real meaning.  We use the word “good” when we mean “tasty” (a good meal), “entertaining” (a good movie), “pleasant” (good weather), “loyal” (a good friend), and let’s not forget “nice” (good manners). “It is good” spoken by God at Creation, gives us insight into what goodness really means.  At this moment there is perfect order in the universe.  All of nature is in harmony with God.  The “good” accomplished on Good Friday is that Jesus has completed the work to restore the universe to perfect order.  We have the opportunity to be restored to the state of grace that had been lost and can choose to live in harmony with God. What is good about Good Friday?  The price for our sin had finally been paid – one time for all eternity.  Every time God entered into a covenant with humankind, we broke the covenant.  He finally made a covenant with the one person who could and would keep it – His Son – and God became Man for us to make and keep the covenant as a Man for all humanity.  It is His fulfilling of the covenant perfectly that is “good.”  The word “good” is a reflection of God Himself in His glory, in His mercy, and in His love. It is this love which we seek to understand better and why Good Friday calls every Catholic home – even those who have been away for a while.  To contemplate His suffering is to enter into the mystery of His profound love for us.  We cannot grow in our love for Him without entering into mystery of His suffering.  It is this willingness to “compassionate” Jesus, to enter into His suffering with Him, placing ourselves at the foot of the cross next to Blessed Mother, that brings so many graces into our lives, enabling us to break the chains of habitual sin and free our souls to love Him more deeply and become the best version of ourselves. I have written 15 meditations of The Passion below.  They can be used for a 15 decade Rosary, a 15 decade Chaplet of Divine Mercy, or Stations of the Cross.  The tone in these meditations is unlike my regular posts.  They are very graphic, so sensitive people may find them disturbing.  If you don’t want to read them, stop reading here. 1st Decade:  Pilate knew Jesus was innocent, but he was more interested in keeping power. He knew that once he gave Jesus over to be scourged, the soldiers would be merciless to Jesus.  He had seen it before many times.  Many people never made it…

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