The Divine Mercy Prayer

The "3 o'clock Prayer" as we know it, is the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy whose roots date back to September 13, 1935 with Sister Mary Faustina receiving the prayer from Jesus Christ though a vision. The ABC of the prayer:

A— Ask for His Mercy. God wants us to approach  Him in prayer constantly, repenting of our sins and
asking Him to pour His mercy out upon us and upon the whole world.

B— Be merciful. God wants us to receive His mercy and let it flow through us to others. He wants us to extend love and forgiveness to others just as He does to us.

C— Completely trust in Jesus. God wants us to know that the graces of His mercy are dependent upon our
trust. The more we trust in Jesus, the more we will receive.

The message of mercy is that God loves us — all of us — no matter how great our sins. He wants us to recognize that His mercy is greater than our sins, so that we will call upon Him with trust, receive His mercy, and let it flow through us to others. Thus, all will come to share His joy.

Here is the Chaplet of Divine Mercy in Song:




The Original Divine Mercy image which is also known as The Vilnius Divine Mercy Image has this background story:

The original Divine Mercy Image, painted by Eugene Kazimierowski in Vilnius under the direct supervision of St. Faustina and Fr. Michael Sopocko. It was completed in 1934, and first shown for public veneration in 1935 at the Church of Our Lady, Gate of the New Dawn, where the Ostra Bramska Image, also known as Our Lady of Mercy, resides.

St. Faustina was apparently very disappointed with Kazimierowski’s work during the painting of the image, because it was not capturing the beauty of Jesus as Faustina had seen him. Jesus appeared to St. Faustina again, and told her to settle for this image with these words:

“Not in the beauty of the color, nor of the brush lies the greatness of this image, but in My grace.”
                                                                                                                                      (Diary, 313)

The image fell into disrepair from storage during the second World War, and the following decades when public veneration of the Divine Mercy was forbidden. The image was restored back to it's original beauty in 2003 by an artist of Vilnius. 

Here are other online resources for Sister Faustina's visions and the Divine Mercy Prayer:

1. Faustina Message
2. Divine Mercy in my Soul
3. Divine Mercy Sunday

Let's celebrate the Divine Mercy Weekend 2016 on the 2nd and 3rd of April by praying the Divine Mercy Novena!