The Divine Mercy Novena

The Divine Mercy Novena is the most distinctive of the Catholic novenas of the twentieth century. It was given by the Lord Jesus to Saint Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938), a Polish Sister of Our Lady of Mercy, in 1937 and is recorded in her Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul at entries 1209 to 1229. The novena is traditionally prayed from Good Friday through the Saturday before Divine Mercy Sunday (the Octave Day of Easter, instituted as a feast of the universal Roman Calendar by Pope Saint John Paul II in 2000), but it may also be prayed at any other time of the year for the same intentions.

Origin and history of the Divine Mercy Novena

Saint Faustina records that the Lord Jesus instructed her in February 1937 to prepare a novena for the great feast of Mercy that He desired to be established. The instructions were given over a series of mystical encounters that Faustina recorded in obedience to her spiritual director Father Michał Sopoćko. "I desire that during these nine days, you bring souls to the fount of My mercy, that they may draw therefrom strength and refreshment and whatever graces they need in the hardships of life and especially at the hour of death" (Diary 1209).

The text of the novena was carried in manuscript form throughout the early years of its diffusion and was placed under restriction by the Holy See in 1959. The restriction was lifted in 1978 after a careful theological review under the direction of Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, then Archbishop of Kraków. Wojtyła was elected Pope John Paul II later the same year, and the cause of Saint Faustina advanced rapidly under his pontificate. He beatified her in 1993 and canonized her on 30 April 2000, on the same day instituting Divine Mercy Sunday as a universal feast of the Roman Calendar.¹

The structure of the Divine Mercy Novena

Each day of the Divine Mercy Novena follows a specific structure given by the Lord Himself in Faustina's Diary:

1. The day's intention: each of the nine days is assigned a specific group of souls. The petitioner is asked to "bring this group of souls into the fount of My mercy."
2. The words of Jesus: a brief direct quotation of the Lord's words to Saint Faustina concerning the day's group of souls, drawn from the Diary.
3. A meditation: a brief reflection on the theology of mercy as it applies to the day's group.
4. The opening prayer: Most Merciful Jesus, whose very nature it is to have compassion on us... (a prayer specific to each day, addressing Jesus on behalf of the day's souls).
5. The petition: Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon... (a prayer addressed to the Father, asking that the day's souls be granted the graces of the Heart of Jesus).
6. The Chaplet of Divine Mercy: prayed on ordinary Rosary beads, in the structure given to Saint Faustina by Jesus.

The nine days are assigned by the Lord as follows:

1. All mankind, especially sinners
2. The souls of priests and religious
3. Devout and faithful souls
4. Those who do not believe in God and those who do not yet know Jesus
5. The souls of separated brethren (Christians not in full communion with the Catholic Church)
6. Meek and humble souls, and the souls of little children
7. The souls who especially venerate and glorify the Lord's mercy
8. The souls detained in Purgatory
9. Souls who have become lukewarm

The order is the order given by the Lord in the Diary; the Catholic tradition has not altered it.

The Chaplet of Divine Mercy

The Chaplet of Divine Mercy is prayed on ordinary Rosary beads. It takes about seven minutes to recite. The structure is:

• Opening prayers: the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Apostles' Creed.
• On the large beads (one per decade), pray 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.
• On the ten small beads of each decade, pray ten times: For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
• At the end, pray three times: Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

The chaplet may also be prayed on its own, outside the structure of the novena, particularly at the three o'clock Hour of Mercy (the hour of Christ's death on the Cross). The Lord's instruction in the Diary is that the chaplet, prayed with confidence in the merits of Christ's Passion, obtains for the dying the grace of conversion and final perseverance.

The Divine Mercy Image

The novena is closely tied to the Image of Divine Mercy, painted at Faustina's direction in 1934 by the Vilnius artist Eugeniusz Kazimirowski. The image depicts the risen Christ with two rays issuing from His pierced Heart: a red ray (the Blood of the Eucharist) and a pale ray (the Water of Baptism). The image bears the inscription Jezu, ufam Tobie (Jesus, I trust in You). Catholics commonly venerate the image during the novena, placing a copy in the home or before the place where the chaplet is prayed.

Theological foundations

The theology of the Divine Mercy Novena is the theology of the Paschal Mystery: the conviction that the Cross and Resurrection of Christ are the supreme manifestation of God's mercy, and that this mercy is offered without exception to every soul. "He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor requited us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him" (Psalm 103:10-11). The Catechism of the Catholic Church treats the divine mercy in paragraphs 270, 1846 to 1851, and in its discussion of the Sacrament of Penance.²

Pope John Paul II's encyclical Dives in Misericordia (1980) develops the theology of divine mercy at length and is the magisterial backdrop against which the Faustina devotion is to be read. The encyclical situates mercy within the doctrine of God revealed by Christ and treats the Catholic conviction that mercy, not strict justice, is the proper name of the divine response to the human condition under sin.

Pairing the Divine Mercy Novena with other prayers

The novena is most fully prayed when joined to:

• The Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Apostles' Creed, which open the chaplet.
• The Hour of Mercy at three o'clock in the afternoon, the hour of Christ's death.
• The frequent recourse to the Sacrament of Penance, by which the merits of the Passion are applied to the soul.
• The Holy Rosary, particularly the Sorrowful Mysteries, which meditate on the same Passion that the chaplet pleads.
• The other novenas of the Catholic tradition, including the Surrender Novena of Don Dolindo, which shares the central refrain of trust ( Jezu, ufam Tobie / O Jesus, I surrender myself to You ).

For the life of the saint who received the novena, see Saint Faustina Kowalska. For the Catholic doctrine of mercy and the Communion of Saints, see the Communion of Saints.

Sources

Footnotes

1. Saint Faustina Kowalska, Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul (composed 1934-1938 in Polish; English critical edition by the Marians of the Immaculate Conception, 1987). Entries 1209 to 1229 contain the full text of the novena. The Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Notification of 6 March 1959 (restriction); Notification of 15 April 1978 (lifting of the restriction, after the review under Cardinal Wojtyła). ↩

2. Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 270, 1846-1851, and 1422-1498 (Sacrament of Penance). Pope John Paul II, Dives in Misericordia (encyclical, 30 November 1980), and Misericordia Dei (apostolic letter, 7 April 2002), instituting Divine Mercy Sunday. Available at vatican.va. ↩