Day 7: Those who especially venerate Mercy

On the seventh day of the Divine Mercy Novena, the Lord turns to those souls who especially venerate and glorify His mercy. These are the souls who have made the Divine Mercy devotion their own, who pray the chaplet daily, who keep the Hour of Mercy at three in the afternoon, who place the Image of Divine Mercy in their homes, who make the feast of Divine Mercy Sunday a high feast of their year. They are the apostles of the devotion in the present age.

The Lord's words to Saint Faustina

"Today bring to Me the souls who especially venerate and glorify My mercy, and immerse them in My mercy. These souls sorrowed most over My Passion and entered most deeply into My spirit. They are living images of My Compassionate Heart. These souls will shine with a special brightness in the next life. Not one of them will go into the fire of hell. I shall particularly defend each one of them at the hour of his death." (Diary 1224)

The Lord's promise is striking: not one of them will go into the fire of hell. The promise is not a license for presumption (the Catholic tradition has always insisted on the necessity of perseverance in the state of grace), but it is a particular grace promised to those who, in the spirit of true devotion, glorify the divine mercy throughout their lives. The Lord defends them at the hour of death because they have spent their lives proclaiming the mercy that He came to offer.

Today's prayer (from Diary 1225)

Most Merciful Jesus, whose Heart is Love Itself, receive into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart the souls of those who particularly extol and venerate the greatness of Your mercy. These souls are mighty with the very power of God Himself. In the midst of all afflictions and adversities they go forward, confident of Your mercy; and united to You, O Jesus, they carry all mankind on their shoulders. These souls will not be judged severely, but Your mercy will embrace them as they depart from this life.

Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon the souls who glorify and venerate Your greatest attribute, that of Your fathomless mercy, and who are enclosed in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. These souls are a living Gospel; their hands are full of deeds of mercy, and their hearts, overflowing with joy, sing a canticle of mercy to You, O Most High. I beg You, O God: Show them Your mercy according to the hope and trust they have placed in You. Let there be accomplished in them the promise of Jesus, who said to them that during their life, but especially at the hour of death, the souls who will venerate this fathomless mercy of His, He, Himself, will defend as His glory. Amen.

The Chaplet of Divine Mercy

Pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. Offer it today for the apostles of the devotion: for the Marians of the Immaculate Conception who guard and spread the Divine Mercy message, for the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy at the Sanctuary in Kraków-Łagiewniki, for those who have introduced you to the devotion, for those who pray the chaplet daily for the dying, and for yourself, that you may persevere in the devotion to the end of your life.

Reflection

The Catholic doctrine of devotion holds that the deep and persevering devotion to a particular aspect of Catholic faith (the Sacred Heart, the Immaculate Conception, the Eucharist, the Divine Mercy) shapes the soul over time into a particular kind of saint. The soul that has made the Divine Mercy devotion central to its life takes on something of the Lord's own merciful character. "Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful" (Luke 6:36). The work of mercy in the world (the corporal and spiritual works) is the natural fruit of the contemplative devotion to mercy in prayer.

The promises attached to the Divine Mercy devotion in Faustina's Diary are real, but they are also conditional on continued fidelity. The Catholic tradition has never taught that any single devotion is a magic charm; the soul must persevere in grace, frequent the sacraments, fight against sin. What the devotion does is incline the soul toward the Lord's mercy and dispose it to receive that mercy in abundance. The Lord's promise to defend the devotee at the hour of death is real, but it is the promise of His grace operating in a soul that has cooperated with grace through life.

If you are praying this novena and have not yet adopted a daily practice of the Chaplet, today is a good day to consider doing so. Many Catholics pray the chaplet at the three o'clock Hour of Mercy each day, often during a brief break in the workday. The seven minutes of the chaplet are seven minutes of participation in the Lord's atoning work for the salvation of the world.

Closing prayers

Conclude with the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be.

Jesus, I trust in You.