Thursday, December 30, 2010

The Divine Mercy !!!!!

No matter how great the sin, God's Mercy is ALWAYS greater...
[Let] the greatest sinners place their trust in My mercy. They have the right before others to trust in the abyss of My mercy. My daughter, write about My mercy towards tormented souls. Souls that make an appeal to My mercy delight Me. To such souls I grant even more graces than they ask. I cannot punish even the greatest sinner if he makes an appeal to My compassion, but on the contrary, I justify him in My unfathomable and inscrutable mercy. Write: before I come as a just Judge, I first open wide the door of My mercy. He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice..." (Diary, 1146)
"...I desire trust from My creatures. Encourage souls to place great trust in My fathomless mercy. Let the weak, sinful soul have no fear to approach Me, for even if it had more sins than there are grains of sand in the world, all would be drowned in the unmeasurable depths of My mercy." (Diary, 1059)
My Secretary, write that I am more generous toward sinners than toward the just. It was for their sake that I came down from heaven; it was for their sake that My Blood was spilled. Let them not fear to approach Me; they are most in need of My mercy." (Diary, 1275)

The Divine Mercy Chaplet

One of the most important messages Jesus gave to St. Faustina was a very special prayer: The Divine Mercy Chaplet. Because this chaplet is such a powerful tool, Jesus instructed St. Faustina to pray it often.

"Once, as I was going down the hall to the kitchen, I heard these words in my soul:Say unceasingly the chaplet that I have taught you. Whoever will recite it will receive great mercy at the hour of death. Priests will recommend it to sinners as their last hope of salvation. Even if there were a sinner most hardened, if he were to recite this chaplet only once, he would receive grace from My infinite mercy. I desire that the whole world know My infinite mercy. I desire to grant unimaginable graces to those souls who trust in My mercy." (Diary, 687)

" While I was saying the chaplet, I heard a voice which said, Oh, what great graces I will grant to souls who say this chaplet; the very depths of My tender mercy are stirred for the sake of those who say the chaplet. Write down these words, My daughter. Speak to the world about My mercy; let all mankind recognize My unfathomable mercy. It is a sign for the end times; after it will come the day of justice. While there is still time, let them have recourse to the fount of My mercy; let them profit from the Blood and Water which gushed forth for them.

O human souls, where are you going to hide on the day of God's anger? Take refuge now in the fount of God's mercy. O what a great multitude of souls I see! They worshiped the Divine Mercy and will be singing the hymn of praise for all eternity."(Diary, 848)

This chaplet is especially powerful for the dying...

"...Pray as much as you can for the dying. By your entreaties, obtain for them trust in My mercy, because they have most need of trust, and have it the least. Be assured that the grace of eternal salvation for certain souls in their final moment depends on you prayer. You know the whole abyss of My mercy, so draw upon it for yourself and especially for poor sinners. Sooner would heaven and earth turn into nothingness than would My mercy not embrace a trusting soul." (Diary, 1777)

"When I entered the chapel for a moment, the Lord said to me, My daughter, help Me to save a certain dying sinner. Say the chaplet that I have taught you for him. When I began to say the chaplet, I saw the man dying in the midst of terrible torment and struggle, His Guardian Angel was defending him, but he was as it were, powerless against the enormity of the soul's misery. A multitude of devils was waiting for the soul. But while I was saying the chaplet, I saw Jesus just as He is depicted in the image. The rays which issued from Jesus' Heart enveloped the sick man, and the powers of darkness fled in panic. The sick man peacefully breathed his last. When I came to myself, I understood how very important the chaplet was for the dying. It appeases the anger of God." (Diary, 1565)

"... My daughter, encourage souls to say the chaplet which I have given to you. It pleases Me to grant everything they ask of Me by saying the chaplet. When hardened sinners say it, I will fill their souls with peace, and the hour of their death will be a happy one. ....

Write that when they say this chaplet in the presence of the dying, I will stand between My Father and the dying person, not as the just Judge but as the merciful Savior." (Diary, 1541)

The Lord is generous in His promises...

"+The Lord's Promise: The souls that say this chaplet will be embraced by My mercy during their lifetime and especially at the hour of their death. (Diary, 754)

"January 28, 1938. Today the Lord said to me, My daughter, write down these words: All those souls who will glorify My mercy and spread its worship, encouraging others to trust in My mercy, will not experience terror at the hour of death. My mercy will shield them in that final battle..." (Diary, 1540)

To pray the chaplet:

Using regular Rosary beads, begin with the Sign of the Cross, Our Father, Hail Mary & Apostles Creed.
On the large or 'Our Father' beads pray:

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 small or 'Hail Mary' beads pray:

For the sake of His sorrowful Passion,
have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Continue through the 5 decades and then conclude by praying three times:

Holy God,
Holy Mighty One,
Holy Immortal One,
have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Amen

End with the Sign of the Cross

optional prayer at the end of the chaplet

The Litany of Divine Mercy

+ The Love of God is the flower - Mercy the fruit.
Let the doubting soul read these considerations on Divine Mercy and become trusting.

Divine Mercy, gushing forth from the bosom of the Father, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, greatest attribute of God, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, incomprehensible mystery, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, fount gushing forth from the mystery of the Most Blessed Trinity, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, unfathomed by any intellect, human or angelic, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, from which wells forth all life and happiness, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, better than the heavens, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, source of miracles and wonders, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, encompassing the whole universe, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, descending to earth in the Person of the Incarnate Word, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, which flowed out from the open wound of the Heart of Jesus, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, enclosed in the Heart of Jesus for us, and especially for sinners, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, unfathomed in the institution of the Sacred Host, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, in the founding of Holy Church, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, in our justification through Jesus Christ, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, accompanying us through our whole life, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, embracing us especially at the hour of death, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, endowing us with immortal life, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, accompanying us every moment of our life, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, shielding us from the fire of hell, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, in the conversion of hardened sinners, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, astonishment for Angels, incomprehensible to Saints, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, unfathomed in all the mysteries of God, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, lifting us out of every misery, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, source of our happiness and joy, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, in calling us forth from nothingness to existence, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, embracing all the works of His hands, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, crown of all of God's handiwork, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, in which we are all immersed, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, sweet relief for anguished hearts, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, only hope of despairing souls, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, repose of hearts, peace amidst fear, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, delight and ecstasy of holy souls, I trust in You.

Divine Mercy, inspiring hope against all hope, I trust in You.

+ Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself.

+ O incomprehensible and limitless Mercy Divine, To extol and adore You worthily, who can? Supreme attribute of Almighty God, You are the sweet hope for sinful man.

Into one hymn yourselves unite, stars, earth and sea, and in one accord, thankfully and fervently sing of the incomprehensible Divine Mercy.

The Three Hail Marys !

In Honor of the Power, Wisdom, and Loving Mercy
of the Blessed Virgin Mary

One of the first to practice this and to recommend it was St. Anthony of Padua (1195–1231). His purpose was "to honor the spotless Virginity of Mary and to preserve a perfect purity of mind, heart and body in the midst of the dangers of the world."

According to St. Gertrude (1256–1301), the Blessed Virgin Mary promised the following: "To any soul who faithfully prays the Three Hail Marys I will appear at the hour of death in a splendor of beauty so extraordinary that it will fill the soul with Heavenly consolation."

Later on, St. Leonard of Port Maurice, "had the three Ave Marias recited morning and evening in honor of Mary Immaculate, to obtain the grace of avoiding all mortal sins during the day or and night; moreover, he promised in a special manner eternal salvation to all those who proved constantly faithful to this practice."

St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696–1787) adopted this pious practice and highly recommended it. He told parents to train their children to acquire the habit of saying three Hail Marys in the morning and evening. After each Hail Mary, he advice that the following prayer be said: "By thy Immaculate Conception, O Mary, make my body pure and my soul holy."

St. Mechtilde received a private revelation from the Virgin Mary on how the Three Hail Marys honor the three persons of the Blessed Trinity:

"The first Hail Mary will be in honor of God the Father, Whose omnipotence raised my soul so high above every other creature that, after God, I have the greatest power in Heaven and on earth. In the hour of your death I will use that power of God the Father to keep any hostile power from you.

"The second Hail Mary will be in honor of God the Son, Who communicated His inscrutable wisdom to me . . . In the hour of your death I will fill your soul with the light of that wisdom so that all the darkness of ignorance and error will be dispelled.

"The third Hail Mary will be in honor of God the Holy Ghost, Who filled my soul with the sweetness of His love and tenderness and mercy . . . In your last hour I will then change the bitterness of death into Divine sweetness and delight."

According to the St. Martha Catholic Church of the Pallottine Fathers, after Night Prayers, "Many Saints have had the practice of adding three "Hail Mary's" here in honor of Mary's purity for the grace of a chaste and holy life." Thus, it has been recommended as a daily practice for people who have received confirmation that they pray the Three Hail Marys for "purity of mind, heart and body" after examination of conscience.

Pray Morning & Night :

O Holy Mary! Our sovereign Queen! as God the Father, by his omnipotence, has made thee most powerful, so assist us at the hour of our death, by defending us against all the power that is contrary to thine.

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 death.Amen.

O my Mother preserve me from mortal sin during this day/night

O Holy Mary! our sovereign Queen! as God the Son has endowed thee with so much knowledge and splendor, that it enlightens all Heaven, so in the hour of our death, illumine and strengthen our souls with the knowledge of the true faith, that they be not perverted by error or pernicious ignorance.

O my Mother preserve me from mortal sin during this day/night

O Holy Mary! our sovereign Queen! as the Holy Ghost has plentifully replenished thee with the love of God, so instil into us at the hour of our death, the sweetness of divine love, that all bitterness at that time may become acceptable and pleasant to us .

O my Mother preserve me from mortal sin during this day/night

Garment of Graces & Salvation !!!!!!

Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

This article is in honor of ‘Our Lady of Mount Carmel’ whose feast we celebrate on 16th July.

Ever wondered why Catholics wear the scapular so devoutly & perseveringly (even on hot summer days when the wool of the scapular can be irritating to skin). Some might say, “It is a tradition” ; Others who are more theologically sound might say, “It was given to us by the Mother of God as a pledge of protection & badge of salvation”.

All that is very good, but why is this scapular called the scapular of Mount Carmel? Who was the founder of this order? Why is this order called the order of the Mother of God? All this began in the old testament. I know this is strange to hear that an order dedicated to the Mother of God originated even before she was born but this is what was chosen by God.

Carmelites Of The Old Testament

The dramatic confrontation between Elijah(Elias) and the 450 prophets of Baal which took place in Mount Carmel is found in the Book of Kings. Ahab, King of Israel then, married Jezebel who brought new gods into Israel and killed all the prophets of the Lord she could find. The only prophet left was Elijah.

One day, Elijah went to King Ahab and warned him “there will be no rain or dew here until I call for it.” And he walked away and disappeared. True enough, for three years there was no rain – the Israelites were being punished for their idolatry. Elijah’s mission according to John Haffert’s “Her Glorious Title” was to banish idolatry and show to the Israelites that Yahweh is indeed the true and omnipotent God. Elijah told King Ahab to gather the people of Israel on Mount Carmel. There he proposed a contest between him alone and the 450 pagan priests. They would erect an altar and place a sacrifice – a bullock cut into pieces – upon it and pray to their respective gods to send fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice. Whoever would answer with fire to consume the sacrifice -the gods of the pagans (Baa1 or Asherah) or Yahweh of Elijah-was truly true God.

Readers of the Bible of course know that Elijah won in this dramatic confrontation. Despite hours of praying, the priests of Baal were not rewarded with fire while after only a single earnest prayer from Elijah, Yahweh answered with a blistering fire. Thus, the people of Israel fell on their knees crying “Yahweh is God.”

The Book of Kings goes on to say that, after the fire consumed the sacrifice of Elijah, the rains came heralded by a little cloud rising out of the sea beneath Mount Carmel. The divine punishment of three and a half years of drought ended.

The little cloud rising from the sea came in the form of a human foot. It increased in size & then rained heavily. Sea water is unfit to drink. It is impure so to speak. Rain water is the purest form of water imaginable. The foot represented the foot of MARY. “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.” Gen 3:15 Douay Rheims bible

“She shall crush”… Ipsa, the woman; so divers of the fathers read this place, conformably to the Latin: others read it ipsum, viz., the seed. The sense is the same: for it is by her seed, Jesus Christ, that the woman crushes the serpent’s head.

Mary came from corrupt human race, but she herself was without the stain of original sin. The ‘IMMACULATE CONCEPTION’ as she addressed herself to Bernadette of Lourdes, although a daughter of Eve she was not like Eve in her sinfulness.

The rain coming from the crowd represented JESUS CHRIST as another prophet says, “Let the clouds rain from above the Just One”

After all of this happened the Prophet Elijah was so impressed by the immaculate conception of the Virgin who will give us the Savior, that he dedicated himself to the Mother of God. His followers now became the Carmelites of the Old Testament who prayed for the coming of the Theotokos (God-Bearer).

Carmelites Of The New Testament

The followers of Elijah in the New Testament were St. John the Baptist, St. John the Evangelist (Beloved Disciple). Both of them devoted to Our Lady as we all know St. John the Baptist became a hermit like Prophet Elijah. He wore animal skin of brown color (prefigure of the Scapular). The Beloved disciple on the other hand lived in hermitage in his final days & was responsible for the Book of Revelation in the Bible.

Queen of Carmel appears to St. Simon Stock

The devil, that ancient serpent who wages eternal war against the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God and of men, bitterly hates the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Mary’s privileged family. Because it is the work of her Immaculate hands, it draws upon itself all the fury, malice and persecution of the evil one.

Scarcely had the Carmelites come from the East and settled in the West, when the devil raised such a terrible storm against them that it threatened their very existence, the right to which was denied by some of their enemies. Some said they were newcomers, and therefore, they could not be trusted, and others said that they were not the children of the Mother of God, as they pretended, but descendants of Mary of Egypt. Is there anything more distressing to the heart of a loving child than to hear his relationship to his mother denied?

The Carmelites, the first-born of Mary’s family and entirely consecrated to her, having no other desire than to please her in all things, now experienced this bitter anguish, seeing their glorious and most cherished title –children of Mary– so hotly contested. To whom should they turn but to Mary, who never forsakes her children.

Saint Simon Stock, then General of the Order, poured out his heart at the feet of the beautiful Queen of Carmel, and, in a moment of Sublime inspiration, exclaimed, “Most holy Virgin! Beauty of Carmel Virgin Flower forever in bloom! Bright Ornament of Heaven! Thou Virgin-Mother of a Man-God! Mother of holy love! Mother of mercy and meekness! Star of the sea! O Mary, show us thou art our Mother! O Virgin most holy, give me a sign of thy predilection for thine Order of Carmel which will astonish our adversaries, and confound our detractors!”

The confidence and perseverance of this true disciple of Elias could not but win the favor of the Queen of Carmel, who appeared to him with the Infant Jesus in her arms, surrounded by a multitude of celestial spirits, and holding in her hand the Scapular of the Order, which she presented to him, said, “Receive, my beloved son, this Scapular of thine Order, as the distinctive sign of my Confraternity”. Before disappearing from the enraptured gaze of the saint, the Blessed Virgin directed him to go to the Vicar of her Divine Son, who was then the Innocent IV, assuring him that the Pope would end the persecution then raging against the Order.

Privileges:-

“WHOSOEVER DIES IN THIS SCAPULAR SHALL NOT SUFFER ETERNAL FIRE” – OUR LADY TO ST.SIMON STOCK

This promise does not mean that even if we keep on sinning we will go to heaven just by wearing a scapular. It means that if we wear it with love Our Lady will obtain for us the grace of final contrition. We will die as friends of God & so shall be worthy of Eternal life. Cursed are those who take the scapular for granted & keep on sinning deliberately expecting Our Lady to save them.

Sabbatine Privilege

About fifty years after the apparition of the Blessed Virgin to St. Simon Stock, she appeared to Pope John XXII, and promised him that “She would assist and console the children of Carmel detained in Purgatory and also speedily release them on the first Saturday after death”.

Saints & mystics have always told us that purgatory can be as long as hundreds of years or even thousands. If saints feared purgatory so much, how much more should we!

Take heart oh feeble heart, The Virgin of Carmel rises in they defense. She promises to take you to heaven on the first Saturday after your death, if you die in the Scapular.

Example:-

The Venerable Francis de Yepes, brother of St. John of the Cross, shortly after the death of his beloved wife, felt great anxiety concerning her soul. She, like himself, was a member of the Third Order of Mount Carmel. Our Blessed Lady, appearing to him, said, “After two days and three nights of suffering, today, Saturday, you wife’s soul has been delivered by me from Purgatory, and she now enjoys heavenly bliss”.

At Fatima

In her final apparition in Fatima Our Lady appeared as Our Lady of Mount Carmel holding to the World the Brown scapular. Sr. Lucy of Fatima said, “Our Lady held the Scapular in Her hands because She wants us all to wear it.”

I end my article hoping all of us will now honor Our Lady of Mount Carmel by wearing the brown scapular till we are safe with her in heaven.

♥ BY ADITYA TAWDE, LOVER OF JESUS & MARY ♥