Divine Mercy Led Me Back to Mary

I was reminded this morning that in a previous blog, I committed to doing a post as to why Divine Mercy is so important to me.  How Divine Mercy rid me of my doubts about praying to Mary, while the Rosary is responsible for leading me to Divine Mercy.  At least one person is interested, so, I am publishing this one also since it was mostly written prior to the one I published this a.m..

I mentioned in previous posts that I had abandoned the Blessed Mother years ago.  I “attributed” it to the girl who questioned me so blatantly, but it is still my own fault.  I did not know what we, as Catholics, truly believed in regards to the Virgin Mary so I could not defend it.  Instead of finding out, I just let her questions raise doubts in my mind and stopped giving Mary any of my time and prayers. Yes, I was only 12 at the time, but that is no excuse.  I am certain it was over 20 yrs before I prayed a Rosary again.

When I started my journey back to living my Faith, at Adoration, I felt the call to begin saying the Rosary again.  I had done some research and was beginning to understand. I was still extremely hesitant but committed.  I downloaded an app to my work PC since that is where I was spending 90% of my day, every day.  This app also contained the Divine Mercy Chaplet.  One night, when those nagging thoughts of disrespecting God by praying to Mary would not go away, yet I felt the need to pray, I clicked on the Divine Mercy.  It did not have the opening/concluding optional prayers.  Just the Chaplet itself.  That first night, I cannot say I prayed it, but rather read it.  I really did not understand why we would pray it.  It just seemed mundane, but I knew it had to have a purpose.   So I researched it.  I read about St. Faustina and the history of the Chaplet (including it being banned).   When I read that Pope JPII (now Saint Pope JPII) was a major proponent, of its reinstatement, I knew I would have to give it a chance.

Most nights, I would pray the Rosary.   This particular app had Ave Maria playing in the background so if nothing else, the music calmed me.   When I was pressed for time, I would pray the Chaplet.  The more I prayed the Rosary, the more I desired to pray the Chaplet.   The more I prayed the Chaplet the more distant were the doubts about the Rosary.  Eventually, all doubts were erased.

This was the second major occurrence in my journey that I absolutely knew the Holy Spirit was taking charge (the first, of course, was leading me to Eucharistic Adoration).  Of all the thousands of apps that are available, I chose the one that included the Divine Mercy Chaplet.  I have never found another one that only had those 2 prayers on them.  I did not know at the time how much I needed our Mother’s love and assistance.  I could not have imagined the “power of the Immaculate Heart’s intersession”.  It was praying the Divine Mercy on an app that was intended for me to pray the Rosary that seemed to validate the Catholic teaching regarding Mary, the Mother of God.  It was God Himself telling me it was not only okay to go to her, but He wanted me to go to her.  In her loving and mentoring way, I feel certain it was she that encouraged me to pray the Divine Mercy.

This is why I make that 20-30 minute trek back to St. Louis, even if I have already been to Mass, for the 7-10 minutes of praying the Divine Mercy with our Parish.   I pray it for His Graces. I pray it for forgiveness.  I pray it for my transformation.  I pray it for strength.  I pray it in supplication.  But, most of all, I pray it in thanksgiving,

Note:

Although I will not be “sharing” my posts via social media for at least a while after this, I am still documenting my thoughts and journey.  If you stumble across future posts and choose to read it, thank you for any feedback or comments – especially if documenting my experiences help you in any way.