1. Begin with the Sign of the Cross, 1 Our Father, 1 Hail Mary and The Apostles Creed. 2. Then on the Our Father Beads say the following: 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. 3. On the 10 Hail Mary Beads say the following: For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world. (Repeat step 2 and 3 for all five decades). 4. Conclude with (three times): Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
(Repeat step 2 and 3 for all five decades).
4. Conclude with (three times):
Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.The Works of Mercy
The Corporal Works of Mercy
To feed the hungry
To give drink to the thirsty.
To clothe the naked.
To visit and ransom the captives.
To shelter the homeless.
To visit the sick.
To bury the dead.
The Spiritual Works of Mercy
To admonish sinners.
To instruct the ignorant.
To counsel the doubtful.
To comfort the sorrowful.
To bear wrongs patiently.
To forgive all injuries.
To pray for the living and the dead.
The process culminating in the canonization of Sister Faustina Kowalska, commenced twenty seven years after her death in Krakow Poland, in 1938.
As part of the process leading to her canonization, two cases of miraculous healings were presented for consideration. The first one was the healing of Maureen Digan of Massachusetts. The second miracle was the healing of a congenital heart condition of Fr. Pytel after prayers done by members of his parish during the anniversary of Sr. Faustina's death on October 5 1995.
On April 18, 1993 the Feast of Divine Mercy Sunday (the first Sunday after Easter), Pope John Paul II elevated Sister Faustina to the status of Blessed during the Beatification of this Venerable Servant of God, a day when St. Peter's Square was packed with enthusiastic Divine Mercy devotees.
On March 10, 2000 at 11:30 a.m., during the celebration of sext, in the Consistory Hall of the Vatican Apostolic Palace, an ordinary public consistory for several causes of canonization was held, in the presence of the Holy Father.
In 1997 Pope John Paul II made a pilgrimage to Sister Faustina's tomb in Poland, he called her the "the great apostle of Divine Mercy in our day." The Pope said at her tomb, "The message of Divine Mercy has always been near and dear to me..., in a sense it forms the image of my Pontificate."
Saint Faustina
Sister Faustina was canonized on April 30, 2000 the first Sunday after Easter, on Divine Mercy Sunday.
She was honoured by becoming the first saint of this millenium, giving thus great emphasis to the Divine Mercy Devotion.
As one of the great events of the Jubilee 2000, the Holy Father John Paul II, conducted the ceremony of the canonization of St Faustina, before a crowd of around 200000 Divine Mercy Pilgrims.
Saint Faustina was born Helena Kowalska in a small village west of Lodz, Poland on August 25, 1905. She was the third of ten children. When she was almost twenty, she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, whose members devote themselves to the care and education of troubled young women. The following year she received her religious habit and was given the name Sister Maria Faustina, to which she added, "of the Most Blessed Sacrament", as was permitted by her congregation's custom. In the 1930's, Sister Faustina received from the Lord a message of mercy that she was told to spread throughout the world. She was asked to become the apostle and secretary of God's mercy, a model of how to be merciful to others, and an instrument for reemphasizing God's plan of mercy for the world. It was not a glamorous prospect.
Her entire life, in imitation of Christ's, was to be a sacrifice - a life lived for others. At the Divine Lord's request, she willingly offered her personal sufferings in union with Him to atone for the sins of others; in her daily life she was to become a doer of mercy, bringing joy and peace to others, and by writing about God's mercy, she was to encourage others to trust in Him and thus prepare the world for His coming again. Her special devotion to Mary Immaculate and to the sacraments of Eucharist and Reconciliation gave her the strength to bear all her sufferings as an offering to God on behalf of the Church and those in special need, especially great sinners and the dying.
She wrote and suffered in secret, with only her spiritual director and some of her superiors aware that anything special was taking place in her life. After her death from tuberculosis in 1938, even her closest associates were amazed as they began to discover what great sufferings and deep mystical experiences had been given to this Sister of theirs, who had always been so cheerful and humble. She had taken deeply into her heart, God's gospel command to "be merciful even as your heavenly Father is merciful" as well as her confessor's directive that she should act in such a way that everyone who came in contact with her would go away joyful. The message of mercy that Sister Faustina received is now being spread throughout the world; her diary, Divine Mercy in my Soul, has become the handbook for devotion to the Divine Mercy.
