DIVINE MERCY NOVENA: DAY 8 OF 9

Hi, everyone!

We're almost there! Two more days until we experience Jesus' indescribable compassion on Divine Mercy Sunday!

Hopefully, you have already gone to confession this week, or have it marked on your calendar for either today or tomorrow. I just don't want anyone to miss out on magnificently beautiful blessings on Divine Mercy Sunday. They are simply too wonderful. 

So in order to find the prayers, as well as the links to magnificent sacred art, please do the following items: 

1. Click the following link:

http://www.josephpeteranthony.com/divine-mercy-novena

2. Scroll down a little further and click the link entitled "Divine Mercy Novena: Day 8" (this will take you to the prayers and the sacred art)

If you have any questions, then please let me know. I'm always happy to help if I can.

God bless you, and may the magnificent and dazzling light of Divine Mercy always shine brightly in your hearts!

Joe

DIVINE MERCY NOVENA: DAY 7 OF 9

Hi, everyone!

For the many of you who are caught up with the prayers for this week's novena, all I can say is this: Well done! Well done indeed!

For any of you who are not quite caught up with your novena prayers, hang in there! I know that after I celebrate a special occasion like Easter, sometimes it can feel like there are just so many things that need to get done. So I completely understand if any of are you experiencing that, too. 

But there is still time for us to catch up with the Divine Mercy Novena! You can do it! I know you can! Our Lord and Our Lady are cheering us on! The finish line is now in our view, so it's time for us to finish strong and be those gold-medal spiritual athletes that St. Paul talked about when he said, "Run so as to win" (1 Corinthians 9:24). 

Today the sacred art will transition from the carrying of the cross to a few different perspectives of the crucifixion, and then it will close with the joy of the resurrection.

So in order to find the prayers, as well as the links to magnificent sacred art, please do the following items: 

1. Click the following link:

http://www.josephpeteranthony.com/divine-mercy-novena

2. Scroll down a little further and click the link entitled "Divine Mercy Novena: Day 7" (this will take you to the prayers and the sacred art)

If you have any questions, then please let me know. I'm always happy to help if I can.

God bless you, and may the magnificent and dazzling light of Divine Mercy always shine brightly in your hearts!

Joe

DIVINE MERCY NOVENA: DAY 6 OF 9

Hi, everyone!

How time flies with a good novena -- we're already over halfway to our goal!

So in case you haven't already done so, I just want to give you another friendly reminder that if you have not yet gone to confession, now is a good time to plan it, and the same is true for planning your mass on Divine Mercy Sunday.

Tomorrow the sacred art will change one more time and we will see art that reflects the conclusion of the Passion -- the crucifixion -- but then looks forward to the Resurrection! 

So in order to find the prayers, as well as the links to magnificent sacred art, please do the following items: 

1. Click the following link:

http://www.josephpeteranthony.com/divine-mercy-novena

2. Scroll down a little further and click the link entitled "Divine Mercy Novena: Day 6" (this will take you to the prayers and the sacred art)

If you have any questions, then please let me know. I'm always happy to help if I can.

God bless you, and may the magnificent and dazzling light of Divine Mercy always shine brightly in your hearts!

Joe

DIVINE MERCY NOVENA: DAY 5 OF 9

Hi, everyone!

Just in case you have been too busy to watch the video by Fr. Chris Alar, let me give you an ultra-quick synopsis. This coming Sunday, you will have the opportunity to obtain a special and wonderful gift from Our Lord. It is called "The Extraordinary Promise." 

In her spiritual classic entitled Divine Mercy in my Soul, St. Faustina stated the following: "On that great day [Divine Mercy Sunday]... the soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment" (section 699). This is a gift so indescribably beautiful that words simply cannot express the immense magnitude of Jesus' love for each and every one of us. He wants all of us to remain in His love forever! 

So we need to do three things in order to receive this great grace:

1. Go to Confession (before Divine Mercy Sunday, preferably as close to that day as possible)

2. Receive Holy Communion (on Divine Mercy Sunday or on the vigil)

3. Do our best to live and remain in a state of grace

Okay, then. 

So in order to find the prayers, as well as the links to magnificent sacred art, please do the following items: 

1. Click the following link:

http://www.josephpeteranthony.com/divine-mercy-novena

2. Scroll down a little further and click the link entitled "Divine Mercy Novena: Day 5" (this will take you to the prayers and the sacred art)

If you have any questions, then please let me know. I'm always happy to help if I can.

God bless you, and may the magnificent and dazzling light of Divine Mercy always shine brightly in your hearts!

Joe

PRAYER FOR DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY

Prayer Shared on EWTN by Fr. Chris Alar, MIC

Lord Jesus Christ,

Son of the living God,

Have mercy on me,

A poor sinner.

Jesus, you promised St. Faustina

That the soul that has been to confession (I have),

And the soul that receives Holy Communion (I just did),

Will receive complete forgiveness

Of all sin and punishment.

Please give me this grace.

Amen.

LITTLE PRAYER OF SINCERE CONTRITION

Inspired by St. Francis de Sales

I recognize my unworthiness,

And I humbly ask pardon

For my sins.

O Divine Artist,

I humbly kneel

Before you in spirit,

In awe before you!

O Lord of Love,

I long for holy union with you,

O Lord of Love,

I long for holy union with you,

O Lord of Love,

I long for holy union with you;

Thank you for the gift

Of your love.

Amen.

DIVINE MERCY NOVENA: DAY 4 OF 9

Hi, everyone!

Today you will notice that the narrative of the Passion will continue and the sacred art will shift its focus to the next part of the story. So for the next three days we will meditate upon a different set of artistic masterpieces.

We can do it! St. Faustina and the communion of saints are cheering us on! Our Lord and Our Lady of Divine Mercy are cheering us on! They love us so deeply, and so very dearly, more than we can possibly imagine.

Also, I hope you had the chance to watch Fr. Chris Alar’s video on the treasure of Divine Mercy Sunday. If you're not already familiar with the details of this great Feast of Mercy, it's an absolute must-watch. It can help us to be fully prepared to receive the wondrous blessings of this special day. 

I have once again included the following link to the video, for your convenience:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=chris+alar+divine+mercy+youtube&atb=v314-1&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D4R2tOEFddig

In order to find the prayers, as well as the links to magnificent sacred art, please do the following items: 

1. Click the following link:

http://www.josephpeteranthony.com/divine-mercy-novena

2. Scroll down a little further and click the link entitled "Divine Mercy Novena: Day 4" (this will take you to the prayers and the sacred art)

If you have any questions, then please let me know. I'm always happy to help if I can.

God bless you, and may the magnificent and dazzling light of Divine Mercy always shine brightly in your hearts!

Joe

DIVINE MERCY NOVENA: DAY 3 OF 9

Hi, everyone!

Happy Easter! He is risen! Alleluia!

I hope and pray that you and your loved ones will have a joyous celebration today of Our Lord's resurrection.

Today we will talk about the magnificent treasure of Divine Mercy Sunday, which is one week from today. The immense blessings of that day are indescribably beautiful. Now a number of you are probably familiar with Fr. Chris Alar, MIC. But for those of you who don't yet know him, he is a great proponent of the Divine Mercy devotion, and also has a very deep love for Our Lady. 

He has such wonderful enthusiasm, and he speaks about "The Divine Mercy Sunday" far more eloquently than I ever could. Therefore, I'm going to share the following link with you so that you can hear him tell you about it himself:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=chris+alar+divine+mercy+youtube&atb=v314-1&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D4R2tOEFddig

It's relatively short, I believe about 10 minutes in length or so. Please try to watch it sometime today on Easter Sunday. Hopefully, it will give you something to rejoice about in a special way for the next week. 

Also, I recommend that you plan which mass you will attend to celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday next week.

Now for one more day, our sacred art will focus on the first part of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, so it will be the same sacred art as yesterday, in order that we can enter more deeply into Our Lord's Passion. Then, tomorrow we will move forward artistically to the next phase of The Passion. 

In order to find the prayers, as well as the links to magnificent sacred art, please do the following items: 

1. Click the following link:

http://www.josephpeteranthony.com/divine-mercy-novena

2. Scroll down, and if you haven't already done so, please read "How to Pray with the Booklet," "How to Pray without the Booklet," and "The Benefit of Praying with Sacred Art"

3. Scroll down a little further and click the link entitled "Divine Mercy Novena: Day 3" (this will take you to the prayers and the sacred art)

If you have any questions, then please let me know. I'm always happy to help if I can.

God bless you, and may the magnificent and dazzling light of Divine Mercy always shine brightly in your hearts!

Joe

DIVINE MERCY NOVENA: DAY 2 OF 9

Hello, everyone,

By God's grace, hopefully all went well in your first day of praying the novena. However, as many of you have probably experienced at different times in your life, the evil one oftentimes tries to wreak havoc in our lives and get us busy so that we won't have time to pray. I think it's probably one of his oldest tricks. He knows -- far better than we do -- how powerful this novena really is, and he despises it. 

So, in a worst-case scenario, if you weren't able to pray the novena yesterday, then just try to double up today to catch up. And then make a valiant effort, as a knight of Christ, to keep on track for the remainder of the novena. If you're able to do so, I'm sure that God will richly bless you.

Also, in order to most fully benefit from the novena, I highly recommend that you try to go to confession between now and Divine Mercy Sunday, which falls on ​April 7. Time can fly by very, very quickly in a novena, so I want to give you a timely reminder while there's still an opportunity to do so. If possible, I recommend that you go as close to Divine Mercy Sunday as you can. 

I say this because you will have the opportunity to gain a plenary indulgence on Divine Mercy Sunday, and perhaps even something more beautiful than that. But tomorrow I'll share with you some wonderful information about the magnificent treasure of Divine Mercy Sunday. 

Once again, for the first three days of the novena, the sacred art will focus on the first part of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, so it will be the same sacred art as yesterday, in order that we can enter more deeply into Our Lord's Passion.

In order to find the prayers, as well as the links to magnificent sacred art, please do the following items: 

1. Click the following link:

http://www.josephpeteranthony.com/divine-mercy-novena

2. Scroll down, and if you haven't already done so, please read "How to Pray with the Booklet," "How to Pray without the Booklet," and "The Benefit of Praying with Sacred Art"

3. Scroll down a little further and click the link entitled "Divine Mercy Novena: Day 2" (this will take you to the prayers and the sacred art)

If you have any questions, then please let me know. I'm always happy to help if I can.

God bless you, and may the magnificent and dazzling light of Divine Mercy always shine brightly in your hearts!

Joe

DIVINE MERCY NOVENA: DAY 1 OF 9

Hello, everyone,

We're finally here. Now it's time to pray the beautiful and powerful Divine Mercy Novena. 

For these first three days, the sacred art will focus on the first part of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

In order to find the prayers, as well as the links to magnificent sacred art, please do the following items: 

1. Click the following link:

http://www.josephpeteranthony.com/divine-mercy-novena

2. Scroll down a little bit and please read the instructions entitled "How to Pray with the Booklet," "How to Pray without the Booklet," and "The Benefit of Praying with Sacred Art"

3. Scroll down a little further and click the link entitled "Divine Mercy Novena: Day 1" (this will take you to the prayers and the sacred art)

If you have any questions, then please let me know. I'm always happy to help if I can.

God bless you, and may the magnificent and dazzling light of Divine Mercy always shine brightly in your hearts!

Joe

ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA

Inspired by the writing of this great saint

You stand atop a holy bridge,

A bridge that has several levels,

Like the historic Ponte Vecchio,

And the waves of the worldly waters

Are swarming with sea demons who

Obsessively seek souls to rip open

With their blade-like bloody teeth,

And their cold cadaverous claws,

To torture them in The Endless Death;

But some souls, through God’s grace, 

Cling to the edge of the first level

Of the bridge, dripping wet and

Shivering, terrified of going to hell,

So they clutch tightly to the bridge,

Fearing that they will fall back into

The turbulent black river of doom;

Other souls, through God’s strength, 

Climb up higher to the second level

Where they are safe from the evil

Threat below, in a place of serene

Consolation, where happiness can

Finally reign in their grateful hearts;

However, there are still others who

Through their passionate prayers 

And through total surrender

To Jesus’ most Holy Cross,

Climb to the top of the bridge,

And there -- yes, there! -- they are

Pierced by the overwhelming beauty

Of the magnificent heavenly realm,

Where Jesus’ peace surrounds them, 

Where Jesus’ joy enthralls them, 

Where Jesus’ love embraces them.

WILLIE THE WORRIER

Willie the Worrier woke up in bed,

He was quickly filled with horrible dread;

His main goal in life was to get ahead,

Yet he stumbled and fell behind instead;

Never satisfied with his daily bread,

Now this stressaholic is door-nail dead.

TIME

When there is a crash on the

Superhighway of sensations,

Time painfully slows down,

And we live in boredom,

Crawling lethargically along,

Bumper to bumper,

In the dreadful dullness

Of the traffic jam of life.

When we are behind schedule

In the crowded city of Chaos,

Time urgently speeds up,

And we live in anxiety,

Racing with our hair on fire,

Chasing and being chased,

In the nail-biting frenzy

Of the rat race of life.

But when there’s surrender,

And we give our lives to Him,

Time dissolves into eternity,

Love smiles upon us —

Then, nothing else matters,

We are attached to the Vine,

And our little branches are full

Of the sweet fruit of the Spirit!

RICKY THE RUSHER

Ricky rushes madly all the day long,

He’s petrified things will turn out all wrong;

His two nervous eyes seem made of green rock,

That shift like the pendulum of a clock;

Keep up with the Joneses, he must, he must,

Or all of his dreams will turn to grey dust;

His sad sour life is a merry-go-round,

And Fear chases him like a hungry hound;

Tragically, he lives at a breakneck pace,

With worrisome wrinkles on his blank face;

Ricky’s afraid he just might go crazy,

The truth is that his future’s quite hazy;

He needs to run, run, run, and buy, buy, buy,

But he never stops to ask himself why.

PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING IN THE DARK NIGHT OF UNKNOWING

Thank you, Jesus,

For the gift of your love.

Thank you, Jesus,

For the gift of your joy.

Thank you, Jesus,

For the gift of your peace.

Thank you, Jesus,

For the gift of your patience.

Thank you, Jesus,

For the gift of your kindness.

Thank you, Jesus,

For the gift of your generosity.

Thank you, Jesus,

For the gift of your faithfulness.

Thank you, Jesus,

For the gift of your gentleness.

Thank you, Jesus,

For the gift of your self-control.

Thank you, Jesus,

For the gift of your divine wisdom.

Thank you, Jesus,

For the gift of your divine mercy.

Amen.

THE DAY TRADER

Ignoramus Maximus is his name,

And playing the stock market is his game;

With a dark ghoulish smile and fiendish eye,

Greed burns inside him and will never die;

He listens to the experts on TV,

Thinking these people the future can see;

As the stock market climbs to all new highs,

He trades hundreds of stocks of every size;

Thinking of nothing but buying and selling,

His addictive life is very telling;

To the god of riches does he succumb,

So that his sick brain becomes very numb;

But seeing his statement, he starts to choke,

He finally learns he’s totally broke.

BLOWING BUBBLES

I like to chew bubblegum,

I chew it until my lips are numb;

Even though it makes me cough,

It gives me a chance to show off;

I chew with a great deal of vigor,

To blow my bubbles even bigger;

My jaw churns like a runaway train,

As if I were absolutely going insane;

Then I blow a bubble ever so big,

Almost as big as the face of a pig;

Then it explodes all over my face,

And, humiliated, I am in utter disgrace;

Why do I always have to be the best?

And be such a stupid arrogant pest?

I try way too hard to seem so cool,

But I’m really, honestly, just a big fool.

THE OPERA SINGER

"Pride goeth before a fall"

As the titanic tenor sings a tune,

Pride inflates him like a hot air balloon;

With an arrogant wrinkle of his brow,

He revels in a long slow snooty bow;

The crowd erupts in explosive applause,

And he smiles a plastic smile with his jaws;

But then something unexpected takes place,

A vine-ripened tomato hits his face;

The singer gives the guy a dirty glance,

But then abruptly trips and rips his pants.

THE LITTERBUG

Ignoramus Incredibilis is his name,

Or call him Litterbug -- it’s just the same;

He wipes his hands on his ketchup-stained shirt,

And drops his wrapper right into the dirt;

A stroll to the trash can is just too far,

So he tosses the bottle from his car;

But here is a fact pondered by the wise,

That Litterbug wears a sneaky disguise;

In truth, he’s very hard for us to see,

He actually looks just like you and me.

OUR LADY'S LITTLE LANTERN

O Mystical Rose,

Surrounded by the

Dazzling and brilliant Light,

You open your little lantern

And fill it to the brim

With the Light of Love,

Then you humbly and gently

Shine it upon the whole world,

Transfiguring it,

With His glorious goodness,

With His transparent truth,

With His benevolent beauty!