I've always felt a little queasy about the Divine Mercy Devotion. Personally, I don't pray it. Instead I pray the Sacred Heart novena which Padre Pio prayed every day. There are thousands of devotions in the Church. No one Catholic could pray them all. God gave us this abundance because we are like a huge flower garden. What nourishes one flower could kill another. The rosary is certainly a devotion for all that is like putting the best fertilizer on every flower in the garden. Most devotions aren't like that.
At any rate, I don't disparage anyone's devotion. God can use anything, even error to bring people closer to Christ. I don't believe Medjugorje was legitimate, but I visited there with a friend who wanted to go and received blessings. I attribute that more to the faith of the people who went there than to the alleged apparitions.
There is also a different outlook on St. Faustina and the Divine Mercy devotion which the priest in the video below defends. Frankly, I think Fr. Burfitt has the better of the argument. I agree that the Divine Mercy devotion tends to promote the idea of universal salvation and that there are things in the diary that, even after translation corrections, are problematic. [Read here and here.] But in the interests of transparency I offer both sides. Let people consider all the information, make up their minds, and follow their own consciences. I will continue to pray the novena to the Sacred Heart rather than the Divine Mercy chaplet.
We can't limit God. He loves our faith and blesses us in all kinds of circumstances. His attention to the woman at the well is a good example, and, of course, the woman taken in adultery. He is quick to offer grace to the neediest among us. Grace builds on nature and even our fallen nature and, yes, our sins can be a source of bringing us to God and inviting us to greater holiness. Remember Mary Magdalene. "Who has been forgiven much loves much."
I invite you to join me in praying the Novena to the Sacred Heart. I'll be offering it for the happy repose of the soul of my husband's brother Albert who died on Holy Saturday. I pray that he is already kneeling in adoration before the throne of God. He suffered so much during these past few years that I think, if he has any time in Purgatory at all, it will be short. I pray to act in suffering with the same courage Albert did. Please offer prayers for him and for his family. He is beyond suffering. His wife and family are walking in the dark valley of grief and loneliness. There's a good chance I will be the one to walk that journey in the future. May God give us all the courage to accept everything that occurs to us according to His Divine Will.
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in You.
Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us!
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