Jesus, Mercy Incarnate

Lord’s instructions to St. Faustina were both more flexible and more demanding. She was encouraged to say the Chaplet “with- out ceasing” ( Diary , 687), in other words, not once per day, but —precisely because it is an intercessory prayer —whenever and wherever intercession was needed. Our Lady of Fatima, howev- er, specifically asked the faithful to try to recite at least part of the Rosary each day: I am the Lady of the Rosary. I have come to warn the faithful to amend their lives and to ask pardon for their sins. ... People must say the Rosary. Let them continue saying it every day. 57 Whatever prayers and devotions one may choose in order to sanctify each day, the important thing to remember is that the Lord regards not the number or magnitude of the devo- tions that we practice, but the faith and love with which we offer them . This alone is what brings delight to the Merciful Heart of Jesus from acts of piety. Moreover, such pious prac- tices are means , not ends in themselves. They are meant to nurture and form in us, by the grace of God, not just devotions and “devotionalism,” but true devotion: true love for God. In other words, we are not merely to remain gazing at images of the Merciful Heart of Jesus, or reciting prayers to Him; rather, we are invited to come to know His love for us so deeply, per- sonally, and intimately that we enter into that Heart , as into a fountain and ocean of Mercy, a burning furnace of love and and light. In this, the final goal, as in so many other respects, the devotion to the Sacred Heart and the devotion to The Divine Mercy are in perfect accord. In closing we have only to quote the words of St. Faustina and Sr. Josefa to show that these two devotions recommend the same means — com- plete, trustful surrender to the open Heart of Jesus — to reach the same end , namely mystical union with that Heart as with a veritable “sea of mercy” and “abyss of light”: 125 The Sacred Heart and The Divine Mercy