Pillars of Fire In My Soul

Fidelity to the text of the Chaplet and to the spirit of the Devotion demands the continual petition for Mercy “on us and on the whole world,” i.e., to use the plural “us” always. The “us” signifies the person reciting the prayer, as well as all those for whom the person especially wishes and is obliged to pray. The “whole world,” on the other hand, includes all living peo- ple and all the souls in purgatory. Even if we recite the Chaplet individually, we should still employ the plural form, “on us and on the whole world.” Acting thus, we execute an act of mercy, which, as explained earlier, is a condition necessary for the reception of Mercy from God. If someone should pray the Chaplet and request mercy only for himself, it would be con- trary to the will of Christ and would not be an act of the Devotion. The person praying would not gain those benefits which Christ attached to the recitation of the Chaplet. Perseverance should characterize the recitation of the Chaplet as an external expression of our internal trust in Divine Mercy. In truth, Jesus did promise twice (in revelations 48 and 66, Diary §1128 and §1541) that it is possible to obtain everything through this Chaplet. Nonetheless, with the exception of the grace of a good death, He never promised instant results after a single recitation. In the revelations received by Sister Helen Faustina, we find examples of both: a single Chaplet being sufficient to guarantee a dying person a good and peaceful death, as well as examples which show that to achieve this same goal one must repeat the Chaplet more than once, persistently and at length, without discour- agement that we have not been heard immediately. The letter and spirit of the Devotion demand this of us, but so do the teaching of Jesus in the Gospel: “It is necessary to pray always, and never to cease” (Lk 18:1). Jesus attached a great general promise as well as unusual specific promises to the recitation of the Chaplet. The general promise was given in the 48th revelation and 118 Pillars of Fire in My Soul