September – Praying for Mercy

As a team here at Carpe Verbum, we've been talking for the last few weeks about how to respond to the horrible crisis coming to light in our Church right now. We are a Catholic ministry who loves the Church and believes wholeheartedly in what the Church stands for, and so we are brokenhearted that this sort of evil has happened in our Church. In all honestly, we struggled with what to say at this time because, as with so many people we know and have talked to, this hurts us. It hurts us that people would commit this sort of evil, and hurts us immensely more that this evil was committed by people using the influence given to them by their role in the Church. What hurts us the most is that there are innocent people who suffered and are still suffering due to these horrid crimes.
Our ministry is founded on the idea that prayer changes things. When we approach the Lord in honest prayer, when we encounter Him in prayer and let Him encounter us, things change. First and foremost, we change. Then, the people around us change. Pretty soon, the world changes. This isn't just blind faith; this is true conviction based on the evidence of the Church over 2,000 years which shows that in times of great trial and great crisis it is the saints who bring renewal.
And so, at this moment in the Church, we're going to take the 30 days of September to dedicate ourselves to prayer, penance, and fasting for the victims of these heinous crimes and for the healing of the body of Christ. We have decided to do this as a team, and we invite you to join us. The fifth step each day in our lectio divina is an action step, where we allow the Word of God to influence how we live our lives. For this month, that action step will always be to pray a Divine Mercy Chaplet for the healing of all victims of clerical abuse and for healing and guidance for the Church moving forward. Please join us in this prayer, praying first and foremost for the healing of victims, and then also for the healing and guidance of the Church in this time.
Please pray with us for healing for the victims, healing in the Church, and a clear path forward where the saints, those who truly live each day for Christ, are the ones leading. And may those saints be you and I.
–  The Carpe Verbum Team

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The Divine Mercy Chaplet

The following are the prayers of the Divine Mercy Chaplet to be prayed each day this month. This prayer is normally prayed using a rosary.

Opening Prayers:
You expired, Jesus, but the source of life gushed forth for souls, and the ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world. O Fount of Life, unfathomable Divine Mercy, envelop the whole world and empty Yourself out upon us.

(Repeat three times)
O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fountain of Mercy for us, I trust in You!

Our Father

Hail Mary

The Apostle's Creed

On each rosary bead where one would say an Our Father:
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. 

Ten times, one on each bead where one would say a Hail Mary: 
For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

(repeat the above for each of the 5 decades of the rosary beads)

Closing Prayers:
(three times)
Holy God, Holy Might One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world. 

Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion — inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself.​