What People Are Commenting
Was ‘Divine Mercy’ Meant
to Replace the Rosary?
My Experience with the Divine Mercy Devotion
Dear TIA,
'I've been reading your site for years now and I have to say, I've really learned a lot from it. There have been so many things I had questions about, things that seemed strange or wrong to me, but I couldn' t figure out why they bothered me. Then, it seemed as though I almost always would find the answer in one of your articles. I thank you for that!
My main reason for writing you is, I think you are completely right about the divine mercy devotion (I can't capitalize it). Some months back, I found a pamphlet about it at my church. I felt drawn to it. Of course, at the time I figured that God was leading me to it. Was I wrong!
Since it was so appealing, I started saying it every day for someone I was praying for. Also, I was hopeful of the "great graces" it promised. Wrong again.
What actually happened was I began to gradually feel a strange aversion to prayer, religious images and, worst of all, Church Doctrine. For the first time ever, I began to seriously question what was so terrible about homosexuality, prostitution, sex outside of marriage, contraception, etc. Although I didn't physically commit any of these sins, I was seriously mocking the Church in my thoughts, and starting to read and watch things that supported my new "philosophy".
Worst of all, I felt an attraction to anything evil or demonic. I could not explain any of this, and I began to wonder where the "great graces" were. I naively assumed that since I was saying extra prayers, the devil was just trying to "distract" me.
But God's grace must have still been with me, because deep down I still felt bad about offending Him. And I was still, with much difficulty, trying to say my usual daily prayers.
Anyway, I became so repulsed by prayer that I stopped, but for a few Hail Marys and Our Fathers over the course of the day. And, to my surprise, once I quit praying the phony divine mercy devotion, those strange thoughts and temptations ceased, and my mind and soul became clear and orderly again. (I'm also trying to get back into the habit of the daily Rosary. I've missed it!)
I just wanted to thank you for that article. I can certainly attest to it! And since God was so good as to help me come back, I want to warn others. Stay away from that thing!
By the way, as soon as I'd read your article, I ripped up that pamphlet and put in the garbage where it belongs!
I'm sorry this is so long, but I really felt I should tell it. Thank you for reading. God bless you, and keep us all safe.
Yours truly,
K.H.
'I've been reading your site for years now and I have to say, I've really learned a lot from it. There have been so many things I had questions about, things that seemed strange or wrong to me, but I couldn' t figure out why they bothered me. Then, it seemed as though I almost always would find the answer in one of your articles. I thank you for that!
My main reason for writing you is, I think you are completely right about the divine mercy devotion (I can't capitalize it). Some months back, I found a pamphlet about it at my church. I felt drawn to it. Of course, at the time I figured that God was leading me to it. Was I wrong!
Since it was so appealing, I started saying it every day for someone I was praying for. Also, I was hopeful of the "great graces" it promised. Wrong again.
What actually happened was I began to gradually feel a strange aversion to prayer, religious images and, worst of all, Church Doctrine. For the first time ever, I began to seriously question what was so terrible about homosexuality, prostitution, sex outside of marriage, contraception, etc. Although I didn't physically commit any of these sins, I was seriously mocking the Church in my thoughts, and starting to read and watch things that supported my new "philosophy".
Worst of all, I felt an attraction to anything evil or demonic. I could not explain any of this, and I began to wonder where the "great graces" were. I naively assumed that since I was saying extra prayers, the devil was just trying to "distract" me.
But God's grace must have still been with me, because deep down I still felt bad about offending Him. And I was still, with much difficulty, trying to say my usual daily prayers.
Anyway, I became so repulsed by prayer that I stopped, but for a few Hail Marys and Our Fathers over the course of the day. And, to my surprise, once I quit praying the phony divine mercy devotion, those strange thoughts and temptations ceased, and my mind and soul became clear and orderly again. (I'm also trying to get back into the habit of the daily Rosary. I've missed it!)
I just wanted to thank you for that article. I can certainly attest to it! And since God was so good as to help me come back, I want to warn others. Stay away from that thing!
By the way, as soon as I'd read your article, I ripped up that pamphlet and put in the garbage where it belongs!
I'm sorry this is so long, but I really felt I should tell it. Thank you for reading. God bless you, and keep us all safe.
Yours truly,
K.H.
Posted November 21, 2013
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The opinions expressed in this section - What People Are Commenting - do not necessarily express those of TIA
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Thank you, Msgr. Perez and TIA, for the Divine Mercy Devotion warning. For a long time I have had reservations about, especially since, like you, Monsignor, I felt an immediate repulsion toward the picture.
Also, at my Church (before I left the Novus Ordo) , it was the charismatic “Catholics” that immediately took it up and began to push it. I list below some other strange things – in addition to the ones you mentioned - in the Divine Mercy in my Soul Diary by Sister Faustina Kowalski, which is why I have avoided it.
Finally, I would like to point out that I know priests who have told their faithful to pray the Divine Mercy chaplet to replace the Rosary because there are so many more graces to be received from it, and it is more beneficial for these times. This seems to me a distraction from the message of Fatima, where Our Lady told us to pray the Rosary daily. She repeated this instruction with urgency at each apparition.
In our family, we continue to do as Our Lady requested, to pray the Rosary and make reparation for our sins and the increasing blasphemies against her Immaculate Heart. This is the safe and sure path.
D.D.