Marrying the Rosary to the Divine Mercy Chaplet
Foreword by
Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC, STL
For more than 800 years the Rosary has been used by the Church as a spiritual weapon and way of crowing Our Lady with heavenly roses. The Rosary has overcome the enemies of Christ, saved entire nations, stopped wars, and helped many lost souls find their way back to the practice of the faith and the Sacraments. In the early 20th century, when Jesus revealed the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy to St. Faustina, he desired that ordinary rosary beads be used as the material component for a new form of devotion to his mercy. This moment, in a certain sense, marked the “engagement” of the Rosary to the Chaplet.
Everyone knows that marriages take time, planning, and preparation. This marriage, in particular, had been long in the making. It was truly a marriage made in heaven.
In the 13th century, when Our Lady gave the Rosary to Saint Dominic, the founder of the Dominicans never would have imagined that centuries later the world would be in such moral decline that heaven would wed to the blessed battle beads of St. Dominic a new form of devotion to God’s mercy. The revelations of Jesus to St. Faustina would give the rosary the added power of not only being a spiritual weapon and a heavenly crown of roses, but also an instrument of mercy for a hurting world. Jesus knows that Divine Mercy is exactly what our world needs today.
In this devotional marriage, then, St. Faustina Kowalska serves as the bride’s maid and St. John Paul II the best man. Both of these great saints prayed the Rosary every day and were apostles of the Divine Mercy message and devotion. I’m quite certain they would both be very pleased to witness the marriage of the rosary to the chaplet as presented in this book.
The method of prayer presented by Shane Kapler in this book has the potential to produce an abundance of fruit in the spiritual lives of those who use it. After all, all marriages are called to fruitfulness. By using this method of prayer, people will be able to meditate on the saving mysteries of Jesus and, at the same time, make an urgent appeal to God’s mercy for ourselves and the whole world. What better union could there be? What incredible fruit will come from this form of devotion!
Saint Dominic, pray for us! Saint Faustina, pray for us! St. John Paul II, pray for us!
