Prayer League Continues to Grow
On Divine Mercy Sunday 2002, the Prayer League celebrated its fourth anniversary. We now have almost 700 members throughout the world praying the Chaplet for Church unity. About half of our members are from the United States, and the other half from countries throughout the world. We thank you all for your perseverance in prayer and in making the Divine Mercy devotion known in your part of the world.

Praying for Church Unity
As we note on our website and in our information booklet, the goal of the Divine Mercy Prayer League is not specifically or primarily to promote devotion to the Divine Mercy. Our goal, rather, is to plead for the unity of church leaders with the Holy Father.

The current round of scandals in the United States and elsewhere has highlighted the price and damage of unfaithfulness. The newspapers present a constant source of opinions about how the Catholic Church should be changed or disbanded.

Our constant prayer is that the leaders of the Church will become more pure in their representation of the Church and will unify fully with our great leader, John Paul II. The first of our readings provides an example of the Holy Father speaking, more than once, and not being heard universally. The Apostolic Letter on the sacrament of reconciliation, from which we quote, has a quotation within a quotation, which the Holy Father used to indicate that he's said this more than once and as early as 1984.

THE HOLY FATHER
The Roman Pontiff, as the successor of Peter, is the perpetual and visible principle and foundation of unity of both the bishops and of the faithful.
–Lumen Gentium, 23

From John Paul II:
I wrote in my Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte: "I am asking for renewed pastoral courage in ensuring that the day-to-day teaching of Christian communities persuasively and effectively presents the practice of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. As you will recall, in 1984 I dealt with this subject in the Post-Synodal Exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, which synthesized the results of a General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops devoted to this question. My invitation then was to make every effort to face the crisis of 'the sense of sin' apparent in today's culture. But I was even more insistent in calling for a rediscovery of Christ as mysterium pietatis, the one in whom God shows us his compassionate heart and reconciles us fully with himself. It is this face of Christ that must be rediscovered through the Sacrament of Penance, which for the faithful is 'the ordinary way of obtaining forgiveness and the remission of serious sins committed after Baptism.' When the Synod addressed the problem, the crisis of the Sacrament was there for all to see, especially in some parts of the world. The causes of the crisis have not disappeared in the brief span of time since then. But the Jubilee Year, which has been particularly marked by a return to the Sacrament of Penance, has given us an encouraging message, which should not be ignored: if many people, and among them also many young people, have benefited from approaching this Sacrament, it is probably necessary that Pastors should arm themselves with more confidence, creativity, and perseverance in presenting it and leading people to appreciate it."

With these words, I intended, as I do now, to encourage my Brother Bishops and earnestly appeal to them - and, through them, to all priests - to undertake a vigorous revitalization of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This is a requirement of genuine charity and true pastoral justice, and we should remember that the faithful, when they have the proper interior dispositions, have the right to receive personally the sacramental gift.

In order that the minister of the Sacrament may know the dispositions of penitents with a view to granting or withholding absolution and imposing a suitable penance, it is necessary that the faithful, as well as being aware of the sins they have committed, of being sorry for them, and resolved not to fall into them again, should also confess their sins. In this sense, the Council of Trent declared that it is necessary "by divine decree to confess each and every mortal sin." The Church has always seen an essential link between the judgment entrusted to the priest in the Sacrament and the need for penitents to name their own sins, except where this is not possible. Since, therefore, the integral confession of serious sins is by divine decree a constitutive part of the Sacrament, it is in no way subject to the discretion of pastors (dispensation, interpretation, local customs, etc.). In the relevant disciplinary norms, the competent ecclesiastical authority merely indicates the criteria for distinguishing a real impossibility of confessing one's sins from other situations in which the impossibility is only apparent or can be surmounted.
–Apostolic Letter Misericordia Dei, April 7, 2002

"You are not corporate executives, business managers, finance officers or bureaucrats but priests," he said. "This means above all that you have been set apart to offer sacrifice, since this is the essence of priesthood, and the core of the Christian priesthood is the offering of the sacrifice of Christ," the Holy Father added.
–John Paul II, Farewell Address to Bishops of Antilles, quoted in the National Catholic Register, May 19-25, 2002

O Mary, Mother of Mercy! You know the heart of your divine Son better than anyone. Instill in us the filial trust in Jesus practiced by the saints, the trust that animated Blessed Faustina Kowalska, the great apostle of Divine Mercy in our time.

Look lovingly upon our misery: O Mother, draw us away from the contrary temptations of self-sufficiency and despair, and obtain for us an abundance of saving mercy.
–John Paul II, April 10 1994

I would like to say to all: trust in the Lord! Be apostles of Divine Mercy.
-John Paul II, Homily, April 23, 1995

Saint Faustina's Prayer For Holy Church and for Priests
O my Jesus, I beg You on behalf of the whole Church: Grant it love and the light of Your Spirit and give power to the words of priests so that hardened hearts might be brought to repentance and return to You, O Lord.

Lord, give us holy priests; You Yourself maintain them in holiness. O Divine and Great High Priest, may the power of Your mercy accompany them everywhere and protect them from the devil's traps and snares which are continually being set for the souls of priests. May the power of Your mercy, O Lord, shatter and bring to naught all that might tarnish the sanctity of priests, for You can do all things. I ask You, Jesus, for a special blessing and for light for the priests before whom I will make my confessions throughout my lifetime. Amen.

Resources
Pamphlets and holy cards we send to new members come from an excellent source of Divine Mercy information: the Association of Marian Helpers in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, USA. Although we are in no way connected with them and are only purchasers of their publications, we do not hesitate in recommending them to you.

Among the many items available, an especially useful one for our members is a recent book by Rev. George W. Kosicki, CSB, John Paul II: The Great Mercy Pope (2001).

If you are in the United States or Canada, you can call for their free catalog at 1-800-462-7426. They also have a website. See our Links page for a link to the site.