Advent of Confirmation

I will be baptized this year! I will officially be a member of the Catholic church. I was always meant to be a Catholic, I realize that now. I look at the little girls in their uniforms at the school adjacent to the church with such joy. As a convert Catholic (as opposed to a cradle Catholic), I find myself mentally taking in my Catholic faith with the maturity of a adult and my soul absorbing it with the acceptance that a pious little Catholic girl would, the same ones I saw as I would go to adoration.

Sometimes I am glad that found my place at this time. I don't take anything for granted. I am proud of my conversion. I carry inside of me a little parochial school girl who deeply loves Jesus and Our Lady, one who no doubt would have been the altar girl who prayed her rosary everyday. I also a carry an adult who has acquired hard earned knowledge that just may be wisdom. She too has absorbed the Catholic faith.

There is so much I need to resolve inside of me, including how my relation with God fits into all of this. I have, sadly, put my wants and desires over his will of late. I have been doing the terribly wrong thing of asking God to answer me instead of going to him and finding answers. It's a tough process doing it God's way and I struggle with it. However, I am comforted by the fact that I have a deep and profound love for the Eucharist, for the aspects of the Catholic faith that bring me closer to my creator and the healing I find the rosary.

If there is one thing that can help me heal from 2010, it will be my Catholic faith and the love I pump into it.

Laura Ingraham is one of my favorite political commentators. She, too, is a convert. I can also tell that, like me, she feels that deep love and pride in her Catholic faith same I have felt. On her website she sells the 4 way medal (which she always wears herself and the proceeds go to Little Sisters of the Poor). I can't wait to start wearing mine once I have received Confirmation.

My 4-way cross, of course, will say "I'm Catholic-please call a priest." It's like a Catholic version of a medical bracelet!

This is my favorite prayer ever, and we Catholics have an awesome prayer library!

The Chaplet of The Divine Mercy

How to Recite the Chaplet

The Chaplet of Mercy is recited using ordinary rosary beads of five decades. The Chaplet is preceded by two opening prayers from the Diary of Saint Faustina and followed by a closing prayer.

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1. Make the Sign of the Cross

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

2. Optional 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.

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

3. Our Father

Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, Amen.

4. Hail Mary

Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen.

5. The Apostle's Creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified; died, and was buried. He descended into Hell; the third day He arose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

6. The Eternal 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.

7. On the Ten Small Beads of Each Decade

For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

8. Repeat for the remaining decades

Saying the "Eternal Father" (6) on the "Our Father" bead and then 10 "For the sake of His sorrowful Passion" (7) on the following "Hail Mary" beads.

9. Conclude with Holy God (Repeat three times)

Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

10. Optional Closing Prayer

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.