Today, the world stands still. On this Good Friday, the Church enters into the profound silence of the Lord’s Passion. At the Divine Mercy Shrine, we recognise that this is not merely a historical commemoration, but the moment when the floodgates of Heaven were wrenched open by the lance that pierced the Side of Christ. As we begin the Divine Mercy Novena today, we look at the liturgy of this hour through the mystical lenses of St. Faustina Kowalska, the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta, and the seraphic Doctor, St. Bonaventure.
I. The Suffering Servant: The First Reading (Isaiah 52:13—53:12)
The prophecy of Isaiah presents us with the “Man of Sorrows.” He was “spurned and avoided by people,” a vision of disfigurement that caused men to hide their faces.
The Connection to St. Faustina: In her Diary, St. Faustina describes a vision of Jesus during His scourging: “I saw how the Lord Jesus suffered… His Blood flowed to the ground, and in some places His flesh started to fall off” (Diary, 188). Isaiah’s “crushed for our sins” is not an abstraction for Faustina; it is the visual reality of Mercy being poured out. For her, every wound of the Suffering Servant is a “fountain of mercy” for the most hopeless sinner.
The Divine Will (Luisa Piccarreta): In The Hours of the Passion, Luisa contemplates the interior state of the Suffering Servant. She notes that while Isaiah describes the exterior “marred appearance,” Jesus was simultaneously enduring an interior crucifixion. In the Divine Will, every blow dealt to Jesus was multiplied by the number of souls who would ever live. He was not just suffering as a man, but as the Word, repairing the shattered link between the human will and the Divine.
II. The Prayer of the Broken: The Responsorial Psalm (Psalm 31)
“Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
This Psalm is the ultimate act of abandonment. St. Bonaventure, in his Seven Last Words of Christ, reflects on this final cry. He suggests that Jesus, by quoting the Psalm, shows us that the way back to the Father is through the total surrender of the soul. Bonaventure invites us to enter the “clefts of the rock”, the wounds of Christ, to find shelter from the storm of our own sins.
III. The High Priest of Mercy: The Second Reading (Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9)
The author of Hebrews reminds us that we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses.
The Insight of St. Faustina: Faustina’s mission was to tell the world that the greater the sinner, the greater the right they have to His mercy. Hebrews tells us to “confidently approach the throne of grace.” For Faustina, that throne is the wounded Heart of Jesus. She writes: “Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet” (Diary, 699).
IV. The Maternal Heart: The Woman of Genesis at the Foot of the Cross
As we contemplate the Gospel, we see Mary standing beneath the Cross. When Jesus looks down and says, “Woman, behold your son,” He is not merely providing for His mother’s old age. He is using the specific title “Woman” to identify her as the one prophesied in Genesis 3:15, the one whose offspring would crush the head of the serpent.
At the moment of Christ’s death, the physical lance that pierced His Side also spiritually pierced the Heart of Mary, fulfilling Simeon’s prophecy. Yet, in a miracle of Divine Mercy, the Sorrowful Mother did not turn away from those who were crucifying her Son. Instead, she opened her Heart to take all of us – the very ones who caused His suffering- into her maternal care. In the Divine Will, her “Fiat” at the Foot of the Cross matches her “Fiat” at the Annunciation; she becomes the Mother of the Mystical Body, birthing us into the life of Grace through her tears.
V. The Great Drama: The Gospel of the Passion (John 18:1—19:42)
St. John’s Gospel portrays Jesus as a King. Even in His arrest and crucifixion, He is in control. He is the “I AM.”
Luisa Piccarreta and the Divine Will: In The Hours of the Passion, Luisa walks through each moment of John’s narrative. When Jesus is crowned with thorns, Luisa sees Him repairing the “rebellion of the human mind.” When He is stripped, He is reclothing us in the “garment of innocence” lost in Eden. To live in the Divine Will is to accompany Jesus in these hours, not as a spectator, but as an “altar” where His acts are repeated and offered to the Father for the salvation of all.
St. Bonaventure’s Seven Last Words: Bonaventure meditates on “I Thirst.” He explains that this was not a thirst for water, but a thirst for souls. This resonates deeply with the Divine Mercy message: “My Heart overflows with great mercy for souls… Oh, if they could only understand that I am the best of Fathers to them” (Diary, 367).
VI. Today: The Divine Mercy Novena Begins
Jesus requested that the Novena to Divine Mercy begin on Good Friday. As we stand at the foot of the Cross, we officially open these nine days of intense grace.
Day One: Bringing All Mankind to the Fountain of Mercy On this first day, we bring all mankind, especially all sinners, and immerse them in the ocean of His mercy.
The Promise: Jesus told St. Faustina: “By this novena, I will grant every possible grace to souls” (Diary, 796). On this first day, we comfort Him in His bitter grief over the loss of souls.
VII. The Covenant of the Divine Will: A Solemn Meditation
On this day of the Cross, we unite ourselves to the Divine Will through this profound covenant. We offer our very existence, our breaths, our sighs, our movements, to repair the world and glorify the Trinity.
The Prayer and Covenant
Dear glorious Holy Trinity, eternal Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier, all the desires you give us in the Divine WILL are before you and our Compunction of Heart is not hidden from you; but in as much as the necessities and the distractions of this life prevent the constant application of our minds to your loving worship, we make with you this Covenant to which we add permanence in the Divine Will.
We would offer it on behalf of all humanity of all times earnestly desiring that it remain in force from the beginning of all human life to the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus.
Looking up.
We begin in that whenever we look up, or have looked up, towards heaven we desire and intend to rejoice and delight with you in your infinite perfections that you are what you are, infinitely and supremely strong, wise, loving and just and that now, on top of your Godly Nature, so extraordinary is Your Love that You actually go so far as to want us to live in your Divine Will with You.
Opening and closing our eyes.
Then as often as we open or have opened or closed our eyes we desire and intend to acknowledge and concur in all the holy actions which your Only Begotten Son, Jesus, Our Lady and all the Saints in Heaven, the Short-lived Divine Lives and the Just on earth have ever done or shall hereafter do to your glory, and we desire to be held partakers in them all and for all.
Our breaths.
As often as we draw our breaths or have drawn our breaths so do we offer to the Trinity all the inner suffering of your spirit, Lord Jesus, as well the physical pain of Your whole life, Your horrific Passion, with all it’s spilled blood up to the crucifixion and death on a Cross, your Resurrection and triumphant glory, as well as the merits and sufferings of our Blessed Mother Mary, the apostles, and all the saints to your unending glorification for ever. Then again we make this offering for the welfare and peace of the church and the whole world and in satisfaction for the sins of all ever.
Our Sighs.
Whenever we sigh or have sighed we intend to detest and abhor every sin, beginning with our own, and those of all that have ever been committed against the honour of your Name, dear beloved Holy Trinity, or the name of Mother Mary, by the human race in thought, word, action or omission. Would that the insignificant offering of our blood might be accepted in satisfaction for them. It is however with confidence in the Divine Will that we turn again to the satisfaction made by the suffering servant Himself and of His broken and wounded Heart plus the pains of His Mother, offering these in supreme atonement in your Divine Will and for everyone.
Hands and feet.
Lastly, beloved Holy Trinity, as often as we move our hands and feet or have moved them, so often do we cast ourselves with total and complete trust upon your most holy Divine Will with an appeal to live in that Will for ever and to understand all the knowledge of it, desiring that you yourself would be transforming all our actions into the divine – generating them yourself – free in us to do what you please in us, forming divine lives and hosts everywhere ever according to your adorable good pleasure.
Five Seals.
And lest this fivefold covenant should in any way be made void we seal it with the seals of Jesus’ Five most Sacred Wounds earnestly desiring that it may have its full force with you, even though in any one of these actions it be not present to our minds and may in fact be far from the minds of all those we include in it. Amen Fiat.
Prayer of Saint Bonaventure on the Passion
O most holy Virgin, Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ: by the overwhelming grief you experienced when you witnessed the martyrdom, the crucifixion, and death of your divine Son, look upon me with eyes of compassion, and awaken in my heart a tender commiseration for those sufferings, as well as a sincere detestation of my sins, in order that being disengaged from all undue affection for the passing joys of this earth, I may sigh after the eternal Jerusalem, and that henceforward all my thoughts and all my actions may be directed towards this one most desirable object.
Honor, glory, and love to our divine Lord Jesus, and to the holy and immaculate Mother of God. Amen.
Jesus we trust in You – yesterday, today and FORVER!
An Invitation to the Altar
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