Can you spare seven minutes to help a dying soul?

“When I entered my solitude, I heard these words: ‘At the hour of their death, I defend as My own glory every soul that will say this chaplet [the Divine Mercy Chaplet]; or when others say it for a dying person, the pardon is the same. When this chaplet is said by the bedside of the dying person, God’s anger is placated, unfathomable mercy envelops the soul, and the very depths of My tender mercy are moved for the sake of the sorrowful Passion of My Son.’

Oh, if only everyone realized how great the Lord’s mercy is and how much we all need that mercy, especially at that crucial hour!” (Diary of Saint Faustina Kowalska, 811)

Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska recorded these words in her diary on December 11, 1936.

On average, about two people die every second of every day. Two souls are separated from their bodies. Two souls stand before their Savior to receive their particular judgement. Two souls stand on the edge of eternity.

Jesus loves us so much that He willingly suffered and died on the Cross so we poor sinners might spend eternity with Him in Heaven. Jesus alone can save us, but we know He listens to our needs out of his limitless love, and He specifically told Saint Faustina about the power of the Divine Mercy Chaplet to help a soul at the hour of death.

I fervently believe that many more souls would be saved if more people prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Approximately 24% of the US population is Catholic, which equals about 78,480,000 people. If 20% of them attend mass weekly (which is at the low end of the estimates), that would be 15,696,000. One percent of that total is 150,000, which is roughly the number of people who die in the world each day. So if only 1% of Catholics in the United States who attend mass weekly would pray the Chaplet every day, that would equal about one Chaplet for every person in the world who dies each day. “When others say it for a dying person, the pardon is the same.”

Can you spare seven minutes today to say the Divine Mercy Chaplet to help a soul in their hour of death? Can you spare seven minutes every day?

There is a link above to learn how to say the chaplet. You don’t have to pray for anyone in particular; God will know who to help. Just offer up your prayer for a dying person, and think of the Lord’s Passion, and the great love and mercy he showed through His suffering, as you pray. The Lord in His infinite love and mercy listens to our prayers!

The longest journey starts with a single step. Commit to saying the Divine Mercy Chaplet once a day. Share the message of God’s mercy with others. Jesus told Saint Faustina this was the “age of mercy,” which is also to say it is the age of hope.