A Method of Praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet -5 Wounds\Virtues Examen

Learn the most effective 5min examination of conscience you can do multiple times each day!

The Divine Mercy Chaplet has no required subject of meditation like the normal Rosary with its assigned mysteries. A simple guide to the prayers of the Divine Mercy Chaplet can be found here: (https://hallow.com/blog/how-to-pray-divine-mercy-chaplet/)

The following method of praying the chaplet fills it with edifying content. Because its also a quicker prayer, it can be profitable to pray it both as a meditation on The Five Wounds of Jesus Christ and as a quick examen and review of the moral and theological virutes as follows.

For the Divine Mercy Chaplet, we call upon God´s Mercy, despensed in Jesus Christ´s sorrowful passion to aid us and the whole world with each bead. Thus it provides an excellent occasion to get clear about what it is for which we are begging. We need mercy on account of our vices and sins! Thus it makes the prayer all the more powerful when our minds are fixed on these things. There is no better way to grow aware of one´s own sin than to contrast oneself with excellent examples and 9 out of the 10 beads in each decade serve this end. The last bead is for a vision to guide and motivate us, a vision the Holy Spirit may give us for what and how we would look like when we were free from vice and sin, how content, happy, heroic, we might be. This vision too should serve to remind us why we and the whole world needs mercy!

This method is a novel way of praying the chaplet to meditate on the substance of the moral life. Each decade picks out the form of one virtue, its matter, and its end. The focus is the 4 Cardinal virtues and 3 Theological Virtues, with two minor alterations. The main theme of each meditation is the designated Form, so Prudence, Justice, [Temperance, Courage,] Faith, Hope, Charity. The Matter explains what the virtue consists in, . Like the form of a statue has marble as its matter, this is the material this virtue exists or consists in.

So, for example, Prudence, the ordering of means to ends, consists in the holy fear of God, which orders all things to our highest end. The end of a thing is its reason for being, that to which it moves as its goal. So Prudence, which consists in the holy fear of God, tends our acts toward our perfection as means to this end. Humility consists in consent to God´s will or reality, and tends toward gratitude as its end. And so on. The seven deadly sins are also organized according to this scheme and it can be profitable to also reflect on one of these on the last bead. This method of praying is a great examen to start and end the day for instance, to give one focus on improving on each of these seven fronts each day.

The trick of this way of praying the ten beads for each decade of the divine mercy chaplet is as follows. For each bead we meditate on:

1. Positive Example of the Form

   1. (Think of The Prudence of St Francis, knowing Poverty is a great means to attain the end of God)

2. Negative Example of the Form or its absence.

   1. (Think of the lack of Prudence of a Philanthropist like Bill Gates, who thinks money rather than setting a good example is the best way to improve the world)

3. Association of some aspect of my life with the absence of the Form, complimented with a desire or resolution to overcome this weakness.

   1. (I see how I myself tend to try to evangelize with words and not my example, in this way I am more like Bill Gates, I desire to become more like St Francis´s holy prudence)

4. Positive Example of the Matter

   1. (I consider the Holy fear of God of St Pope Pius X, weeping all night after he was elected Pope, fearing the great terrible responsibility God had given him).

5. Negative example of the Matter

   1. (I consider the total absence of fear of God in modernists, like Cardinal Marx in germany, who wish to change the catholic faith to adapt to times)

6. Association of some aspect of my life with the absence of the matter, complimented with a desire or resolution to overcome this weakness.

   1. (I see how in many ways, I am like Cardinal Marx, excusing my own sin based on circumstances, not acknowledging the duties and responsibilies I must give account for on the day of my judgment, and following my own will, I resolve to be more like St Pope Pius X)

7. Positive Example of the Intention or End

   1. (I think of Elon Musk, the person need not be catholic, only be a good example of the virtue, as someone who exemplifies Perfection in his state in life. As an engineer, inventor, businessman, he has no peer in the world and few in the history of the world. He never would have achieved so much had he not had a different vision of what perfection is for himself that he was aiming at.)

8. Negative Example of the Intention or End

   1. (I think of a friend of mine who has wasted a lot of their talents, and has never even aimed very high to avoid disappointment.)

9. Association of some aspect of my life with the absence of this intention or End, complimented with a desire or resolution to overcome this weakness.

   1. (I find aspects of my life where I am like my slothful friend and resolve to set and pursue higher standards of perfection for myself and my vocation like Elon Musk)

10. Finally, creating and desiring a vision of ourselves or lives and what God would be able to do with us, if we perfected the form, matter, and intention. Part of this reflection should be identifying the main vice or obstacle to realizing this vision.

    1. (I consider what God might be doing with me, in a concrete vision, if I were truly prudent, ordering all things to God´s glory, full of a filial fear of disappointing God out of love for Him, and tending toward perfection in virtue and my state in life, I desire this vision and I also consider the cost of my procrastinating up to this point in my life, and try to envision a future where this vice is not overcome.)

Because the chaplet is only five decades normally, the 3rd and 4th meditation on Temperance and Courage are optional. To do the full examen, it requires 7 decades. Its also profitable to assign each of these virtues to one of the Holy Wounds of Jesus. The original five are his nail pierced feet and hands, and then the wound in his side. To make room for Temperance and Courage, I think of one of his knees being bloodied, and then his famous shoulder wound where he carried the cross. This way too, we associate our need for mercy with the Source of Mercy, His Five Holy Wounds.

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1. First Decade: (Right Foot Wound)

   1. Form-Prudence

   2. Matter-Fear of God

   3. Intention\End-Perfection

   4. Vice: Pride

   5. Beatitude: Poverty

2. Second Decade: (Left Foot Wound)

   1. Form-Poverty\Humility

   2. Matter-Consent

   3. Intention\End-Gratitude

   4. Vices: Greed

   5. Beatitude: Mourn

[Optional: Third Decade: Form: Temperance, Matter-Sense of Honor\Shame, End-Contentment, Vice: Gluttony (Bloodied Knee)]

[Optional: Fourth Decade: Form-Courage, Matter-Patience, Intention-Glory, Vice: Anger (Shoulder Wound)]

3. Third [or Fifth] Decade: (Left Hand)

   1. Form-Faith

   2. Matter-Obedience

   3. Intention\End-Simplicity

   4. Vice: Lust

4. Fourth [or Sixth] Decade: (Right Hand)

   1. Form-Hope

   2. Matter-Devotion\Sacrifice

   3. Intention-Confidence

   4. Presumption\Despair, Sloth

5. Fifth [or Seventh] Decade: (Wound in his Side)

   1. Form-Charity

   2. Matter-Wisdom

   3. Intention-Peace

   4. Vices: Envy