ST. JOHN – Despite being raised in the Catholic faith and majoring in theology in college, Melissa Novak said she had never heard of the Divine Mercy Chaplet until she was a youth minister in her early 20s. It was the first time she prayed the Chaplet with a group of other youth ministers and teenagers, and she admits that it would be a few years before she prayed it again.
Novak, director of discipleship and evangelization at Our Lady of Consolation in Merrillville, shared her story about how she came to have a deep connection to the Divine Mercy Chaplet at the beginning of a Divine Mercy Holy Hour on April 27 at St. John the Evangelist.
Before, the church was full of faithful who arrived to pray in front of a large Divine Mercy image near the front of the altar and waited in long lines for the opportunity to make a confession. Novak explained how the Divine Mercy Chaplet resurfaced in her life.
The day after her wedding in October 2011, she started to experience swelling and pain in her right leg. She ignored the discomfort for a while but eventually began seeing various doctors over two-and-a-half months. The cause of her pain – Hodgikin lymphoma.
“I remember the doctor giving me this diagnosis, this cancer diagnosis, and he left the room, and I prayed, ‘God, my hope, my strength, my comfort and my healer, I trust you. I know that you will be with me every step of the way. I trust you.’”
During this time, Novak received a beautiful hand-stitched image of the Divine Mercy image with a note from a friend who had been praying for her. In the letter, she also stated that God wanted her to pray this Chaplet every day.
“I thought it was so beautiful that the Holy Spirit would speak to me through that person that He would prompt her to share that image with me,” she said. “And so I prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet a couple times a week, but I didn't pray it every day.”
Later, Novak was at Mass one evening during her cancer treatment and chemotherapy. Her hair had fallen out, and she was wearing a silk head scarf, feeling a little self-conscious. At the end of the Mass, a woman whom she had never met approached her, offering a medal.
“She said, ‘I just got this from the Holy Land, and I feel like I'm supposed to give it to you. It is the image of Divine Mercy,’” Novak said. “I went, ‘Okay (God), you really want me to pray this every day. I'm going to try harder.’ And so, I prayed it as much as I could.”
Novak shared that God was so merciful, and He really used that prayer to draw her closer to him. She felt His mercy in many ways, especially because the cancer was caught early, the chemotherapy did not affect her fertility and numerous people stepped up to show support for her. She stated she felt like He used the Divine Mercy Chaplet to help her unite her sufferings to His.
“Battling cancer was not something (my husband and I) envisioned in our first few months of marriage, or ever thought would happen, especially that soon,” Novak said. “He helped us to grow closer to Him as a couple. And to trust in Him.
“I want to invite you to open your heart to God, and to trust Him,” she said to those in attendance, “like you've never trusted him before, without any reservation. Trust in his goodness and in his mercy, so that you can experience all the graces that he wants to pour out.”
Father Ted Mauch, pastor of Holy Martyrs Parish and Our Lady of Consolation, said those gathered at the parish were joining the entire Catholic Church in celebrating the Feast of Divine Mercy, a feast that is particularly connected to St. John Paul II and Pope Francis. He noted that Pope John Paul II, in the year 2000, inaugurated the celebration of Divine Mercy on the octave Sunday of Easter and pointed out that Pope Francis’ funeral was celebrated on the vigil of Divine Mercy.
“Pope Francis initiated Missionaries of Mercy to go out to the whole world to bring God's mercy through the sacrament of reconciliation into so many lives,” he said, adding, “To St. Faustina, our Lord said, ‘I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sins. On that day, the very depths of my tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the font of my mercy. The soul that will go into confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment.’
“This day, we celebrate the richness, the meaning, and our participation in an application of God's mercy for us,” Father Mauch said.
A copy of the Divine Mercy Chaplet prayer can be found at usccb.org/prayers/chaplet-divine-mercy.
Caption: Father Ted Mauch leads a Holy Hour on Divine Mercy Sunday at St. John the Evangelist in St. John. In a moment of prayer before a picture of the Divine Mercy of Jesus he said, "May all who venerate this image experience a conversion of life in Jesus, your son. May it be for their joy in this life, their hope in death and their glory in eternity forever."
