The Rosary and Divine Mercy for Suffering Marriages and Families

by Vanessa Chastain

​With the feast day of St. Faustina and Our Lady of the Rosary going on, it seems appropriate to think about the Rosary and Divine Mercy. For people from broken families and families in crisis, the Rosary and Divine Mercy have special importance as opportunities for facilitating conversion and reconciliation, as well as peace, among families and marriages.

​We can think of Our Lady of Fatima. There was a request to pray the Rosary for peace. I think that it might have been peace in the world, but I am not sure. Why is it important to pray for peace? Families and marriages could benefit from prayers for peace. If these requests are granted, reconciliation and forgiveness could arise within marriages and families that could strengthen them.

Furthermore the Rosary and Divine Mercy can help with conversion. Persistently praying for family members and spouses that might need conversion – like St. Monica – might help not only with their conversion, but it might improve family life and relationships within marriages and families. Given the powerful nature of these prayers, a conversion might be possible even for obstinate sinners.

It might be helpful as well to pray the Rosary and devotions related to Divine Mercy to aid in forgiving others, especially if that is an area of struggle.

Moreover the Rosary and Divine Mercy can be helpful for people who suffer – for example, in obtaining solutions to problems, in coping with the suffering, and in putting our suffering to good use by praying and offering it up. Furthermore they might be opportunities to practice mercy and charity by praying for those who hurt us – for their conversion, whatever they need, etc. Doing something like that might help us in times of suffering. It might help us to see that the suffering can be put to good use. It might be an opportunity to draw closer to Christ in His love and mercy, especially in His Passion. If we are charitable and merciful when we suffer, we can become more like Christ – especially when our mercy and charity is directed towards those who hurt us. It is a good idea to couple praying the Rosary or doing devotions related to Divine Mercy with offering up suffering as that helps us to love God and draw closer to Christ in His Passion. It might be even better to couple these devotions with penance, fasting, and mortification to the extent that we are able.

Finally we should pray the Rosary daily, and it seems like a good idea to pray the Divine Mercy chaplet as often as possible at 3 p.m. and, if not then, then another time. I am not certain how often we should be doing the Divine Mercy devotions. In addition it might be good to perform an act of mercy everyday. I am not sure if that is included as part of Divine Mercy, but I think that it might be.

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Happy feast of Our Lady of the Rosary!

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Please consider praying the Rosary every day during the month of October to end legal abortion in the United States. EWTN, Relevant Radio, and the Napa Institute have an initiative going on. Please consider joining Relevant Radio’s Family Rosary across America every day in October for this initiative. I am not sure of everything involved in this initiative, but it might be possible to find information from EWTN, Relevant Radio, and the Napa Institute on it.