My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,

my spirit rejoices in God my Savior;

for He has looked with favor on His lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed:

the Almighty has done great things for me,

and holy is His Name.

He has mercy on those who fear Him

in every generation.

He has shown the strength of His arm,

He has scattered the proud in their conceit.

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,

and has lifted up the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things,

and the rich He has sent away empty.

He has come to the help of His servant Israel,

for He has remembered His promise of mercy,

the promise He made to our fathers,

to Abraham and his children forever.

Glory to the Father and to the Son,

and to the Holy Spirit:

as it was in the beginning, is now,

and will be forever.

Amen.
(Lk 1:46-55)

St. Michael the Archangel,

defend us in battle.

Be our protection against the wickedness

and snares of the Devil.

May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,

and do thou,

O Prince of the heavenly hosts,

by the power of God,

cast into hell Satan,

and all the evil spirits,

who prowl about the world

seeking the ruin of souls.

Amen.

Praying the Rosary draws us closer to Jesus through Mary, giving us the desire to love as He loves and forgive as He forgives. With each mystery, we meditate upon a particular virtue, praying that we are inspired to live out virtue in our daily lives.

1. Begin at the crucifix, making the Sign of the Cross and praying:

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

2. Pray the Apostle’s Creed:

I believe in God the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty, from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.

3. Pray the Our Father for the Pope’s health, safety, and intentions:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

4. Pray the Hail Mary three times, once for each bead, focusing on the virtue of faith for the first bead, hope for the second, and love for the third:

Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

5. Pray the Glory Be to the Father:

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the
beginning is now, and ever shall be world without end. Amen.

6. Announce the mystery, then pray the Our Father.

7. Pray the Hail Mary once for each of the ten beads (decade), while meditating on the mystery.

8. After each decade, pray the Glory Be, then pray the prayer requested by the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima:

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy.

9. Repeat steps 6-8 for each of the remaining mysteries.

10. After completing the five decades, Pray the Hail, Holy Queen on the medal of  your rosary:

Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope.
To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee do we send up our sighs,
mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen.

11. We like to add the St. Michael Prayer when we have completed our Rosary.

My Jesus,

I believe that You are present in the Most

Holy Sacrament.

I love You above all things,

and I desire to receive You into my soul.

Since I cannot at this moment receive You

sacramentally,

come at least spiritually into my heart.

I embrace You as if You were already there

and unite myself wholly to You.

Never permit me to be separated from You.

Amen.

1. Begin at the crucifix, making the Sign of the Cross and praying:

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

2. Optional Opening Prayers:

You expired, Jesus, but the source of life gushed forth for souls, and the ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world. O Fount of Life, unfathomable Divine Mercy, envelop the whole world and empty yourself out upon us. (DIARY, 1319*)

O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the heart of Jesus as a fountain of mercy for us, I trust in you! Amen. (Repeat three times.) (84*) 

3. Pray the Our Father:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

4. Pray the Hail Mary:

Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

5. Pray the Apostle’s Creed:

I believe in God the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born
of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty, from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.

6. Eternal Father:

Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of your Dearly Beloved Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and
those of the whole world. Amen. (476*)

7. On the Ten Small Beads of Each Decade:

For the sake of his sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

8. Repeat for the Remaining Decades.

Say the “Eternal Father” on the “Our Father” bead and then ten “For the sake of his sorrowful Passion” on the following “Hail Mary” beads.

9. Holy God:

Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world. Amen. (Repeat three times) 

10. Optional Closing Prayer:

Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase your mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to your holy will, which is love and mercy itself. Amen. (950*)

* Denotes the diary entry in Saint Faustina’s Diary, “Divine Mercy in My Soul.”

Day 1

Why do you confuse yourselves by worrying?
Leave the care of your affairs to me
and everything will be peaceful.
I say to you in truth that every act of true,
blind, complete surrender to me
produces the effect that you desire
and resolves all difficult situations.

(Repeat the following prayer 10 times.)

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you,
take care of everything!

Day 2

Surrender to me does not mean to fret,
to be upset, or to lose hope,
nor does it mean offering to me a worried prayer
asking me to follow you
and change your worry into prayer.
It is against this surrender,
deeply against it, to worry,
to be nervous
and to desire to think about the consequences of anything.
It is like the confusion that children feel
when they ask their mother to see to their needs,
and then try to take care of those needs for themselves
so that their childlike efforts get in their mother’s way.
Surrender means to placidly close the eyes of the soul,
to turn away from thoughts of tribulation
and to put yourself in my care, so that only I act.
Saying You take care of it.

(Repeat the following prayer 10 times.)

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you,
take care of everything!

Day 3

How many things I do when the soul,
in so much spiritual and material need turns to me,
looks at me and says to me;
“You take care of it,”
then close its eyes and rests.
In pain you pray for me to act,
but that I act in the way you want.
You do not turn to me, instead,
you want me to adapt to your ideas.
You are not sick people who ask the doctor to cure you,
but rather sick people who tell the doctor how to.
So do not act this way,
but pray as I taught you in the Our Father:
“Hallowed be thy Name”,
that is, be glorified in my need.
“Thy kingdom come”,
that is, let all that is in us
and in the world be in accord with your kingdom.
“Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven”,
that is, in our need,
decide as you see fit for our temporal and eternal life.
If you say to me truly:
“Thy will be done”
which is the same as saying:
“You take care of it”
I will intervene with all my omnipotence,
and I will resolve the most difficult situations.

(Repeat the following prayer 10 times.)

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you,
take care of everything!

Day 4

You see evil growing instead of weakening?
Do not worry,
Close your eyes and say to me with faith:
“Thy will be done, You take care of it.”
I say to you that I will take care of it,
and that I will intervene as does a doctor
and I will accomplish miracles when they are needed.
Do you see that the sick person is getting worse?
Do not be upset,
but close your eyes and say
“You take care of it.”
I say to you that I will take care of it,
and that there is no medicine
more powerful than my loving intervention.
By my love, I promise this to you.

(Repeat the following prayer 10 times.)

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you,
take care of everything!

Day 5

And when I must lead you on a path different from the one you see,
I will prepare you;
I will carry you in my arms;
I will let you find yourself,
like children who have fallen asleep in their mother’s arms,
on the other bank of the river.
What troubles you and hurts you immensely are your reason,
your thoughts and worry,
and your desire at all costs to deal with what afflicts you.

(Repeat the following prayer 10 times.)

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you,
take care of everything!

Day 6

You are sleepless;
you want to judge everything,
direct everything and see to everything
and you surrender to human strength,
or worse – to men themselves,
trusting in their intervention,
– this is what hinders my words and my views.
Oh how much I wish from you this surrender,
to help you and how I suffer when I see you so agitated!
Satan tries to do exactly this:
to agitate you and to remove you from my protection
and to throw you into the jaws of human initiative.
So, trust only in me,
rest in me,
surrender to me in everything.

(Repeat the following prayer 10 times.)

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you,
take care of everything!

Day 7

I perform miracles in proportion to your full surrender to me
and to your not thinking of yourselves.
I sow treasure troves of graces
when you are in the deepest poverty.
No person of reason, no thinker,
has ever performed miracles,
not even among the saints.
He does divine works whosoever surrenders to God.
So don’t think about it any more,
because your mind is acute
and for you it is very hard to see evil
and to trust in me
and to not think of yourself.
Do this for all your needs,
do this all of you
and you will see great continual silent miracles.
I will take care of things,
I promise this to you.

(Repeat the following prayer 10 times.)

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you,
take care of everything!

Day 8

Close your eyes and let yourself be carried away
on the flowing current of my grace;
close your eyes and do not think of the present,
turning your thoughts away from the future
just as you would from temptation.
Repose in me, believing in my goodness,
and I promise you by my love that if you say
“You take care of it,” I will take care of it all;
I will console you,
liberate you and guide you.

(Repeat the following prayer 10 times.)

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you,
take care of everything!

Day 9

Pray always in readiness to surrender,
and you will receive from it great peace and great rewards,
even when I confer on you the grace of immolation,
of repentance and of love.
Then what does suffering matter?
It seems impossible to you?
Close your eyes and say with all your soul,
“Jesus, you take care of it.”
Do not be afraid, I will take care of things
and you will bless my name by humbling yourself.
A thousand prayers cannot equal one single act of surrender,
remember this well.
There is no novena more effective than this:

(Repeat the following prayer 10 times.)

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you,
take care of everything!

Mother, I am yours now and forever.
Through you and with you
I always want to belong completely to Jesus.

When I am tempted to look only at my faults…Let me see only Jesus.
When troubled by the specter of doubt and defeat…Let me see only Jesus.
When I can’t see beyond the frustrations of the moment…Let me see only Jesus.
When the horizon seems distant and dark…Let me see only Jesus.
When I can’t see the point of pursuing what’s good…Let me see only Jesus.
When complaining and cynicism invade my peace….Let me see only Jesus.
When I can’t face my problems…Let me see only Jesus.
When the world looks bleak…Let me see only Jesus.
When others measure and judge me…Let me see only Jesus.
When beset by depression…Let me see only Jesus.
When friendship is far from me…Let me see only Jesus.
When overshadowed by sorrow…Let me see only Jesus.
When I fail to use my freedom…Let me see only Jesus.
When it’s hard to forgive…Let me see only Jesus.
When things don’t make sense…Let me see only Jesus.
When I think I can’t change…Let me see only Jesus.
When confronted by suffering…Let me see only Jesus.
When stress gets me down…Let me see only Jesus.
When it’s hard to go on…Let me see only Jesus.
When blinded by sin…Let me see only Jesus.
When the hardness of life overwhelms me…Let me see only Jesus.
When hope begins to fade…Let me see only Jesus.
Our Father…

Closing Prayer: Loving Father, thank you for allowing me to witness the vision of your Son transfigured on Mount Tabor. May I become what I behold so that my life will radiate the glory and grace that remain your priceless gifts to me in Jesus. Amen.

Fr. Peter John Cameron, O.P. in the August 2008 issue of Magnificat.