The 2 Divine Promises novena

[fin]

PROMISE: “Each priest who worthily offers the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for 30 consecutive days and, in addition, makes the Stations of the Cross daily, will receive for himself: and another soul selected by him, the assurance of eternal salvation.”

PROMISE: “Likewise, each individual who will receive Holy Communion worthily for 30 consecutive days, and will recite one Our Father and Hail Mary for the welfare of the Holy Catholic Church, will receive for himself and one other soul selected by him, the assurance of eternal salvation.”

7dolors.com/page2divinepromises.htm

catholicspirit.blogspot.com/2007/12/two-divine-promises.html

Has anyone prayed this novena before? I have a booklet on this, and have read about this on some sites. I do remember doing this a few years ago. I’ve been going to daily Mass lately so it seems like a good idea to take this up again, and would give me the motivation to continue going to daily Mass.

 

[midori]

I haven’t read Sister Faustina’s works, so I don’t know for sure. Regarding other popular “promise prayers”, the St. Gertrude prayer doesn’t show up in St. Gertrude’s writings; the 15 St. Bridget’s prayers don’t show up in St. Bridget’s writings; etc.

In general, whenever you’re dealing with anything that involves promises or indulgences, it’s good to aggressively pursue grace and spiritual growth, but balance that by keeping in mind that the effectiveness of our prayers are limited by our lack of focus, our lack of fervor, attachment to sin, and other human shortcomings.

It’s probably most prudent to use promise prayers as a foundation for growth and perseverance, rather than being their own end, if that makes sense. So, if the promises are helpful to inspire you to communicate daily and remember to pray for the welfare of the church, go for it. But it’s probably a bad idea to run around afterwards and say, “Well, I can do anything I want, because me and Fred, we’re going to heaven no matter what, because I did X.” In the same vein, for example, I like to pray the St. Gertrude prayer myself— but I know that my fervor is often lacking and my prayers are nowhere near perfect, so I don’t presume that the impact of my own prayers are as powerful as if they were recited by someone far better than I. So that’s one reason why people who keep a tally and say, “Well, I’ve freed fifty gazillion people from Purgatory because I’ve said the St. Gertrude prayers so much!” make me cringe just a little.

So, yeah. Pray the prayers, have faith, and use them as building blocks to grow— but it’s probably not very prudent to presume that our prayers have perfect efficacy. That part is best left to humility, and to let God decide on. Good luck!

 

[thistle]

PROMISE: “Each priest who worthily offers the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for 30 consecutive days and, in addition, makes the Stations of the Cross daily, will receive for himself: and another soul selected by him,** the assurance of eternal salvation**.”

PROMISE: “Likewise, each individual who will receive Holy Communion worthily for 30 consecutive days, and will recite one Our Father and Hail Mary for the welfare of the Holy Catholic Church, will receive for himself and one other soul selected by him,** the assurance of eternal salvation.” **
7dolors.com/page2divinepromises.htm

catholicspirit.blogspot.com/2007/12/two-divine-promises.html

Has anyone prayed this novena before? I have a booklet on this, and have read about this on some sites. I do remember doing this a few years ago. I’ve been going to daily Mass lately so it seems like a good idea to take this up again, and would give me the motivation to continue going to daily Mass.

That contradicts Church teaching. In fact salvation assurance is heresy.

Salvation or damnation is determined by the state of a person’s soul at death.
Anyone dying in a state of mortal sin goes to Hell, no matter what Masses have been said or prayers recited.

 

[paperwight66]

That contradicts Church teaching. In fact salvation assurance is heresy.

Salvation or damnation is determined by the state of a person’s soul at death.
Anyone dying in a state of mortal sin goes to Hell, no matter what Masses have been said or prayers recited.

Hmm… well, the thing is, there can be repentance at the last moment. Take the case of suicide. The church teaches that a suicide can be buried in consecrated ground after a funeral, because God is merciful - He would hear the prayer of repentance even in the seconds between a person throwing themselves off a high building and before they hit the ground.

Who knows the final disposition of a soul at the very moment of death, even if until then they’ve been in mortal sin (not suicidal)? Who knows if the Masses and prayers of others have brought about a last second repentance? What we do know is that God is a loving father, and comes running to meet us, like the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son. The son didn’t get a chance to ‘confess’ to his father and express sorrow before his father ordered celebrations for his return. Just the mere fact of the son turning back to the father’s house sufficed,to render him worthy of welcome, no long speeches and apologies like he’d planned.

 

[thistle]

Hmm… well, the thing is, there can be repentance at the last moment. Take the case of suicide. The church teaches that a suicide can be buried in consecrated ground after a funeral, because God is merciful - He would hear the prayer of repentance even in the seconds between a person throwing themselves off a high building and before they hit the ground.

Who knows the final disposition of a soul at the very moment of death, even if until then they’ve been in mortal sin (not suicidal)? Who knows if the Masses and prayers of others have brought about a last second repentance? What we do know is that God is a loving father, and comes running to meet us, like the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son. The son didn’t get a chance to ‘confess’ to his father and express sorrow before his father ordered celebrations for his return. Just the mere fact of the son turning back to the father’s house sufficed,to render him worthy of welcome, no long speeches and apologies like he’d planned.

Of course everyone has until their dying breath to repent if in a state of mortal sin and if they do they die in a state of grace.
Yes Masses and prayers can help people. I do not dispute that.
Objectively we know that someone dying in a state of grace will be saved but that is not what people mean by salvation assurance.
Anyone who says that a person can be chosen to be assured of salvation is going against Church teaching.

 

[Monica4316]

It doesn’t necessarily say assurance like that - in a presumptuous way or like Protestant teaching that we are for sure saved before we have persevered. It could just be talking about having all the graces for a full conversion, like with First Fridays and First Saturdays devotions. Just an idea…

 

[Catholic1954]

I have done it several times, with mixed results. We must that remember this devotion is not a magic spell that assures salvation for everyone we pray for; there is still that pesky free will.