Did you know there’s a beautiful spiritual rhythm hidden in the Church’s calendar this year?
If you begin a 54-Day Rosary Novena on Ash Wednesday, you’ll finish it exactly on Divine Mercy Sunday — the second Sunday of Easter!
That’s no coincidence — it’s a powerful invitation to journey with Jesus and Our Lady from the first day of Lent all the way through to the celebration of Divine Mercy.
The 54-Day Rosary Novena is known as a miraculous devotion that combines three novenas of petition and three novenas of thanksgiving, totaling 54 days of continuous prayer.
It is traditionally traced to an apparition of Our Lady of Pompeii to a young Italian girl named Fortuna Agrelli in 1884, when the Blessed Mother asked for three novenas of petition and three in thanksgiving, and the girl was miraculously healed.
Saint Bartolo Longo, deeply devoted to Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii, later helped spread and promote this powerful prayer throughout the Church.
Beginning on Ash Wednesday, this devotion ties beautifully to the Lenten call to repentance and renewal. As you move through the sorrowful mysteries during Lent and eventually arrive at the glorious mysteries of Easter, your heart follows Christ’s entire journey — from His Passion to His Resurrection.
Ending on Divine Mercy Sunday, when the Church celebrates Christ’s overwhelming mercy poured out upon the world, is the perfect conclusion to this prayerful pilgrimage. As Saint Faustina recorded, Jesus said that the soul that goes to Confession and receives Holy Communion on this day receives extraordinary graces of mercy.
So if you’ve been meaning to deepen your prayer life or have a special intention on your heart, this might be the perfect year to start.
Grab your Rosary, set your intention, and let Our Lady guide you from Lent into mercy.