Fr. Chris Alar, M.I.C., gave an excellent talk in August at a conference in Buffalo, New York, about Divine Mercy, and at one point, his talk brought me to tears. Father talked about a discussion he had as a young man (we will call him "Chris" because he was not a priest at that time) in 2003 with a priest regarding his grandmother's suicide in 1993. Chris told this priest that he was worried about his grandmother's soul, especially because in her last year of life she had stopped receiving the Sacraments and had turned her back on God and the Church. The priest told him to go home and pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet for the salvation of his grandmother's soul.
Chris, whose profession at that time was engineering, questioned the priest, "Father, I don't understand. My grandmother has been judged. There is nothing I can do to change that." The priest repeated his instructions to pray the Chaplet for her soul. Chris told the priest he did not want to be difficult, but he just did not understand. The priest said, "God knew back in 1993 that you would be here in 2003, and you would pray this Chaplet for your grandmother, and those graces will be allowed through the mercy of God to be taken back and showered upon the soul of your grandmother at the moment of her judgment to help her. This is why we need to pray for our loved ones and our families and our friends."
Chris lamented that his grandmother had fallen away from the Church before she died, so Father pointed out that paragraph 1486 of St. Faustina's Diary says that Jesus comes to every soul three times at the moment of death. If the soul rejects Him after the first time, He goes away. But He comes back a second time. If the soul rejects Him again, He'll go, but He'll come back a third time. If the soul rejects Him a third time, the soul is lost forever.
Chris was elated to hear this, since he felt his grandmother would never have rejected Jesus, because she was a good person. But then Father seemed to throw a monkey wrench at him, asserting, "We die in the state that we live." He explained that if we turn our backs on God, we will not recognize Him when He comes. Chris was crestfallen at that thought, since his grandmother had, in fact, turned her back on God. But the priest continued, "Without your prayers, She may not recognize Him, but with your prayers upon her soul at the moment of her judgment – because God is outside of time (there is no past or future for God, just one eternal now), He can take those graces from your prayers and shower them down on your grandmother, so maybe, just maybe, it's enough grace for her to turn around and say, 'Yes' to God."
Father said that this is why St. John Paul II and others call us "mini co-redeemers." We are the Body of Christ and it is very important for us to pray for one another.
Prayers can make a difference. A demon once told St. John Vianney that 80,000 souls avoided hell due to his prayers and sufferings. This is why we should offer up our prayers and suffering.
Father continued, referencing paragraph 1698 of the Diary – which says that God's mercy sometimes touches souls at the last moment. Chris began to cry at the thought of such a merciful God. He decided right then and there to spend the rest of his life spreading this message of hope. And that he does. Chris joined the Marians of the Immaculate Conception, was ordained a few years ago, and is now the director of the Association of Marian Helpers.
Editor's note: If you would like to hear Father's entire talk, you can order the CD called "Divine Mercy 101" by calling 1-800-462-7426, or visit the website marian.org. The reason Father's talk brought me to tears is because I started a website in 2011 to pray for souls who have committed suicide (https://sites.google.com/site/divinemercyforlostsouls). A friend and I were talking about this right before Father's talk, so it was a confirmation.
