The following prayer was written by the beloved Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, of Poland:

The Infinite Goodness of God in Sending His Only-Begotten Son

God, You did not destroy man after his fall, but in Your mercy You forgave him, You forgave in a Divine way: that is, not only have You absolved him from guilt, but You have bestowed upon him every grace. Mercy has moved You to deign (or to consider it worthy) to descend among us and lift us up from our misery …

Unfathomable and incomprehensible in Your mercy, for love of us, You take on flesh from the Immaculate Virgin, ever untouched by sin, because You have willed it so from all ages.

The Blessed Virgin, that Snow-White Lily, is first to praise the omnipotence of Your mercy. Her pure heart opens with love for the coming of the Word; she believes the words of God’s messenger and is confirmed in trust.

Heaven is astounded that God has become man, that there is on earth a heart worthy of God Himself. Why is it that You do not unite Yourself with a Seraph, but with a sinner, O Lord? Oh, because, despite the purity of the Virginal womb, this is a mystery of Your mercy.

O Mystery of God’s mercy, O God of compassion, that You have deigned (or considered it worthy) to leave the heavenly throne and to stoop down to our misery, to human weakness, for it is not the angels, but man who needs mercy.

To give praise worthy to the Lord’s mercy, we unite ourselves with Your Immaculate Mother, for then our hymn will be more pleasing to You, because She is chosen from among men and angels.

Through Her, as through a pure crystal, Your mercy was passed on to us. Through Her, man became pleasing to God; through Her, streams of grace flowed down upon us.1

1Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul (Massachusetts: Marian Press, 2020), Verses 1745-1746, pgs. 617-619.