Divine Mercy – 2023

Fr. Stephen DeLacy first learned about the process of discernment after hearing a Call from God to enter the Seminary and become a priest.  He developed this skill in the spirituality year at St Charles Borromeo Seminary—a year dedicated to spiritual formation and personal growth.  Before his current assignment, he guided young men in discerning God’s will to enter the Seminary while serving as Vocation Director. He is currently the Vicar for Faith Formation with Youth and Young Adults for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Father Dermot S. Roache is a member of the Society of African Missions (SMA Fathers). He is a native of Brooklyn, New York, and a former middle school teacher. After joining the Society, Fr. Roache completed his formation and his theological studies obtaining his STB, from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (Nairobi Kenya). He spent several more years serving as a missionary priest in Kenya as well as in the northern region of South Africa following the charism of Bishop Marion de Brésillac his founder, which is to serve “the poorest of the poor.”  It is there on mission in South Africa where the prayer “Act of Consecration of the Family to the Divine Mercy” was given to him by Our Lord. The prayer itself has become a universal mission.

South Africa is presently journeying through a post-apartheid era. There is a deep cry for much healing.  The family systems are torn apart and the demands to keep them united are near impossible to meet.  Daily Fr. Roache prayed before the Blessed Sacrament to ask the Lord what he can offer to the people to help them. It was in the middle of these realities that the family consecration prayer came to him.  He heard the Lord clearly say,  “Give the families My Divine Mercy.”  The invitation to come to the homes of his parishioners and surrender their needs to The Divine Mercy was met with overwhelming acceptance.  He and their families and friends would gather around The Image, pray the Chaplet, consecrate and enthrone their families and homes to The Divine Mercy.  Deep healing began; profound changes were clear.  The family enthronement became a new beginning for the families who had been broken, torn, and without hope. The prayer is a gift to families.

In 2010, Fr. Roache was re-assigned to Boston only to discover that the family consecration prayer was meant not just for the families of a region in South Africa. The Lord had other plans. After receiving a nihil obstat from the Archdiocese of Newark and an imprimatur from Archbishop John J. Myers, D.D., JCD in 2013, the consecration prayer exploded onto the scene of the New England area and in a matter of a few short months was finding itself translated into other languages extending to other nations.  The answer to Fr. Roache’s initial question asking the Lord what he could offer to the people was answered:  The Divine Mercy is the answer to all the family problems.