The Chaplet of Divine Mercy
In 1931, in a convent nobody had heard of, a Polish nun who could barely spell wrote down what she had been shown. The Church took forty years examining it. Then it canonised her, and gave the Sunday after Easter her name for it.
This is the shortest of the great devotions. Seven minutes, on the same beads as the Rosary, and only two sentences to learn. He asked for it at three in the afternoon — the hour He died — and beside the dying, which is where it is prayed more than anywhere else on earth.
You do not have to feel anything while you say it. Say have mercy on us and on the whole world fifty times, and you will have prayed for more people than you could name.
Pray it now
The same beads as the Rosary, a shorter road round them. Tap where you are, or press Begin.
Bead 1 of 65
The Sign of the Cross
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The words
On the large beads
Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of your dearly beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.
On the ten small beads
For the sake of his sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
Three times, at the end
Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
The closing prayer
Eternal God, whose mercy has no end and whose store of compassion is never spent: look on us kindly, and increase your mercy in us, so that in the hard hours we neither despair nor go numb, but hand ourselves over with great trust to your will, which is Love and Mercy itself.
What to hold in each decade
The chaplet asks mercy *for the sake of his sorrowful Passion* — so it helps to have the Passion in front of you while you ask. Five places to stand, one for each ten.
- 1
The garden
He asked to be let off, and was not. Offer this ten for everyone praying tonight who has not been answered yet.
- 2
The pillar
He was tied to a column and said nothing. Offer this ten for those whose suffering has no meaning anyone can find.
- 3
The thorns
They crowned Him to make a joke of it. Offer this ten for the humiliated — and for the ones doing the humiliating.
- 4
The road
He fell, and got up, and fell again, and a stranger was made to help. Offer this ten for those who cannot go on and are going on.
- 5
The cross
Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing. Offer this ten for the person you have not forgiven, and for the hour of your own death.
How it is prayed
- 1
The crucifix
Make the Sign of the Cross. Some begin here with the words St Faustina was given at the foot of the cross.
- 2
The first three beads
One Our Father, one Hail Mary, and the Apostles' Creed.
- 3
The large bead before each decade
Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of your dearly beloved Son…
- 4
The ten small beads
For the sake of his sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world. Ten times, on the ten beads.
- 5
Five times round
The same two prayers for all five decades. There is nothing else to learn — that is the whole chaplet.
- 6
At the end
Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world — three times, and then whatever you came to ask.
The Hour of Mercy
Three in the afternoon: the hour He died. He asked that it be kept — even briefly, even at a desk, even by stopping for the length of one breath and saying Jesus, I trust in you. If you can pray the whole chaplet then, pray it then.
What He promised
To those who pray this chaplet He promised mercy in life and, above all, at the hour of death — for themselves and for the dying beside whom it is prayed, whoever they are and however they lived. That last clause is the reason it is said in hospitals. Nothing here is owed to the words; it is owed to His Passion, which the words point at.
The nun who wrote it down →How to pray the Rosary
The whole Rosary drawn bead by bead — the four sets of mysteries, the day each is prayed, and the nine steps from the crucifix back to the medal.
→Pass it on