The Chaplet of Divine Mercy is one of the most prayed devotions in the Catholic Church and one of the easiest to learn. Eight minutes, regular rosary beads, six short prayers. If you have ever wanted a daily prayer practice but felt like the rosary was too long, this is the practice to learn first.
It came to the Church through a Polish nun in the 1930s, and within seventy years had become one of the most widespread Catholic prayers in the world. This guide walks through where it came from, what to say, and when to pray it.
Who Gave It to the Church
St. Faustina Kowalska (1905–1938), born Helena Kowalska in the small Polish village of Głogowiec, entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy at twenty. From 1931 until her death from tuberculosis at thirty-three, she received a series of apparitions of Jesus in which He asked her to spread devotion to His Divine Mercy.
She wrote it all down in what became her Diary (Polish: Dzienniczek) — over six hundred pages, written by hand under obedience to her spiritual director. The Diary is the source for the Chaplet, the Image, the Hour of Mercy, the Novena, and Divine Mercy Sunday.
For decades after her death in 1938, the devotion was actually banned by the Vatican (1959–1978) due to flawed early Italian translations of the Diary. It was rehabilitated under Pope John Paul II, who beatified her in 1993, canonized her on 30 April 2000, and on the same day established Divine Mercy Sunday — the Sunday after Easter — as a feast of the universal Church.
The Polish connection runs deep. Faustina's tomb is at the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Kraków-Łagiewniki, which has become one of the most visited Catholic pilgrimage sites in the world.
What the Image Means
You have probably seen it — Jesus in a white garment, His right hand raised in blessing, His left touching His chest where two rays of light, one red and one pale, stream out. At the bottom: "Jesus, I trust in You."
Faustina recorded the meaning Jesus gave her: the pale ray stands for the water that justifies souls (the water of baptism); the red ray stands for the blood that is the life of souls (the Eucharist). The two together pour from the pierced side of John 19:34 — the same side the Sacred Heart devotion is rooted in.
The first version of the image was painted in Vilnius in 1934 by Eugene Kazimierowski under Faustina's direction. She wept when she saw it, telling Jesus it was so much less beautiful than what He had shown her. He answered (per the Diary): Not in the beauty of the colour, nor of the brush lies the greatness of this image, but in My grace.
What the Chaplet Is
The Chaplet is prayed on regular rosary beads (five decades, the same beads you would use for the rosary). The prayers are short and repetitive. Once you have done it twice, you have it for life.
It takes about seven to nine minutes at a normal pace.
The Chaplet, Step by Step
Begin
Make the Sign of the Cross:
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Opening Prayer (Optional but Traditional)
You expired, Jesus, but the source of life gushed forth for souls, and the ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world. O Fount of Life, unfathomable Divine Mercy, envelop the whole world and empty Yourself out upon us.
(Three times): O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us, I trust in You.
Then, on the Crucifix or First Bead
Pray, in order:
Our Father.
Hail Mary.
The Apostles' Creed.
(If you don't know the Creed by heart, look it up the first time and read it. By the third or fourth time praying the Chaplet, you'll know it.)
On Each "Our Father" Bead (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 Each "Hail Mary" Bead (Ten Small Beads in a Row)
For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
Repeat for All Five Decades
You pray the "Eternal Father" prayer once at the start of each decade, then the "For the sake of His sorrowful Passion" prayer ten times — once on each of the ten small beads. Then move to the next large bead, pray "Eternal Father" again, then ten of "For the sake..." Five times total.
Concluding Prayer
After the fifth decade, pray three times:
Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
Optional Closing
Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself. Amen.
Sign of the Cross
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
When to Pray It
The Hour of Mercy — 3:00 PM. Per Faustina's Diary, Jesus asked her to remember His death at the hour of three each day. Three o'clock is the traditional time to pray the Chaplet. You can pray it at any time, of course — but if you can stop at three, even briefly, the tradition is strong.
During the Divine Mercy Novena. Starting on Good Friday and ending on Divine Mercy Sunday (the Sunday after Easter), Jesus asked Faustina to pray the Chaplet for nine consecutive days, each day with a specific intention: sinners on Day 1, priests on Day 2, all the faithful on Day 3, and so on through Day 9 for lukewarm souls. The Novena texts are widely available online and in prayer books.
For someone dying. Faustina recorded a particular promise Jesus made about the Chaplet prayed at the bedside of someone in their last hour. Many Catholic hospice chaplains and bedside ministers carry it precisely for that reason.
For your own peace. It is short enough to fit into a lunch break, a long red light, a walk to the bus. Many Catholics pray it daily on their commute.
How It Compares to the Rosary
If you have prayed the rosary, the mechanics will feel familiar — same beads, same pattern of large and small beads. Three differences:
- The Chaplet is shorter. Eight minutes versus twenty.
- No mysteries. The rosary meditates on twenty events from Jesus's life; the Chaplet stays on the Passion the whole time.
- The focus is mercy. The whole prayer is, in essence, offering Jesus's sacrifice back to the Father for mercy — for yourself, for those you love, for the world.
The two devotions are complementary, not competitors. Many Catholics pray the rosary in the morning and the Chaplet at 3:00 PM. If you'd like to learn the rosary too, see the rosary guide.
A First-Time Tip
Pray the Chaplet out loud the first three times. The repetition is the prayer — and saying it aloud, even softly, keeps the mind from wandering on the fourth "For the sake of His sorrowful Passion..."
After a week or two, the words will be in your bones. Then you can pray it in silence, in your head, in any language you happen to be in.
Where This Fits at Haven
For days when your own heart is anxious or weary, the bible verses for anxiety and bible verses for peace collections sit close at hand. If you want a verse handed to you each morning, Haven's daily verse refreshes daily.
For the larger shape of Catholic prayer practice, the lectio divina guide walks through Scripture meditation and the confession guide covers the sacrament that, in Faustina's spirituality, was inseparable from mercy.
A Final Word
The Chaplet of Divine Mercy is, at its heart, eight minutes of asking. Asking on behalf of yourself and the world. Asking through the wounds that Jesus carried, the blood and water that flowed for souls.
The prayer at the bottom of the Image is the whole devotion in five words:
Jesus, I trust in You.
Pray it once today, slowly. The rest follows.