How to Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet

The Divine Mercy Chaplet is one of the most loved devotions in the Church — a short, powerful prayer for God's mercy on ourselves and on the whole world. And beautifully, it is prayed on the same beads as the Rosary.

Where it comes from

The chaplet was given through St. Faustina Kowalska, a humble Polish sister, in the 1930s. In her diary she recorded Jesus' request that this prayer for mercy be spread throughout the world, especially in our own troubled times.

How to pray it

Take your rosary in hand. Then:

  1. Begin with the Sign of the Cross, an Our Father, a Hail Mary, and the Apostles' Creed.
  2. On each large (Our Father) bead, pray: "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."
  3. On each of the ten small beads, pray: "For the sake of his sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world."
  4. Repeat for all five decades.
  5. To close, pray three times: "Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world."

That is the whole chaplet — it takes only about seven minutes.

The Hour of Mercy

There is a special tradition of praying the chaplet at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the hour Jesus died on the cross — remembered as the Hour of Great Mercy.

Because it uses ordinary rosary beads, a single handmade rosary can carry you through both the Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet — two of the Church's great prayers, held in one pair of hands.

✣ Browse our handmade rosaries. Each one is knotted and blessed by hand, then shipped with care across India and around the world. See the collection →

"Jesus, I trust in you" — the whole chaplet rests on those five words.