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How to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet

Christ crucified, from whose pierced side flow blood and water, the fount of Divine Mercy
Francisco de Zurbarán, “Christ on the Cross” (1627) — Public domain

Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet

Narrated, all five decades

The Divine Mercy Chaplet is a short, powerful prayer for mercy — for ourselves and the whole world — given to St. Faustina Kowalska. It is prayed on ordinary rosary beads and takes about seven minutes. Many pray it daily at 3:00 p.m., the Hour of Great Mercy.

The sequence

  1. Begin with the Sign of the Cross

  2. Optional: the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Apostles' Creed

  3. On the 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.”

  4. On each of the ten Hail Mary beads, pray: “For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.”

  5. Repeat the Eternal Father prayer and the ten-bead decade for all five decades

  6. To conclude, pray three times: “Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.”

  7. Close with the Sign of the Cross

The prayers

The opening prayer (on the Our Father bead)

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 beads

For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

The closing (three times)

Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Optional closing prayer

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.

When to pray it

The chaplet can be prayed at any time. St. Faustina was asked to pray it especially at 3:00 p.m. — the Hour of Great Mercy, the hour Jesus died on the Cross — and as a novena beginning Good Friday and ending on Divine Mercy Sunday (the Sunday after Easter).

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