How to Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet
The Divine Mercy Chaplet is prayed on ordinary rosary beads, but the words are different from the Rosary. It traces back to St. Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun who recorded receiving it in a private revelation in the 1930s. Below is the full sequence, in order.
Step 1 · Begin
Make the Sign of the Cross. Then pray one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and the Apostles’ Creed, as you would at the start of the Rosary.
Step 2 · On the Our Father Bead (before each decade)
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.
Step 3 · On the 10 Hail Mary Beads (each decade)
For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
Repeat Step 2 and Step 3 for all five decades, the same as you would move through a Rosary.
Step 4 · Conclude (three times)
Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
Step 5 · 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. Amen.
About this devotion
The Chaplet is shorter than a full Rosary and can be prayed in under ten minutes once the sequence is familiar. It’s especially associated with 3 p.m., the Hour of Great Mercy, the traditional hour of Christ’s death, and with the Feast of Divine Mercy, celebrated the Sunday after Easter.
Unlike prayers that ask for something specific, the Chaplet is built entirely around one word, repeated: mercy. It doesn’t ask God to change circumstances so much as it asks Him to be who He already is toward “us and the whole world,” a phrase repeated fifty times over the course of the devotion.
When to pray it
3 p.m. daily is the traditional hour, though it’s prayed at any time. It’s also common at the bedside of the sick or dying, a devotion many Catholics turn to specifically in moments of grief or fear for someone else.