Chaplet of The Divine Mercy
In 1933, God gave Saint Faustina a striking vision of His Mercy. Saint Faustina tells us: “I saw a great light with God the Father in the midst of it. Between this light and the earth I saw Jesus nailed to the Cross and in such a way that God, wanting to look upon the Earth, had to look through Our Lord’s wounds. And I understood that God blessed the Earth for the sake of Jesus.” Of another vision on September 13, 1935, she writes: “I saw an Angel, began to beg God earnestly for the world with words which I heard interiorly. As I prayed in this way, I saw the Angel’s helplessness, and he could not carry out the just punishment…”
The following day an inner voice taught her to say the Divine Mercy Chaplet on ordinary rosary beads.
How to recite the Chaplet of Mercy
The Chaplet of Mercy is recited using ordinary rosary beads of five decades. At the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, the chaplet is preceded by two opening prayers from the Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska and followed by a closing prayer.
The Chaplet of Mercy as a Novena
In addition to the Novena to Divine Mercy, which our Lord gave to St. Faustina for her own personal use, He revealed to her a powerful prayer that He wanted everyone to say — The Chaplet of Mercy. Saint Faustina prayed the chaplet almost constantly, especially for the dying, and the Lord urged her to encourage others to say it, too, promising extraordinary graces to those who would recite this special prayer.
The chaplet can be said anytime, but the Lord specifically asked that it be recited as a novena, especially on the nine days before the Feast of Mercy. And He promised, “By this Novena (of Chaplets) I will grant every possible grace to souls” (796).
We can pray this Novena of Chaplets for our own personal intentions, or we can offer it together with the Novena to Divine Mercy for the daily intentions dictated by our Lord to St. Faustina.
Our Lord said to St. Faustina:
Encourage souls to say the chaplet which I have given to you. … Whoever will recite it will receive great mercy at the hour of death. … When they say this chaplet in the presence of the dying, I will stand between My Father and the dying person, not as the just Judge but as the Merciful Savior. … Priests will recommend it to sinners as their last hope of salvation. Even if there were a sinner most hardened, if he were to recite this chaplet only once, he would receive grace from My infinite mercy. I desire to grant unimaginable graces to those souls who trust in My mercy. … Through the chaplet you will obtain everything, if what you ask for is compatible with My will (687, 1541, 1731).
Sourced from The Pieta Prayer Booklet and Marian Press