Divine Mercy: the devotion, the Chaplet and the promise

Divine Mercy is a Catholic devotion to the mercy of Jesus, spread through St Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun who died in 1938. It has a few simple parts: an image of Jesus signed "Jesus, I trust in you," a short prayer called the Chaplet, the three o'clock hour, and Divine Mercy Sunday, the Sunday after Easter. Underneath them all is one message: trust Jesus with everything, receive his mercy, and show mercy to others.

Who was St Faustina?

Helena Kowalska was born in Poland in 1905, the third of ten children in a poor farming family. She had only a few years of school. In 1925 she joined the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, took the name Sister Maria Faustina, and spent her short life as a cook, gardener and doorkeeper in the order's convents. She died of tuberculosis in Kraków in 1938, at thirty-three.

Behind that ordinary life, Faustina reported that Jesus spoke to her about his mercy and asked her to make it known. At her confessor's request she wrote it all down in a notebook, published as Divine Mercy in My Soul and usually called the Diary. St John Paul II, once archbishop of Kraków, canonized her on 30 April 2000.

What is the Divine Mercy image?

Faustina wrote that Jesus asked her to have an image painted of him as she saw him: dressed in white, his right hand raised in blessing, his left hand touching his chest, where two rays stream out, one pale and one red. Beneath it are the words "Jesus, I trust in you."

The rays recall the blood and water that flowed from Jesus' side on the cross (John 19:34). In the Diary, Jesus explains that the pale ray stands for the water that makes souls righteous and the red ray for the blood that is the life of souls (Diary, 299). Many Catholics read them as a picture of Baptism and the Eucharist. The first version was painted in Vilnius in 1934 under her direction. The best-known one today hangs in the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Kraków.

The signature matters as much as the picture. The whole devotion comes down to those five words.

How do you pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet?

The Chaplet is prayed on ordinary rosary beads and takes about as long as a few decades of the Rosary. Some people begin with short optional prayers from the Diary. The standard form goes like this:

Begin with an Our Father, a Hail Mary and the Apostles' Creed.

On each large bead, pray:

On each of the ten small beads, pray:

Repeat for all five decades: one "Eternal Father," then ten "For the sake of his sorrowful Passion."

End by praying three times:

That's all of it. You don't offer Jesus anything of your own in the Chaplet. You offer the Father his own Son, and you ask mercy for everyone, not just yourself. It's a good prayer for a hospital room, for someone who is dying, or for a day when you have no words left.

Why three o'clock?

Jesus died on the cross at about three in the afternoon (Luke 23:44-46). Faustina recorded that he called this the hour of great mercy and asked her to remember his Passion at that time, even for a moment (Diary, 1320).

Many Catholics pray the Chaplet at three o'clock. If you can't, a short pause is enough: wherever you are, turn your thoughts to Jesus on the cross and say "Jesus, I trust in you." Setting an alarm on your phone for 3:00 is a simple way to start the habit.

What is Divine Mercy Sunday?

Divine Mercy Sunday is the Second Sunday of Easter, one week after Easter Sunday. Faustina wrote that Jesus asked for a Feast of Mercy on that day. When he canonized her in 2000, St John Paul II announced that the whole Church would keep the feast, and a Vatican decree made it official a few days later. The Roman Missal now calls it the Second Sunday of Easter, or Divine Mercy Sunday.

The Gospel at Mass that day is the same every year: the risen Jesus breathes on the apostles and gives them the power to forgive sins (John 20:22-23). The feast and the sacrament of Confession belong together. Many people also pray a Divine Mercy novena beginning on Good Friday, so it ends the day before the feast.

What is the Divine Mercy Sunday promise?

In her Diary, Faustina recorded Jesus promising that on the Feast of Mercy, the soul that goes to Confession and receives Holy Communion will obtain "complete forgiveness of sins and punishment" (Diary, 699).

Confession already forgives your sins. What stands out is the second part: the punishment too. Even a forgiven sin can leave temporal punishment still to be purified (CCC 1472-1473), which is why the Church has indulgences. Fr Ignacy Różycki, the theologian who studied the Diary for her beatification cause, read it as a complete renewal of the grace of Baptism. That is a theologian's reading of a private revelation, not Church teaching, but it shows how generous the promise is. The Diary doesn't clearly require the Confession to fall on the Sunday itself. The Marian Fathers, who promote the devotion, say a Confession beforehand, in Lent or Holy Week, is enough as long as you are still in the state of grace on the feast. What the promise asks for is trust, a good Confession and a worthy Communion on the feast itself. If you're not sure you're ready to receive, read about the state of grace.

The Church also attached a plenary indulgence to the feast in 2002. On Divine Mercy Sunday you can gain it under the usual conditions (Confession, Communion, a prayer for the Pope's intentions, and no attachment to any sin) by taking part in Divine Mercy prayers in a church or chapel, or by praying an Our Father and the Creed before the Blessed Sacrament with a short prayer such as "Merciful Jesus, I trust in you." The promise is recorded in the Diary. The indulgence is granted by the Church. They are two different gifts, and you can seek both on the same day.

Do Catholics have to believe Faustina's revelations?

No. The Church calls messages like Faustina's private revelations. They add nothing to the faith handed down from the apostles. They help people live it more fully in a particular time (CCC 67). You're free to take up the devotion or leave it.

What you can't leave aside is what it points to, because that is the Gospel itself. God's mercy is greater than any sin, and no one is too far gone to come back to him. If you wonder whether that includes you, read does God forgive every sin? The answer is yes.

How to start

• Say the five words. "Jesus, I trust in you." In the morning, at three o'clock, whenever worry rises.
• Pray one Chaplet this week. Rosary beads help, but you can count on your fingers.
• Show mercy to one person. Faustina's Diary asks for deeds of mercy, not only prayers: a kind word, forgiveness, practical help.
• Plan your Confession before the feast. If it's been a long time, going back after years is simpler than you think.

You don't need to feel trusting to pray "Jesus, I trust in you." Saying it is how trust begins, and he meets you there.