Divine Mercy - Closing Prayer

This prayer concludes the Divine Mercy Chaplet and serves as the official Collect for the Second Sunday of Easter, or Divine Mercy Sunday. It asks God to increase our faith so we may better understand the Trinitarian love by which we are created, redeemed, and reborn. Ave Audio offers this prayer for daily devotion.

Prayer Text

What is the Divine Mercy - Closing Prayer?

This prayer is the Collect from the Roman Missal for the Second Sunday of Easter. Pope St. John Paul II instituted this feast as Divine Mercy Sunday in 2000, formally linking this ancient liturgical prayer to the private revelations of St. Faustina Kowalska. While its themes are timeless, its specific role as the closing prayer of the popular chaplet is a modern devotional development rooted in the Church's official liturgy, highlighting the harmony between public worship and private piety.

What does the Divine Mercy - Closing Prayer mean?

The prayer illuminates the core of salvation as an act of the Holy Trinity. It petitions for a deeper understanding not just of mercy in the abstract, but of the specific actions of God: the Father's creative love, the Son's redemptive sacrifice, and the Holy Spirit's sanctifying grace in Baptism. It is a request to move from belief to a profound, personal grasp of God's merciful plan for humanity, as detailed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 258).

When Do Catholics Pray the Divine Mercy - Closing Prayer?

This prayer is most commonly recited at the conclusion of the Divine Mercy Chaplet. As the official opening prayer for the Mass on Divine Mercy Sunday (the Second Sunday of Easter), it is especially fitting to pray throughout the Easter Octave. It is also a powerful personal prayer to say after receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation or when meditating on the boundless mercy of God, particularly at 3:00 PM, the traditional Hour of Mercy.

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