In 1935, St. Maria Faustina, an uneducated Polish nun, received a vision of an angel sent by God to chastise an evil city. She began to pray for mercy, but her prayers were powerless. Suddenly she felt the power of Jesus' grace within her. At the same time she found herself pleading with God for mercy with these words:
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; for the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us.
Prayed on ordinary rosary beads, The Chaplet of The Divine Mercy is an intercessory prayer that invokes the mercy of God poured out for us on the cross. In prayer, Jesus told St. Faustina, "By this Novena, I will grant every possible grace to souls."