The Three O'Clock Prayer — also called the Hour of Mercy or the Hour of Great Mercy — was given by Jesus to St. Maria Faustina Kowalska in the revelations of Divine Mercy recorded in her Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul. Jesus instructed Faustina that 3:00 PM each day — the hour of His death on Calvary — is to be honored as the Hour of Great Mercy, in which a brief act of prayer obtains extraordinary graces. The exact promise, recorded in Faustina's Diary (entry 1320): 'At three o'clock, implore My mercy, especially for sinners; and, if only for a brief moment, immerse yourself in My Passion, particularly in My abandonment at the moment of agony. This is the hour of great mercy for the whole world… In this hour I will refuse nothing to the soul that makes a request of Me in virtue of My Passion.' The hour corresponds to the ninth hour of the Jewish day in the gospel chronology (Mark 15:34) — the hour at which 'Jesus cried out with a loud voice… and expired' (Mark 15:37). The Three O'Clock Prayer is the simplest and most accessible form of Divine Mercy devotion — much shorter than the chaplet, accessible to anyone who can pause for thirty seconds at the hour of Christ's death. It is the prayer the Catholic tradition places at the heart of the day for those who cannot make a full Holy Hour, who cannot pray the chaplet, who are at work or in school or at a hospital bedside — the brief offered moment that takes Christ at His word and asks the mercy He promised. The devotion was suppressed for many years (the same period when Faustina's writings were under provisional restriction), but Pope St. John Paul II canonized Faustina on April 30, 2000, and established Divine Mercy Sunday as a feast for the universal Church, restoring the full Divine Mercy devotional repertoire to the Catholic world. The Three O'Clock Prayer is now prayed daily in countless Catholic households, religious communities, hospital chaplaincies, and the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy in Łagiewniki, Kraków.
Anonymous photograph, c. 1930s
3 min
Duration
1 day
Commitment
Beginner-Friendly
Level
St. Faustina Kowalska
Patron Saint
How to Pray
At 3:00 PM each day, pause briefly — whatever you are doing — and pray. The prayer is short enough to commit to memory in a single afternoon and to pray anywhere: at a desk, in a car, in a classroom, at a hospital bedside, walking down a sidewalk. The Catholic tradition is clear that 'even a moment of prayer at this hour is powerful' — if a busy life can only spare twenty seconds for a single 'Jesus, I trust in You' at 3:00 PM, that brief moment is itself the practice. For those with more time at the hour: (1) Pray the full Chaplet of Divine Mercy (approximately ten minutes; see the separate Chaplet of Divine Mercy entry); (2) Make a brief 'visit' to a nearby Catholic church or Eucharistic adoration chapel; (3) Pause to read a paragraph from St. Faustina's Diary; (4) Pray for sinners — Faustina recorded that Jesus told her this is the most powerful intercession at this hour. The traditional Catholic disciplines that pair with the Three O'Clock Prayer: (a) Setting a daily alarm for 3:00 PM as a reminder until the discipline becomes habit; (b) Wearing a small Divine Mercy holy card or image as a tactile reminder through the day; (c) Praying at the foot of a crucifix (the literal posture of Christ at His death); (d) Adding a moment of physical stillness — pausing whatever motion is in progress, even if briefly. The hour is a daily anchor for the Divine Mercy devotional life: the chaplet at 3:00 PM, the daily Mass, the monthly First Friday confession, the annual Divine Mercy Novena from Good Friday to Divine Mercy Sunday — all woven around this central moment of remembrance of Christ's death and the mercy that flowed from His pierced side.
Prayer Text
You expired, Jesus, but the source of life gushed forth for souls, and the ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world. O Fount of Life, unfathomable Divine Mercy, envelop the whole world and empty Yourself out upon us. O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us, I trust in You! Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world. (3x)
Coordinate sustained prayer for someone you love. Volunteers fill 30-minute slots covering days or weeks; the family receives a spiritual bouquet at the end.
