Sacred Heart of Jesus
Novena to the Sacred Heart
Jesus Christ
Sacred Heart of Jesus
Cor Jesu Sacratissimum, miserere nobis.
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, after Pompeo Batoni (1767)
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Origin Story
St. Alphonsus Liguori composed his Novena to the Sacred Heart around 1758 to deepen loving devotion to Jesus and to support the wider approval of the Sacred Heart feast. True to his affective spirituality, he shaped the nine days to lead souls into a personal and heartfelt love of Christ, especially through meditation on His Passion, His Eucharistic love, and the mercy symbolized by His Sacred Heart.
Instructions
Traditionally prayed in the days leading to the Feast of the Sacred Heart, beginning on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday and ending on the day before the feast.
It may also be prayed before a First Friday, during times of personal or family need, or one meditation at a time as part of a daily morning or evening prayer rule.
A traditional way of making it is to unite each day with the Blessed Virgin and a choir of angels or saints in honor of the Sacred Heart.
Each day may be joined to a practical resolution or virtue in reparation and love.
Pray For
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Day 1 of 9
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Meditation I: The Amiable Heart of Jesus
He who shows himself amiable in everything must necessarily make himself loved. Oh, if we only applied ourselves to discover all the good qualities by which Jesus Christ renders Himself worthy of our love, we should all be under the happy necessity of loving Him. And what heart among all hearts can be found more worthy of love than the Heart of Jesus? A heart all pure, all holy, all full of love towards God and towards us; because all His desires are only for the Divine glory and our good. This is the heart in which God finds all his delight. Every perfection, every virtue reign in this heart; a most ardent love for God, His Father, united to the greatest humility and respect that can possibly exist; a sovereign confusion for our sins, which He has taken upon Himself, united to the extreme confidence of a most affectionate Son; a sovereign abhorrence of our sins, united to a lively compassion for our miseries; an extreme sorrow, united to a perfect conformity to the will of God. In Jesus is found everything that there can be most amiable. Some are attracted to love others by their beauty, others by their innocence, others by living with them, others by devotion. But if there were a person in whom all these and other virtues were united, who could help loving him? If we heard that there was in a distant country a foreign prince who was handsome, humble, courteous, devout, full of charity, affable to all, and who rendered good to those who did him evil; then, although we knew not who he was, and though he knew not us, and though we were not acquainted with him, nor was there any possibility of our ever being so, yet we should be enamored of him, and should be constrained to love him. How is it, then, possible that Jesus Christ, Who possesses in Himself all these virtues, and in the most perfect degree, and Who loves us so tenderly, how is it possible that He should be so little loved by men, and should not be the only object of our love? O my God, how is it that Jesus, Who alone is worthy of love, and Who has given us so many proofs of the love that He bears us, should be alone, as it were, the unlucky one with us, Who cannot arrive at making us love Him; as if He were not sufficiently worthy of our love! This is what caused floods of tears to St. Rose of Lima, St. Catherine of Genoa, St. Teresa, and St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, who, on considering the ingratitude of men, exclaimed, weeping, "Love is not loved, Love is not loved."
Prayer of St. Alphonsus Liguori to the Sacred Heart
O Adorable Heart of my Jesus, heart created expressly for the love of men! Until now I have shown towards Thee only ingratitude. Pardon me, O my Jesus. Heart of my Jesus, abyss of love and of mercy, how is it possible that I do not die of sorrow when I reflect on Thy goodness to me and my ingratitude to Thee? Thou, my Creator, after having created me, hast given Thy blood and Thy life for me; and, not content with this, Thou hast invented a means of offering Thyself up every day for me in the holy Eucharist, exposing Thyself to a thousand insults and outrages. Ah, Jesus, do Thou wound my heart with a great contrition for my sins, and a lively love for Thee. Through Thy tears and Thy blood give me the grace of perseverance in Thy fervent love until I breathe my last sigh. Amen.
Occasions