Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Also known as Sacred Heart Novena ยท Liguori's Novena to the Sacred Heart
The Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a nine-day devotion structured as nine considerations, each one dwelling on a different aspect of the heart of Christ. The version presented here is the one composed by Saint Alphonsus Liguori and printed in the English edition of 1861.
The nine days
Drawn from the public-domain source cited at the foot of this page.
- Day 1 The Amiable Heart of Jesus That the heart of Christ is in itself worthy of love, before any thought of what it has done for us.
- Day 2 The Loving Heart of Jesus The love Christ bears toward us, which Liguori treats as the ground of the whole devotion.
- Day 3 The Heart of Jesus Panting to be Loved That Christ desires to be loved in return, and that this desire is the reason the devotion was given.
- Day 4 The Sorrowful Heart of Jesus The sorrow of Christ in his passion, and the share the believer is invited to take in it.
- Day 5 The Compassionate Heart of Jesus The mercy of Christ toward human weakness and suffering.
- Day 6 The Generous Heart of Jesus What Christ gives, and the completeness with which he gives it.
- Day 7 The Grateful Heart of Jesus That Christ receives and remembers even small acts of love offered to him.
- Day 8 The Despised Heart of Jesus The rejection Christ suffered, and the reparation the devotion seeks to make for it.
- Day 9 The Faithful Heart of Jesus That the love of Christ does not fail, and the confidence the believer may place in it.
History
Devotion to the Sacred Heart took its modern form in 17th-century France, following the visions reported by Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690), a nun of the Order of the Visitation at Paray-le-Monial. Liguori's own account, printed in the source used here, records that Christ showed her his heart surrounded by thorns, with a cross above it and set in a throne of flames, and asked that the devotion and feast of his Sacred Heart be established so that devout souls might make reparation for the injuries his heart receives.
Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787), founder of the Redemptorists and one of the most widely read spiritual writers in the Catholic tradition, gave the devotion the nine-day shape used here. His introduction to the novena argues that love for Jesus Christ ought to be the principal devotion of a Christian, and that meditation on the love Christ bears us is the means by which that love is acquired. He calls it 'that golden cord which unites and binds the soul to God.'
The nine considerations below are Liguori's, in the order they appear in the 1861 English edition. Each is followed in the original by a section of affections and prayers.
How it is prayed
Prayed on nine consecutive days, most commonly in the nine days leading up to the Feast of the Sacred Heart, which falls on the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi. Each day takes one of the nine considerations below, reads it slowly, and rests on it in prayer. In Liguori's arrangement each consideration is followed by affections and prayers, so the day's devotion moves from reflection into direct address to Christ. The novena is also prayed at any time of year for a particular intention, and on the First Fridays of the month in parishes that keep that observance.
Common questions
When is the Sacred Heart novena prayed?
Who composed this novena?
What is the difference between the Sacred Heart devotion and the novena?
Saint Alphonsus Liguori, The Mysteries of the Faith: The Redemption, containing reflections, meditations, and devotions on the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the novena of the Sacred Heart, translated and edited by Robert A. Goffin (London: Burns and Lambert, 1861), section VII, 'Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.' Public domain by age.
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