The Chaplet of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

The Chaplet of the Sacred Heart is a short string of beads on which we honour the Heart of Jesus — the true Heart of flesh of Our Lord, united to the divine Word and so the living symbol of His infinite love. It is prayed on thirty-three beads, one for each year of Our Lord's earthly life, each carrying a brief act of love or reparation to the Heart that loved men to the end. It is not the Rosary, and it is not a litany; it is a small, repeated offering, easily said in a few minutes, by which we draw near to the furnace of charity. If you are new to such prayers, our note on what a chaplet is sets out the form, and it sits among the wider body of Catholic prayers of the Church.

What the Chaplet honours

The object of the chaplet is the same as the object of the feast and the whole devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus: the Heart of flesh of Our Lord Jesus Christ — a true human Heart, like our own, yet hypostatically united to the Word, and therefore the symbol and the instrument of His love for the Father and for men. Dom Guéranger writes that from its throbbings "there ascends to the eternal Father a homage of love infinitely pleasing to the divine Majesty"; it is, in St Gertrude's words, "the one only organism that finds acceptance with the Most High — the mystic ladder between man and God, the channel of all graces." When we tell the beads of this chaplet, we are not counting prayers so much as returning love for love.

The Fathers had already seen, in the wound opened by the lance of Longinus, from which flowed blood and water, the birth of the Church — radiant with youth — from the side of the new Adam asleep upon the Cross. Cardinal Schuster traces how this was deepened by the Benedictine school of piety, until in the twelfth century St Bernard "directed the mystical devotion of his monks of Clairvaux toward the human nature of the Saviour," and the devotion to the Sacred Heart, as the Liturgy now renders it, came into being. To St Bernard the Heart of the Crucified is "that cleft in the rock where the heavenly Bridegroom invites his dove to find rest." The chaplet is a humble instrument for entering that cleft.

Why thirty-three beads

The chaplet counts thirty-three beads because Our Lord lived thirty-three years upon the earth. Each bead is a year offered back to Him, and the small number is deliberate: this is a devotion of the heart, not of duration. Father Tanquerey, surveying the spiritual writers on the Sacred Heart — Croiset, Galliffet, Bainvel, Manning — reminds us that the devotion reconciles two things that must always go together: love and reparation. We adore the Heart that has "loved men so greatly, yet has received so little love in return," and we offer Him the love that so many withhold. The chaplet holds both: love on the beads, reparation in the closing prayer.

How to pray the Chaplet of the Sacred Heart

Take the chaplet of thirty-three beads. Begin with the sign of the Cross, then make an act of love and intention before the beads themselves.

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, furnace of charity, I come before Thee to honour the thirty-three years of Thy mortal life and the immense love of Thy Heart. Receive these prayers in reparation for the coldness of men, and inflame my heart with Thy love.

On each of the thirty-three beads, say slowly:

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I implore that I may love Thee more and more.

Let the words be unhurried; the repetition is the prayer, as the heart beats one beat after another. Some keep the older form on each bead, which holds love and reparation together:

Sweet Heart of Jesus, be my love. — Heart of Jesus, I trust in Thee.

When the thirty-three beads are told, close by surrendering yourself to the Heart you have honoured:

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in Thee. Whatever may befall me, I shall never doubt Thy mercy. Thou art my refuge and my strength, the furnace where my coldness is consumed. To Thee I consecrate my heart, that it may beat henceforth only for Thee, in time and in eternity. Amen.

A short verse and response, taken from the Liturgy of the feast, may be added at the end:

V. Make our hearts, O Lord, like unto Thy Heart.
R. That we may love Thee in all things and above all things.

That is the whole chaplet. It may be said in honour of the Heart of Jesus on any day, but it has a special fitness on the First Friday of the month, which the devotion to the Sacred Heart has long sanctified; we treat that practice in our article on the First Fridays.

Is the Chaplet of the Sacred Heart a rosary?

Many search for the "chaplet rosary of the Sacred Heart of Jesus," and the two words are often used as though they meant the same thing. They do not. A rosary is the full Marian psalter — fifteen decades of Hail Marys, divided into the joyful, sorrowful and glorious mysteries — counted on a string of, ordinarily, fifty-nine beads. A chaplet is any shorter string used for a particular devotion, with its own count and its own prayers; the word itself means a little garland. The Chaplet of the Sacred Heart is therefore not the Rosary and is not prayed on rosary beads: it has its own thirty-three beads and its own short act of love, O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I implore that I may love Thee more and more. If your beads are a standard five-decade rosary, they will not number thirty-three; a proper Sacred Heart chaplet is strung to that count, or you may simply count thirty-three on any beads or on the fingers. The confusion is natural, since both are "told" on beads, but the Rosary honours Our Lady through the mysteries of her Son, while this chaplet honours the Heart of the Son directly. For the distinction set out at length, see our note on what a chaplet is and our guide to how to pray the Rosary.

The Sacred Heart Chaplet prayers in full

So that the whole Sacred Heart of Jesus chaplet prayer may be found in one place, here are the words in order, from the opening act to the closing consecration.

Opening act of love and intention:

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, furnace of charity, I come before Thee to honour the thirty-three years of Thy mortal life and the immense love of Thy Heart. Receive these prayers in reparation for the coldness of men, and inflame my heart with Thy love.

On each of the thirty-three beads:

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I implore that I may love Thee more and more.

Or, in the older form that joins love and trust:

Sweet Heart of Jesus, be my love. — Heart of Jesus, I trust in Thee.

Closing act of trust and consecration:

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in Thee. Whatever may befall me, I shall never doubt Thy mercy. Thou art my refuge and my strength, the furnace where my coldness is consumed. To Thee I consecrate my heart, that it may beat henceforth only for Thee, in time and in eternity. Amen.

Versicle and response from the Liturgy of the feast:

V. Make our hearts, O Lord, like unto Thy Heart.
R. That we may love Thee in all things and above all things.

These are the prayers entire. They ask nothing learned: a single repeated word of love, told thirty-three times, with an offering of trust at the beginning and the end.

The Chaplet, the Litany, and the Novena

The chaplet does not stand alone. It belongs to a family of prayers to the Heart of Jesus, and the soul who loves this devotion will move easily among them. The Litany of the Sacred Heart — approved for the whole Church by Leo XIII in 1899 — names the Heart under its many titles, "of infinite majesty," "burning furnace of charity," "source of all consolation," and answers each with have mercy on us. Where the chaplet repeats one act of love, the litany unfolds the riches of the Heart in a long procession of titles; the two complete one another.

Before the feast itself, many make the Novena to the Sacred Heart — nine days of prayer leading to the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi. The chaplet is well suited to be the daily prayer of such a novena: one chaplet a day for nine days, joined to the litany, makes a complete and traditional preparation. The Sacred Heart is, after all, the model of all our loves; even the chaplet honouring the Immaculate Heart of Mary draws its meaning from the Heart of the Son. It is a sister devotion to the Chaplet of the Precious Blood, for the Heart and the Blood are one redeeming love, and to the Five Wounds Chaplet, which honours the same opened side from which the Church was born.

A devotion of confidence

The whole burden of this chaplet is confidence. Pius IX extended the feast to the universal Church in 1856; Leo XIII raised it to the first class in 1889 and consecrated the whole world to the Sacred Heart in 1899. Behind these acts of the Magisterium stands the simple word of Our Lord that gives the devotion its theme: "Behold the Heart which has loved men so greatly, yet has received so little love in return." The chaplet is our small answer — thirty-three beads, thirty-three acts of love, returned to the Heart that gave us all. It asks nothing learned, only that we love Him more and more, and that, told faithfully on a First Friday or any day, we let the furnace of charity warm a cold heart back to life. It takes its place among the Catholic devotions that have formed the faithful for centuries.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many beads are on the Chaplet of the Sacred Heart?

It is prayed on thirty-three beads, one for each year of Our Lord's earthly life. Each bead carries a brief act of love or reparation to the Heart of Jesus, and the small number is deliberate: this is a devotion of the heart, not of duration.

How do you pray the Chaplet of the Sacred Heart?

Begin with the sign of the Cross and an act of love before the beads. On each of the thirty-three beads say slowly, O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I implore that I may love Thee more and more. When the beads are told, close with an act of trust and consecration to the Sacred Heart, and a short verse and response from the Liturgy may be added.

What does the Chaplet of the Sacred Heart honour?

It honours the Heart of flesh of Our Lord — a true human Heart, hypostatically united to the Word, and therefore the symbol and instrument of His love for the Father and for men. Dom Guéranger calls it the channel of all graces; we tell the beads not so much to count prayers as to return love for love.

When should the Chaplet of the Sacred Heart be prayed?

It may be said on any day, but it has a special fitness on the First Friday of the month, which the devotion to the Sacred Heart has long sanctified. It is also well suited as the daily prayer of the Novena to the Sacred Heart, joined to the Litany of the Sacred Heart.

What is the difference between the chaplet, the litany, and the novena?

Where the chaplet repeats one act of love on its beads, the Litany of the Sacred Heart unfolds the riches of the Heart in a long procession of titles, and the Novena is nine days of prayer leading to the feast. The three complete one another and belong to the same family of prayers to the Heart of Jesus.

Is the Chaplet of the Sacred Heart a rosary?

No. The Rosary is the full Marian psalter of fifteen decades, counted on its own beads; a chaplet is a shorter devotion with its own count. The Chaplet of the Sacred Heart has thirty-three beads, one for each year of Our Lord's life, and its own short prayer. The two are often called by each other's names because both are told on beads, but the Rosary honours Our Lady through the mysteries, while this chaplet honours the Heart of the Son directly.

What is the prayer of the Sacred Heart of Jesus chaplet?

On each of the thirty-three beads we say, O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I implore that I may love Thee more and more. It opens with an act of love and intention before the beads and closes with an act of trust and consecration to the Sacred Heart; a short versicle and response from the Liturgy of the feast may be added at the end. The full text is given above.

The Iter Fidei app carries the novenas, chaplets, litanies and prayers in Latin and your own language, with audio. Download it here.

Sources. Dom Prosper Guéranger, The Liturgical Year (feast of the Sacred Heart); Bl. Cardinal Ildefonso Schuster, The Sacramentary (Liber Sacramentorum); Dom Pius Parsch, The Church's Year of Grace; A. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life (devotion to the Sacred Heart, with Croiset, de Galliffet, Bainvel, Manning, Terrien); the Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus approved by Leo XIII (1899); the Mass and Office of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Roman Missal and Roman Breviary.