The Efficacious Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

The efficacious novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a nine-day prayer of confident petition, in which we lay one need before the Heart of our Lord and renew, day after day, a single act of trust: Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in Thee. It is called "efficacious" not because it forces God's hand, but because it asks in the manner the Heart of Jesus Himself loves — with the bold confidence of a child of God. Below we give the spirit of this sacred heart novena and its full daily text, so the reader may pray it.

What the efficacious novena is

A novena is nine consecutive days of prayer for a single intention, modelled on the nine days our Lady and the Apostles spent in prayer between the Ascension and Pentecost. We treat the form, the rules, and the meaning of the practice in what is a novena; here we apply that frame to the Heart of our Lord. The efficacious novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus takes that nine-day pattern and fills it with one steady act — the act of confidence — so that the whole of the nine days becomes a sustained surrender of one need into the hands of Christ.

The devotion is commonly attributed to Blessed Mary of the Divine Heart Droste zu Vischering, the religious through whom, at the close of the nineteenth century, our Lord asked that the human race be consecrated to His Sacred Heart — the consecration carried out by Pope Leo XIII in 1899, the same year that Pope approved for the universal Church the litany of the Sacred Heart. The novena belongs to that flowering of confidence in the divine Heart, and we pray it as our own inheritance, in its traditional form.

The spirit of confident petition

This novena stands or falls on one thing: trust. It is not the multiplication of words but the temper of the soul that prays them. The Catechism of Saint Pius X teaches that when our Lord taught us to call God our Father at the head of the Our Father, He did so "in order to awaken our confidence in His infinite goodness, since we are His children" (Catechism of Saint Pius X, On the Lord's Prayer). The efficacious novena does nothing more than draw out that same confidence and fix it upon the visible sign of God's love, the Heart of Christ. We treat that Heart, and what devotion to it means, in the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Holy hope is a theological virtue, and the Catechism of Saint Pius X gives us its very act: O my God, I hope with firm confidence that Thou wilt grant me, through the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy grace in this world, and, if I keep Thy commandments, eternal happiness in the next, because Thou hast promised it and Thou dost faithfully keep Thy promises (Act of Hope). The novena rests on the same ground — that God is faithful to His promises. When we say I place all my trust in Thee, we are not flattering Him into a favour; we are leaning the whole weight of our need upon a fidelity that cannot fail.

Two cautions keep this trust traditional rather than presumptuous. First, we ask always with the Thy will be done of the Lord's Prayer held under our petition; we trust the Heart of Jesus to give what is best, not merely what we name. Second, hope is bound to obedience — if I keep Thy commandments. A novena prayed by a soul that means to remain in sin is a novena that fights itself. The confident petitioner is the one who asks much and amends his life, which for most begins at the confessional. This is the same spirit that animates the Eucharistic Nine First Fridays: love and reparation, not a formula. The same confidence runs through the whole body of our Catholic prayers and Catholic devotions, of which this novena is one — as it runs, too, through the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to which the Heart of her Son is forever joined — and the soul who keeps this novena may fittingly join to it the novena to the Immaculate Heart, honouring the two Hearts together.

How to pray the novena

The structure is simple and may be kept by anyone. Pray it for nine consecutive days, at a fixed time, for one clearly named intention.

• Choose one intention. Name it plainly and keep it the same across all nine days.
• Pray the daily prayer once each day — the text given below.
• Add, if you wish, the litany of the Sacred Heart or the chaplet of the Sacred Heart, both proper to this devotion; neither is required, but each deepens it.
• Persevere even when nothing is felt. The virtue of the nine days is constancy, not consolation. A petition renewed in dryness is worth more than one prayed in sweetness and then abandoned.

The acts of confidence at the end are the heart of the prayer. They are repeated slowly, each one a fresh surrender, until the soul means the final line with its whole strength.

The daily prayer of the efficacious novena

The following is prayed once on each of the nine days, the intention named where indicated.

O Lord Jesus Christ, to Thy most Sacred Heart I confide this intention: (here name your request).

Only look upon me, and then do what Thy Heart inspires. Let Thy Sacred Heart decide. I count on Thee. I trust in Thee. I throw myself on Thy mercy. Lord Jesus, Thou wilt not fail me.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in Thee.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I believe in Thy love for me.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thy kingdom come.

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I have asked Thee for many favours, but I earnestly implore this one. Take it, place it in Thy open Heart. When the Eternal Father looks upon it, He will see it covered with Thy Precious Blood. It will be no longer my prayer, but Thine, O Jesus.

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in Thee. Let me not be disappointed. Amen.

After the prayer, the acts of confidence may be repeated as a closing refrain, the last said as the seal of the whole novena:

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in Thee.

We may add the brief aspiration the Church has joined to this devotion and indulgenced for the universal Church: Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us (Cor Jesu sacratissimum, miserere nobis).

The novena of confidence to the Sacred Heart

Alongside the efficacious novena there is a closely related and much-loved form, the novena of confidence to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, sometimes called simply the Prayer of Confidence. It is briefer and may be prayed by itself for nine days or joined to the daily prayer above. Its strength is the same: it asks nothing but that the Heart of Jesus do as His own love decides.

O Lord Jesus Christ, to Thy most Sacred Heart I confide this intention (here name your request). Only look upon me, then do what Thy love inspires. Let Thy Sacred Heart decide. I count on it, I trust in it, I throw myself on its mercy. Lord Jesus, Thou wilt not fail me.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in Thee.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I believe in Thy love for me.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thy kingdom come.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I have asked Thee for many favours, but I earnestly implore this one. Take it, place it in Thy open Heart. When the Eternal Father looks upon it, He will see it covered with Thy Precious Blood. It will be no longer my prayer, but Thine, O Jesus.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in Thee, for I know that Thou wilt never fail me. Amen.

This is the prayer of pure confidence: it does not bargain, it leans. Whoever prays it lays down the whole weight of his need and refuses to pick it back up.

A powerful novena, rightly understood

People search for a powerful novena to the Sacred Heart, and the word is good — provided we understand where the power lies. The power of this prayer is not in the formula, nor in the number nine, nor in any word said the right number of times; that would be superstition, which the Church condemns. The power is in the Heart to which we pray and in the disposition with which we pray. A novena is "powerful" exactly to the degree that it is humble, trusting, persevering, and joined to a real amendment of life. The Heart of Jesus answers love, not technique. So the most powerful novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the one prayed by a soul in the state of grace who asks much, trusts everything, and accepts whatever the divine will sends — even when the answer comes in a form harder and better than the one we named.

The traditional novena and how to keep it

By a traditional novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus we mean the devotion in its traditional form, kept as it was handed down: the daily prayer of confident petition, with the acts of confidence as its refrain, drawn from the great age of Sacred Heart devotion that ran from St Margaret Mary to the consecration of the human race by Pope Leo XIII in 1899. We give it here without the additions and abridgements of later decades, so that the reader prays what the faithful prayed. To keep it traditionally is to keep it whole: one named intention, nine consecutive days, the prayer said unhurried, and — where it can be added — the litany of the Sacred Heart or the chaplet of the Sacred Heart, both proper to this devotion.

Praying along, printing, and keeping the prayer

Many look for the novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus as a PDF to print, or as a spoken version on YouTube to pray along with. The aim behind both is the same and good: to have the words ready and to pray them faithfully across the nine days. The full text given on this page may be copied and kept by hand — a card, a notebook, the flyleaf of a missal — which is the oldest way the faithful carried their novenas. Better still, the Iter Fidei app carries this novena and the other Catholic devotions in Latin and in your own language, with audio, so the prayer can be both read and prayed aloud, day by day, without searching for it again.

The nine days of the novena, day by day

Because it is a nine day novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the form is simply the same daily prayer renewed for nine consecutive days — there is no separate set of nine different prayers required, though many like to give each of the nine days a particular shade of intention. A traditional way to keep the nine days, without changing the prayer itself, is to let each day take up one of the titles of the Heart of Christ:

• Day 1 — Heart of Jesus, Son of the Eternal Father: we adore.
• Day 2 — Heart of Jesus, burning furnace of charity: we ask for love.
• Day 3 — Heart of Jesus, full of goodness and love: we ask for trust.
• Day 4 — Heart of Jesus, patient and most merciful: we ask pardon.
• Day 5 — Heart of Jesus, our peace and reconciliation: we ask peace.
• Day 6 — Heart of Jesus, victim for our sins: we make reparation.
• Day 7 — Heart of Jesus, salvation of those who hope in Thee: we hope.
• Day 8 — Heart of Jesus, delight of all the saints: we ask perseverance.
• Day 9 — Heart of Jesus, our life and resurrection: we surrender all.

These titles are drawn from the litany of the Sacred Heart; the one daily prayer below is said on each of the nine days, and the intention named stays the same throughout.

When and why we pray it

The Heart of Christ is open to every need, and so the efficacious novena may be prayed at any time and for any worthy intention — a grave illness, a conversion, a family in trouble, a vocation, a death well prepared for. Many keep it through the nine days leading up to the feast of the Sacred Heart, which falls on the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi; others begin it on any first Friday, joining it to the First Fridays devotion; others simply pray it in a particular distress. There is no fixed season the Church imposes.

What the devotion guards is the act, not the calendar. We bring our Lord a real need and we refuse to take it back. We trust His Heart to answer in the way a Father answers — sometimes by giving what we asked, sometimes by giving something better and harder, always by giving Himself, who is the deepest answer to every petition. The Heart of Jesus does not fail those who throw themselves upon it. I place all my trust in Thee is the whole of the prayer, said nine times over, until it is true.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Sacred Heart of Jesus?

The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the physical Heart of our Lord, honoured as the symbol of His boundless love for men. The devotion does not adore a piece of flesh apart from Christ; it adores the whole Christ, true God and true man, under the sign of the Heart that was opened by the lance on Calvary. To honour the Sacred Heart is to honour the love that moved the Son of God to take our nature, to suffer, and to die — the love He revealed to St Margaret Mary in the words Behold this Heart which has so loved men. We treat it in the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

How do you pray the efficacious novena to the Sacred Heart?

Pray it on nine consecutive days, at a fixed time, for one clearly named intention. Each day, say the daily prayer given above, confiding your intention to the Heart of Jesus, and close with the acts of confidence, the last of them — Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in Thee — said as the seal of the whole novena. You may add the litany of the Sacred Heart or the chaplet of the Sacred Heart. Persevere even when nothing is felt, for the virtue of the nine days is constancy, not consolation.

When is the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus?

The feast of the Sacred Heart is kept on the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi — the third Friday after Pentecost — and so it falls in June, the month of the Sacred Heart. Many pray the novena in the nine days leading up to the feast; others begin it on any First Friday, joining it to the First Fridays devotion, or simply pray it in a particular need. The Church imposes no fixed season.

Why is the novena called "efficacious"?

It is called efficacious not because it forces God's hand — no novena binds God, and to treat one as a magic formula would be superstition — but because it asks in the very manner the Heart of Jesus loves: with the bold confidence of a child of God. It is prayed always under the Thy will be done of the Lord's Prayer, trusting the Heart of Jesus to give what is best. The novena "never fails" to obtain the deepest grace, which is conformity to His will, even when the thing named is given in a way we did not foresee.

What is the most powerful novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus?

The most powerful novena is not a different or secret prayer but the one prayed with the right disposition: in the state of grace, with humble and persevering trust, for a worthy intention, under the Thy will be done of the Lord's Prayer. The power lies in the Heart of Jesus and in the soul's confidence, never in the formula or the number of repetitions. The efficacious novena and the novena of confidence given above are both prayers of this kind.

Is there a separate prayer for each of the nine days?

No. The same daily prayer is said on each of the nine consecutive days, for the same named intention. Some give each day a particular shade — for example by taking up, day by day, the titles of the Heart of Christ from the litany of the Sacred Heart — but this is optional and does not change the one prayer that carries the novena.

What is the novena of confidence to the Sacred Heart?

The novena of confidence to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a short, much-loved form of the same devotion, sometimes called the Prayer of Confidence, ending Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in Thee. Its whole strength is to ask nothing but that the Heart of Jesus do as His love decides. We give its full text above. It may be prayed by itself across the nine days or joined to the daily prayer of the efficacious novena.

Where can I find the novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus to print or pray along with?

The full text on this page may be freely copied and printed, or written by hand on a card kept in your missal — the oldest way the faithful carried their novenas. To pray it aloud day by day, the Iter Fidei app carries this novena with audio, in Latin and in your own language.

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

Sources. Catechism of Saint Pius X, On the Lord's Prayer (the Our Father awakens "our confidence in His infinite goodness, since we are His children") and the Act of Hope; Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, approved for the universal Church by Pope Leo XIII (1899); the indulgenced aspiration Cor Jesu sacratissimum, miserere nobis. The novena is attributed to Blessed Mary of the Divine Heart Droste zu Vischering, in its traditional form.