Oct

16

A New Chaplet to the Sacred Heart

October 16, 2008 |

A little while back, I wasn’t sleeping well; waking up in the middle of the night and being unable to get back to sleep because of some things that were and still are bugging me. 

One night, I grabbed my rosary beads and started just fingering them, trying to get some peace for what was troubling me.  For some reason, I started praying to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, asking for trust and mercy.  While praying, I drifted back to what became a peaceful sleep.  The next night, same thing.  The next night, same thing.

These prayers have worked so well to get me back to sleep that I’ve started short-circuiting the process.  I’m now praying a self-designed chaplet to the Sacred Heart after Night Prayer and right before I go to sleep.  I’ve been sleeping like a baby every night since.

As today is the feast day for St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, I thought I would share this chaplet.  St. Margaret Mary was a 17th century nun who spread the devotion of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in a world as uncertain as our own.  She received revelations from Christ and was instructed to spread this devotion, which includes the First Friday Devotion.  Christ’s Sacred Heart is all about his love; especially his mercy for us and the trust we should have in him.

While I didn’t receive any revelations like St. Mary Margaret (and I’m not really sure us lay folks are permitted to just make up our own chaplets), here’s the chaplet to be prayed on Rosary beads -

Start with an Our Father and Hail Mary.  On the initial three Hail Mary beads, pray the Jesus Prayer - “O My Jesus, only Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.”

On the Our Father beads beginning each decade, pray “Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in thee.”

On the Hail Mary beads for each decade, pray “Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.”

Finish with John Henry Cardinal Newman’s prayer to the Sacred Heart -

“O most Sacred, most loving Heart of Jesus, You are concealed in the Holy Eucharist, and You beat for us still. Now as then You save, Desiderio desideravi - “With desire I have desired.” I worship Thee then with all my best love and awe, with my fervent affection, with my most subdued, most resolved will.

O my God, when You condescend to suffer me to receive Thee, to eat and drink Thee, and You for a while take up Thy abode within me, O make my heart beat with Thy Heart.  Purify it of all that is earthly, all that is proud and sensual, all that is hard and cruel, of all perversity, of all disorder, of all deadness. 

So fill it with Thee, that neither the events of the day nor the circumstances of the time may have power to ruffle it, but that in Thy love and Thy fear it may have peace.  Amen.”

And then pray the Divine Praises (don’t ask why, it just a nice prayer to fit into your day) and then three Hail Mary’s (one for God, one for Jesus, one for the Holy Spirit; this is an old bedtime tradition I’ve read about).

The whole chaplet is a good way to send yourself off to sleep, especially when coupled with a good examination of conscience, Act of Contrition, and Night Prayer.  All of it should take less than five minutes.

 


Comments

2 Comments so far

  1. Cavaliere on October 18, 2008 11:36 pm

    Devotion to the Sacred Heart is one of the best but forgotten treasures of the spiritual life. We have recently re-started doing the monthly night adoration in the home as encouraged by Fr. Mateo Crowley, the apostle of the Sacred Heart. We did it years ago and received many wonderful blessings but as the family grew and time got busier it got pushed aside. Hopefully now we will perservere and continue with it. Are you familiar with this?

  2. nettielpowell on December 12, 2008 4:38 pm

    i have looked and looked for the divine chaplet rosary,i live on a small income,why doesnt anyone give the divine chaplet rosary as a gift? thank you.nettie

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