Short Novena to the Sacred Heart

O SACRED and adorable Heart of Jesus! Furnace of eternal charity! Ocean of infinite mercy! Consolation of the afflicted! Refuge of sinners! and Hope of the whole world! I most fervently adore thee, and unite my heart, my affections, and supplications, to the perpetual homage thou thyself, on our altar, renderest to thy eternal Father.

Most amiable Heart, which hast loved us with an eternal love! supply what is wanting in my love, and receive my desire, at least of loving thee with all the ardor and sincerity thou so justly meritest. But remember, O adorable Heart! that thou hast not disclosed thyself to us only as an object of our adorations; thou desirest much more to engage our love, and to become the ground and tender motive of our tender confidence. For this end thou wert pierced through with a lance on the cross; and for the same purpose thou remainest a daily victim of thy own love on our altars. O infinitely compassionate Heart of Jesus, which was overwhelmed with sorrow in the Garden of Olives, at the view of our spiritual and corporal miseries! I recur to thee now with all the confidence thou desirest I should repose in the extent of thy power, and the riches of thy mercy. Convinced that those things which are impossible to human means, are infinitely easy to thee; and relying with an humble, steadfast faith on the sacred words of Truth itself, that whatever we ask the Father in the name of Jesus should be granted; I now most humbly implore, in that adorable name, in virtue of that promise, and through the abundant mercies of the sacred Heart of Jesus, the particular favor I petition for in this Novena. [Specify it.]

O blessed St. Gertrude, and all ye glorious servants of Christ, who, while on earth, were particularly devoted to the sacred Heart of Jesus! join your prayers with mine, and implore the object of the petition which I now make, and specially offer up through your intercession. Beg likewise, from this adorable Heart, which has dominion over all hearts, and could in a moment change the most obdurate, to have compassion on those who are in the dreadful state of mortal sin, and to open to us all the treasures of its mercy at the hour of our death. Amen.