Thirty-three names for one wounded Heart. The Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is not a list — it is a siege of love, one invocation for each of the thirty-three years Christ walked among us. Each line names what His Heart is and what it endured for you, and each is answered the same way: have mercy on us. It is the prayer of the man who knows his own heart is hard, and comes to the only Heart that can soften it.
The Litany of the Sacred Heart
Kyrie & the invocation of the Trinity
Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us. God the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us. God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us. God the Holy Ghost, have mercy on us. Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us.Kýrie, eléison. Christe, eléison. Kýrie, eléison.
The Sacred Heart — thirty-three invocations
Heart of Jesus, Son of the Eternal Father, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, formed in the womb of the Virgin Mother by the Holy Ghost, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, united substantially with the Word of God, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, of infinite majesty, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, holy temple of God, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, tabernacle of the Most High, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, house of God and gate of heaven, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, glowing furnace of charity, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, vessel of justice and love, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, full of goodness and love, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, abyss of all virtues, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, most worthy of all praise, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, king and center of all hearts, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, in whom dwelleth all the fullness of the Divinity, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, in whom the Father is well pleased, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, of whose fullness we have all received, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, desire of the everlasting hills, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, patient and rich in mercy, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, rich to all who invoke Thee, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, fount of life and holiness, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, propitiation for our sins, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, saturated with revilings, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, crushed for our iniquities, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, made obedient unto death, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, pierced with a lance, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, source of all consolation, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, our life and resurrection, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, our peace and reconciliation, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, victim for our sins, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, salvation of those who hope in Thee, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, hope of those who die in Thee, have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, delight of all saints, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Versicle & response
V. Jesus, meek and humble of Heart. R. Make our hearts like unto Thine.V. Iesu, mitis et humilis Corde. R. Fac cor nostrum secundum Cor tuum.
Let us pray
Almighty and everlasting God, look upon the Heart of Thy well-beloved Son and upon the acts of praise and satisfaction which He renders unto Thee in the name of sinners; and do Thou, in Thy great goodness, grant pardon to them who seek Thy mercy, in the name of the same Thy Son, Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, world without end. Amen.
How to pray it
A litany is meant to be prayed aloud, back and forth. One voice leads each invocation — Heart of Jesus, glowing furnace of charity — and all answer, have mercy on us. Prayed alone, you carry both parts. Let the repetition do its work: thirty-three times the same plea, until have mercy on us stops being words and becomes the posture of your whole life before Him.
When to pray it
Pray it in June, the Month of the Sacred Heart, and on the Feast of the Sacred Heart — the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi. Pray it on the First Friday of the month, the day Our Lord asked St. Margaret Mary to honor His Heart. But it is bound to no season: a father can pray it for a hardened heart — his own, his son's, his marriage's — and lay each of the thirty-three names before the Heart that was pierced with a lance for him. It is a fitting act of consecration and a strong prayer for enthroning the Sacred Heart in the home.
Where it came from
Devotion to the Sacred Heart was set ablaze by the apparitions to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque at Paray-le-Monial (1673–1675), when Christ revealed the Heart 'which has so loved men.' The invocations were gathered over the following two centuries from earlier litanies — notably one expanded by Sister Anne-Madeleine Rémuzat of Marseilles. In 1899 — the same year he consecrated the whole human race to the Sacred Heart in the encyclical Annum Sacrum — Pope Leo XIII approved this litany of thirty-three invocations, one for each year of Christ's earthly life, for use by the universal Church. It stands among the six litanies approved for public, liturgical use. Sanctum's whole register — Altar. Arms. Allegiance. — begins at this Heart.