Chaplet of the Sacred Heart of Jesus: How to Pray the Little Chaplet (Full Text)

O sweetest heart of Jesus! I implore
That I may ever love thee more and more.

Most loving Jesus! my heart leaps for joy in thinking on thy loving sacred heart, all tenderness and sweetness for sinful man; and, with trust unbounded, it never doubts thy ready welcome. Ah me! my sins! how many and how great! With Peter and Magdalen, in tears, I bewail and abhor them, because they are an offence to thee, my sole and chief good. Grant me, O grant me pardon for them all! O may I die, I beseech thee, by thy loving heart, may I die rather than offend thee, and may I live only to correspond to thy love!

My Jesus! I bless thy most humble heart; and I give thanks to thee, who, in making it my model, not only dost urge me, with much pressing, to imitate it, but, at the cost of so many humiliations, dost thyself stoop to point me out the path, and smooth for me the way to follow thee. Foolish and ungrateful that I am, how have I wandered far away from thee! Mercy, my Jesus, mercy! Away, hateful pride and love of worldly honor! With lowly heart I wish to follow thee, my Jesus, through humiliations and the cross, and thus to gain peace and salvation. Only be thou at hand to strengthen me, and I will ever bless thy sacred heart.

My Jesus! I marvel at thy most patient heart, and I thank thee for all those wondrous examples of unwearied patience which thou didst leave me to guide me on my way. It grieves me that I have still to reproach myself with my extravagant delicacy, shrinking from the slightest pain. O pour, then, into my heart, dear Jesus, eager and enduring love of suffering and of the cross, of mortification and of penance, that, following thee to Calvary, I may with thee attain to glory, and to the joys of paradise!

Dear Jesus! at the sight of thy most gentle heart, I shudder to see how unlike mine is to thine, since at a shadow, at a look, at a word of opposition, I fret and grieve. O, then, pardon my excesses, and give me grace that, in every contradiction, I may follow the example of thy unchangeable meekness, and so enjoy an everlasting holy peace.

Sing praise to Jesus for his most generous heart, the conqueror of death and hell; yet never wilt thou reach its due with all thy praise. More than ever am I confounded, looking upon my coward heart, which, through human respect, dreads even a passing word. Courage, my soul! it shall be so with thee no more. My Jesus, I pray thee for such strength that, fighting and conquering on earth, I may one day rejoice triumphantly with thee in heaven.

By the precious gifts of thy sweetest heart, obtain for me, great mother of my God, and my mother Mary, a true and lasting devotion to the sacred heart of Jesus, thy well-beloved Son, that, united in every thought and affection with that heart, I may fulfil all the duties of my state of life with ready heart, serving my Jesus ever more, but especially on this day.

V. Heart of Jesus burning with love for us.
R. Inflame our hearts with love of thee.

Lord, we beseech thee, let thy Holy Spirit kindle in our hearts that fire of charity which our Lord Jesus Christ, thy Son, sent forth from his inmost heart upon this earth, and willed that it should burn with vehemence. Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen.