First Friday Devotion: Nine First Fridays and the Promises

The First Friday devotion is the practice of receiving Holy Communion in reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the first Friday of each month, especially on nine First Fridays in a row. It comes from the revelations of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque at Paray-le-Monial in the 1670s, when he showed her his Heart burning with love and asked for love and reparation in return. Below is how to make the nine First Fridays, the “Great Promise,” the promises of the Sacred Heart, prayers for the day, and answers to common questions.

How to make the nine First Fridays

Go to confession in the days before (or after) the First Friday, so as to receive Communion in the state of grace.
Receive Holy Communion on the first Friday of the month.
Offer it in reparation for the sins that wound the Heart of Jesus: indifference, ingratitude and sacrilege.
Do this nine months in a row, without interruption.
Add, if you can, a holy hour on the Thursday night before, the Litany of the Sacred Heart, or an act of consecration.

Many parishes offer confession, adoration and an early Mass on First Fridays. See how to make a holy hour.

The Great Promise

In a letter, St. Margaret Mary wrote that Our Lord promised, in the excess of the mercy of his Heart, that those who receive Communion on the first Friday of nine consecutive months would receive the grace of final repentance: they would not die in his displeasure or without the sacraments, and his Heart would be their safe refuge at the last moment.

The Church encourages this devotion but understands the promise rightly: it is not a magic formula or a “ticket” that guarantees heaven whatever we do afterward. It is a sign of the immense mercy of Christ, who wants to draw us to frequent confession and Communion, and it presupposes a sincere desire to live as his friend.

The promises of the Sacred Heart

These promises to those devoted to the Sacred Heart are drawn from the letters of St. Margaret Mary. This is the list as printed in the Little Manual of the Sacred Heart (1887):

1. “I will give them all the grace necessary for their state of life.”
2. “I will establish peace in their families.”
3. “I will console them in all their pains and trials.”
4. “I will be their assured refuge in life and especially in death.”
5. “I will shed abundant blessings upon all their undertakings.”
6. “Sinners shall find in My Heart an infinite ocean of Mercy.”
7. “Lukewarm souls will be rendered fervent.”
8. “Fervent souls shall rise rapidly to greater perfection.”
9. “I will bless every house in which an image of My Sacred Heart shall be exposed and honored.”
10. “I will give to Priests the talent of moving the hardest hearts.”
11. “The names of those who propagate this devotion shall be written in My Heart, from which they shall never be effaced.”
12. “Publish, and cause it to be published, over all the world, that I will set no limits to My graces for those souls that come to seek them in this My Heart.”

Many later lists add the Great Promise of the nine First Fridays as the twelfth promise.

An act of consecration to the Sacred Heart

The short act of consecration composed by St. Margaret Mary, as printed in Father Lasance’s With God (1911):

I, N., give and consecrate to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ my person and my life, my actions, penances, and sufferings, that my whole being may be devoted to honoring, loving, and glorifying Him.

It is my irrevocable will to be entirely His, and to do everything for His love, renouncing with my whole heart whatever might displease Him.

I take Thee then, O most sacred Heart, as the sole object of my love, as the protector of my life, as the pledge of my salvation, as the remedy of my frailty and inconstancy, as the repairer of all the defects of my life, and as my secure refuge in the hour of death.

Be then, O Heart of goodness, my justification before God the Father, and remove far from me the thunderbolts of His just wrath, O Heart of love, I place my whole confidence in Thee. While I fear all things from my malice and frailty, I hope all things from Thy goodness. Consume then in me whatever can displease or be opposed to Thee, and may thy pure love be so deeply impressed upon my heart that it may be impossible that I should ever be separated from Thee, or forget Thee.

I implore Thee, by all Thy goodness, that my name may be written in Thee, for in Thee I wish to place all my happiness and all my glory, living and dying in very bondage to Thee. Amen.

Why the first Friday?

Friday is the day of the Passion, when the Heart of Jesus was pierced by the lance and blood and water flowed out (John 19:34). Jesus asked St. Margaret Mary to receive Communion on the first Friday of each month and to keep a holy hour on Thursday night, sharing his agony in Gethsemane.

Frequently asked questions

What if I miss a First Friday?

The nine First Fridays should be consecutive, so if you miss one, begin again. But the deeper purpose, to love and console the Heart of Jesus, continues every month.

Do I have to go to confession every First Friday?

You must be in the state of grace to receive Communion. Monthly confession is a beautiful part of the devotion, and confession within the days before or after the First Friday is customary.

What is the difference between First Fridays and First Saturdays?

First Fridays honor the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Paray-le-Monial, 1670s); First Saturdays honor the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Fatima, 1925), for five consecutive months. See the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Who was St. Margaret Mary?

A Visitation nun at Paray-le-Monial, France (1647–1690), to whom Jesus revealed the devotion to his Sacred Heart. See the St. Margaret Mary Alacoque prayer.

More Sacred Heart prayers

Texts and sources

Promises: Little Manual of the Sacred Heart (1887), public domain (archive.org). Small scan corrections are listed in our text log.
Act of consecration: F. X. Lasance, With God (1911), public domain (Wikisource).
Scripture: John 19:34.
The Great Promise is summarized from St. Margaret Mary’s letters.