Devotion
How to Make the Nine First Fridays
Preparing for the Eucharist · 6 steps
The Sacred Heart devotion of receiving Holy Communion in reparation on nine consecutive First Fridays: its origin, how to keep the nine months, and what to do if you miss one.
6 steps · About 10 minutes
The devotion of the Nine First Fridays comes from the revelations of the Sacred Heart to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque at Paray-le-Monial in the 1670s. Among the things she recorded, the Lord asked for Holy Communion on the first Friday of each month in reparation for the coldness and ingratitude with which his love is met, and promised his grace of final repentance to those who receive Communion on nine consecutive First Fridays. The Church has approved the devotion and, in Pius XII's encyclical Haurietis Aquas, commended the worship of the Sacred Heart as a summary of the whole Gospel. The promise is private revelation, never defined as doctrine; the devotion's real value is the nine months of faithful, reparative love it asks for.
What you need
- A calendar with the first Friday of each of the next nine months marked
- A parish where you can attend Mass on Fridays, or a plan to reach one
- The state of grace for each Communion — confession beforehand when needed
- The Litany of the Sacred Heart and an act of reparation, from any Catholic prayer book
When to pray it
On the first Friday of nine consecutive months, at Mass. Many parishes keep First Friday with exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, confessions and Benediction, and the devotion is naturally joined to the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, the Friday after the second Sunday after Pentecost.
Steps
Step 1: Understand the devotion and its promise
Saint Margaret Mary recorded that the Lord, showing her his Heart, asked for a Communion of reparation on the first Friday of every month, and that he promised the grace of final perseverance — that those who receive Communion on nine consecutive First Fridays would not die in his displeasure nor without receiving the sacraments. The Church has judged the revelations worthy of belief and has spread the devotion for three centuries, while teaching that no devotion dispenses anyone from living in grace. Make the Nine First Fridays, then, not as an insurance policy but as nine months of returning love for love, which is exactly what the Sacred Heart asked.
Tips
- Keep the intention explicit: at each Communion, offer it in reparation to the Sacred Heart. The Communion is the devotion; the intention is what makes it this devotion.
- First Friday is also a day of penance like every Friday. Fasting or abstinence that day fits the spirit of reparation well.
- The First Saturdays devotion of Fatima pairs naturally with the First Fridays; many keep both.
- Never let the counting overshadow the love. The Lord's promise is a promise of his fidelity, not a mechanism.