Holy Hour — reparatory adoration to the Eucharistic Sacred Heart
In the revelations of 1673-75 at Paray-le-Monial, Our Lord Jesus Christ asked St Margaret Mary Alacoque to spend one hour prostrate every Thursday into Friday night, in an act of Eucharistic reparation for the sins of men — recalling the hour he spent in the Garden of Olives, abandoned by his sleeping disciples. This devotion of the Holy Hour, attested in the Autobiography of St Margaret Mary, was recommended by Leo XIII, indulgenced by St Pius X, and widely diffused in the 20th century. It can be made before the Blessed Sacrament exposed, before the closed tabernacle, or — when it is not possible to go to the church — at home, with the Crucifix.
(Adore in silence for a moment.)
Lord Jesus Christ, present in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the altar, I adore you with all the depth of my being. Here you are really, truly and substantially, in Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity — under the appearances of the consecrated bread and wine.
This hour that I spend before you wishes to be a memorial of the agony of the Garden, when Peter, James and John fell asleep, leaving you alone in your struggle. Here I am, unworthy but present, in an act of reparation for all those who still today abandon you: for sacrilegious Communions, for desecrated churches, for offences to your Most Holy Name, for the forgetfulness of your real presence in the tabernacle.
Sacred Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, make my heart like unto yours. Receive, through the hands of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, this poor but whole hour that I consecrate to you for the souls of sinners, for priests, for consecrated persons, for those who will die tonight, for the souls in Purgatory, and for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff.
«Could you not watch one hour with me?» (Mt 26:40). Yes, my Lord, and I offer you this hour for all those who do not watch with you.
Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory be. (Repeat the three prayers ten times in the course of the hour, interspersed with spiritual reading or silence.)