Holy Hour of Reparation

Devotions

An hour of prayer, traditionally kept on Thursday nights, uniting the one praying to Christ’s agony in the garden of Gethsemane in reparation for indifference toward his suffering.

The Holy Hour of Reparation is a devotion of keeping an hour of prayer, traditionally on Thursday night, in spiritual companionship with Christ’s agony in the garden of Gethsemane. It grew out of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque’s reported visions at Paray-le-Monial, in which she described Christ asking her to watch with him for an hour in reparation for indifference toward his suffering, and it continues today especially as a preparation for First Friday devotion to the Sacred Heart.

Quick Facts

  • Category: Jesus Christ — Sacred Heart
  • Origin: Rooted in the visions reported by St. Margaret Mary Alacoque at Paray-le-Monial, France, in the 1670s
  • Observance: Traditionally kept on Thursday night, often between eleven o’clock and midnight, ahead of First Friday
  • Church status: an established Catholic devotion of reparation, commonly practiced within or alongside Eucharistic adoration
  • Private revelation: connected to the Paray-le-Monial visions reported by St. Margaret Mary Alacoque; not binding on Catholic belief

What Is This Devotion?

The Holy Hour of Reparation asks a Catholic to give one hour — traditionally late on a Thursday night — to prayer that keeps company with Christ in his agony in the garden of Gethsemane, the night before his crucifixion. The hour is meant to unite the one praying with Christ’s own experience of abandonment described in the Gospels, offered in reparation for what Catholic devotional tradition describes as the world’s indifference to his suffering and to his continuing presence in the Eucharist.

Origin and History

The devotion traces to the reported visions of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque at the Visitation monastery of Paray-le-Monial in the 1670s. Among the requests she described receiving from Christ was that she keep him company for an hour, in prayer, on the night before the first Friday of each month, meditating on his agony in the garden and offering that hour in reparation. The practice spread over the following centuries alongside the broader First Friday devotion, often observed in parishes as a period of Eucharistic adoration on Thursday evenings leading into the first Friday of the month.

Catholic Theology

The Gospel scene of Gethsemane — Christ’s agony, his prayer that the cup pass from him, and the sleep of the disciples he had asked to stay awake with him (Matthew 26:36–46; Mark 14:32–42; Luke 22:39–46) — sits at the heart of this devotion. Keeping a Holy Hour of Reparation is an attempt to do, symbolically, what the disciples in the garden did not: to stay awake in prayerful solidarity with Christ’s suffering rather than let it pass unnoticed. Where the hour is kept before the Blessed Sacrament, it also draws on Eucharistic theology, since Catholic teaching holds that Christ remains sacramentally present, and this devotion treats that continuing presence as itself worthy of watchful company.

How to Practice It

  • Set aside an hour, traditionally Thursday night between eleven o’clock and midnight, though any consistent time can be used.
  • Where possible, spend the hour before the Blessed Sacrament exposed or reserved; where that is not possible, pray at home before a crucifix or Sacred Heart image.
  • Meditate on the agony in the garden, using Scripture, the Rosary’s Sorrowful Mysteries, or a guided Holy Hour text.
  • Offer the hour in reparation, uniting personal intentions to Christ’s own suffering rather than treating the hour as private devotion alone.
  • Consider pairing it with the following day’s First Friday observance, as the two practices developed together historically.

Associated Prayers

When It’s Observed

The Holy Hour of Reparation is not tied to a date on the universal liturgical calendar; it is a recurring weekly or monthly practice, traditionally kept on Thursday nights, especially the Thursday preceding a First Friday.

Church Status

This is an established Catholic devotion, closely tied to the wider Sacred Heart devotion and to Eucharistic adoration, both of which enjoy long-standing support in Catholic practice. It is distinct from the Church’s Holy Thursday liturgical observance of the same Gethsemane scene at the Altar of Repose, and from the general concept of a Eucharistic Holy Hour practiced for other intentions; this page covers the specific reparation-focused devotion tied to Margaret Mary’s reported visions.

Private Revelation

The request for this specific hour comes from St. Margaret Mary Alacoque’s reported visions, part of the same body of private revelation behind First Friday devotion and the Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart. As with any private revelation, belief in its details is not required of Catholics and does not belong to the deposit of faith entrusted to the whole Church (CCC §67); Catholics are free to find the practice spiritually fruitful, as many have for over three centuries, without that acceptance being an article of faith.

Common Misconceptions

“The Holy Hour of Reparation must be exactly sixty minutes, kept precisely from eleven to midnight, or it does not count.”

Devotional literature commonly describes that traditional window, but the essential point is giving sustained, attentive prayer time in reparation; a shorter or differently timed period offered with the same intention is not without value.

“This is the same devotion as the general Holy Hour practiced in many parishes.”

They share a name and a family resemblance, but the general Holy Hour can serve many intentions, while the Holy Hour of Reparation specifically centers on Christ’s agony in the garden and the theme of reparation tied to Margaret Mary’s visions. See our separate page on the Holy Hour generally.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to be in a church for the Holy Hour of Reparation?

It is traditionally kept before the Blessed Sacrament where possible, but a Catholic without access to a church at that hour can keep the hour in prayer at home.

Why Thursday night specifically?

Because it recalls the night of Christ’s agony in the garden of Gethsemane, which the Gospels place on the night before his crucifixion on Good Friday — historically a Thursday night moving into Friday.

How is this connected to First Fridays?

The two devotions come from the same reported visions and are traditionally practiced together, with the Holy Hour on Thursday night serving as immediate preparation for First Friday observance the next day.

Sources

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