For urgent temporal needs

The devotion prayed when help is needed quickly.

The wax-and-wood image of the Infant Jesus in the Carmelite church at Prague has drawn petitioners since the seventeenth century, particularly for urgent and material needs — rent, work, a court date, a diagnosis. The chaplet is short and the associated novena is prayed over nine hours rather than nine days.

How to Pray the Chaplet

1. On the three beads: three Our Fathers in honour of the Holy Family.
2. On each of the twelve beads: And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.
3. Conclude with the prayer below.

The Prayer

O Jesus, who said, Ask and you shall receive,
seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you:
through the intercession of Mary, Your most holy Mother,
I knock, I seek, I ask that my prayer be granted.

O Jesus, who said, All that you ask of the Father in my name
He will grant you:
through the intercession of Mary, Your most holy Mother,
I humbly and urgently ask Your Father in Your name
that my prayer be granted.

O Jesus, who said, Heaven and earth shall pass away
but my word shall not pass away:
through the intercession of Mary, Your most holy Mother,
I feel confident that my prayer will be granted.

Divine Infant Jesus, I place my trust in You. Amen.

The Nine Hours Novena

In urgent need, the novena is prayed hour by hour through a single day: one round of the prayers above every hour for nine consecutive hours.

About This Devotion

The devotion’s appeal is its directness — it quotes Christ’s own promises back to Him three times and then asks. It is popular in the Philippines, Latin America, Ireland and central Europe, and the image is often kept in the home.