HOLY HOUR. - reparation (v.) to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, originating in the revelations of Paray-le-Monial, when Jesus asked St. Margherita Alacoque to rise every Thursday between eleven and midnight, and spend an hour in prayer, uniting herself to his agony in the Garden of Olives, with her face to the ground, in order to appease divine wrath and implore forgiveness for sinners (Vie et oeuvre, II, 72).
The saint remained faithful to it until her death. The H. H. soon spread, especially in religious Institutes. In 1829 the Jesuit Fr Debrosse founded at Paray the Confraternity of the H. H., approved and enriched with indulgences by Pius VIII. Gregory XVI extended the plenary indulgence to the faithful throughout the world, on condition that they be enrolled in the register of the confraternity. Leo XIII subsequently raised the association to the rank of archconfraternity (6 Apr. 1886), to which Pius X granted the privilege of affiliating confraternities of the same name throughout the world, while the pious practice was Apostleship of Prayer (v.). Since the purpose of devotion to the Sacred Heart is to establish the triumph of his kingdom of love in the world, the H. H. has spread not only in private and domestic forms, but also in public and solemn ones before the Blessed Sacrament exposed in churches.
It consists of an hour of meditated prayers, having as their object the Lord’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, if possible between eleven and twelve at night; nevertheless, in order to encourage this pious exercise, the Church has authorized
the faithful to anticipate it to the hour at which the recitation of Matins in the Divine Office may begin.