We received a request for instructions for making a Chaplet of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the style of Rosary Army’s all-twine knotted Rosary.
Not being overly familiar with this particular chaplet, we found this wonderful resource that details the chaplet, according to Fr. John Croiset, S.J. in his book, “The Devotion to the Sacred Heart.”
According to this site, “The Sacred Heart Chaplet has 33 beads, one for each year of the life of Jesus Christ, divided into 5 decades.”
To clarify, a decade (by definition) has 10 beads, so the chaplet of the Sacred Heart would technically have 5 “sets” of 6 knots.
This being the case, our standard Rosary-making instructions can easily be used to make one, or modified to make a multitude of other chaplets.
In fact, after receiving the email requesting instructions, I wrote out some quick adjustments and then made one of the Chaplets myself. And it was incredibly easy (picture at the end of this post)!
Here’s how to make a Sacred Heart of Jesus Chaplet:
1. Because it’s hard to know how much twine to use, start with the standard 18-20′ of twine (or however much twine you use to make a full-sized Rosary), knowing that you’ll have some leftover twine on your first chaplet.
For future chaplets, just subtract the length of your leftover twine from your first one to know how long to make new ones.
2. Starting near the middle of the twine, make three sets of six Hail Mary knots in one direction, dividing them with an Our Father knot.
3. After making the first three sets of six, flip the twine around and make an Our Father knot, followed by 2 more sets of six Hail Mary knots (each divided by an Our Father knot).
4. Bring the first and last knots together. Slide a Sacred Heart medal onto one of the pieces of twine.
5. Using the two pieces of twine from each end, make the centerpiece knot.
6. Finish the chaplet as you’d finish a Rosary
I didn’t have a Sacred Heart medal on hand so I used a Miraculous Medal. And here it is:
