Litany of the Sacred Heart Podcast on the Ascension App

Michelle Nott reviews a new podcast fostering devotion to the Sacred Heart, available only on the Ascension app.

I had a unique opportunity to review the new series, The Litany of the Sacred Heart: Introducing the Person of Jesus, on the Ascension app. This series is available on the Ascension app as part of its premium (paid) content. I will admit that I am not familiar with the Ascension app (I’m more familiar with the Hallow App), so I did have to get used to the setup of it at first as I began listening to the series. But once I started, it was easy to navigate.

Ascension Litany Series Thumbnail

I am also going to admit that before beginning the series, I was not familiar with the Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The good news is that if you are also not familiar with it, this series is a great introduction to the litany. The first episode is just reciting the Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus so that we can hear it fully as a prayer before diving into each line individually.

The rest of the episodes take one line of the litany and focus on that title of Jesus for the episode. Each episode has a different person guiding the reflection and meditation on the line of the litany for that episode. It goes in order of the litany prayer, so it is easy to follow along. The episodes are all very short, so it is easy to listen to one or two of them throughout your busy day. And even though all are brief, I found the meditations to be enlightening and powerful. Some names of those who provided a reflection were ones I recognized, such as Father Mike Schmitz and Nell O’Leary; others were speakers I was not as familiar with. But each speaker had great insight into each line from the litany they were reflecting on in their episode.

Things I Like About the Podcast

I appreciate how the podcast episodes are shorter, because for me, as a busy mom of six young kids, it makes content easier to listen to it when it is broken into brief episodes. I also appreciate how this series uses many people in different vocations to provide perspectives and interpretations on different lines of the litany. Some episodes were led by priests, others by religious sisters, and others by men and women who are married and have kids or grandkids. I love how Ascension gathered people from all vocations and stages in life to provide their meditations for us to listen to, because we get representatives of all our church community to help us understand the titles of Jesus presented in this litany.

Room for Improvement in the App

While I did enjoy it overall, I do think that it would be better if there was a link to pull up the full Litany of Sacred Heart of Jesus prayer to read along and have a visual/physical copy to look at while listening. But that is just a personal preference; I tend to prefer to have visuals to look at to help my brain process what I am listening to. I am able to find a copy of the Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus online and can easily print that off for myself.

I also would prefer it if the episodes automatically started playing once one ended, so that I can listen to it during a drive (I am constantly driving my kids around). On my phone, I have to physically select the next episode and click play to listen to it.

Overall, I really enjoyed this series and am happy I got exposed to this new-to-me prayer. I grew up with a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in my bedroom and have always gravitated toward this particular image of Jesus. I am so glad I have a prayer and podcast I can listen to now to get to know Him even better.

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