The Sacred Heart

By Arthur R. McGratty, S.J.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a relatively late arrival to the list of Catholic spiritual practices, only beginning formally in the late seventeenth century. Three centuries before, St. Gertrude had had a vision of St. John the Evangelist, who assured her that the divine reasoning for the delayed revelation of the Sacred Heart devotion was so it might be given when the world, grown older and colder, might “recover some warmth of the divine love.” As the seventeenth century drew to an end, that providential plan came to fruition. Into the soil prepared and cultivated in the Middle Ages by St. Bernard, St. Gertrude, and St. Bonaventure, the apparitions of Christ to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque planted the devotion, where it took root and quickly burst into flower, tended to reverently and steadfastly by its champion, St. John Eudes. In the centuries since, the devotion has enjoyed such success that Pope Pius XI could declare that the devotion to “the Sacred Heart is the very epitome of our religion, and opens the way to a more perfect life.”

“Learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart.” (Matthew 11:29)

“Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our heart like unto Thy Heart.” (The Roman Breviary)

Treating his subject with love and honor, Arthur R. McGratty, S.J., records a story of cor ad cor loquitur—the Sacred Heart speaking to every human heart and inviting each to draw near the altar of the world’s desire. First published in 1951, The Sacred Heart: Yesterday and Today distills the abundant fruit of a venerable devotion into a refreshing blend of historical interest and spiritual inspiration. 

Arthur R. McGratty, S.J. (1909–1976) was an American Catholic priest of the Society of Jesus. Besides The Sacred Heart: Yesterday and Today, his writings include Face to the Sun (1942), The Fire of Francis Xavier (1952), and The Early Miracles of Jesus (1958).

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Paperback: 356pp.

ISBN: 978-1685954024