The Secret of the Heart

The Secret of the Heart presents an eloquent summary of St. Catherine of Siena’s spiritual teaching on the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Flowing from her intimate relationship with Christ, and bolstered by her prodigious intellectual prowess, St. Catherine’s theology has at its crux the immense and inexpressible love of God for mankind. The heart, as Sr. Mary Jeremiah, O.P., states, “is the treasure house containing all her favorite images.” As such, St. Catherine sees the heart of Jesus in particular as a manifestation, an incarnation, of the Creator’s infinite love for his creatures and his desire to be united with them for eternity. A crucial witness to the centrality of devotion to the Sacred Heart in the life of the Church and her saints, The Secret of the Heart also charts the historical influence of Catherinian spirituality and its particular effect on Pius XII’s historic encyclical, Haurietis Aquas.

May your refuge be Christ crucified, my only-begotten Son, living and hiding in the cavern of his open side. There you will taste my divine nature in the human nature, by means of the affection of love. In that open heart you will find charity for me and for your neighbor.