Devotion to the Sacred Heart, Jesus Christ, Meditations, Devotions, Eucharist, Blessed Sacrament 

Although devotion to the sacred Heart of Jesus is as old as Christianity itself - did not our Lord invite all men to come and confide to His meek and humble heart their sorrows and troubles? - it did not crystallize into a definite form until the later part of the seventeenth century. At that time, when the cold teaching of the Jansenists would have men see in Christ a stern, Puritanic judge, our Lord chose to appear to a humble Visitation nun, St. Margaret Mary, to reveal to her the intensity of His love for men, symbolized in His Sacred Heart.

The Litany of the Sacred Heart is one of the many results of Christ's revelations to St. Margaret Mary. As we now have it, it is a combination of two earlier litanies - one composed by Father Croiset, S.J., who was probably influenced by Sister Magdalen Joly, a companion of St. Margaret; the other compiled by Venerable Anne Magdalen Remusat, another nun of the Visitation Order.

This Litany can truly be called a concise summary of all that the Church teaches about the Person and work of Christ. And in this work Father Biskupek probes the meaning of the various invocations contained in the Litany, uncovering their full significance and leading the reader to a more profound knowledge of our Lord and giving him a greater desire to imitate His holy life. His explanations of what the various invocations signify are lucidly clear, documented with references taken from the Bible, history, and the writings of many saints. Whenever he feels it necessary to arrive at a full understanding of an invocation, he briefly and clearly explains the relevant dogma.

This work's greatest value lies in the superb manner in which it lights the tremendous love of Christ for human kind. The human heart is made for love. Deny it love, and, whatever the substitute you propose, it must remain unsatisfied and restless. So, too, the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Thoroughly human and completely like our own - and the heart of God as well - it was naturally sensitive to rebuffs, coldness, and contempt. Century after century Christ missed in man a generous and warm response. In this litany Christ appeals to us for our love, for our hearts. He summons us to return our love for His, to place our own hearts in the burning furnace of charity that is His, and to unite our sufferings with the agony He endured as a sacrifice worthy in the eyes of His Father.

For everyone who wants to live a Christ-centered life, the reflections offered by Father Biskupek in The Litany of the Sacred Heart will prove to be of immense practical value.

Taken from the inside flaps.