The Litany of the Sacred Heart is hardly more than a hundred years old in its present form. Earlier forms of it had played an important role in the promotion of devotion to the Sacred Heart, from the early seventeenth century on. The enthusiastic espousal of the Litany among the faithful and the clergy has proved a powerful means of securing adherence to the dogma of the Incarnation, and its chief aspect, atonement for man's sins. The Litany, which is a most tangible aspect of that devotion, was greatly resented by Jansenists, ridiculed by Protestants, and deeply disliked by progressive Catholic theologians in recent decades, The Introduction touches on such facts in addition to confronting the puzzle of why neither the Documents of Vatican II nor the New Catechism touch on the devotion to the Sacred Heart, in spite of its endorsement in a long series of papal documents.

By Fr. Stanley L. Jaki

ISBN 978-0-9774826-9-6  •  viii + 152 pages  •  softcover