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.

Thoroughly researched and lovingly written, The Secret of the Heart stands as a worthy testament to St. Catherine of Siena and the visionary theology which earned her the title of Doctor of the Church.

Mary Jeremiah, O.P., is a Dominican nun of the Monastery of the Infant Jesus, in Lufkin, Texas. In addition to The Secret of the Heart, she is the author of numerous articles and the translator of A Life for Unity: Sister Maria Gabriella, by Paul B. Quattrocchi, and Things Visible and Invisible: Images in the Spirituality of St. Catherine of Siena, by Giuliana Cavallini, O.P.

Paperback: 248pp.

ISBN: 978-1952826610