Devotion to the Sacred Heart Summarized by Pope Pius XII

Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is more than just the worship of this noble part of our adorable Savior's body.  In the Sacred Heart, we adore the very Person of the Incarnate Word with all His Divine and human attributes.  The Sacred Heart is the symbol of the redeeming love of Our Lord Jesus Christ for men and represents the most ardent affections of the God-Man in His Incarnation, Passion, Death, and Resurrection.

In the expounding on this holy devotion, there is nothing better than the encyclical Haurietis Aquas, in which Pope Pius XII (1939 - 1958) summarized it with unction and solid theological foundation.

Our Lord's Heart, the Pontiff teaches, "the noblest part of human nature, is hypostatically united to the Person of the Divine Word."  For this reason, "there must be paid to it that worship of adoration with which the Church honors the Person of the Incarnate Son of God Himself."

Furthermore, the Sacred Heart, "more than all the other members of His body, is the natural sign and symbol of His boundless love for the human race." This heart symbolizes and expresses "the infinite love of Jesus Christ which moves us to love in return."

The mystery of our redemption is, above all, a mystery of love, "that is, of the perfect love of Christ for His heavenly Father to Whom the sacrifice of the Cross, offered in a spirit of love and obedience, presents the most abundant and infinite satisfaction due for the sins of the human race."

For all of these reasons, Pope Pius XII deems it, "a powerful remedy for the healing of those very evils which today also, and beyond question in a wider and more serious way, bring distress and disquiet to individuals and to the whole human race"

Source: by Lius Solimeo in "From the Immaculate Heart of Mary and God's Plan for America."  Quoted in the May / June 2018 issue of Crusade Magazine.