Welcome to the Sacred Heart Reader:
Moments Divine Before the Blessed Sacrament
 

"If Jesus were better known in the Blessed Sacrament, earth would be brighter
and Heaven nearer."

This quotation sets forth the objective of this special section of Catholic Tradition.

Our Divine Master is ready to bestow innumerable graces through this Sacrament, which is also the outpouring of His Sacred Heart, and which are lost in consequence of the ignorance and indifference of men. When the Most Holy Sacrament is not revered and loved, scandals will abound, faith will languish, and the Church will mourn. On the other hand, if this Sacrament is worthily and frequently received, peace will reign in Christian hearts, the devil will lose power, and souls will be sanctified.

The Sacred Heart Reader addresses itself not only to the faithful, who find all delight, all comfort and help in their belief, but also to the indifferent ones of the world who must learn what precious joys are tasted and shared at the table of the God of peace, the God of love, of Him Who cries out to us from His earthly Tabernacles, "Come to Me."

AUTHORITIES ON ASSENT TO DIVINE MANIFESTATIONS

HOLY SCRIPTURE:
"Amen, amen, I say to you, he that believeth in Me, the works that I do, he shall also do;
and greater than these shall he do . . . He that loveth Me, shall be loved of My Father;
and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him."
[John 14: 12, 21]

POPE BENEDICT XIV:
"Though an assent of Catholic faith be not due to them [miracles], they deserve a human
assent according to the rules of prudence by which they are probable and piously credible."

ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI:
"The bad are ready to deny miracles as the good are to believe them; as it is a weakness to
give credit to all things, so, on the other hand, to reject miracles which come to us attested
by grave and pious men, either savors of infidelity which supposes them impossible to God,
or of a presumption which refuse belief to such a class of authors . . . There is less risk in
believing and receiving what is related with some probability by honest persons and not
rejected by the learned, and which serves for the edification of our neighbor, than in
rejecting it with a disdainful and presumptuous spirit."
[The Way of Salvation, p. 93]

ST. AUGUSTINE:
"When a miracle is made known, however striking it may be in the very place where it happened,
or even related by those who witnessed it, it is scarcely believed, but it is none the less true."
[De Utilitate Credende, p. 75]

ST. BERNARD:
"These revelations are not the work of man; and no mortal will understand them unless love
has renewed in his soul the image and likeness of God."
[Missus est, p. 182]

ST. FRANCIS DE SALES:
"When facts are related that teach and edify us, we should not believe that the proofs upon
which they rest are entirely false and worthless. 'Charity believeth all things,' which is to say
it does not easily believe that one lies. And if there be no sign of falsehood in what is
represented to her, she makes no difficulty in giving it credence, especially when it
relates to anything which exalts and praises the love of God towards men, or the love
of men towards God, the more so as Charity is the sovereign queen of virtues, takes
pleasure after the manner of princes, in those things which tend to the glory of her empire
and domination. Supposing, then, that the narrative be neither so public nor so well
attested as the greatness of the wonder would seem to require, it loses not for that its truth."
[Introduction to the Devout Life, p. 90]