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Behold This Heart: St. Francis de Sales and Devotion to the Sacred Heart
True devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus moves us to ponder the unrelenting love of Jesus, fully human and fully divine, as He poured Himself out for the world. In these pages, Fr. Thomas Dailey transports you beyond the prayers and liturgies and helps you to contemplate the Sacred Heart, which Pope Benedict XVI said has irreplaceable importance. Fr. Dailey shows you how to experience the way of prayer that formed St. Margaret Mary, the visionary to whom the devotion was revealed, in the religious order founded by St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal. Fr. Dailey's brilliant combination of Salesian spirituality and meditative devotion will enable you to respond to Christ's divine affection and experience God's love as never before. Through a series of nine reflections on the Sacred Heart, Fr. Dailey will show With Fr. Dailey as your guide, these engaging meditations will transform you as you step through the pages of the greatest love story ever told.
224 pages, Paperback
Published January 21, 2021
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133 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 25, 2021
This book is great to meditate with and has so many beautiful insights - definitely great for people who desire to start a prayer a life!!
April 27, 2025
A beautiful read with profound reflections on the Sacred Heart
December 19, 2025
The two dearest virtues of the Sacred Heart are weakness and humility.
Pope Francis said when we see him, he has sought us first.
This devotion’s efficacy derives from the power of gazing contemplatively upon the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Simplicity of prayer describes a union with the divine that comes from being in God’s presence, from regarding the God who is present, or from abandoning oneself entirely to the divine will, and providential care with which God remains present.
Saint Margaret Mary experienced much suffering; yet wishing neither to avoid nor to escape her pain, she aspired to share it with her crucified Lord as a means of cultivating a pure love for God.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart owes a great deal to the power of images, which engender ideas, express meanings, excites, passions, and invites reflections.
Focusing on the image that points to the reality of the crucified Christ draws us into an experience that links story and memory, feeling and emotion, history and liturgy.
To Saint Margaret Mary pictures became this means of imagination, serving as the medium for visionary experience, and visionary experience issued in the endorsement of imagery as productive of piety and devotion.
Images are active agents that shape and structure the experience of saints, self, and the divine.
When we truly “see” a sacred image, we not only look at it; we are acted upon by it.
Really, seeing it invites us to become what we perceive, to participate in what is depicted there, even to emulate what the image represents.
Sacred images inspire us to become what we see, to be what we imagine by living the truth that the image represents. By exciting our emotions, informing our intellect, and verifying our desires, sacred images shape us to dwell in the new world and live that new way of life.
The creative or productive power of the imagination yields new cognitive insights, generates newfound feeling, and stirs up novel approaches to living in this world.
The use of images serves an inestimable efficacy to enlighten the mind and move the will.
To arouse that desire for love and union with God is the ultimate purpose of meditation or mental prayer.
Prayer in the Salesian tradition is a matter of both mind and heart. Conceived as a form of inspired, imagining, it focusses more on listening to God, then on speaking to God as one would do in vocal prayer. When that meditative attentiveness is focussed on the Sacred Heart, we can grow in both our understanding of the Savior’s love and in our desire to respond to it in our lives.
Give consideration to the scene we are picturing. What do we see going on there? What is happening in terms of encountering the Lord what words ring out and draw our attention? What do we think about the event being narrated and about the heart of Jesus acting there? How do we see ourselves in reliving that moment?
The point here is to allow our hearts to be moved by the divine heart and to cultivate our own desire and impassioned reunion with God.
Mental prayer is meant to transform our lives. Salesian meditation always involves a resolution, a decision to embody or put into practice the inspirations received by acting in determinant ways that align are human reality with the divine mystery about which we prayed.
“The beloved” is a relationship of profound affection, a union of hearts with the God, who is his father.
We cannot do anything in this life to make God love us more than he already does.
Humility makes our hearts gentle toward the perfect and the imperfect: toward the perfect, out of respect; toward the imperfect, out of compassion.
“Take heart” calls for a daring choice amid circumstances beyond one’s control. It requires the boldness of belief. It necessitates seeing things in a new light. He invites them to think and feel differently, to have the courage that conquers fear.
“Take heart; I have overcome the world.” If those with Jesus take heart, their plight will change. If they recognize his presence and see how his heart yearns for their well-being, they can face their fears, their sins, their suffering, their concerns. If they take heart, his heart, they can have the courage to overcome their troubles, the courage to live in peace, no matter what.
Anxiety is the greatest evil that can happen to a soul because if our heart is inwardly troubled and disturbed, it loses both the strength necessary to maintain the virtues it has acquired, and the means to resist the temptations of the enemy.
See Jesus coming toward you, the Lord, who notices all that you suffer, and takes the initiative to save you.
Walk joyously and open heartedly as far as you can, and if you do not walk joyously, at least walk, courageously and faithfully.
God wants our misery to be the throne of his mercy, and our powerlessness the seat of his omnipotence.
By paying attention we seek a deepening awareness of God’s presence in our lives.
The best possible prayer is to fall in love with our Lord’s will, and accept it wholeheartedly.
God has created you to be in this specific moment in history and has chosen and appointed you for this particular life.
It is not by the multiplicity of things we do that we acquire perfection, but by the perfection and purity of intention with which we do them.
In holy communion, he abases himself and changes himself into food, so that he may penetrate our souls and unite himself most intimately to the heart and body of his faithful.
In the Sacred Heart, we see how the dual dimensions of divine passion - love and suffering - are inextricably connected.
The daily events that take place in the course of human life show us, by their having happened, that God has willed and intended them.
God wills only what is good for us, even those things that grieve us are ultimately intended for our eternal benefit.
We must neither ask anything nor refuse anything, but leave ourselves absolutely in the arms of divine Providence, without busying ourselves with any desires, except to will what God wills of us.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the school of love.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus devotion enables us to comprehend the love of Christ for humanity by looking upon that sacred image and icon.
Gentleness and humility were signs of the presence of the kingdom. They are the core of who Jesus is. He is gentle and humble of heart.
If we allow it, this contemplative gaze will excite our minds, arouse our affections, and stir our wills to live a truly devout life. Gazing upon the Sacred Heart of Jesus draws us into personal encounter with him.
Pope Francis said when we see him, he has sought us first.
This devotion’s efficacy derives from the power of gazing contemplatively upon the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Simplicity of prayer describes a union with the divine that comes from being in God’s presence, from regarding the God who is present, or from abandoning oneself entirely to the divine will, and providential care with which God remains present.
Saint Margaret Mary experienced much suffering; yet wishing neither to avoid nor to escape her pain, she aspired to share it with her crucified Lord as a means of cultivating a pure love for God.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart owes a great deal to the power of images, which engender ideas, express meanings, excites, passions, and invites reflections.
Focusing on the image that points to the reality of the crucified Christ draws us into an experience that links story and memory, feeling and emotion, history and liturgy.
To Saint Margaret Mary pictures became this means of imagination, serving as the medium for visionary experience, and visionary experience issued in the endorsement of imagery as productive of piety and devotion.
Images are active agents that shape and structure the experience of saints, self, and the divine.
When we truly “see” a sacred image, we not only look at it; we are acted upon by it.
Really, seeing it invites us to become what we perceive, to participate in what is depicted there, even to emulate what the image represents.
Sacred images inspire us to become what we see, to be what we imagine by living the truth that the image represents. By exciting our emotions, informing our intellect, and verifying our desires, sacred images shape us to dwell in the new world and live that new way of life.
The creative or productive power of the imagination yields new cognitive insights, generates newfound feeling, and stirs up novel approaches to living in this world.
The use of images serves an inestimable efficacy to enlighten the mind and move the will.
To arouse that desire for love and union with God is the ultimate purpose of meditation or mental prayer.
Prayer in the Salesian tradition is a matter of both mind and heart. Conceived as a form of inspired, imagining, it focusses more on listening to God, then on speaking to God as one would do in vocal prayer. When that meditative attentiveness is focussed on the Sacred Heart, we can grow in both our understanding of the Savior’s love and in our desire to respond to it in our lives.
Give consideration to the scene we are picturing. What do we see going on there? What is happening in terms of encountering the Lord what words ring out and draw our attention? What do we think about the event being narrated and about the heart of Jesus acting there? How do we see ourselves in reliving that moment?
The point here is to allow our hearts to be moved by the divine heart and to cultivate our own desire and impassioned reunion with God.
Mental prayer is meant to transform our lives. Salesian meditation always involves a resolution, a decision to embody or put into practice the inspirations received by acting in determinant ways that align are human reality with the divine mystery about which we prayed.
“The beloved” is a relationship of profound affection, a union of hearts with the God, who is his father.
We cannot do anything in this life to make God love us more than he already does.
Humility makes our hearts gentle toward the perfect and the imperfect: toward the perfect, out of respect; toward the imperfect, out of compassion.
“Take heart” calls for a daring choice amid circumstances beyond one’s control. It requires the boldness of belief. It necessitates seeing things in a new light. He invites them to think and feel differently, to have the courage that conquers fear.
“Take heart; I have overcome the world.” If those with Jesus take heart, their plight will change. If they recognize his presence and see how his heart yearns for their well-being, they can face their fears, their sins, their suffering, their concerns. If they take heart, his heart, they can have the courage to overcome their troubles, the courage to live in peace, no matter what.
Anxiety is the greatest evil that can happen to a soul because if our heart is inwardly troubled and disturbed, it loses both the strength necessary to maintain the virtues it has acquired, and the means to resist the temptations of the enemy.
See Jesus coming toward you, the Lord, who notices all that you suffer, and takes the initiative to save you.
Walk joyously and open heartedly as far as you can, and if you do not walk joyously, at least walk, courageously and faithfully.
God wants our misery to be the throne of his mercy, and our powerlessness the seat of his omnipotence.
By paying attention we seek a deepening awareness of God’s presence in our lives.
The best possible prayer is to fall in love with our Lord’s will, and accept it wholeheartedly.
God has created you to be in this specific moment in history and has chosen and appointed you for this particular life.
It is not by the multiplicity of things we do that we acquire perfection, but by the perfection and purity of intention with which we do them.
In holy communion, he abases himself and changes himself into food, so that he may penetrate our souls and unite himself most intimately to the heart and body of his faithful.
In the Sacred Heart, we see how the dual dimensions of divine passion - love and suffering - are inextricably connected.
The daily events that take place in the course of human life show us, by their having happened, that God has willed and intended them.
God wills only what is good for us, even those things that grieve us are ultimately intended for our eternal benefit.
We must neither ask anything nor refuse anything, but leave ourselves absolutely in the arms of divine Providence, without busying ourselves with any desires, except to will what God wills of us.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the school of love.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus devotion enables us to comprehend the love of Christ for humanity by looking upon that sacred image and icon.
Gentleness and humility were signs of the presence of the kingdom. They are the core of who Jesus is. He is gentle and humble of heart.
If we allow it, this contemplative gaze will excite our minds, arouse our affections, and stir our wills to live a truly devout life. Gazing upon the Sacred Heart of Jesus draws us into personal encounter with him.
February 19, 2023
This is a good book that considers devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus according to the Salesian spirituality. It also goes through a novena from the incarnation to the resurrection, it’s not my style but it’s good for those maybe beginning in their prayer life.
March 24, 2023
Rated—G (my personal opinion based on content)
June 24, 2025
Great explanation of all the meditations and different devotions. the prayer guides at the end of the book are a nice touch
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews