The Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thérèse of Lisieux, and the Transformation of U.S. Catholic Piety, 1865-1940

Abstract

A vote of confidence from a friend can change a person's life, and in my case, one such vote came from David O'Brien. Upon graduation from Holy Cross in 1996,1 received a letter from O'Brien suggesting graduate school: even if land ing an academic job might be tricky, he said, I would never regret passing my twenties in the company of thoughtful, creative scholars. He then argued the need for young Catholic intellectuals who possessed a critical understanding of American life: only if we appreciate our cultural context, recognizing its potentials and pitfalls, only then can we realize the kind of fruitful, mutually beneficial dialogue between Church and culture envisioned at Vatican II (1962-65). Reading O'Brien's Isaac Hecker: An American Catholic drove home this point by illuminating a distinctly American Catholic sensibil ity emerging in the second half of the nineteenth century?a sensibility as much defined by confidence in American democracy as it was by faith in God's abiding presence in human history.1 I was persuaded by the need for a critical, historical understanding that could contextualize this kind of engagement, and in the end, I did get a job. This present essay builds from O'Brien's argument for engagement, and it offers perspective on the historical relationship between Catholicism and American culture. Moreover, it demonstrates how examining devotional literature can produce a longer, more accurate view of the transition from a pre-conciliar (before 1962) to a post-con ciliar (after 1965) Church. Such a view highlights how piety and democratic culture were mutually supportive, and it clarifies changes that predated Vatican II, helping account for widespread lay appreciation of conciliar reforms. When considered alongside the popular practice of intercessory prayer to saints, the popularization of