Pope Francis is full of surprises, and the latest is his encyclical on that sometimes unfashionable aspect of Catholic devotion, the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In it he declares: “Devotion to Christ’s heart is essential for our Christian life to the extent that it expresses our openness in faith and adoration to the mystery of the Lord’s divine and human love.” But he also acknowledges that representations of the Sacred Heart might strike us “as tasteless and not particularly conducive to affection or prayer. Yet this is of little importance, since they are only invitations to prayer…”