This is pretty much the motto of St. Gertrude, whose day we celebrate today. She contemplated constantly on the Divine Love of Jesus. Saint Gertrude of Eisleben is the most celebrated of several Saints of the same name, and for this reason the ancient authors named her Gertrude the Great. She was born in the year 1264 of a noble Saxon family, and placed at the age of five for education with the Benedictines of Helfta. She dwelt there as a simple religious, very mistrustful of herself, under the direction of an Abbess having the same name as herself. The Abbess' sister was Saint Mechtilde of Hackeborn; and she was the mistress and friend of the young Saint Gertrude, who consulted her excellent teacher whenever she was tempted by vain and useless thoughts, or troubled by doubts suggested by the ancient enemy. (To the right is the prayer to this great saint, to be said everyday)
Saint Gertrude learned Latin in her youth, as in those days was customary for persons of her sex who consecrated themselves to God, and she wrote Latin with unusual elegance and force. She also had an uncommon knowledge of Holy Scripture and of all the branches of learning having religion as their object; but one day Our Lord reproached her with having too great a taste for her studies. Afterwards she could find in them nothing but bitterness; but soon Our Lord came to instruct her Himself. For many years she never lost His amiable Presence, save for eleven days when He decided to test her fidelity. Prayer and contemplation were her principal exercise, and to those she consecrated the greater part of her time. She so lived in the liturgy of the Church that we continually find in her 'Revelations' that the Saviour discloses to her the mysteries of heaven, and the Mother of God herself and the saints hold conversations with her on some antiphon, or response, or introit, which the saint is singing with delight, and of which she is striving to feel all the force and the sweetness.
Zeal for the salvation of souls was ardent in the heart of Gertrude. Thinking of the souls of sinners, she would shed torrents of tears at the foot of the cross and before the Blessed Sacrament. She especially loved to meditate on the Passion and the Eucharist, and at those times, too, could not restrain the tears that flowed in abundance from her eyes. When she spoke of Jesus Christ and His mysteries, she ravished those who heard her. One day while in church the Sisters were singing, I have seen the Lord face to face, Saint Gertrude beheld what appeared to be the divine Face, brilliant in beauty; His eyes pierced her heart and filled her soul and flesh with inexpressible delights. Divine love, ever the unique principle of her affections and her actions, was the principle by which she was crucified to the world and all its vanities.
She was the object of a great number of extraordinary graces; Jesus Christ engraved His wounds in the heart of His holy spouse, placed rings on her fingers, presented Himself to her in the company of His Mother, and in her spirit acted as though He had exchanged hearts with her. All these astonishing graces only developed her love for suffering. It was impossible for her to live without some kind of pain; the time she spent without suffering seemed to her to be wasted.
During the long illness of five months from which she would die, she gave not the slightest sign of impatience or sadness; her joy, on the contrary, increased with her pains. When the day of her death arrived in 1334, she saw the Most Blessed Virgin descend from heaven to assist her, and one of her Sisters perceived her soul going straight to the Heart of Jesus, which opened to receive it. Saint Gertrude is one of the great mystics of the Church; the book of her Revelations, recorded out of obedience, remains celebrated. In it she traces in words of indescribable beauty the intimate converse of her soul with Jesus and Mary. She was gentle to all, most gentle to sinners; filled with devotion to the Saints of God, to the souls in purgatory, and above all to the Passion of Our Lord and to His Sacred Heart.
The nearer the hour of her death approached the more zealous St. Gertrude became in the service of God. Many persons are aware when their lives are drawing to a close, either because they are very old, or because they perceive that their strength leaves them, or because God visits them with a mortal sickness. If these persons wish to act sensibly they will endeavor to employ the time left to them to the best advantage. They ought to prepare themselves carefully and in time for death; bear the pains they suffer patiently, in the spirit of penance, and offer them to the Almighty; practice good works daily; repent daily and hourly of the sins of their past life, in order to atone, at least in some measure, for their former negligence, and yet gather some treasures for eternity, during the few days of life that still remain.
St. John Chrysostom says: "At the eleventh hour are called those who are advanced in age. This parable is intended to encourage those who do not reform until they are old, that they may not think that their happiness in heaven will not be as great as that of others." But Christ gave this parable to comfort not only the aged, but all those who have been negligent in the service of the Most High. Such people especially when they feel that their end draws near, should employ all their strength to serve the Lord, in order to repair, in a short time, what they have neglected. They will surely gain eternal life by acting thus. St. Chrysostom says: "The older we are or the nearer we are, for other reasons, to eternity, the more eagerly must we run along the way to Heaven."
"He was wounded for our iniquities, He was bruised for our sins," says the Prophet. (Isaiah liii.) "See, O man!" says St. Bernard, "the greatness of your wounds, in the awful suffering of the Lord." And if you recognize the enormity of sin, tell me, how can you dare to sin again? "The son of God died for our sins;" says Origen: "and canst thou, O Christian, delight in sinning?" You know that Christ, true God and Man, sweat blood for your crimes, in the garden of Olives; that He was made a prisoner, was derided, scourged, crowned with thorns, and finally crucified; and you dare to sin anew? Is then hell itself enough to punish such abominable wickedness? The holy Apostle curses all those who do not love our Lord Jesus Christ. What then does he deserve who even dares to offend Him anew? "If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema, Maranatha." (1 Cor. xvi.)
From the Exercises of Saint Gertrude
by Prosper Gueranger, 1863 (This is just a small portion concerning this great saint which follows)
The fidelity of Gertrude merited for her many sublime favors, some of which we will mention. Once, when she was pouring out her whole heart in love to its divine Spouse, it received the impression of the five wounds of the divine Redeemer; and Gertrude felt them continually to the moment of her death, with an ever-increasing anguish and love. On another occasion, on the Feast of the Annunciation, the Mother of God fastened on her breast a heavenly jewel, wherein were seven precious stones, which expressed by their symbolical colors the seven principal virtues which had drawn down upon the lowly virgin the complacency of the heavenly Spouse. Again, on the Feast of the Ascension, while she was gazing on the crucifix with loving emotion, a ray was darted from the holy image swift as an arrow, and pierced her heart through and through.
Christmas Day was to her more than once marked by wonderful graces. Once she received in her heart the divine Infant, who sprang from His crib to attach Himself to her. Another time the Blessed Mother condescended to lay Him in her arms. One day, on the Purification of our Lady, when her whole being was, as it were, melted in an ecstasy of love, our Lord impressed Himself upon her as a divine seal, which could never be obliterated. And on very many other occasions the Son of God deigned to disclose to Gertrude His ineffable beauty, to ravish her heart with His divine caress, to make her feel the constant care with which He adorned and embellished her soul, and to teach her how she should think and speak and act, to be always pleasing in His sight.
But the especial characteristic of the piety of St. Gertrude towards the incarnate Word is her devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The mystery of mercy and of love contained in that divine Heart had been disclosed to her by the Son of God Himself, some centuries before it became an object of special devotion to the Church at large. St. Mechtilde shared with her sister (Gertrude) this glorious privilege; and the Heart of Jesus had already been long an object of adoration and love to the sons and daughters of St. Benedict, when, in the seventeenth century, it pleased God to claim for it, by the instrumentality of the venerable sister Margaret Mary, and of the Order of the Visitation, that more solemn worship with which it is now surrounded.
Everything concurred to draw St. Gertrude towards that adorable centre and source of the divine love; and, moreover, our Lord Himself continually excited her to this devotion. Again and again He presented to her view His Sacred Heart, in token of the intimate union which He willed to maintain with her; and He even vouchsafed, in one ineffable revelation, to exchange it for that of the holy virgin, who thus felt her divine Spouse live and love within her. At the moment when Gertrude was about to expire and to rejoin the supreme object of her love, Jesus appeared to her, visible even to some of the pious nuns who were about the deathbed of their mother; and when the last moment came, they saw her soul spring towards the God-man and disappear in his bosom, and thus borne up to heaven.
No preparation for death can be better than to offer and resign ourselves constantly to the Divine Will, humbly, lovingly, and with unbounded confidence in the infinite mercy and goodness of God. Let us immolate St. Gertrude, who taught us how to do this.
Prayer of St. Gertrude to the Sacred Heart
SANCTITY of the Heart of Jesus, consecrate my heart; providence of the Heart of Jesus, watch over my heart; unchangeableness of the Heart of Jesus, strengthen my heart; purity of the Heart of Jesus, purify my heart; obedience of the Heart of Jesus, subjugate my heart; amiability of the Heart of Jesus, make Thyself known to my heart; Divine attractions of the Heart of Jesus, captivate my heart; riches of the Heart of Jesus, do ye suffice for my heart; floods of grace and blessing that flow from the Heart of Jesus, inundate my heart. O Heart of Jesus! be Thou my joy, my peace, my repose in this world and in the next. O Heart of Jesus! adored in Heaven, invoked on earth, feared in Hell, reign over all hearts, reign throughout all ages, reign forever in celestial g1ory. Amen.
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