Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration - St. Gertrude the Great: Herald of Divine Love

Saint Gertrude
the Great

The Herald of
Divine Love

Previously published by the Benedictine Convent of Perpetual Adoration, Clyde, Missouri.

Retypeset and republished in 2002 by TAN Books.

TAN Books

Charlotte, North Carolina

www.TANBooks.com

2014

Saint Gertrude, pouring out her compassionate love to Jesus Crucified.

Contents

St. Gertrude the Great

A Wonderful Saint

S T. Gertrude is one of the greatest and most wonderful saints in the Church of God. Holy Church has distinguished her from all others of her sex by adding to her name the honorable title, the Great. Saint Gertrude is the diadem, the queen-flower of the Benedictine Order, the most beautiful lily among the holy virgins who flourished during the glorious middle ages. For hundreds and thousands of pious Christians, St. Gertrude has become a guide in the spiritual life, a teacher of the most intimate spirit of prayer and familiar intercourse with God. Who can enumerate the hosts of elect souls that have obtained union with God through the pious reading and consideration of her writings? Countless numbers of the blessed jubilantly praise and extol this privileged, favored virgin in whom Our Lord takes His special delight.

St. Gertrude was the herald of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesusthat sacred cult which has become so dear and which has proved a fountain of consolation and graces to millions of Christians. Our Divine Savior repeatedly disclosed to her His Divine Heart, the furnace of love, as though for her sake He could not await the time decreed by His eternal wisdom for the revelations of his Heart. Devotion to the Sacred Heart was the special characteristic of St. Gertrudes piety. The mystery of mercy and love contained in that Divine Heart had been revealed to her by the Son of God Himself four centuries before it became an object of special devotion to the Church at large. St. Mechtilde, a contemporary of St. Gertrude, and also a Benedictine, shared with St. Gertrude this glorious privilege. Thus the Heart of Jesus had long been an object of adoration and love to the sons and daughters of St. Benedict when, in the 17th century, it pleased God to procure for It, through St. Margaret Mary, that more solemn worship with which It is now surrounded.

One thing is particularly remarkable in the life of St. Gertrude, the like of which cannot be found in the life of any other saint: it is the extraordinary promises made to her by our Savior in favor of those who venerate her.

Testimonies of Gertrudes Sublime Sanctity

Even during St. Gertrudes lifetime, Our Lord revealed her sublime sanctity to many holy souls. Once He addressed these words to a person bound to the saint by the bonds of a holy friendship:

She for whom thou prayest is My dove who has no guile in her, for she rejects from her heart, as gall, all the guile and bitterness of sin.

She is My chosen lily which I love to bear in My hands, for it is My delight and My pleasure to repose in the purity and innocence of this chaste soul.

She is My rose whose fragrance is full of sweetness, because of her patience in every adversity and the thanksgiving which she continually offers Me, which ascend before Me as sweetest perfume.

She is that spring flower which never fades; and I take pleasure in gazing upon her, because she keeps and maintains continually in her breast an ardent desire, not only for all virtues, but for the utmost perfection of every virtue.

She is a sweet melody which ravishes the ears of the blessed, and this melody is composed of all the sufferings she endures with so much constancy.

To another person our Divine Savior thus praised the favorite of His Heart: I have borne her (Gertrude) in My arms from her infancy. I have preserved her in her baptismal purity and innocence, and she, by her own free choice and will, has given herself to Me entirely and forever. As a recompense for the perfection of her desires, I, in return, have given Myself entirely to her. So pleasing is this soul to Me that when I am offended by men I often enter her heart to repose, and I make her endure some pain of body or of mind, which I inflict on her for the sins of others. She accepts this suffering with the same thanksgiving, humility and patience as she receives all that comes from Me, and offers it to Me in union with My sufferings. Thereby she appeases My anger and obliges My mercy to pardon, for her sake, an immense number of sinners.

Jesus showed to another soul a precious stone, the beauty of which cannot be described. This jewel, said Our Lord, I always wear as a pledge of My affection for My spouse. By its brightness the whole celestial court knows that there is no creature on earth so dear to Me as Gertrude, because there is no one at this present time amongst mankind who is so closely united to Me by purity of intention and uprightness of will. There is no soul still bound by the chains of flesh and blood whom I am so disposed to enrich with My graces and favors. There is no soul who refers to My glory alone the gifts received from Me, with such sincerity and fidelity as Gertrude... You can find Me in no place where I delight more, or which is more suitable for Me, than in the Sacrament of the Altar, and after that, in the heart and soul of Gertrude, My beloved.

Jesus Himself condescended to reveal to St. Mechtilde: I have united My Heart so closely to Gertrudes soul by the ties of My mercy, that she has become one spirit with Me.

A similar revelation was made about the same time to another saintly person. Our Savior said that Gertrude would become still more perfect and would attain to so intimate a union with God that her eyes would see, and her lips would speak only what God willed, and all her other senses would be equally submissive to Him.

Gertrude in the Sacred Convent-Garden

In the year 1261, Gertrude, then a mere child of five years, entered the cloistered convent of Helfta, in Germany. This convent had been founded but a few years previously. The community was composed of angelic religious, who with unsullied hearts and childlike faith conversed with Jesus in the most intimate love. An old cloister chronicle relates:

From the foundation of this religious community, its members led an uninterrupted angelic life for almost ninety years. The Lord Jesus was so familiar with persons of this convent that they conversed with Him as with their dearest Lord and Bridegroom, as a friend speaks to a friend. Also the entire heavenly host had a particular joy and exultation in this blessed community of religious.

Yes, the secluded community at Helfta was Our Lords holy family. Entirely separated and detached from the world, those pious virgins surrendered themselves, soul and body to their Divine Master, whom in holy love and innocence they had chosen as their Spouse from their tenderest years. They knew that He was really and truly present in their little church in the Blessed Sacrament, just as He is in heaven. From this faith sprang their love for the Divine Office. With burning love their hymns of praise resounded day and night.