From the Revelations of Divine Peace of St Gertrude
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May my soul bless you, O Lord God my Creator, may my soul bless you. From the very core of my being may all your merciful gifts sing your praise. Your generous care for your daughter has been rich in mercy; indeed it has been immeasurable, and as far as I am able I give you thanks. I praise and glorify your great patience which bore with me even though, from my infancy and childhood, youth and early womanhood, until I was nearly twenty-six, I was always so blindly irresponsible. Looking back I see that but for your protecting hand I would have been quite without conscience in thought, word or deed. But you came to my aid by giving me a natural dislike of evil and a natural delight in what is good, and provided me with necessary correction from those among whom I lived. Otherwise I should now have to admit to doing my own will whenever the opportunity offered itself, living like some pagan in a pagan society, and never understanding that you, my God, reward good deeds while punishing evil. Yet you had chosen me to be specially trained to serve you. I was a child of five when I began to live in a convent surrounded by your most devoted friends.
`To make amends for the way I previously lived, I offer you, most loving Father, all the sufferings of your beloved Son, from that first infant cry as he lay on the hay in the manger, until that final moment when, bowing his head, with a mighty voice, Christ gave up his spirit. I think, as I make this offering, of all that he underwent, his needs as a baby, his dependence as a young child, the hardships of youth and the trials of early manhood.
To atone for all my neglect I offer, most loving Father, all that your only begotten Son did during his life, whether in thought, word or deed. That sacred life was, I know, utterly perfect in all respects, from the moment he descended from your heavenly throne and came into this world, until finally he presented the glory of his victorious human nature to you, his Father.
And now, as an act of thanksgiving, I praise and worship you, Father, in deepest humility for your most loving kindness and mercy. Though I was hurrying to my eternal loss, your thoughts of me were thoughts of peace and not of affliction, and you lifted me up with so many great favours. To these you added the inestimable gift of your intimate friendship, and in various ways allowed me to possess your Son’s own heart, that most noble ark of God united with the Godhead. You refused me no delight that could be mine.
Finally, you drew me to yourself by your faithful promises of the good things you would give me from the hour of my death. So great are these promises that for their sake alone, even if you had given me nothing besides, my heart would sigh for you always and be filled with a lively hope.
Let us pray.
Lord God, you made the heart of Saint Gertrude
a dwelling-place of your love.
Lighten our darkness
so that, through her intercession,
we may experience the joy of your presence in our hearts.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
“Holy Trinity, Whom I Adore” a prayer of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity (translated by Dr. Anthony Lilles and offered by Miriam Gutierrez)
Holy Trinity, Whom I Adore
O My God, Trinity whom I adore, help me to forget myself entirely so as to be established in you as still and as peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing be able to disturb my peace, nor make me depart from you, o my Unchanging One, but may each moment carry me further into the depths of your Mystery. Pacify my soul: make it your heaven, your beloved abode, your resting place. May I never leave you there alone, but may I be entirely present, my faith completely ready, wholly adoring, fully surrendered to your creative action.
O my beloved Christ, crucified by love, I would like to be a bride for your heart. I would like to cover you with glory, I would like to love you… unto death. I feel my powerlessness, however, and I ask you to clothe me with yourself, to identify my soul with all the movements of your soul, to overwhelm me, to invade me, to substitute yourself for me, that my life might be but the radiation of your Life. Come into me as Adorer, as Healer, as Savior.
O Eternal Word, Word of my God, I want to spend my life listening to you. I want to be completely docile, ready to learn all from you. Then, through all nights, all voids, all weakness, I want always to fixate on you and to remain under your great light. O My beloved Star, fascinate me to the point that I could not forsake your shining light.
O Consuming Flame, Spirit of love, come over me until my soul is rendered into an incarnation of the Word; may I be for Him another humanity in which he renews His whole Mystery.
And you, O Father, bend over your little creature, cover her with your shadow, and in her only the Beloved in whom You are well-pleased.
O my Three, my All, my Beatitude, Infinite Solitude, Immensity in which I lose myself, I surrender myself as prey. Bury yourself in me in order that I might bury myself in you while waiting to contemplate in your light the immeasurable depths of your grandeur
O LORD God almighty, I beseech Thee,
by the precious blood
which Thy Divine Son, Jesus, did shed on this day,
upon the tree of the cross,
especially from His sacred hands and feet,
deliver the souls in purgatory,
and particularly that soul for whom I am most bound to pray;
in order that I may not be the cause which hinders Thee
from admitting it quickly into the possession of Thy glory
where it may praise and bless Thee forever more.
O LORD God Almighty, I beseech Thee,
by the precious body and blood
of Thy Divine Son Jesus,
which He himself
on the night before His passion
gave as meat and drink to His beloved apostles,
and He bequeathed His Holy Church
be a perpetual sacrifice and life-giving nourishment
of His faithful people,
deliver the souls in purgatory,
and but most of all that soul
which was most devoted to this mystery of infinite love;
in order that it may praise thee, therefore
together with Thy Divine Son,
and The Holy Spirit,
in Thy glory forever.
Amen.
O Lord, hear my prayer
And let my prayer cry come onto thee.
O God
the Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful,
grant unto the souls of thy servants and handmaids
the remission of all their sins
that through our devout supplications
they may obtain the pardon they have always desired.
Who live and reign world without end…Amen.
Say the following prayers:
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May their souls and the souls of all the faithfully departed rest in peace. Amen.
Day Nine: For the grace to become the praise of the glory of the Holy Trinity
In the heart of the Holy Trinity, the music of eternal praise echoes without ceasing in an eternal “now.” The Son reveals to the Father His glory in the power of the Holy Spirit and through the Holy Spirit the Father blesses His Son anew. This blessing is not a reality of the past or future, but of the eternal present. This means that this very moment we have together resounds with this canticle of love that the Three Divine Persons share with one another. The world came from this music and is directed to it – and the contemplative soul helps this mystery be realized.
The Praise of Glory. Saint Elizabeth believed that this was her vocation – the secret name that God had given her from all eternity. She believed that Saint Paul had revealed it to her.
In Ephesians, we learn that we have been predestined in Christ, the Beloved of the Father, for this great purpose. This is the Father’s plan of love for us. This praise of glory is what the Holy Spirit produces in us – if we will surrender ourselves completely to His Divine touch.
Saint Elizabeth sees us as musical instruments capable of joining in the Holy Trinity’s this great hymn of praise. This music is beautiful, but to produce it, the Holy Spirit must “tune” us first. This is painful. As long as we get caught up in internal emotional storms or else allow ourselves to be distracted by things that are not God’s will, we are out of tune. Conversely the more our interior life is in harmony with His mystery, the more beautiful the praise we are able to offer.
To ponder this is to begin to understand the last petition of Saint Elizabeth’s prayer to the Trinity – namely – she asks the Trinity to be buried in her so that she might bury herself in the Trinity. To be buried – this speaks about a death and being laid to rest. Saint Elizabeth understands the radical extent to which the Holy Trinity has given itself to humanity. Revealed in Christ crucified and buried in the tomb., the humanity of Christ makes known that God will hold nothing back to rescue us from death and to win our heart to join His eternal praise of glory. She sees her own heart as the tomb in which God has buried Himself. The death of Christ is always personal for her – “He gave Himself for me.”
To accept this gift in a personal way is to be caught up in the mystery of salvation. Just as Jesus was laid in the tomb on Good Friday, the Trinity can come into a soul and rest there in a new way – and the more it rests in the soul, the more that soul has the opportunity to rest in the Trinity. This feels like a total annihilation, but it is a radical identification with Christ’s salvific offering. Just as Jesus transformed His tomb into a sign of victory – He transforms hearts that accept his total gift of love on the Cross. If they will die to themselves, He will give them life. To believe in Jesus is to die to oneself in the Trinity, to be laid to rest in the Trinity, to be buried in the Trinity – in order that the mystery of the Holy Trinity through the life of Christ within might raise one up on high.
In this mystical death, the new life of Christ takes root in our souls.
He is the praise of the Father’s glory and when we die to ourselves, we allow His praise to swell up anew within us. The Holy Spirit “tunes’ our hearts by communicating the whole mystery of Christ into us and identifying all the inner movements of our hearts with the movements of Christ’s. Every thought is captive and every inordinate desire dies away, and our inner strength is perfected. The new desires and glorious thoughts of Christ Himself make it possible to praise the Father as the Risen Lord praises Him together with all of the heavenly hosts. Together, delighting the Heart of the Father anew, we have found a way extend the salvific work of Christ in our lives and in our communities – at a time when our neighbors most need a word of hope. Let us pray that the vocation of Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity becomes our own vocation too – to be this praise of glory.
O My God, Trinity whom I adore, help me to forget myself entirely so as to be established in you as still and as peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing be able to disturb my peace, nor make me depart from you, o my Unchanging One, but may each moment carry me further into the depths of your Mystery. Pacify my soul, make it your heaven, your beloved abode, your resting place. May I never leave you there alone, but may I be entirely present, my faith completely ready, wholly adoring, fully surrendered to your creative action.
O my beloved Christ, crucified by love, I would like to be a bride for your heart. I would like to cover you with glory, I would like to love you… unto death. I feel my powerlessness, however, and I ask you to clothe me with yourself, to identify my soul with all the movements of your soul, to defeat me, to overwhelm me, to substitute yourself for me, that my life might be but the radiation of your Life. Come into me as Adorer, as Healer, as Savior. O Eternal Word, Word of my God, I want to spend my life listening to you, I want to be completely docile, ready to learn everything from you. Then, through all nights, all voids, all weakness, I want to fixate on you always and to remain under your great light. O My beloved Star, fascinate me so that I would not be able to forsake your shining light.
O Consuming Flame, Spirit of love, come over me until my soul is render into an incarnation of the Word; may I be for Him another humanity in which he renews His whole Mystery.
And you, O Father, bend over your little creature, cover her with your shadow, and see in her only the Beloved in whom You are well-pleased.
O my Three, my All, my Beatitude, Infinite Solitude, Immensity in which I loose myself, I surrender myself as prey. Bury yourself in me in order that I might bury myself in you, while waiting to contemplate in your light the immeasurable depths of your grandeur.
Amen
The Novena to St. Elizabeth of the Trinity is authored by Dr. Anthony Lilles S.T.D.
O Lord God Almighty, I beseech Thee,
by the precious blood
of Thy Divine Son Jesus that was shed
in the streets of Jerusalem
while He carried on His sacred shoulders,
the heavy burden of the cross
deliver the souls in purgatory,
and especially that one which is the richest in merits in thy sight;
so that having soon obtained the high place in glory to which it is destined,
it may praise Thee triumphantly and bless Thee forever.
Amen.
O Lord, hear my prayer
And let my prayer cry come onto thee.
O God
the Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful,
grant unto the souls of thy servants and handmaids
the remission of all their sins
that through our devout supplications
they may obtain the pardon they have always desired.
Who live and reign world without end…Amen.
Say the following prayers:
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May their souls and the souls of all the faithfully departed rest in peace. Amen.
Day Eight: For the grace of possessing heaven already in this life by faith.
For Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, the veil between heaven and earth is thin. If we listen carefully with the ear of our heart, we can hear Mary share with us what she heard from Christ as He offered His great hymn of praise from the Cross. It is a canticle so beautiful, so exquisite, it reaches the very heart of the Father and fills the whole world with a salvific love. Through Mary’s presence in our agony, if we let her, Saint Elizabeth explains that the Mother of the Lord will teach us how to sing this same canticle– so that we can do something beautiful for God. She is with us to the very end. This is why Saint Elizabeth calls Mary “Gate of Heaven.”
As beautiful as this is, there are other canticles of praise that Elizabeth invites us to hear. She hears the 144,000 gathered around the throne of the lamb and she hears the elders who cry out “holy, holy, holy” as they cast down their crowns before the Risen Lord. The glory, praise, and silence of the saints echo in this life so that we too might know their joy. Saint Elizabeth wants us to hear this eternal hymn of praise and imitate it. A life lived in humility, simplicity, and recollection avails itself to such imitation – and when it does, heaven becomes present in this life by faith.
By faith, what is in heaven becomes present on earth. In the humble limits of the present moment and circumstances, we can participate in the great praise of glory that the angels and saints offer in heaven.
Heaven is not a remote or future reality. Heaven, even if hidden from our earthly eyes, is close by and present. It is present in the Mass. It is also present in everything – because by faith, everything and anything can become a sacrament that gives us God.
The love of heaven is present to us by faith. This is because faith makes us open to the presence of God dwelling in our souls. Wherever God dwells, there is heaven. The heaven of glory, with all the angels and saints, is present in our soul because this heaven is never separate from God. This means in the heaven of our souls where God dwells, the heaven of glory is already breaking in.
For the person of faith already implicated in the glory of heaven, nothing and no one is ever ordinary or commonplace. Every life event, no matter how small or large, how disappointing or joyful, is always a new opportunity for the soul to encounter the immensity of God’s love. The Trinity’s excessive love changes everything – even the most ordinary tasks become charged with new and everlasting meaning. This means that no one who believes ever really has an “ordinary” life – through faith, this passing life is opened to the greatness of eternity. Time for Saint Elizabeth is nothing other than “eternity begun and still in progress.”
In relation to the grace of living heaven by faith, Saint Elizabeth’s mission finds its footing in the great prayer of Jesus the night before He died. On that night, He offered his supreme prayer and his heart’s desire – that we might dwell where He dwells – the Son of the Father dwells in the Fathers love, and Saint Elizabeth is praying that we might realize Jesus’ divine dream and dwell with Him in this great love too. For this purpose, let us pray:
O My God, Trinity whom I adore, help me to forget myself entirely so as to be established in you as still and as peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing be able to disturb my peace, nor make me depart from you, o my Unchanging One, but may each moment carry me further into the depths of your Mystery. Pacify my soul, make it your heaven, your beloved abode, your resting place. May I never leave you there alone, but may I be entirely present, my faith completely ready, wholly adoring, fully surrendered to your creative action.
O my beloved Christ, crucified by love, I would like to be a bride for your heart. I would like to cover you with glory, I would like to love you… unto death. I feel my powerlessness, however, and I ask you to clothe me with yourself, to identify my soul with all the movements of your soul, to defeat me, to overwhelm me, to substitute yourself for me, that my life might be but the radiation of your Life. Come into me as Adorer, as Healer, as Savior. O Eternal Word, Word of my God, I want to spend my life listening to you, I want to be completely docile, ready to learn everything from you. Then, through all nights, all voids, all weakness, I want to fixate on you always and to remain under your great light. O My beloved Star, fascinate me so that I would not be able to forsake your shining light.
O Consuming Flame, Spirit of love, come over me until my soul is render into an incarnation of the Word; may I be for Him another humanity in which he renews His whole Mystery.
And you, O Father, bend over your little creature, cover her with your shadow, and see in her only the Beloved in whom You are well-pleased.
O my Three, my All, my Beatitude, Infinite Solitude, Immensity in which I loose myself, I surrender myself as prey. Bury yourself in me in order that I might bury myself in you, while waiting to contemplate in your light the immeasurable depths of your grandeur.
Amen
The Novena to St. Elizabeth of the Trinity is authored by Dr. Anthony Lilles S.T.D.
O Lord God Almighty, I beseech Thee,
by the precious blood
which Thy Divine Son Jesus
shed in His bitter crowning with thorns,
deliver the souls in purgatory,
and among them all,
particularly that soul which is in the greatest need of our prayers
in order that it may not long be delayed
in praising Thee in Thy glory,
and blessing Thee forever
Amen.
O Lord, hear my prayer
And let my prayer cry come onto thee.
O God
the Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful,
grant unto the souls of thy servants and handmaids
the remission of all their sins
that through our devout supplications
they may obtain the pardon they have always desired.
Who live and reign world without end…Amen.
Say the following prayers:
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May their souls and the souls of all the faithfully departed rest in peace. Amen.
O Lord God Almighty, I beseech Thee,
by the precious blood
which Thy Divine Son Jesus shed in His cruel scourging,
deliver the souls in purgatory,
and among them all,
especially that soul which is nearest
to its entrance into Thy glory;
that, so it may soon begin to praise Thee and bless Thee forever.
Amen.
O Lord, hear my prayer
And let my prayer cry come unto thee.
O God
the Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful,
grant unto the souls of thy servants and handmaids
the remission of all their sins
that through our devout supplications
they may obtain the pardon they have always desired.
Who live and reign world without end…Amen.
Say the following prayers:
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May their souls and the souls of all the faithfully departed rest in peace. Amen.
Day Seven – For the grace to become, like Mary, the “prey” of the Trinity – a soul consumed by love.
In the spiritual mission of Saint Elizabeth, the Virgin Mary, humble handmaid of the Lord, is the model of radical surrender to the Trinity. When we look to her, we see what it means to be the “prey” of the Trinity – a grace that we have been asking for throughout this Novena. When the Angel appeared to her, Mary responded: “I am the handmaid of the Lord, Let it be done to me according to your will.” Out of this humble “yes”, the Holy Trinity was able to bring to fulfillment the loving plan of salvation. This humble “yes” reveals a great spiritual truth for how God desires to work in every soul: God’s saving plan is always unleashed in the world through humble loving obedience to the Trinity.
For Saint Elizabeth, Mary’s obedient “yes” was more than a one-time event – Mary’s “fiat” reveals a continual attitude that she kept throughout her life, as she followed Jesus and stood before the Cross. This attitude was no mere human achievement. Mary’s constant awareness and readiness to respond with obedience to God was itself a work of the Trinity within her. Every act of surrender begets an even deeper act of surrender. In this way, Saint Elizabeth describes the humble handmaid of the Lord as the “prey” of the Trinity. Every prayerful soul, according to Saint Elizabeth, should make this same humble offering and become the “prey “ of the Trinity.
Just as the Virgin Mary became the “prey” of the Trinity through her peaceful and recollected surrender, through our surrender to the Holy Trinity, we can learn to live in humble recollection in each moment. In both peaceful moments of silence and difficult moments of trial, the Lord is just as present to us – He never changes. We simply need to believe in His immense love and have confidence in Him. This means we must renounce every disturbance of worry, anxiety, self-pity, or despair that would interrupt our own “fiat” to the Lord.
Such prayer is difficult, but allowing Mary to show us how to be this humble and recollected is an important aid. Christ has saved her maternal presence for our sake – He wants us to know His Mother because she is ready to help us if we ponder her example. A soul recollected in God’s presence can become like Mary, abandoned to the Father, docile to the Holy Spirit, and devoted to the Son, When this happens, this believer has also become the “prey” of the Trinity – a soul consumed by love.
Let us pray
O My God, Trinity whom I adore, help me to forget myself entirely so as to be established in you as still and as peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing be able to disturb my peace, nor make me depart from you, o my Unchanging One, but may each moment carry me further into the depths of your Mystery. Pacify my soul, make it your heaven, your beloved abode, your resting place. May I never leave you there alone, but may I be entirely present, my faith completely ready, wholly adoring, fully surrendered to your creative action.
O my beloved Christ, crucified by love, I would like to be a bride for your heart. I would like to cover you with glory, I would like to love you… unto death. I feel my powerlessness, however, and I ask you to clothe me with yourself, to identify my soul with all the movements of your soul, to defeat me, to overwhelm me, to substitute yourself for me, that my life might be but the radiation of your Life. Come into me as Adorer, as Healer, as Savior. O Eternal Word, Word of my God, I want to spend my life listening to you, I want to be completely docile, ready to learn everything from you. Then, through all nights, all voids, all weakness, I want to fixate on you always and to remain under your great light. O My beloved Star, fascinate me so that I would not be able to forsake your shining light.
O Consuming Flame, Spirit of love, come over me until my soul is render into an incarnation of the Word; may I be for Him another humanity in which he renews His whole Mystery.
And you, O Father, bend over your little creature, cover her with your shadow, and see in her only the Beloved in whom You are well-pleased.
O my Three, my All, my Beatitude, Infinite Solitude, Immensity in which I loose myself, I surrender myself as prey. Bury yourself in me in order that I might bury myself in you, while waiting to contemplate in your light the immeasurable depths of your grandeur.
Amen
The Novena to St. Elizabeth of the Trinity is authored by Dr. Anthony Lilles S.T.D.
“Holy Trinity, Whom I Adore” a prayer of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity (translated by Dr. Anthony Lilles and offered by Miriam Gutierrez)
