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St. Gertrude the Great, ordinary woman, extraordinary grace

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see also Pope Benedict’s teachings on St. Gertrude on the Discerning Hearts Holy Women page

(1256-1302 A.D.) Few men have merited the title, “the Great”; fewer women. I know of only one nun so honored, St. Gertrude of Helfta, a mystic whose spiritual writings have remained influential up to the present.

Nothing is known of this German woman’s family background. When five years old, she was entrusted to the sisters of Helfta Abbey to be educated. From a very young age she gave evidence of her brilliance and quickly outstripped her companions. In her teen years she asked to join the community. Therefore, she probably spent her whole life from childhood on within the abbey walls.

Her love for secular studies made the common life wearisome, pride and vanity ate away at her soul and she soon became an unhappy young woman until Christ appeared to her. The day was branded in her memory, it was in her 26th year, when as she says “in a happy hour, at the beginning of twilight, thou O God of truth, more radiant than any light, yet deeper than any secret thing, determined to dissolve the obscurity of my darkness.” From then on her biographer tells us “she became a theologian instead of a grammarian.” She did not give up her intellectual ardor but now, all her labors were for her sisters, to cure what she termed “the wound of ignorance”. Her many gifts and mystical graces did not prevent her from giving herself wholeheartedly to the common life with its joys and sorrows. In fact many of her special graces came to her as she took part in the ordinary routine of convent life. She felt keenly for those whose burdens involved them in distracting duties, for example those responsible for meeting the debts of the monastery.

She prayed that they might have more time to pray and fewer distractions. The Lord’s answered “It does not matter to me whether you perform spiritual exercises or manual labor, provided only that your will is directed to me with a right intention. If I took pleasure only in your spiritual exercises, I should certainly have reformed human nature after Adam’s fall so that it would not need food, clothing or the other things that man must find or make with such effort.”

Many of her writings are lost, but fortunately she left to the world an abundance of spiritual joy in her book The Herald of Divine Love, in which she tells of the visions granted her by our divine Lord. She wrote this excellent, small book because she was told that nothing was given to her for her own sake only. Her Exercises is an excellent treatise on the renewal of baptismal vows, spiritual conversion, religious vows, love, praise, gratitude to God, reparation, and preparation for death.

She began to record her supernatural and mystical experiences in what eventually became her Book of Extraordinary Grace (Revelation of Saint Gertrude), together with Mechtilde’s mystical experiences Liber Specialis Gratiae, which Gertrude recorded. Most of the book was actually written by others based on Gertrude’s notes. She also wrote with or for Saint Mechtilde a series of prayers that became very popular, and through her writings helped spread devotion to the Sacred Heart (though it was not so called until revealed to St. Margaret Mary Alocoque).

Gertrude is inseparably associated with the devotion to the Sacred Heart. The pierced heart of Jesus embodied for her the Divine Love, an inexhaustible fountain of redemptive life. Her visions and insights in connection with the Heart of Jesus are very enlightening. In one such intellectual vision, she perceived the unceasing love of Christ for us in two pulsations of his Heart – one accomplished the conversion of sinners, the other the sanctification of the just. Just as our own faithful heart keeps right on whether we advert to it or not, these pulsations will endure till the end of time despite the vicissitudes of history.

Our Lord wishes people to pray for the souls in purgatory. He once showed Gertrude a table of gold on which were many costly pearls. The pearls were prayers for the holy souls. At the same time the saint had a vision of souls freed from suffering and ascending in the form of bright sparks to heaven.

In one Vision, Our Lord tells Gertrude that he longs for someone to ask Him to release souls from purgatory, just as a king who imprisons a friend for justice’s sake hopes that someone will beg for mercy for his friend. Jesus ends with:

“I accept with highest pleasure what is offered to Me for the poor souls, for I long inexpressibly to have near Me those for whom I paid so great a price. By the prayers of thy loving soul, I am induced to free a prisoner from purgatory as often as thou dost move thy tongue to utter a word of prayer.”

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St. Margaret of Scotland, pray for us

A Queen of Scotland!

 
 
 
Childhood of St Margaret
Margaret was born c. 1045 and was the niece of King Edward the Confessor of England. She was raised in Hungary and lived with her exiled father, Edward Atheling, her mother, Agatha, her brother, Edgar, and her sister, Christian. They returned to England in 1054. Early chronicles tell us that she read the scriptures in Latin, learned French and was trained in English needlework.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Marriage of St Margaret
Margaret married Malcolm III ‘Canmore’ of Scotland in c.1070. Margaret would have been about 24 years of age and Malcolm about 47. Ancient chronicles tell us that Margaret was more prepared for the cloister than the crown. However, Malcolm won her over and they were married in Dunfermline, then the seat of the Scottish kings.
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Building of Dunfermline
Margaret had a significant influence on early Scotland. Although she was a patron of the existing celtic church, she also introduced to Scotland the Benedictines from Canterbury and had the Priory Church built which would eventually become Dunfermline Abbey. Margaret also had a chapel built at Edinburgh Castle and the church at Iona rebuilt after Viking attacks.
 
 
 
 
 
  

Washing the feet of the poor
Margaret was very pious and carried out many works of charity. She visited and cared for the sick and had hostels built for the poor. It was her custom that the poor should visit her every morning and be seated around her to receive alms.

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St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, “Heavenly Patroness of all Emigrants.”

Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini: America’s Patron Saint of Immigrants

by Leonardo Solimine

As debates rage nationally and locally over immigrant’s rights, we are well served to remember that – ultimately and with very few exceptions – all Americans are immigrants in one form or another. At the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal, the American ideal is reflected eloquently in a poem by Emma Lazarus that begins: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” Ideology and dialogue alone, however, provide little visible relief to immigrants. Help often comes from individuals, and for many Italian immigrants in late 19th America, this support came from Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini.

Widely recognized as the first American citizen canonized by the Roman Catholic Church, she is also acknowledged as the Patron Saint of immigrants. She gave hope to those desperately seeking help, offering assistance in both their material and spiritual needs.

Born Maria Francesca Cabrini on July 15, 1850, she was the tenth child of Agostino Cabrini and Stella Oldini. Her difficult birth, premature by two months, affected her health throughout her life. Many of siblings, however, would not survive adolescence. Her father farmed as her mother tended to the children in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, a small village sited on the plains of Lombardy south of Milan.

Maria’s life found its direction early. Nightly, her father read to the family, often recounting stories of great Catholic missionaries. Especially appealing for Maria were the tales of Chinese missions, and she hoped to become a Franciscan missionary. At the age of 13, she enrolled as a boarding student in the Normal School located in the commune of Arluno. Graduating in 1868 and certified as a teacher, she remained in Arluno, living in the convent with the religious sisters who ran the school.

In 1877, at the age of 27, she was able to take religious vows and became the Mother Superior of the House of Providence orphanage in another Lombardian commune, Codogno. In a tribute to the evangelizing Jesuit, Frances Xavier, Maria added Xavier to her name. Within three years, she helped establish a new order, the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. The order helped to create homes, a school and a nursery, and their good works became known to the Bishop of Piacenza, Giovanni Scalabrini.

By the late 19th century, thousands of Italians had arrived in the United States, with many making New York City their home. They suffered tremendous hardships in their new country. Viewed contemptuously by most Americans, Italians labored in the most menial of jobs. Even the Roman Catholic Church in America was unprepared for their arrival and initially treated the many devout Italians as outsiders. The prayers of the immigrants, however, were soon answered in the form of Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini. Urged by Bishop Scalabrini, and with the blessing and support of Pope Leo XIII, she and six of her Missionary Sisters landed in New York in early 1889.

Unable to speak English and lacking a place to stay, she and her fellow Sisters endured many of the same problems suffered by immigrants.Obstacles, however, failed to diminish her spirit and within a short time she established an orphanage and school. Her primary donor was the wife of the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Countess Mary Cesnola. This was only the beginning, however, for during her lifetime Mother Cabrini founded sixty-seven institutions around the world including schools, orphanages, hospitals, and social service outreach programs.

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St. Martin of Tours…”let me now serve Christ” – Discerning Hearts

 

Born in 321 AD, in what is modern day France, St Martin began his life journey as a pagan, converted to Christianity, ascended through church ranks to become Bishop of Tours and ultimately achieved sainthood.

Martin was forced into the army by his father at age 15. But he disliked military life, and led a monk-like existence as an officer, as he wanted to become a Christian, then a new religion in his land.

One severe winter’s day, army officer Martin saw a poor man at the city gates of Amiens, shivering with cold and begging for food. Having no money, Martin took off his warm woolen cloak, cut it in half with his sword and gave half to the beggar. That night Martin dreamt of Christ surrounded by angels, and wearing the half-cloak Martin had given the beggar, and He said, “See, this is the cloak in which Martin, the heathen, has covered me”.

Shortly after Martin was baptized a Christian. Because of that, and because he’d already spent five long years fighting invaders from Germany, he asked for his release from the army. “Up to now, I have served you as a soldier; let me now serve Christ”.

Free to pursue a new life as a disciple of St Hilary of Poitiers, Martin’s path was to remain challenged. He developed a community of disciples, abstaining from worldly comforts and riches. In 371 AD, the city of Tours wanted him as their bishop. A small pocket of opposition said he was not refined enough. But clergy and majority rule prevailed over such criticism, and Martin as consecrated as bishop. At first he ruled a pagan diocese. But with each year, his increasingly far-flung congregation grew through his visits by boat, donkey and on foot.

When he died, aged eighty, on November 9 401 AD, Martin’s body was carried by boat to Tours for burial. It is said the boat moved without oars or sail, accompanied by the sound of heavenly music, and that trees along the river, bare and ready for winter, burst into blossom at his passing.

Prayer to Continue to Fight for God

Lord, if your people still have need of my services, I will not avoid the toil. Your will be done. I have fought the good fight long enough. Yet if you bid me continue to hold the battle line in defense of your camp, I will never beg to be excused from failing strength. I will do the work you entrust to me. While you command, I will fight beneath your banner.    Amen
~~by St Martin of Tours

St. Martin of Tours…”let me now serve Christ”

 

Born in 321 AD, in what is modern day France, St Martin began his life journey as a pagan, converted to Christianity, ascended through church ranks to become Bishop of Tours and ultimately achieved sainthood.

Martin was forced into the army by his father at age 15. But he disliked military life, and led a monk-like existence as an officer, as he wanted to become a Christian, then a new religion in his land.

One severe winter’s day, army officer Martin saw a poor man at the city gates of Amiens, shivering with cold and begging for food. Having no money, Martin took off his warm woolen cloak, cut it in half with his sword and gave half to the beggar. That night Martin dreamt of Christ surrounded by angels, and wearing the half-cloak Martin had given the beggar, and He said, “See, this is the cloak in which Martin, the heathen, has covered me”.

Shortly after Martin was baptized a Christian. Because of that, and because he’d already spent five long years fighting invaders from Germany, he asked for his release from the army. “Up to now, I have served you as a soldier; let me now serve Christ”.

Free to pursue a new life as a disciple of St Hilary of Poitiers, Martin’s path was to remain challenged. He developed a community of disciples, abstaining from worldly comforts and riches. In 371 AD, the city of Tours wanted him as their bishop. A small pocket of opposition said he was not refined enough. But clergy and majority rule prevailed over such criticism, and Martin as consecrated as bishop. At first he ruled a pagan diocese. But with each year, his increasingly far-flung congregation grew through his visits by boat, donkey and on foot.

When he died, aged eighty, on November 9 401 AD, Martin’s body was carried by boat to Tours for burial. It is said the boat moved without oars or sail, accompanied by the sound of heavenly music, and that trees along the river, bare and ready for winter, burst into blossom at his passing.

Prayer to Continue to Fight for God

Lord, if your people still have need of my services, I will not avoid the toil. Your will be done. I have fought the good fight long enough. Yet if you bid me continue to hold the battle line in defense of your camp, I will never beg to be excused from failing strength. I will do the work you entrust to me. While you command, I will fight beneath your banner.    Amen
~~by St Martin of Tours

All Souls Day – the day I pull out “The Dream of Gerontius”

Blessed John Newman’s poem “The Dream of Gerontius” tells the story of a soul’s journey through death, and provides a meditation on the unseen world of Roman Catholic theology.

Click here for the full text of the poem

Gerontius (a name derived from the Greek word geron, “old man”) is a devout Everyman.Elgar’s setting uses most of the text of the first part of the poem, which takes place on Earth, but omits many of the more meditative sections of the much longer, otherworldly second part, tightening the narrative flow.

In the first part, we hear Gerontius as a dying man of faith, by turns fearful and hopeful, but always confident. A group of friends (also called “assistants” in the text) joins him in prayer and meditation. He passes in peace, and a priest, with the assistants, sends him on his way with a valediction. In the second part, Gerontius, now referred to as “The Soul”, awakes in a place apparently without space or time, and becomes aware of the presence of his guardian angel, who expresses joy at the culmination of her task (Newman conceived the Angel as male, but Elgar gives the part to a female singer). After a long dialogue, they journey towards the judgment throne.

They safely pass a group of demons, and encounter choirs of angels, eternally praising God for His grace and forgiveness. The Angel of the Agony pleads with Jesus to spare the souls of the faithful. Finally Gerontius glimpses God and is judged in a single moment. The Guardian Angel lowers Gerontius into the soothing lake of Purgatory, with a final benediction and promise of a re-awakening to glory. –wiki

Here is mezzo-soprano Sarah Connelly as the angel offering a beautiful version of “Softly and Gently” (which is the last passage of Edward Elgar’s musical oration of the “Dream of Gerontius”) as he is peacefully being placed into the lake of Purgatory.  A stunning work and meditation for this or any day

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SOFTLY and gently, dearly-ransomed soul,
In my most loving arms I now enfold thee,
And, o’er the penal waters, as they roll
I poise thee, and I lower thee, and hold thee.

And carefully I dip thee in the lake,
And thou, without a sob or a resistance,
Dost through the flood thy rapid passage take,
Sinking deep, deeper, into the dim distance.
Angels, to whom the willing task is given,
Shall tend, and nurse, and lull thee, as thou liest;
And Masses on the earth and prayers in heaven,
Shall aid thee at the Throne of the most Highest

Farewell, but not forever! Brother dear,
Be brave and patient on thy bed of sorrow;
Swiftly shall pass thy night of trial here,
And I will come and wake thee on the morrow.

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St. Anthony Mary Claret…a Spanish light of the Church


‘The love of Christ arouses us, urges us to run, and to fly lifted on the wings of holy zeal . . . The man who burns with the fire of divine love is a son of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and wherever he goes, he enkindles that flame; he desires and works with all his strength to inflame all men with the fire of God’s love. Nothing deters him: he rejoices in poverty; he labors strenuously; he welcomes hardships; he laughs off false accusations; he rejoices in anguish. He thinks only of how he might follow Jesus Christ and imitate Him by his prayers, his labors, his sufferings, and by caring always and only for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.’ – St. Anthony Mary Claret

A remarkable saint…St. Anthony Mary Claret who lived during the turblent years of the 1800’s in Latin America, namely Cuba.  He had a great love for the Blessed Virgin Mary and her Immaculate Heart.  More on his life can be found here…

Ave Maria, Hail Mary – Catholic Hymns of Praise – Discerning Hearts


The lyrics and translation are as follows:

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
Amen

Áve María, grátia pléna, Dóminus técum.
Benedícta tu in muliéribus, et benedíctus frúctus véntris túi, Iésus.
Sáncta María, Máter Déi, óra pro nóbis peccatóribus, nunc et in hóra mórtis nóstrae.
Ámen.