Chapter 17: Another Exercise to the Sacred Heart: Of Jesus, Taken from Saint Gertrude's

Another Exercise to the Sacred Heart

Of Jesus, Taken from Saint Gertrude's

Exercises on Preparing for Death

"0 Love, thy flaming divine fire hath won me access to, the beneficent Heart of my Jesus. 0 Heart overflowing with sweetness! 0 Heart filled with piety! 0 Heart surging with charity! 0 Heart distilling sweetness itself! 0 Heart full of mercy! Let me die of love in return for Thy love! 0 Heart of Jesus, my beloved, bury my poor heart in Thy treasure house! 0 costly pearl of my heart, summon me to Thy life-giving banquet, and although I am most unworthy, let me drink of the wine of Thy consolation, so that Thy divine charity may fill up my deficiency, and the abundance of Thy love may compensate for my lukewarmness and sloth!

"0 precious love, how ardently I desire Thee now to offer up for me that divine Heart, that delightful fragrance, that incense of sweet savor, that august sacrifice, on the golden altar where the mystery of the reconciliation of the human race was accomplished, offering it in satisfaction for all the days of my life which I have let slip by without doing what I ought to have done for Thy love.

"0 love, plunge my mind deep into that Sacred Heart as into a river, burying all m y negligences and all my sins in the flood of Thy divine mercies. Let me find, in the Heart of Jesus, m y understanding clarified, my affections purified, and let me have a heart free, detached and empty of all imperfections, so that, when love shall separate my soul and body at the hour of death, I may return my heart stainless to die hands of God. 0 all-loving Heart, whom I love above all things, Thou art the one whom my heart entreats with all its

affections. Be mindful of me, I beg Thee, and may the sweetness of Thy charity restore and strengthen the weaknesses of my heart.

"0 Thou eternal sweetness of my soul, 0 Thou beloved of my heart, whose holy face is full of charm and grace, whose Heart is so filled with sweetness as to make Thee infinitely lovable, must m y thoughts wander from Thee? 0 God of my heart, gather up into Thyself all the disorders of my mind. 0 my beloved, wash Thou and wipe away, by the purity and the holiness of Thy divine affection and by the burning love of Thy pierced Heart, all the stains of my guilty heart and all the disorders of m y imagination, so that Thy most bitter Passion may serve me as a sheltering defense at the hour of m y death and that gentle Heart, broken for love of me, may be my eternal abode, sinco I love Thee alone more than all creatures in the world.(1) (I). Exercit. VII, Praepar. ad mortem. 77-