Preface by Dom Prosper Guéranger

In giving to the public this edition of the Exercises of St. Gertrude, we think that it may be useful to prefix to it a brief notice of the illustrious Saint to whom we owe this exquisite little book. It is not our intention to recount at large the operations of divine grace in that favoured soul; this we reserve for a separate work. Our object is only to send out these Exercises with an appropriate introduction, although we are well assured that we are giving pleasure to all devout souls, whose attention seems called in a remarkable way to all that concerns St. Gertrude. The success which attended the republication of the Life and Revelations of this great Saint has shown this; and the little volume entitled Prayers of St. Gertrude has gone through numberless editions. We will first give a sketch of the life and character of St. Gertrude, and then say a few words of the little work before us.

St. Gertrude was born in 1263, at Eisleben, in the county of Mansfield, in Upper Saxony. She and her sister, St. Mechtilde, were of the family of the Counts of Lachenborn, When she was five years old she was placed in the Benedictine abbey of Rodersdorf, in the diocese of Halberstadt, and her sister Mechtilde followed her soon after. In that holy retreat Gertrude flourished like a heavenly plant, and her soul seemed to be adorned with all the gifts of nature and of grace. The monasteries of nuns in the Middle Ages were often schools of science; in that of Rodersdorf St. Gertrude was instructed not only in sacred learning, but in what were then called the liberal arts; and she made such progress ia her studies, that her learning was matter of astonishment to the most renowned doctors. Being endowed with a natural and persuasive eloguence, the effect of which was aided by her saintly life, she drew all hearts towards her, and her sweetness and humility gave her an irresistible influence.

When she had reached her twenty-sixth year it pleased the Saviour of men to manifest himself sensibly to her, and to begin that series of ineffable communications which thenceforward were her whole life. A holy soul, to whom the Lord specially revealed himself from time to time, was assured by him that, after the divine Sacrament of the Altar, there was no earthly resting-place he loved so much as the heart of Gertrude. To another he gave this assurance, that whoever desired to enjoy his presence would always find him in that heart in which he loved to dwell. And yet a third person, who had ventured to ask how St. Gertrude had merited to be thus preferred, received for answer these words: “ I love her thus because of the holy liberty of her heart, into which nothing can enter to dispute my sway.”

The sisters of the mofastery of Rodersdorf knew well the value of the treasure they possessed, and elected her abbess in 1294; and the servant of God exercised this maternal office for forty years. Circumstances into which we need not now enter removed Gertrude and her community, a year after her election, to the abbey of Heldelfs, where she spent the remainder of her life. Her sister Mechtilde followed her thither; and her simplicity of heart was rewarded by our Lord with favours which we may almost compare with those which he lavished on Gertrude herself. God withdrew Mechtilde from the world before her illustrious sister, who lived until 1334.

The marvels which marked the life of Gertrude may be all referred to the unreserved familiarity with which it pleased the Son of God to converse with her—a familiarity so touchiag and so uninterrupted, that the pious Louis of Blois says it may give us some idea of the communications of the Saviour to his Blessed Mother. When we read the five books of her Insinuations of the Divine Goodness, We begin to understand how dear a soul may be to God, and how it may respond to his loving advances.

The fidelity of Gertrude merited for her many sublime favours, 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 colours 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 tnore 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 ecstacy 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 deisned 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 ix * 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 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,

Every thing 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 tc expire and to rejoin the supreme object of her love, Jesus appeared to her, visible even to some of the pious nuns who wete 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.

'Ihe love of Gertrude towards Mary wes in proportion to the tenderness with which the

Mother of God regarded the dearest of the spouses of her Son. Our Lord revealed to her in many sublime visions the grandeur of her of whom he condescended to take our flesh; Mary herself more than once condescended to associate the humble virgin with her in the joys of her divine maternity. Gertrude has bequeathed to us the expression of her devotion to the glorious Queen of Heaven, in that exquisite prayer which so expressively reveals the deep and touching character of her piety, “ Hail, fair Lily of the effulgent and ever-glorious Trinity. Hail, radiant Rose of heavenly fragrance, of whom the King of heaven willed to be born, and with thy milk to be fed; feed our souls with thy divine insinuations.”’

The religious honour of the saints was dear to the heart of Gertrude; but she felt a peculiar predilection for some of these friends of God. A special attraction drew her towards St. John the Evangelist, to whom the goodness of our Lord to her gave her so striking a resemblance. The great patriarch St. Benedict was honoured by her with the most filial tenderness, and he rewarded her piety with marks of true paternal affection. He chose her to reveal to the faithful the promise he had made to give special aid, at the hour of their death, to all those who during their life should have rejoiced with him in the graces which attended his blessed death. St. Gregory the Great, St. Augustine, and St. Bernard, were peculiarly dear to the devotion of Gertrude; and, amongst the saints of her own sex, she loved with a love of preference St. Agnes, the tender spouse of the divine Lamb; St. Catherine, the noble and eloquent teacher of Alexandria ; the virginmartyr St. Margaret, whom the crusades had rendered so dear to all the Middie Ages; and St. Mary Magdalen, who so loved the divine Redeemer, and who was at once the pattern and the encouragement of Gertrude.

Her life, thus crowded with wonders, was rendered more beautiful still by the ineffable halo of simplicity which crowned it. Her profound knowledge of the mercies of which the Heart of Jesus is the centre and the source caused her own heart to overflow with love to sinners, The conversion of sinners was her great anxiety, and seemed, in many instances, to be affected at her will. A tender devotion to the souls in Purgatory was also a characteristic mark of the piety of Gertrude; and our Lord often condescended to give her proof how pleasing to him was her charity towards those who could no longer do anything for themselves,

The gift of miracles set the seal of perfection on this life so full of grace; nor will it appear wonderful that the prayers of Gertrude obtained everything from him who loved her so much, and whose love she so fully returned. And yet it was his will to test her patience with long and most painful illnesses, in order to her more complete purification; but he found that she who in time of health chastised her body, and strove to enter more and more into the sorrows of her heavenly Spouse, was always disposed to welcome suffering with thankfulness and joy.

Such was Gertrude; and yet earth would have preserved no memory that it had ever possessed such a treasure, if the divine goodness had not taken care to reveal it to men, lest so glorious a triumph of his grace should remain unknown. Our Lord condescended to command the humble virgin to write out an account of the divine favours he had bestowed on her; and nothing but a direct command from him could have overcome her supreme desire to glorify God, and be useful to men in this world, without leaving in the memory of men any trace of her passage.

To the obedience of Gertrude we owe the five books which she wrote in German, but which are better known in the Latin translation of the pious Lanspergius. They bear the touching and expressive title, Insinuationes Divine Pietatis; and from them we may learn to what depth of condescension the divine goodness can stoop, and what ineffable tenderness of love the Creator can lavish upon his faithful creatures. Of these the second book alone was written by Gertrude; and it is enough to enable us to enter into the interior dispositions of her privileged soul. The first, third, and fourth books were compiled by the nuns of Heldelfs from papers which the Saint had written in obedience to the command of God. The fifth contains some interesting notices of her last illness and death, and of several events in which the monastery was much interested.

The numberless conversations of the Saint with her Saviour, the light which he bestowed upon her, the direction which he gave her, the wonders that took place in this transcendent communion, the language of Gertrude herself —all concur to render this book one of the most precious illustrations of the power of divine grace in the soul of man, as well as one of the most affecting and instructive of human compositions. No doubt there are many defects of arrangement and method in the several narratives; but still all who have read them with attention bear testimony that no book has ever so enlightened and touched them.

The list of the devoted admirers of these writings would be long and imposing. We might place at its head the name of the seraphic St. Teresa, who, we are told by Father Ribera, her confessor, had taken St. Gertrude as her mistress and guide. Louis of Blois speaks of her, in his Monile Spirituale, in terms of rapturous enthusiasm. Lanspergius, as we have already seen, translated the documents which contain the revelations and teachings of the Saint into Latin. St. Francis of Sales never speaks of her but with devout admiration. Cornelius à Lapide, in his commentaries on the holy Scriptures, calls her a consummate mistress of the meaning of the Holy Spirit. It would be easy to carry on this list through several pages; we will close it with the judgment of the holy and wise M. Olier, as we find it in his unpublished works: “‘ St. Gertrude," says that man of God, “ by reason of her simplicity and profound humility, induced our Lord to treat her in a manner altogether singular, and to enrich her with his best gifts. Her writings tend always to unite the soul to Jesus Christ, and differ in this respect from many works of contemplation, which rather withdraw the soul from its application to the Holy Humanity of our Lord."

It would not be easy, we think, to produce higher or more abundant evidence in favour of any book; nor could the character of the spirituality of St. Gertrude be recognised and attested by judges more competent. But there is an authority far higher still—that of the Church itself. That mother of the faithful, ever guided by the Holy Ghost, has in her holy liturgy set her seal upon St. Gertrude. The Saint herself, and the spirit which animated her, are there for ever recommended and glorified in the eyes of all Christians, in virtue of the solemn judgment contained in the office of her festival.

It has been our wish to make St. Gertrude better known, or at least to remind the reader what she was while on earth, before we speak of the sublime devotions contained in this little volume. We have been so long separated in France from so many marvels of piety which were the joy of our ancestors, that whenever we regain possession of one of them it is never unreasonable to say a few words about its history. Having discharged this duty, we may now speak of the Exercises of St. Gertrude. They are seven in number, and were drawn up by the Saint for the use of the sisters of her monastery, and they embrace the whole work of the sanctification of a soul. The startingpoint is the renewal of the grace of baptism, and preparation for death is their end. Between these two we find Exercises which point out the way to correspond to the vocation to a religious life, acts of love towards God, and the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving due to the divine majesty.

Such is the plan of St. Gertrude; but the attempt to describe the beauty of these exquisite d:votions would but weaken its impression. The eloquence, the unction, the glow of divine love, which pervade them, attest the power of divine grace to teach a mortal the language of heaven. The first feeling of the reader is one of wonder; then, little by little, he grows accustomed to the speech of a higher land, which is, after all, his own true country and home. The soul then fully acknowledges all that it owes to its Creator and Redeemer. It resolves to follow the steps of the inspired Saint whose words of fire have fixed its attention and purified its aspirations. It feels that its one work on earth is to glorify him who has not only poured such rich treasures of love into the soul of St. Gertrude, but has likewise called every creature whom he has redeemed to live in him and for him.

The pious and learned Father Faber has brought out, with his characteristic sagacity, the advantages of that form of spirituality which gives the soul breadth and liberty, and So produces in many persons effects which some modern methods fail of producing: “No one," says he, *' can be at all acquainted with the old-fashioned Benedictine school of spiritual writers, without perceiving and admiring the beautiful liberty of spirit which pervades and possesses their whole mind. It is just what we should expect from an order of such matured traditions. St. Gertrude is a fair specimen of them. She is thoroughly Benedictine. . . . A spirit of breadth, a spirit of liberty, that is the Catholic spirit; and it was eminently the badge of the old Benedictine ascetics. Modern writers for the most part have tightened things, and have lost by it instead of gaining. By frightening people, they have lessened devotion in extent; and by overstraining it, they have lowered it in degree.” t

The school of which Father Faber speaks, and which is founded upon the rule of the great Patriarch of the Monks of the West, begins with St. Gregory the Great and ends with Louis of Blois. Such was the independent action of the Holy Spirit who guided it, that in it women have prophesied as well as men. It is enough to mention St. Hildegarde and St. Gertrude, with whom we may fitly associate St. Mechtilde and St. Frances of Rome. Any one who has tried modern methods will find, on making acquaintance with these ancient writers, that he is breathing another atmosphere, and is urged onward by a gentle authority which is never felt, but which allows no rest. He will not find that subtlety, that keen and learned analysis, he has met with elsewhere, and which rather weary than aid the soul.

In any case, there are many ways, and every way is good which brings men back to God by a thorough conversion of heart. But we are sure that those who may be led to commit themselves to the guidance of a saint of the old school will not lose their time; and that if they meet with less philosophy and less psychology on their way, they will be subdued by the simplicity and authority of her language, and be moved and melted as they contrast their own souls with that of their saintly guide. And this blessed revolution will take place in almost every soul that follows St. Gertrude in the week of Exercises she proposes to them, if only they really desire to draw yet more closely the ties which unite them to God, if their intention be fixed aright, and their souls truly recollected in God. We may almost venture to assure such persons that they will come forth from these Exercises transformed in their whole being. They will return to them again and again with everincreasing pleasure; for they will have no discouraging memory of fatigue, or of the

B slightest constraint laid upon their liberty of spirit. They will feel confounded, indeed, to be admitted so near the inmost heart of so great a saint; but they will also feel that they have been created for the same end as that saint, and that they must bestir themselves, and quit all easy, dangerous ways, which lead to perdition.

And if we be asked whence comes that wonderful influence which our Saint exercises over all who listen to her, our answer would be: from her surpassing holiness. She does not prove the possibility of spiritual movement and advance; she moves and advances. A blessed soul, sent down from heaven to dwell awhile with men, and speaking the language of the heavenly country in this land of exile, would doubtless utterly transform those who heard its speech. Now St. Gertrude was admitted to such familiar converse with the Son of God, that her words have just the accent of such a soul; and this is why they have been and are like winged arrows, which pierce and wound all within their range. The understanding is enlarged and enlightened by her pure and elevated doctrine, and yet St. Gertrude never lectures or preaches; the heart is touched and melted, and yet St. Gertrude speaks only to God; the soul judges itself, condemns itself, renews itself by compunction, and yet St. Gertrude has made no effort to move or convict it.

And if we ask what is the source of the special blessing attached to the language of

St. Gertrude, the answer is, that it blesses because it is so 1mpregnated with the divine Word, not only with the revelations which St. Gertrude received from her heavenly Spouse, but with the sacred Scriptures and the liturgy of the Church. This holy daughter of the cloister drank in light and life day by day from the sources of all true contemplation, from the very fountain of living waters which gushes forth from the psalms and the inspired words of the divine office, Her every sentence shows how exclusively her soul was nourished with this heavenly food. She so lived into 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 and the saints hold converse 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.

Hence that unceasing flow of unaffected poetry which seems to have become quite natural to her, and that hallowed enthusiasm which raises the literary beauty of her writings almost to the height of mystical inspiration, This child of the thirteenth century, buried in a monastery of Suabia, preceded Dante in the paths of spiritual poetry. Sometimes her soul breaks forth into tender and touching elegy; sometimes the fire which consumes her bursts forth in transports of fervour; sometimes her feelings clothe themselves quite instinctively in a dramatic form ; Sometimes she stops short in her sublimest flights, and she who almost rivals the seraphim descends to earth, but only to prepare herself for a still higher flight. It is as though there had been an unending struggle between the humility which held her prostrate in the dust and the aspirations of her soul, panting after Jesus, who was drawing her, and who had lavished on her such exceeding love.

In our opinion the writings of St. Gertrude lose nothing of their indescribable beauty, even when placed beside those of St. Teresa. Nay, we think that the saint of Germany is not unfrequently superior to her sister of Spain. The latter, full of impetuous ardour, has not, it is true, the tinge of pensive melancholy which colours the writings of the former; but St. Gertrude knew Latin so well, and was so profoundly versed in the letter and the spirit of the holy Scriptures, that we do not hesitate to pronounce her style superior in richness and in force to that of St. Teresa.

Still we pray the reader not to be frightened at the thought of being placed under the guidance of a seraph, when his conscience tells him that he has still so much to do in the purgative way, before he can venture to enter upon paths which may never open to him on earth. Let him simply listen to St. Gertrude, let him fix his eye upon her, and have faith in the end she proposes to him. When the holy Church puts in our mouths the language of the Psalms, she knows full well that that language is often far beyond the feelings of our soul; but if we wish to bring ourselves up to the level of these divine hymns, our best method is certainly to repeat them frequently in faith and humility, and await the transformation they will assuredly effect. St. Gertrude detaches us genily from ourselves, and brings us to Jesus by going before us herself, and by drawing us after her, though at a great distance. She goes straight to the heart of her divine Spouse, and she might well do so; but will it not be an inestimable blessing if she bring us to his feet like Magdalen, penitent and transformed by love ¢

In any case, let her gently teach us the lessons of her first Exercise—that we are Christians; and let us go with her through the profound and magnificent ceremonies with which the mystery of the divine adoption was effected in us. The three Exercises which follow lead us within the cloister, for St. Gertrude wrote for her sisters alone; but let us not suppose that these exquisite pages are useless to those of us who are living in the midst of the world. The religious life, when expounded by such an interpreter, is a spectacle as instructive as it is striking. Need we say that the practice of the precepts of the Gospel becomes more easy to those who have well pondered and admired the practice of its counsels? What is the Imitation of Christ but a book written by a monk for the use of monks; and yet who is not familiar with its teachings How many seculars delight in the writings of St. Teresa; and yet the holy Carmelitess makes the religious life the one theme of her teaching.

When once this first step has been taken, every Christian may follow the steps of St. Gertrude; for in the remaining Exercises she treats of the duty of every human being towards God. We will not now speak of her wonderful style of expression. We are so unused to the decided and elevated language of the ages of faith, that some readers, accustomed to modern books alone, may be startled, and even pained, by St. Gertrude. But what is the remedy for this inconvenience? If we have unlearned the language of that antique piety which fashioned saints, surely our best way is to learn it again as soon as we can; and St. Gertrude will give us wonderful help in doing so. The reader must prepare himself to meet with metaphors, with allusions, with expressions, which our ignorance of the Bible may lead us to regard as strange and far fetched.

Some persons may even be scandalised with the passionate language in which St. Gertrude pours out her soul before the Saviour of men. Nowadays it is not a rare thing to meet with certain decisions on matters of Catholic taste and propriety, expressed so plausibly and with so much confidence, as to command a too ready and too general acceptance. Sometimes these teachers give forth their oracular judgment on the facts of the supernatural order, and they are fond of remarking that, in mystic writers, divine love often borrows the language of profane love. It seems to us that a moment's reflection, and a slight acquaintance with the spiritual life, might have led these writers to ask whether it may not be that human love has, on the contrary, borrowed its glowing language from love divine. God, who inspires all holy and pure affections, has willed to be thus loved by his creatures. In the Old Testament and in the New he has himself condescended to call himself the Bridegroom and Spouse of the soul; and is it so surprising that the soul should believe his word and act upon it? that the heart, wounded and pierced with love of his infinite beauty, should exhaust the utmost tenderness that heart of man can feel or tongue of man utter? But the true Christian sense is so weak in these our days, and so many persons allow themselves to be misled by the confident assertions of pretenders to learning, that we have felt it our duty to anticipate possible surprise, and to calm possible doubts.

'The editions of the Exercises of St. Gertrude are far less numerous than those of her Insinuations of Divine Piety ; and indeed they can hardly be said to be known in modern times. Two very faulty and imperfect translations appeared in France in the seventeenth century, but both are extremely rare, and neither of them gives a true notion of the original book. Dom Mège, who published in 1664 a translation of the Jnsinuations, reprinted at Avignon in 1842, omitted the xxiv — PREFACE

Exercises altogether, so that they were as though they did not exist. May our feeble translation contribute to make them known and loved; may their publication igcrease the glory of St. Gertrude, and obtain for us the graces promised by the Son of God to all who should honour this his spouse of predilection !

Those who appreciate the revelations of our Saint will hear in her Exercises the accents of the voice they have learned to love, and will join with us in repeating the eloquent words of Father Faber: “ Such was the Saint, the special Saint of praise and of devout desires ! Oh, that she could be in the Church once more, as she was in ages past, the doctress and the prophetess of the interior life, like Debora, who sat beneath her palm in Mount Ephraim, uttering her canticles and judging Israel.’?!

First Exercise: Renewal of Baptismal Innocence . 7

Second Exercise: Spiced Convenio

Third Exercise: Espousals and Consecration - z ; 5 4

Fourth Exercise: Renewal of Religious Profession . A

Fifth Exercise: Acts of ess to God

Sixth Exercise: Praise and Thanksgiving .

Seventh Exercise: Reparation, and Preparation for Death

Hymn to St. Gertrude . A 5 ;