Chapter 7: The Divinity is imprinted upon the soul of Gertrude as a seal upon wax

The day of the most holy Purification, as I was confined to bed after a severe illness, and as I was troubled in my mind about daybreak, fearing that my corporal infirmity would deprive me of the Divine visit with which I had been so often consoled, — on the same clay the august media trix, the Mother of God the true Mediator, consoled me by these words : "As you never remember to have endured more severe corporal sufferings than those caused by your illness, know also that you have never received from my Son more noble gifts than those which will now be given to you, and for which your sufferings have prepared you."

This consoled me exceedingly ; and having received the Food which gives life immediately after the Procession, I thought only of God and myself; and I beheld my soul, under the similitude of wax softened by the fire, impressed like a seal upon the bosom of the Lord ; and immediately I beheld it surrounding and partly drawn into this treasurehouse, where the ever-peaceful Trinity abides corporally in the plenitude of the Divinity, and resplendent with its glorious impression.

O ardent fire of my God, which contains, produces, and imprints those living ardours which attract the humid waters of my soul, and dry up the torrents of earthly delights, and afterwards soften my hard self-opinionatedness, which time has hardened so exceedingly ! 0 con suming h're, which even amid ardent flames imparts sweet ness and peace to the soul ! in Thee, and in none other, do we receive this grace of being reformed to the image and likeness in which we were created. O burning furnace, in which we enjoy the true vision of peace, which tries and purifies the gold of the elect, and leads the soul to seek eagerly for its highest good, even Thyself, in Thy eternal truth.