Chapter 36: That devotion to the Passion of our Lord promotes union with God

As Gertrude once sought, with some anxiety, for an image of the holy cross, that she might often honour it for love of her Lord, she began to fear that this exterior exercise might hinder her from enjoying the interior favours of God. But our Lord said to her: " Fear not, My beloved ; for this cannot hinder your spirituality, since I alone will occupy you ; for I am not a little pleased with those who honour the image of My crucifixion very devoutly ; and as it often happens that, when a king has a spouse with whom he cannot always remain, he leaves one who is most dear to him to take charge of her in his absence, and regards all the duties of friendship and affection which she renders to him as if they had been offered to himself, because he knows that this pro ceeds from her love for him, — so I take pleasure in the veneration offered to My cross, when it is offered purely for My love, — when the cross is not desired for itself, but that it may serve to renew the memory of the love and fidelity with which I endured the bitterness of My Passion, and wben there is an ardent desire to imitate the example of My Passion."

One night, as the Saint was occupied in meditating on the Passion, she found that the fervour of her zeal had affected her body, and caused an inflammation in the side ; when she addressed herself thus to God : " Most sweet Love ! if some persons knew what I now suffer, they would think that I ought to interrupt this exercise, in order to recover my bodily health ; although Thou knowest — Thou who beholdest clearly that which is most hidden within me

— that all my strength and my senses could not resist the most passing movement of Thy grace." To which our Lord replied : " Who could be ignorant of this, without being altogether insensible that the sweetness of My Divinity surpasses incomparably all the pleasures of the flesh and the senses ? since all earthly and corporal pleasure is but as a drop of dew to this great ocean. And yet these sen sible pleasures often draw men away irresistibly, though they know how they endanger, not only their bodies, but even their souls. How, then, should a soul penetrated with the sweetness of My Divinity be able to hinder itself from being carried away by the attractions of a love which will constitute its eternal felicity ?"

She replied : " But perhaps they would say that, as I am professed in a religious order, I ought so to moderate the ardour of my devotion that it may not prove a hindrance to my observance of rule." Then the Lord deigned to in struct her by this comparison : " If a chamberlain had been placed at the table of a king, in order to serve his majesty with the respect due to him, and if this king, from age or infirmity, required one who stood by to support him, would it not be an extreme incivility if this chamberlain rose hastily and allowed his master to fall, because he had been also specially chosen to stand and serve at his table 1 So would it be far more uncourteous if one whom I called in My gratuitous mercy to the enjoyment of My contempla tion should withdraw from it to satisfy the requirements of the order in which he was professed ; since I, the Creator and Framer of the universe, take infinitely more pleasure in loving souls, than in any labours and corporal exercises per formed without love and without a pure intention. But if any person is not really called by My Spirit to the repose of contemplation, 'and yet neglects the observance of his

Rule to occupy himself therein, he is like those who place themselves at the table of the king without being invited, although they were only destined to serve at it. And, as a servant who sat at the king's table without being asked would receive contempt instead of honour, so he who neglects his Rule, and endeavours in his own strength to obtain the gift of contemplation — which none can obtain without a special gift from Me — would receive more disad vantage than profit ; making no progress in what he had undertaken, and becoming tepid in his duty. But as for him who, without any necessity, and merely for his bodily convenience, neglects the exercises of his Order, and seeks satisfaction in exterior things, he acts as one would do who, being destined to serve at the king's table, should go out to his stables and defile himself shamefully in cleansing them."