Chapter 38: How we may remember the Passion of Christ, and proclaim the praises of the Virgin Mother of God, in reciting the Seven Canonical Hours

One night, as Gertrude kept vigil, and was occupied with the remembrance of the Lord's Passion, as she felt much

The verse sung to this chant is extremely difficult to render in English :

" The more I love thee, yet the more

Thou seek'st this burning fire ; While thy dear love is still to me Sweetness I still desire."

fatigued, although she had not yet recited Matins, she said to God : " Ah, my Lord ! since Thou knowest that my weakness requires rest, teach me what honour and what service I can render to Thy Blessed Mother, now that it is not in my power to recite her Office." * " Glorify Me," re plied our Lord, " through My loving Heart, for the inno cence of that spotless virginity by which she conceived Me, being a virgin; brought me forth, being a virgin ; and still remained a pure and spotless virgin after childbirth ; imi tating thus My innocence when I was taken at the hour of Matins for the redemption of the human race, and was bound, struck with rods, buffeted, and overwhelmed piti lessly with every kind of misery and opprobrium." While she did this, it appeared to her that the Lord presented His Divine Heart to the most holy Virgin His Mother, under the figure of a golden cup, that she might drink from it ; and that, being satiated with this sweet beverage, — or rather abundantly inebriated thereby, — her very soul might be filled with exceeding gladness.

Then Gertrude praised the Blessed Virgin, saying to her : " I salute thee, most Blessed Mother, august Sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, through the sweetest Heart of Jesus Christ, thy beloved Son and the Son of the Eternal Father, be seeching thee to assist us in all our necessities, both now and in the hour of our death. Amen." She knew, when any one glorified our Lord in these words, and added, in praise of the Blessed Virgin, " I praise and salute thee, O Motber," <kc., that each time He presented her His

Divine Heart to satisfy her thirst in the manner above described, it gave exceeding satisfaction to the Queen of Virgins to be saluted thus ; and that she would recom pense it according to the extent of her liberality and ma ternal tenderness.

Our Lord then added : " At the hour of Prime, praise Me, through My sweetest Heart, for the most peaceful hu mility with which the immaculate Virgin disposed herself more and more to receive Me, and imitated the humility with which I, who am the Judge of the living and the dead, willed at the same hour to submit Myself to a Gen tile, to be judged by him for the redemption of man kind.

" At Tierce, praise Me for the fervent desires by which the Blessed Virgin drew Me down into her virginal womb from the bosom of My Eternal Father, and imitated Me in the ardour and zeal with which I desired the salvation of men, when, being torn with whips and crowned with thorns, I bore, at the third hour, a shameful and infamous cross on My shoulders with extreme meekness and patience.

" At Sext, praise Me for the firm and assured hope with which this celestial Virgin thought only of glorifying Me by the purity of her intentions ; in which she imitated Me when I, being suspended on the tree of the cross, in all the bitterness and anguish of death, longed with My whole soul for the redemption of the human race, crying out, 'I thirst !' — that is, for the salvation of men ; so that, had it been necessary for Me to suffer more bitter or cruel tor ments, I would willingly have borne them for their re demption.

" At None, praise Me for the ardent and mutual love which united My Divine Heart to that of the spotless Vir gin, and which united and inseparably conjoined My all- glorious Divinity with My Humanity in her chaste womb, imitating Me in My mortal life until I expired on the cross at the ninth hour for the salvation of men.

" At Vespers, praise Me for the constant faith of My Blessed Mother at My death, during the desertion of My Apostles, and the despair of all ; in which she imitated the fidelity with which I descended into limbo after My death, that I might withdraw those souls by My all-powerful hand and mercy, and bring them to the joys of para dise.

" At Compline, praise Me for the incomparable per severance with which My sweetest Mother persevered in every virtue even to the end, and imitated Me in the work of man's redemption, which I accomplished with so much care, that after I had obtained their perfect redemption by a most cruel death, I nevertheless allowed My incorrup tible Body to be laid in the tomb, to show that there is no degree of contempt or humiliation to which I would not submit for the welfare of man."