Chapter 8: For the Feast of St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr

Apparition of St. Agnes— Virtue of the words which she uttered at her death.

ON the night of the Feast of St. Agnes, the beloved of God, as Gertrude rejoiced greatly for the glory which the love of this Saint had given to our Lord, and for the words she had uttered which gave such joy to the heavenly court, she exclaimed : " Alas, Lord ! what joy and consolation would I not have experienced at hearing these words chanted, if my infirmity had not prevented me ! " Our Lord replied : " I reserve this for you in myself ; and, either in this life, or in the next, you shall taste other con solations, which will be all the sweeter to you because they will have less of the insipidity of your own will."

From this she understood that nothing can diminish the spiritual welfare of the elect, unless through their own fault. As they read the sixth Lesson (which related that St. Agnes was accused of being a Christian from her child hood, and so bewitched by magic that she called Jesus Christ her Spouse), St. Gertrude exclaimed sorrowfully : " Alas, my Lord and my God, what does not Thy Divine Majesty suffer from men ! " Our Lord replied : " The perfect love which united Me and Agnes satisfies Me for all these indignities." "0 Lord," replied the Saint, "grant to all thy elect the grace to attach themselves so inviolably to Thee, that Thou mayest no longer think of the injuries by which men outrage Thee."

On the Feast of St. Augustine, as God showed Gertrude the merits of many saints, she desired to know something of the merits of St. Agnes, whom she had loved from her very infancy with the greatest tenderness and devotion. Our Lord yielded to her desire and prayer, and showed her that great Saint, so united to His Heart as to indicate her extraordinary innocence, and to manifest the truth of what has been said by the Wise Man, that " Incorruption bringeth near to God" (Wis. vi. 20.); for she seemed so near God, that it appeared as if no one in heaven could equal her innocence and love.

From this she learned that there is not an instant in which God does not place before Him the devotion and joy which holy souls either have felt or will yet feel from the sweet words of St. Agnes which are recited by the Church, and that He causes the pleasure which He finds therein to pour forth from His Heart into that of this holy virgin, which is so intimately united to His, while she becomes marvellously adorned thereby with new jewels, casting rays of light every moment into those souls who rejoice in her devotion.