Chapter 11: For Sexagesima. Instruction on Noah's ark ; a mystical day therein

ON the Sunday Jfixurge, as she was still confined to bed, she heard the words Benedicens ergo * chanted at Matins : and reflecting on the sentiments of joy and devotion which she had so often experienced in listening to this Response, she exclaimed : UO Lord, thou knowest with what fervent love I have often chanted this Response and many others when I was carried up before Thy throne of glory, and there intoned each note and word in Thy Heart, as on a most sweet organ. But, alas ! now that I am infirm, [ neglect many things." "My beloved one," replied our Lord, " I can testify to the truth of wh'at you say, and I know that you have often chanted these words most sweetly on the organ of my Divine Heart • therefore I am now going to chant for you in return." Then He added : ''Even as I swore to My servant Noe that I would no more destroy the earth with a flood, so do I swear to you also, by My Divinity, that all those who listen to your advice with humility, and avail themselves of it to regulate their lives, shall never perish, but shall assuredly attain to Me safely and without wandering, who am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; and I confirm this oath to you by the seal of My most holy Humanity." "O Eternal Wisdom," replied Ger trude, " since thou foreseest all the excesses and crime into which men will again precipitate themselves, why didst Thou make so solemn a promise in their favour that Thou wouldst not again destroy the world by a deluge 1 " Our Lord replied : "I made it to strengthen them in their good resolutions during the calm of prosperity, so that in tho storm of affliction they may be bound in honour to keep their promise." Then she said : "O Lord God, wilt Thou teach Thy handmaid how to build an ark for Thee during this week1? " Our Lord replied : " You can build an ark in your heart, which will be very pleasing to me ; but ob serve carefully that there were three chambers in Noe's ark : the birds were in the highest, men in the middle, and beasts in the lowest. Thus you should divide the day into three parts : from early morning rntil None return

IUe thanks, on the part of the whole Church, and from the very bottom of your heart, for all the benefits which I have nestowed on men from the creation of the world to the present time, and especially for the signal benefit which I confer on them by immolating Myself to God the Father daily, from daybreak until None, on the Altar for their salvation, while men employ themselves in feasting and debaucheries, without a thought of gratitude. If you there fore study to repair their faults, and supply for their lack of thanksgivings, you will gather birds into the first stage of your ark. From None until Vespers, by attaching your self firmly to the exercise of good works, and by uniting them to those performed by My sacred Humanity, in satis faction for the negligence and ingratitude of men, who refuse to correspond with My benefits, you will enclose men in the centre of the ark. From Vespers you may reflect and consider in the bitterness of your heart how men have the impiety to add to their ingratitude an infinity of crimes which excite My anger, and by offering in atonement all the bitterness and pains which I suffered in My Passion and Death, though I was innocent; and thus you may enclose beasts in the lowest part of the ark."

Then she said to the Lord : "As I have asked this in struction of Thee so earnestly, I cannot feel certain that Thou, O best of teachers, hast taught it to me." He replied : "You ought not to esteem it less because I have given it to you on account of the earnest desire you expressed ; for I have created your senses for My service. Was it not a more wonderful thing to say, ' Let us make man to Our image and likeness,' when I created him with deliberation and counsel, than to say, when I created other things : ' Let there be a firmament,' or ' Let there be light ? '" She re plied : " If I availed myself of this authority to introduce this exercise for the benefit of others, some one else might introduce other things, which might not be an effect of Thy Divine grace." Our Lord replied : " Add this caution : whoever knows in his heart that his will is so united to Mine as never to dissent from it, either in prosperity or adversity, and who acts and suffers in all things purely for My glory, may certainly affirm that whatever he learns in teriorly is from Me, if it is useful to others, and not con tradictory to Scripture."

Then the Lord stood before this soul, and said : " Now, queen and lady, console Me, as I have consoled thee ; " and having said this, He inclined lovingly towards her. But this soul, being overwhelmed with amazement at such unheard-of condescension, exclaimed, with the deepest humility, from her inmost heart : " Ah, Lord ! Thou art the Creator, and I am but a creature." As she uttered these words, her soul was drawn and united to God in a marvellous manner, and enjoyed with Him the sublimest beatitude. Then she said to the Lord : " Vouchsafe, O Father of mercy, to give a little rest to Thy servant, who is weakened by the remedies she has used, that I may com municate worthily to-day." He replied : " The union with Me, which you now enjoy, will render you stronger than any bodily repose which you could take." While Mass was being celebrated, as she complained in the presence of God that her infirmity prevented her from hearing it, our Lord said to her : "Repeat the Confiteor" When she had concluded, He pronounced these words: "May My Divinity have mercy on you, and pardon you all your sins ! " and extending His venerable Hand, He gave her His benedic tion. Then the Lord took her into His arms, and said ;

"Eia, domiua regiua."

DEVOTIONS FOR TJlE CARNIVAL. 345

" ,'vv.d God created man to His own image." Then He signed her eyes and her ears, her mouth and her heart, her ha.ids and her feet ; and sweetly repeating these words each time, he renewed His image and resemblance in her soul.

On the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, a day on which people in the world commit the greatest excesses in eating and drinking, St. Gertrude heard the bell ringing for the workmen's breakfast, and exclaimed, with a sigh : " Alas, my Lord, how early in the day men begin to offend Thee by their gourmandising ! " But our Lord replied : " Do not grieve, My beloved ; those who are now summoned to their meal are not of the number of those who offend Me by greediness, since this refection is a warning to them to apply to work ; and I take as much satisfaction in seeing them eat, as a man would in seeing his horse refreshed when he needed its labour."