Chapter 26: For Good Friday

The Saint is favoured with a rapture— Exercises on the Passion of our Lord.

THE memory of our Lord's Passion was so profoundly en graven on the soul of the Saint, that it became as honey to her lips, as music to her ears, and as a transport of joy to her heart. One Good Friday, as she heard the summons * to Compline, she felt the same anguish in her heart as if she had been told that her dearest friend was even then about to expire, and she recollected herself to think yet more lovingly of the Passion of her Beloved. Her union with God became so intimate, that on this day and the following she was scarcely able to attend to anything exterior or sensible, unless obliged to do so by charity, of which she always made great account, and this that she might the more surely entertain Him within her who is love ; for St. John said " God is charity. If we love one another, God abideth in us, and His charity is perfected in us " (1 John iv.)

She continued in this rapture the remainder of the day? and during the whole of the following day (Holy Saturday). What she experienced therein was such, that no human intellect could explain it ; for she was so perfectly united to and absorbed in God, by the tenderness of her com passion, that she was entirely dissolved therein ; and this was no imperfection, but rather the very height of perfec tion, as St. Bernard teaches when writing of the words of the Canticles : " We will make thee chains of gold : (Cant. i. 10). "When the soul is wrapt in contemplation, and a flash of heavenly light comes to illuminate it, the Divine infusion accommodates itself to sensible things, either to temper its brilliancy or to instruct in its doctrine, and thus shadows the purity and splendour of its rays, to en able the soul to receive it, and to communicate it to others. I believe f that these images are produced in us by the holy angels. Therefore, let us attribute to God what is perfectly free from corporal images, and to the angels those which are more sensible."

We must not, therefore, consider that what God Him- self infuses into the soul in secret is of less value. Never theless, we have passed over many things for this reason, which might have been related here, and which are indeed worthy of being recorded. Still, we have gathered up some of the sparks of Divine love which flew forth from the burning furnace of the Passion of Christ upon this soul. On one Good Friday, at the hour of Prime, as the Saint returned thanks to God for having appeared before a Gentile and an idolator as His Judge, she beheld our Lord enthroned in great majesty with God His Father, while all the Saints prostrated before Him, thanking Him pro foundly for having freed them from eternal death by His own Death.

As the Passion was read, at the word Sitio (" I thirst"), our Lord appeared to offer her a golden cup to receive the tears of compassion which she had shed for His death. And as the Saint felt her whole soul melting into tears, and yet discretion obliged her to keep them back, she asked our Lord what would be most pleasing to Him. Then it appeared to her that a pure rivulet sprang from her heart, and proceeded to our Lord's lips, and He said : " These are the tears of devotion which you have restrained from a pure intention."

At Terce, as she remembered our Lord's crowning with thorns, His cruel scourging at the pillar, His weari ness, and the. agony of His shoulder, wounded by carry ing the cross, she said to Him : " Behold, my sweetest Love, I offer Thee my heart, desiring to suffer therein all the bitterness and anguish of Thy dear Heart, in return for Thy love in bearing the undeserved torments of Thy Passion ; and I beseech Thee, whenever I forget this offering through human frailty, to send me some sharp bodily pain which may resemble Thine." He replied :

" Your desires are sufficient. But if you wish Me to have unbounded pleasure in your heart, let Me act as I please therein, and do not desire that I should give you either consolation or suffering."

Then, as the Passion was read, which says that Joseph took the Body of Jesus, she said to our Lord : " That blessed Joseph was given Thy most holy Body ; but what share wilt Thou give of Thy Body to my unworthiness 1 " Then our Lord gave her His Heart under the form of a golden thurible, from which as many perfumes ascended to the Father as there had been persons for whom the Lord died.

When the prayers were said after the Passion for the different Orders in the Church, according to the usual custom, as the priest knelt, saying Oremus, delectissimi, she saw all the prayers which had been made throughout the Church ascending together like fragrant incense from the thurible of the Divine Heart, so that each prayer by this union became marvellously sweet and beautiful.

Therefore we should pray for the Church on this day with great devotion, in union with the Passion of our Lord, which renders our prayers more efficacious before God.

On another occasion, on the same day, the Saint, ar dently desiring to make some return to her Beloved for all His sufferings, said to Him : " 0 my only Hope, and Salvation of my soul ! teach me how to make some return to Thee for Thy most bitter Passion." Our Lord replied : " He who follows the will of another, and not his own, frees Me from the captivity which I endured when bound with chains on the morning of My Passion ; he who considers himself guilty, satisfies for my condemnation, at the hour of Prime, by false witnesses; he who renounces the pleasures of sense, consoles Me for the blows which I received at the hour of Terce ; he who submits to pastors who try him, consoles Me for the crowning with thorns j he who humbles himself first in a dispute, carries My cross ; he who per forms works of charity, consoles Me at the hour of Sext, when My limbs were cruelly fastened to the cross; he who spares himself neither pain nor labour to withdraw his neighbour from sin, consoles Me for My Death, which I endured at the hour of None for the salvation of the human race ; he who replies gently when reproached, takes Me down from the cross ; lastly, he who prefers his neigh bour to himself, lays Me in the sepulchre."

On another Good Friday,, as Gertrude besought our Lord to prepare her for a worthy Communion,t she re ceived this reply : " I am hastening to you with such ardour that I can scarcely contain it ; for I have gathered into My bosom all the good which My Church has done or said or thought to-day in memory of My Passion, to pour it forth into your soul at Communion for your eternal salvation." The Saint replied : " I give Thee thanks, 0 my Lord ; but I desire greatly that this favour may be granted to me in such a manner that I may f Formerly the faithful were admitted to Communion on this day. See Dom Gueranger's Annie Liturgique, "Temps de la Passion," p. 549 -a most valuable work, which is too little known in this country. See also Dom Martine, De Ant. EC. Ritibus, torn. iii. The custom was gradually abolished, so that no exact time can be specified for the change. The Greeks celebrate Mass of the Presanctitied every day during Lent, except Saturdays, Sundays, and the Feast of the Annunciation. The Milanese, or Ambrosian rite, prescribes the Mass of the Presanctified on the Fridays in Lent.

impart it to others when I wish to do so." He replied : " And what will you give Me, My beloved, for such a favour ? " Gertrude replied : " Alas, Lord ! I have nothing worthy of Thee; but, nevertheless, I have this desire, that if I had all that Thou hast, I would give it to Thee, so that Thou mightest dispose of it as Thou wouldest." To this our Lord replied lovingly : " If you do indeed desire to act thus towards Me, you cannot doubt that I desire to act thus towards you ; and even more so, since My goodness and love so far exceeds yours." " O God," she exclaimed, "how shall I come to Thee, when Thou comest to me with such abundant goodness ? " He replied : " I require nothing from you but to come to Me empty, that I may fill you ; for it is from Me that you receive all which makes you agreeable in My sight."

She understood tnat this emptiness was humility, which made her consider herself destitute of merit, and made her believe that without the grace of God she could do nothing, and that what she did do was utterly worthless.