Chapter 51: For the Feast of St. Augustine

Of the glory and virtue of this Saint — Of the merits of St. Francis and St. Dominic.

As the Antiphon Vulneraverunt charitas was sung at Ves pers on the Feast of St. Augustinett Gertrude beheld this

" Jerusalem, thou city blest,

Sweet vision of a peaceful land ! "

f August 28. This Antiphon is from the Ursuline Breviary, v. at Lauds.

2F great Bishop standing in glory, and unfolding his heart, which had been wounded with Divine love, like a beautiful rose before God, to present it to Him, and thereby recreat ing the citizens of heaven with a perfume of exceeding fragrance. The Saint then saluted him devoutly, pray ing for her community, and for all who were devoted to this saint. He then besought our Lord that the hearts of all those who desired to obtain a fervent love of God through his merits might be filled with it, as his had been, to the honour and glory of the effulgent and Ever-Blessed Trinity.

As St. Gertrude assisted at Matins with great fervour, she began to reflect what reward this great pastor of the Church had received for the delights and sweetness which he had found in contemplating the deep designs of God for the salvation of men, as he declares in his Confessions. As she reflected thus, he appeared to her in glory, bearing a globe on his head, enriched with an infinite variety of rare colours, and covered with brilliant stars, which indicated the reward that God had bestowed on him for his holy thoughts during life : such as the application of his mind to the things of God ; the contempt which he had for the pleasures of life, from his desire of finding pleasure only in God ; the care which he had taken to make his heart pleas ing to God, who, as the Wise Man says, finds His delight in conversing with the children of men ; and all the occu pations to which he had devoted himself with his whole soul, either by speaking, writing, or by promoting the love and glory of God by his example ; and the pleasures which he enjoyed were so great and so admirable, that he could pour them forth on all.

Then our Lord said to Gertrude : " Consider how per fect My beloved is in purity, humility, and fervent charity."

OF THE ANTIPHON " XOlS EST INVENTU8." 451

She replied, in great admiration : " 0 Lord, how can he be so pure, when he must have contracted so many stains in his wanderings from the faith before his conversion ? " He replied: "I permitted these wanderings, awaiting his return with patience and mercy, and then overwhelming him with My gratuitous favours."

After these words, as she examined the ornaments of this prelate very attentively, he appeared vested in a gar ment of crystalline purity, beneath which she saw three colours, which indicated his purity, humility, and charity ; and these shone forth as gold shines through crystal.

Then she said to our Lord : " My Lord, was not St. Bernard as devoted to Thee as St. Augustine, whose glory shines so resplendently 1 and yet it seems to me that he does not enjoy the same delights." Our Lord replied : " Bernard, My chosen one, has received an immense recom pense ; but your mind is not capable of discerning the glory of even the least of My saints : how, then, can it discern that of the greatest ? Nevertheless, to satisfy your devotion, to increase your love, and that you may know how many mansions there are in My Father's house, under stand this : when the Church sings of any saint, Non est inventus simiiis iUi it means that, though all the saints possess the same glory, they do not possess it in the same degree, but each according to their merit." She replied : " 0 Lord God of truth, I beseech Thee, reveal to me something of the merits of the gentle Agnes and the glorious Catherine, to whom I have been singularly devoted from my infancy."

After God had granted her this favour, which we have recorded elsewhere, she desired to know something of the merits of the holy Father's St. Dominic and St. Francis, who had been the chiefs of two Orders, and who had laboured very ardently for the advancement of the Church. Then these venerable Fathers appeared to her in sublime glory, and equal in merit to the glorious Father Benedict, adorned with garlands of roses similar to his, and bearing sceptres. They appeared equal in merit to the blessed Saints Augustine and Bernard, on account of their devotion and preaching, by which they had given such glory to God, and gained so many souls for Him. But there was this difference : the blessed Father Francis enjoyed special rewards for his profound humility, and the glorious Father Dominic for the fervour and sublimity of his desires.

At Mass, which the Saint heard with the greatest devo tion, she was rapt to heaven before the throne of the Divine Majesty. Then all the saints sang sweetly before the Virgin the first six verses of the Sequence, Interni festi gaudia, in memory of and in thanksgiving for the delights she had enjoyed on the preceding night in contemplating the glory of St. Augustine. When they had concluded, they indicated to her that she should then chant the concluding verses in their praise, as they had sung the preceding ones in her honour. Then she chanted, by the organ of the sweetest Heart of Jesus, the praises of the heavenly Jerusalem, com mencing Beata ilia patria, with the five following verses, each of which appeared to fill the saints with ineffable joy.

When she had concluded, our Lord, her loving Spouse, chauted the two Versicles, Hoc in hac valle misera, and Quo post mundi exilia, for her ; teaching her, as a kind master would teach his child, how she could merit eternal joys even in this exile. Then the choirs of angels chanted Harum laudum praeconia, representing the prayers and desires of the Church ; and the saints united their voices to those of the angels to praise that admirable prelate of the Church, St. Augustine, while he poured forth ineffable light through heaven, imparting new joys and delights to all. At the last two verses, Cujus sequi vestigia, our Lord raised His Hand, and imparted an abundant benediction to all those who had praised the Saint devoutly.