Chapter 53: For the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross

Of the exaltation of the Cross— Of the love of enemies— Of the observance of the regular fast— Of the true relics of Jesus Christ.

ON the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, as St. Ger trude prostrated to reverence the relics, our Lord said to her : " Consider how I hung upon the Cross from Sext to Vespers, and that it is for this I am elevated to such sublime glory ; and understand thereby what benefits I will confer on the hearts of those in whom I have reposed for many years." She replied : " Alas, Lord ! how little pleasure Thou canst have had in my heart ! " He answered : " And what pleasure had I in the wood of the Cross ? I only honoured it because I willed to honour it, and so I reward those whom I will to reward."

During Mass our Lord gave her this instruction : " Con sider the example I give to My elect in honouring this Cross ; and know that I honoured the instruments of My Passion, which caused Me suffering, more than those things which in My infancy were used for My convenience. If you desire to imitate my example, and to give Me glory and further your own salvation, you will love your enemies more than your friends ; and this will advance you mar vellously in perfection. Furthermore, if you neglect to do this at first, but afterwards repent and overwhelm your enemies with benefits, you will follow My example in having concealed My Cross for a time, to exalt it triumph antly afterwards. But the reason I so specially loved this Cross was, that I obtained thereby the redemption of man kind, which I so ardently desired, even as devout persons love the times and places where they have received special favours from God."

As the Saint ardently desired to have some relics of the wood of the Cross, that our Lord might look on her with more love, He said to her : " If you desire to have relics which will draw My Heart into yours, read My Passion, and meditate attentively on every word contained therein, and it will be to you a true relic, which will merit more graces for you than any other ; and if you are not persuaded of this by My inspirations, at least let your reason convince you of it ; for when a friend wishes to renew his friendship with his friend, he says, ' Remember what you felt in your heart when I said such and such a word,' as if he would say, ' Remember what I did or said for you at such a time ; ' and thence you may know and be assured that the words which I uttered when on earth are the most precious relics which you can possess."

As she asked our Lord to enable her to keep the regular fast of six months, which commences on this day, he replied : " Whoever observes the regular fast from zeal for religious observance, and purely for My love, and who seeks therein, not his own advantage, but Mine, I will accept it from him, though I have no need of his goods, as an etn-

• See Rule of St. Benedict, ch. xli.

peror wou.d accept the offer of a prince to furnish his table daily with every necessary. But if obedience and necessity obliges him to relax his fast against his will, and he sub mits in union with the humility with which I submitted to men when on earth for the glory of My Father, I will treat him as a friend would his dearest friend whom he had invited to his table."

On another occasion, on the same Festival, when St. Gertrude offered the annoyances which the community had suffered to our Lord, He replied : " I have drunk this chalice, which the fervour of your devotion has sweetened for Me ] and I will drink it as often as you offer it to Me, until, by inebriating Me with it, you render Me favourable to your desires." " But how, O Lord Jesus, can we give you this chalice to drink ? " she inquired. Then our Lord taught her that she could do this by reflecting on her unworthiness, by praising Him from the depth of her heart, by repenting sincerely for never having loved God as she ought, and by desiring to suffer for him, until the last moment of her life, even such sufferings as He had en dured in His Divine Heart, were it possible ; and this He would accept as a chalice of the sweetest nectar.

Those who desire to make a similar offering can do so by saying the following prayer : " 0 vivifying Fount of sweetness ! O aromatic Sweetness of Divine delights ! O delicious Inebriation of all pleasure ! behold, I offer Thee> as far as I am able, a drop from my miserable indigence ; I grieve, and I will ever grieve, that my soul has so long fasted by abstaining from that celestial Food which never satiates. But now, 0 Creator and re-Creator of my sub stance, to whom nothing is impossible, for Thy glory so make my heart one with Thine, that I may truly say that I desire with my whole soul to suffer all that has been suf- fered by any human being, from the creation of the world until now, if I might thereby prepare an abode worthy of Thee within me, and satisfy Thy justice for all the oppo sition which I have offered to Thy inspirations and graces."