For the Feast of St. Gertrude

Holy Mother Church honors St. Gertrude the Great on November 16.  She was born in Germany in 1232, and when she was five years old she was placed in the care of the Benedictine nuns at Helfta.  The nuns soon recognized in the young St. Gertrude a chosen soul of God.  Already as a child, she sought time with God rather than worldly pursuits.

Our Lord called her his "chosen Lily," and related to another favored soul that Gertrude "contains and perfects in her soul those five virtues which please Me above all others, and which I have placed therein by a singular liberality; she possesses purity, by a continual influence of My grace; she possesses humility, amidst the great diversity of gifts which I have bestowed on her --- for the more I effect in her, the more she abases herself; she possesses a true benignity, which makes her desire the salvation of the whole world for My greater glory; she possesses a true fidelity, spreading abroad, without reserve, all her treasures for the same end. Finally, she possesses a consummate charity; for she loves Me with her whole heart, with her whole soul, and with her whole strength; and for love of Me, she loves her neighbor as herself." 

At age 30, St. Gertrude became the Abbess of her monastery and remained in this position for forty years, frequently conversing with Jesus and always striving to to fulfill His Will.  St. Gertrude lived a holy life with great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the souls in Purgatory, and the Passion of our Lord.  She died in 1291.

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The following prayer was penned by St. Gertrude the Great to be said after the Offertory at Holy Mass.  When she had offered herself to our Lord on one occasion, He told her, "This offering of thy good will is as it were a royal sceptre in My hand, and a rejoicing and a glory to Me in presence of all my Angels and Saints. And whenever thou renewest this intention before Me, it is as though that sceptre budded and put forth most fragrant flowers."

St. Gertrude's Prayer at the Offertory

O MOST merciful Father, in union with that unimaginable love wherewith Thine Only Son offered to Thee the whole influx of the Godhead into His Humanity, and thus with ineffable gratitude referred it back to its immeasurable, unfathomable source, I offer Thee whatever gifts and graces Thou hast ever bestowed on me of Thy sovereign and unutterable goodness; and I lay them on Thine Altar, together with the merits and graces of the same Thy Son, as a Sacrifice of everlasting praise, and a pledge and expression of my boundless gratitude to Thee. More especially, I offer Thee my heart, all too defiled and loathsome as it is; and I plunge it into this Chalice, to the end and with the desire that all the prayers and benedictions which shall be spoken over this Chalice may be spoken also over my heart, and that by the virtue of the ineffable consecration whereby Thou changest this wine into the Blood of Thy Son, it may be wholly turned to the perfect and constraining love of Thee.

And that I may obtain these my petitions, I unite myself to all the love and the gratitude with which Thy Son endured all His sorrows; and I offer to Thee whatever sorrow or affliction Thy fatherly love has ever laid on me or any son of man in order to our salvation, beseeching Thee that they may come up before Thee in union with this Sacrifice as a sweet-smelling odour, and may avail for our salvation. Finally, in union with the resignation of Thine Only Son I offer and resign myself to Thy most holy will, beseeching Thee with my whole heart that Thine adorable good pleasure may always in all things be done in me and by me and in all that concerns me. To this end I lay at Thy feet, O Thou King of kings and my Lord, all my substance and being, my body and my soul, to serve Thee henceforth and ever more to the glory of Thy most worshipful Majesty.   Amen.

God bless!

+JMJ+