PURPOSE

"Love your enemies" [Mt 5:44; Lk 6:27] is still, for many Christians, a very difficult part of the Gospel to put into practice, since the world constantly teaches people to "hate your enemies" with vengeance, even to kill them "as an act of justice", as in "just wars".

For this reason, it is necessary to constantly remind the faithful of the importance of this commandment (1) and how it works (2). Although Jesus taught it to us two thousand years ago, we weak humans have the tendency to add exceptions or justifications for not keeping it.


INTRODUCTION  (3)

St. Gertrude, born in 1263 in Eisleben, Saxony, was one of the leading spiritual figures of the Middle Ages. She spent almost her entire life in a convent, engaged in prayer, work and Scripture study. As a young woman in her twenties, she experienced a profound spiritual awakening, a born again mystical transformation of her interior life. Immersed in the person of Christ, she received many revelations and reached transcendent height of prayer and contemplation.

The five books of the "The Live and Revelations of St. Gertrude" contain a succession of visions, communications and mystical experiences which have received the approval of a number of holy mystics and distinguished theologians. The German original of the Revelations is lost but a Latin version appeared in Cologne in 1536. The first English translation was published in 1892.

Now, let's allow Him to speak to us through St. Gertrude...

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As the Saint [St. Gertrude] prayed one day for some persons who had formerly injured the convent seriously by their thefts, and were again committing depredations, our Lord appeared to her as if suffering much pain in one of His arms, which was so drawn back that the nerves were seriously injured.

And He said to her:


Then Gertrude, admiring the ineffable goodness of God, said to Him: “But how, Lord, can these unworthy persons be compared to Your arm?”

He replied:


“But, my God,” —exclaimed Gertrude— “they are cut off from the Church by excommunication, since they have been publicly anathematised for the violence they have done to this monastery.”


The Saint then prayed that the monastery might be defended from their snares by His paternal protection, and she received this reply:

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NOTES

(1) As we said in The Sin of Denial and Its Consequences:


(2) Love is the only answer to bring any sinner back to the House of the Father, a mechanism we have clearly and unequivocally shown, through the Grace of God.

(3) Text of this introduction: partially extracted from the back cover of the book "The life and revelations of St. Gertrude" (see note below).

(4) "The life and revelations of St. Gertrude. Virgin and Abbess of the Order of St. Benedict. A powerful work from the Middle Ages on Union with Christ." Published by Christian Classics, Inc. Fifth printing, 1990 ISBN 0-87061-079-1. pp. 257-258






Published on October 7, 2022 - Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary