Virgo Potens

1 of 2 Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ~ June 9th CHAPTER IV THE SOLICITUDE OF THE SACRED HEART FOR THE SALVATION OF SOULS THE prophet said of the future Messias Exultavit ut gigas— “He hath rejoiced as a giant.” Thinking of these words, Mechtilde asked our Lord to explain them to her. Our Lord at once appeared in the heavens to her like a young man, slender, agile, and very beautiful. He said: “Whoever starts on a long and difficult course must gather his garments closely round him so as not to be retarded. In this way I united Myself closely with human nature and liability to pain, reducing the length of eternity to the shortness of man’s life here below. I darted forward as a giant, in all his strength, having this difficult and painful course to run, wherein I should accomplish the redemption of mankind. (continued below)

In His infinite love for us, He willed that His Heart should be opened; and by this wound given after death, He gave us even the last drop of His blood. Observe it is in this precious blood that our souls must be purified and washed. It is this blood which is the true price of our souls, and the cause of our redemption; in a word, it is through this blood that our souls must be nourished by His life and inebriated by His love. Soul of Christ, Water from the side of Christ, purify me! Blood of Christ, inebriate me with thy love! ~ St. Ignatius ~ Father Alexis LeFebvre, Revelations or Effusions of the Heart of Jesus (1869)

2 of 2 Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ~ June 8th Mechtilde was astonished. The divine Infant said to her: “My heart did not beat like those of other men, but always as you have heard it, from My infancy until My death, and this was why I died so quickly on the Cross. The first beat comes from the Almighty power of My love which was so strong in me that by sweetness and patience it conquered the opposition of the world and the cruelty of the Jews. The second beat comes from a love full of wisdom; it led Me to conduct Myself and all that was Mine so admirably, and to regulate all that is in heaven or on earth so wisely. The third comes from a love of mildness— I was so entirely penetrated with it, that for Me it changed this world’s bitterness into sweetness, and caused Me even to find sweet the hard death I bore for the salvation of men. The last beat, more faint, expresses the kindness I showed as man, which rendered Me agreeable to all, and even imitable.” And so the Sacred Heart enshrines an almighty, a most wise, and an infinitely sweet love of God as well as an agreeable and human love. ~ The Love of the Sacred Heart, Illustrated by St. Mechtilde. (1922)

“Come to me, all.” 1 of 2 Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ~ June 8th CHAPTER III THE FOUR BEATINGS OF THE SACRED HEART FROM the first instant of His Conception until His death Love reigned as King over the Son of God made man. This Love had its counterpart in the Sacred Heart. One Christmas day Mechtilde was allowed to fathom this secret. Taking the Infant God in her arms she pressed Him to her breast, and felt the beatings of the Sacred Heart. She heard three loud, quick beats, then one lighter. (continued below)

It was for love of us that the last tears of this Divine Heart were shed. St. John Chrysostom tells us that the water and blood flowing from this sacred wound are a figure of all the graces obtained for us through our Divine Master’s death. The water, he adds, flowed forth before the blood, because, in the order of our salvation, we receive the first grace through the waters of baptism, before the blood of the sacred mysteries flows in our veins, to purify and nourish our souls. . . . ‘O my God, give me this water, that I may drink and thirst no more.’ (John iv. 15) ~ Father Alexis LeFebvre, Revelations or Effusions of the Heart of Jesus (1869)

2 of 2 Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ~ June 7th And then Love continued. “I first helped His Holy Mother with my pure hands to wrap Him in swaddling clothes. I warmed Him in my embrace: and then and afterwards I rendered to Him and His Mother all the services they needed. Afterwards I led Him to Egypt, and then I inspired Him in all He did or suffered for man until I had fastened Him to the tree of the Cross. There I appeased God’s anger entirely and united man to Gcd by the chain of an indissoluble love.” St. Paul says: Dilexit me et tradidit semetipsum pro me— “Christ Jesus loved me and gave Himself for me” as a Victim on the Cross. But as love was always the cause of His gifts we may extend this conclusion and say: Jesus Christ loved me, therefore He gives me His Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist, His Mother from the Cross, His grace in the Holy Sacraments, His light in the Gospel, the Church for a Mother, the priesthood for a support, and heaven for a reward. Love still opens the Sacred Heart so that it may pour down on us all its treasures. ~ The Love of the Sacred Heart, Illustrated by St. Mechtilde. (1922)

1 of 2 Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ~ June 7th CHAPTER II LOVE ALWAYS LEADS TO JESUS LOVE, which caused the Son of God to come down on the earth will leave Him no more but will be the moving power of all He does. So, the Virgin who had personified Love, told St. Mechtilde that she had led Mary to go to the hill country to visit St. Elizabeth. In his mother’s womb St. John was filled with so great a joy at the presence of Christ that he never thrilled with earthly joy. (continued below)

Says St. Bernard, ‘He was wounded by the lance that we might see the invisible wound of His love by means of the visible wound; the wound made in His sacred flesh shows us the wound in His soul.’ . . . . This mysterious wound having been made after death could never be healed or closed; we may, therefore, always find means to retire into this abode of peace and mercy . . . . In this sacred wound we shall find the source of pardon and mercy. ~ Father Alexis LeFebvre, Revelations or Effusions of the Heart of Jesus (1869)

2 of 2 Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ~ June 6th The Incarnation is therefore caused by love—St. Mechtilde states the truth with both strength and grace. She personifies love under the form of a Virgin, and it is this Virgin who steals from the Heart of God His Son eternal and Almighty as Himself. We will give her own words: “She saw in the heart of God what seemed a beautiful Virgin, who had in her hand a diamond ring with which she constantly touched the Heart of God. The soul asked the Virgin why she so touched the Divine heart and she replied: “I am divine Love, and this diamond represents Adam’s sin, and as blood is used with which to break the diamond, so Adam’s faults can only be obliterated by the Incarnation and blood of Christ. As soon as Adam had sinned, I intervened and prevented the consequences of this fault. I incessantly touched the Heart of God, moving it to pity, and left it no peace until I had taken the Son of God from the bosom of the Father and placed Him in the womb of His Mother” (II xvii.I). What a delightful thought ! The love of God seized Adam’s sin, blacker than coal, and made of it a precious diamond ! With this sin so transformed it touched the Heart of God and caused the greatest of wonders, the Incarnation of the Divine Word. Holy Church, which had already declared this thought in the Symbol of the Creed, developed it still further in the Hymn for the feast of the Sacred Heart. Are not the two following stanzas a remembrance of St. Mechtilde s revelations ? Amor coegit te tuus Mortale corpus sumere, Ut novus Adam redderes Quod vetus ille abstulerat. Ille amor, almus artifex Terræ, marisque et siderum, Errata patrum miserans Et nostra rumpens vincula. “It was Thy love which forced Thee to take upon Thee a mortal Body in order to restore to us, O second Adam ! what the first had caused us to lose. “It was this love, O Sovereign Creator of the earth, the sea and the heavens ! that pitied the fall of our first parents and broke the chains of our slavery.” Love alone overcame the power of divine Majesty. He, so to say, abased His unfathomable Wisdom; He then poured out His Goodness, tempered the rigour of His Justice, changed it into mercy and then lowered the Greatness of God down to the misery of our exile. The Incarnate Word could therefore say to St. Mechtilde: “I am the Son of Love and Love is My Mother” (i. 35); and the Angels rightly hailed Him saying “praise Thee for ever, whom love has made the Son of a Virgin (i. 12). ~ The Love of the Sacred Heart, Illustrated by St. Mechtilde. (1922)

1 of 2 Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ~ June 6th THE SACRED HEART WHILE ON EARTH CHAPTER I LOVE THE REASON OF THE INCARNATION THE greatest marvel in heaven and on earth is the Incarnation of the Son of God. That by a word the Almighty should bring out of nothing light and the stars, the earth and the heavens, is nothing very astonishing; it is the work of one absolute Creator and Master. But that the Almighty should deign to abase Himself, be conceived and born of a woman, and appear like an ordinary child, is what neither Angels nor men could have imagined ! And what led the Son of God to such depths of humiliation ? His love for us— “God of God, light of light. True God of true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father, by whom all things were made, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, and made man.” (continued below)

We have already learned from the Cross of this Divine Heart what mortal sin is; the thorns of this crown are a figure of venial sin, those slight and numerous faults for which idle and cowardly souls forgive themselves, alas, but too readily, for they wound and tear the Heart of Jesus. ~ Father Alexis LeFebvre, Revelations or Effusions of the Heart of Jesus (1869)

3 of 3 Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ~ June 5th The works of St. Mechtilde raise the veil which here below hides the Sacred Heart from our longing gaze. We might also state, though that is out of our province, that their literary beauty is of a very high order. Dante was several times inspired by the Book of Special Grace, and the question is discussed to-day whether a person introduced into the Divina Commedia under the name of Matelda is not intended to be the Virgin of Helfta. We may leave this question to the decision of the learned, and for ourselves gather together all the passages wherein the Sacred Heart speaks to us in the Book of Special Grace. The Rev. Dom Paquelin marks the different divisions to which we can devote our attention: 1. The dispositions of the Heart of Jesus from the moment when in the bosom of the Father He was seized by love and cast into the womb of Mary to the day when He returned triumphant to heaven. 2. The relations of the Sacred Heart with each one of us in the mysteries of grace and of the Holy Eucharist. 3. Our acts of worship towards the Sacred Heart. A summary of these extracts would form a very complete code of doctrine of the Sacred Heart. So that the first pages of this book might be called A Sixteenth Century Treatise on Devotion to the Sacred Heart. ~ The Love of the Sacred Heart, Illustrated by St. Mechtilde. (1922)

2 of 3 Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ~ June 5th In the wonderful favours granted by God to this humble daughter of St. Benedict He had special designs. No doubt He wished to manifest His marvellous condescension. He loves to lower Himself towards souls who sink into their own nothingness, but He wished also to give Mechtilde special tokens of His liberality, so that she might be received as the accredited messenger of His Sacred Heart. The writing of the Book of Special Grace was not the result of a little pious indiscretion, but a providential fact, instigated by our Lord Himself. Several times He intervened to calm the fears of the humble Benedictine, to guide the pen of her companions, or to give to the entire book His formal approbation, affirming that all contained therein had originated in His divine Heart. He also declared that that Heart would bless those who on reading this book became enamoured of the gift of special grace. We must, however, make one remark. Mechtilde did not receive any mission to convert souls, but only to enlighten those to whom the Sacred Heart had made itself known. As the prophets of the ancient law were only sent to the people of Israel, so the Virgin of Helfta was only sent to the privileged friends of the Sacred Heart. The devotion to this adorable Heart was for three centuries to be the reward of the perfect. Even the title of the book and the kind of grace of which it records the marvels indicate this restriction. It is the Book of Special Grace. That of universal grace was only to appear in the seventeenth century, and was also inspired by the Sacred Heart and written by the timid hand of Margaret Mary. All are now called to know the Sacred Heart. The Book of Special Grace must henceforth be known by the second name given it by St. Mechtilde, The Light of the Church: Liber namque ille Lumen Ecclesiæ vocabitur—a prophecy which is fulfilled in our days. Thanks to the labours of the Benedictine Fathers of Solesmes, there is now a new translation of St. Mechtilde’s works, which gives pious readers the opportunity of tasting the sweetness and unction contained in them. Their doctrinal value is admirably described by the translator as follows: “The mystery of the Incarnation holds the first place, or rather is seen and felt, in all its manifestations. The Man-God is not only Saviour but Mediator between God and man. And what strong incentive caused His intervention and led Him to carry out this role even to the end? It was love. Yes, love which is charity, and charity which is God Himself (John iv. 8). Love in human form seized upon the Son of God and caused Him to descend into the womb of a virgin-daughter of Adam; then, leading Him through the rough ways of poverty and suffering to the Cross on Calvary, raised Him up again, and followed Him to heaven, to the right hand of His Father, whence she always inclines the God-head towards the children of earth. . . . The divine Heart is always seen to be a source of love and also of the operations of love. Mechtilde presents us with more pictures than Gertrude, and this applies to all her visions, which are nearly always represented to us under a more sensible form than those of St. Gertrude. What is more delightful or lovingly divine than the gift our Lord made of His Heart to Mechtilde, as a pledge which He would require of her at the moment of death, and this promise made to all: “I will drink of all the hearts who drink of Mine.” (Preface)? (continued below)

1 of 3 Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ~ June 5th CHAPTER III MECHTILDE’S MISSION AS far back as the thirteenth century the Sacred Heart enriched this chosen soul with His most extraordinary favours. Like the well-beloved Apostle, Mechtilde often leaned her head on the breast of the Man-God. She drank from the same source as that from which the Apostle had drawn the floods of truth contained in his Gospel. She had free entrance into this sanctuary of perfect praise. She found in this shrine the treasures of all graces and also that of divine love, and her heart was filled with the fire which inflamed the Seraphim. Also she received the Sacred Heart itself in some mysterious way, and bore it in her breast until her death. (continued below)

Behold, then, the price of one soul - behold how much it has cost: the tears and blood, the life and death of a God ! This great God holds in His hand the scales of the eternal sanctuary, and He has placed on one side of this balance His life, His death, His tears, and blood. So much ; and on the other, your soul; this is the price that it cost. Tell me now if you understand why He gives you His Heart with that Cross. ‘That they may understand.’ ~ Father Alexis LeFebvre, Revelations or Effusions of the Heart of Jesus (1869)

2 of 2 Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ~ June 4th “This great lover of suffering mortified her body for the conversion of sinners. During Lent, hearing the people shouting and singing, she felt consumed with zeal for God s honour and also touched with great compassion. To offer God some small reparation she placed pieces of broken glass and other sharp objects in her bed and rolled on them until her flesh was torn and she was covered with wounds and blood; the pain afterwards prevented her from either sitting or lying down. During Passiontide she was so full of compassion she could not speak of the sufferings of Christ without shedding tears. When she spoke either of the sufferings or of the love of Christ she was filled with such fervour that her face and hands became quite red. And we think that she very often shed her blood spiritually for the love of Christ.” v. 30) In enumerating her virtues Mechtilde s companions often compared her with the different orders of Saints and Angels. They said: “This angelic virgin deserves to be compared above all with the Seraphim; united so frequently, in an intimate manner, with that love which is God Himself; and clasped with so much affection to His Heart, so full of fire, she became one spirit with Him.” She was never tired of speaking of God, and with so much fervour and divine Love that she enkindled the same in the hearts of all who heard her. Indeed, one might say of her, as of the Prophet Elias, that her words “burnt like a torch.” When did Mechtilde receive the first confidences of the Sacred Heart? We are told by her companions that, from her earliest infancy, God commenced to reveal His secrets to her, but she says that one of the first graces she received was the gift of the Sacred Heart. So we may conclude, that for many years, if not all her life, she had had a true devotion to this worthy object of our love. Our Blessed Lord not only revealed to her His Sacred Heart, but He would place it as a pledge in the breast of His holy Spouse. She describes the event in these words: “On Wednesday in Easter Week hearing at Mass the words Venite benedicticti Patris mei, she was filled with a sweet and extraordinary joy and said to our Lord: ‘Oh that I may be one of those blessed souls who shall hear those sweet words from Thy mouth.’ Our Lord replied: ‘Thou mayest be very sure thou wilt be, and to prove it, I give thee My Heart to keep always, and only to be given back to Me when I shall have fulfilled thy desire. I give thee My Heart as a place of refuge; at the hour of thy death it will be im possible for thee to lose thyself on any other road, thou wilt only have My Heart wherein to rest eternally.’ “ This gift was the forerunner of many she was to receive from God. She began to have a very great devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ; whenever our Lord appeared to her she nearly always received some special favour from His Heart, as may be seen from many places in this book. She often loved to say: “If all the graces that have come to me from the Sacred Heart of Jesus were written down, a book larger than a Breviary would not suffice in which to narrate them.” ~ The Love of the Sacred Heart, Illustrated by St. Mechtilde. (1922)

1 of 2 Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ~ June 4th “Besides all this she was a perfect religious ready to renounce her own will and full of self-contempt, prompt in obedience, zealous for prayer and contemplation; she also had the gift of tears. She so practised poverty as to refuse herself even what was necessary. It was only through obedience that she possessed a mantle, and her other garments were made of the commonest materials and mended and patched all over. Being immersed in the love of our divine Lord she so forgot herself that she lost the use of her exterior senses, as we read of St. Bernard. She ate rotten eggs without perceiving it and before those near her could prevent it. Sometimes, when visitors were at the Monastery and she had refused to eat meat, they gave it to her and she ate it, until from their laughter she saw something unusual had occurred and came to herself.” (continued below)

‘Proposito sibi gaudio sustinuit crucem.’ ‘Having set joy before Him, He endured the Cross.’ (Heb. xii. 2) The first thing that strikes us as we look upon this holy picture is the Cross surmounting the Sacred Heart, and this Cross will teach us things infinitely precious for our salvation and perfection; it will show us what sin is, and what is the value of a soul. ~ Father Alexis LeFebvre, Revelations or Effusions of the Heart of Jesus (1869)

2 of 2 Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ~ June 3rd When she was seven years of age her mother took her to visit the convent which was near her parents residence. Once there she refused to leave, notwithstanding her mother’s desire for her to return home. Full of delight, she begged the Sisters, one by one, to receive her into their company; and neither threats nor coaxing could move her to leave them. What do we know of the family that the Saint deserted at so early an age, and what of the monastery in which she had come to bury her young life? Mechtilde belonged to the family of Hackborn. She was born in 1241. The monastery into which she entered in 1248 was at that time at Rodarsdorf in the vicinity of her parents chateau. In 1258 this monastery was transferred to Helfta, on land which was given by her brothers the Lords Albert and Ludwig of Hackborn. This monastery was near the small town of Eisleben in Saxony, where, two centuries later, Luther was born. St. Mechtilde advanced rapidly from virtue to virtue. “She had a wonderfully sweet disposition, profoundly humble, most patient, a sincere lover of poverty, and very fervent and devoted. But it was especially in her love for God and her neighbour that she made the greatest progress; she showed herself pleased and amiable to all, full of tender compassion towards the afflicted or those in trouble. She was like a loving mother to those, showering on them consolation and help, and so no one went near her without being comforted and strengthened. She was much loved by all. Everyone wanted to be with her, and this often caused her some inconvenience.” So perfect a religious must have been a treasure in the Convent of Helfta. Not only had God enriched her with spiritual gifts, but also with those of nature—learning, a wide knowledge of literature, a beautiful voice, everything that could make her useful to the monastery. It seemed as if God would not allow her to want for anything. Her beautiful voice caused her to be appointed Cantor to the Convent. Many times she gained by her singing what she prized more than the applause of men, the approval of her divine Spouse, to whom she had entirely consecrated her voice. She also had charge of the School, where St. Gertrude soon became one of her pupils. “She taught Christian doctrine with such efficiency that we have never had, and fear we never shall have, anyone in our Monastery to equal her. The Sisters gathered around her as around a preacher to hear the word of God. She dictated and taught them prayers, and they were so numerous that if gathered together they would make a larger book than all the psalms.” ~ The Love of the Sacred Heart, Illustrated by St. Mechtilde. (1922)

St. Mechtilde 1 of 2 Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ~ June 3rd CHAPTER II LIFE OF ST. MECHTILDE THE first and final chapter of the Book of Grace had been carefully hidden from St. Mechtilde’s sight. Her humility would certainly have taken alarm at the praises there bestowed on her. These pages, though too few, are enough to make us appreciate her great virtues. We will here give the principal details . The first chapter begins as follows: This virgin was from her earliest infancy prevented by divine grace. At her birth, as it was feared that she was about to expire, they carried her in haste to be baptized by a priest of great holiness who was just preparing to celebrate the Holy Mass. After baptizing her he pronounced these words which we love to think prophetic: “Why do you fear? This child will not die, but will become a holy religious. By her God will work great wonders and she will finish her life at a good old age, full of merits.” (continued below)