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SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - 6th day in Christmas Octave
DESCRIPTION:A MORE GRACIOUS VISITATION \nOF THE LORD AT CHRISTMAS \nFrom the writing of St Gertrud the Great \n◊◊◊ \nO unattainable height of marvellous power! O depth of the abyss of \ninscrutable wisdom! O immense breadth of desirable love!… Even in my \nwandering exile I was allowed…to experience again the foretaste of the most \npleasing delights and sweetest pleasures\, by which anyone who clings to God \nbecomes one spirit with him. The boundless nature of his blessedness\, spread \nabroad so abundantly\, permitted me\, just a speck of dust\, to have the audacity \nto lap up some of its droplets\, in the way I shall describe. \nOn that most holy of nights\, when by the sweetening dew of divinity the \nheavens rained down honey on the whole world\, my soul\, drenched like \nGideon’s fleece with dew on the threshing-floor of the convent\, was intent by \nmeditation\, and through the practice of certain devotions\, on being present and \noffering help at the heavenly birth\, at which the Virgin brought forth her son\, \ntrue God and true man\, like a ray of light. As in a moment of revelation my soul \nrealized that it had been offered\, and had received\, in place of its heart so to \nspeak\, a tender little boy. In him there lay hidden the gift of complete \nperfection\, which is truly the best endowment… \nThen my soul perceived a meaning that defies explication in the sweet \nwords\, ‘God shall be all in all’. It felt that it held within itself the Beloved\, \ninstalled in the heart\, and it rejoiced that it was not without the welcome \npresence of its Spouse\, with his most enjoyable caresses. Offered the honeyed \ndraughts of the following\, divinely inspired words\, it drank them in with a thirst \nthat could not be satisfied: ‘Just as I bear the stamp of the substance of God the \nFather in regard to my divine nature\, so you bear the stamp of my substance in \nregard to my human nature\, for you receive in you deified soul the outpourings \nof my divine nature\, just as the air receives the sun’s rays. Penetrated to the \nvery marrow by this unifying force\, you will become fit for a more intimate \nunion with me’ \n. \nO noble balm of the divine\, sending out streams of love on every side\, \nflourishing and flowering for ever\, but to be spread everywhere when time shall \ncome to an end! O true power of the invincible hand of the Most High\, when a \nvessel so fragile and disgraced by its own imperfection contained so precious a \nliquid to be poured out! O proof most clear of the abundance of God’s loving- \nkindness! It did not shrink from me\, who wandered so far into the pathless \nwastes of my sins\, but rather made known to me\, as far as I was capable of it\, \nthe sweetness of that most blessed union. \n  \n7 Gertrud the Great of Helfta. The Herald of God’s Loving-Kindness – Books 1 & 2. CF 35. Trans. Alexandra Barratt. \nKalamazoo\, MI: Cistercian Publications\, 1991. 116-118.15 \n  \n 
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-6th-day-in-christmas-octavd/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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