Introductory – The Revelations to Saint Mechtilde
Chapter 1 – The Book of Special Grace
The Revelations of Saint Mechtilde are contained in a book entitled The Book of Special Grace. This book was written almost entirely without her knowledge, and is based on the recitation of her communications with our divine Master. Two of the Saint’s companions, of whom Saint Gertrude was one, had arranged together to write it. It was nearly finished when Saint Mechtilde became aware of it. While she was hearing Mass a mysterious voice made one of the culprits known to her and at the same time asked her this question: “What shall be her reward for what she has written?” Very much astonished Saint Mechtilde asked her friend if she had been in the habit of writing down what she told her. She, not wanting to acknowledge it, made some excuse, telling the Saint to ask our Lord about it. Saint Mechtilde, having thus been made aware of the truth, was so grieved as to be inconsolable. She therefore went to our Lord, her ordinary refuge, and told Him confidingly of her sorrow. Our Lord appeared to her at once, holding the book on His Heart with His right hand. He kissed it, and said to her: “All that is found written in this book has flowed from My divine Heart, and will return to it.”
Saint Mechtilde asked our Lord if now she should cease communicating to others the graces she received from God. Our Lord answered: “Give Me to others with the liberality of My generous Heart. Give Me to others according to My goodness and not according to thine.” She answered: “What will they do with this book after my death and what good will result from its being written?” The Lord replied: “All those that seek Me therein with a true heart shall rejoice; those that love Me will be more inflamed with My love; and those in sorrow shall be consoled.” Mechtilde again asked what name the book should bear, and our Lord answered: “They shall call it The Book of Special Grace.”
So our Lord Himself approved of the book being written and also watched over it, so that no error should appear in it.
One day Mechtilde, remembering this book, asked our Lord this question: “How am I to know whether what they have written is correct, as I have neither seen nor approved of it; and even if I read it carefully now, I could not be sure if I remembered correctly?” Our Lord replied: “I am in the hearts of those who hear thee and I execute their desires. I am their understanding as they listen, and it is through Me they are able to comprehend what thou sayest. I am also in their mouth, when they speak of it. I guide their hands, when they write it. I am their Helper and co-operator in all, and so, in Me and by Me, who am the Truth, all that they dictate and write is true. The elegance of style with which I speak to thee is wanting, but by My grace, all is approved and confirmed in the truth. Thou hast so often besought Me never to allow thee to fall into any error, that thou hast good reason to believe that, in My goodness, I have heard thy prayer.” She then saw three rays of light from the divine Heart fall on the two persons who wrote this book, and understood from this that it was by the inspiration and strength of divine grace that they devoted themselves to this work, and that therefore they generously accepted all the fatigue that came to them from it.
The book could therefore be finished and would do great good to souls. Mechtilde’s two friends congratulated themselves and thanked our Lord…. ” Blessed be God, the Author of all good; it is by His Will and blessing that this book is published. It is by no private design nor presumption in those who have written, but by the advice and command of their Abbess and with the approval of their Bishop.
“May we be forgiven the mistakes in composition and in elegance of style which will be met with; we are not accustomed to writing, and Saint Augustine says: A characteristic of a good mind is to love the truth in the words, not the words themselves.’” (Prologue.)
The servant of God was moreover able to obtain the book, correct it and give it her sanction. It was not, however, without great resistance on the part of her two companions, who constantly refused to allow her to see it from fear of causing her pain. Our Lord had once more to interfere, and He reassured Saint Mechtilde, saying to her: ” Fear not, all comes from Me, all is My work. I gave thee the gift, and as it comes from Me, it is also just as truly by My inspiration that thy companions have undertaken and carried on this work. So, fear not and be not alarmed, I will Myself preserve this book from all error. Every word that has been written has been dictated by the Holy Spirit, and all are as pearls that shall adorn their crown in My eyes eternally.”
From this time the two friends, reassured by this vision, showed the book to Saint Mechtilde whenever she wished it, or they read it to her faithfully. In doubtful passages the Saint consulted our Lord, and so He corrected it Himself.
After Saint Mechtilde’s death Saint Gertrude saw her in glory, and asked if she were pleased or otherwise with the publication of this book. “It is my greatest joy,” she replied. “I see it will contribute to the glory of God, to the fulfillment of His will, and to my neighbours good. The book shall also be named The Light of the Church. They who read it shall recognize themselves in the brightness of the light. They will see by what spirit they are animated. The sorrowful shall find in it consolation.” The Saint compared the readers of this book to those who should receive a present from a King through a messenger. They would possess and reap as much benefit as if they had received the gift direct from the King’s hand (vii. 17).
Such was the origin of the Book of Special Grace. It would be impossible to tell the history of its beginning more simply or to establish better its truth and worth. Its composition extended over several years. It was begun in 1291, when Mechtilde was fifty years of age. It could only have been finished shortly before her death, which took place in 1298. Saint Gertrude, who was one of the collaborators, had begun her own book, The Herald of Divine Love, the 25th of March, 1289, so that these two admirable works date from the same time.
They are both incomparable treasures of doctrine on the Sacred Heart, for rarely before and never since have the relations of the divine Heart with the other divine Persons or with the souls of men been treated of so fully or with so much exactness and brilliancy.
From this treasure we are going to drink deeply. But first let us cast a glance at the holy soul who thus reveals to us the secrets of the divine Heart, Our faith in her words will surely be the firmer.
Chapter 2 – Life of Saint Mechtilde
The first and final chapter of the Book of Grace had been carefully hidden from Saint 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.” 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.
Saint 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 Saint 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.
“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 practiced 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 Saint 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.
“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 de scribes the event in these words: “On Wednesday in Easter Week hearing at Mass the words Venite benedicti 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 impossible 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.”
Chapter 3 – Saint 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.
In the wonderful favours granted by God to this humble daughter of Saint Benedict He had special designs. No doubt He wished to manifest His marvelous 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 Saint Mechtilde, The Light of the Church: Liber namque ille Lumen Ecclesice 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 Saint 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 4:8). 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 Saint 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)?
The works of Saint 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 Sacred Heart While on Earth
Chapter 1 – 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.”
The Incarnation is therefore caused by love Saint 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 Mary 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 Saint Mechtilde’s revelations?
Amor coegit te tuus
Mortale corpus sumere,
Ut novus Adam redderes
Quod vetus ille abstulerat.
Ille amor, almus artifex
Terrae, 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 Saint Mechtilde: “I am the Son of Love and Love is My Mother” (i. 35); and the Angels rightly hailed Him, saying: “We praise Thee for ever, whom love has made the Son of a Virgin” (i. 12).
Chapter 2 – 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 Saint Mechtilde that she had led Mary to go to the hill country to visit Saint Elizabeth. In his mother s womb Saint John was filled with so great a joy at the presence of Christ that he never thrilled with earthly joy.
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 God by the chain of an indissoluble love.”
Saint 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.
Chapter 3 – 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. 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.
Chapter 4 – 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. Again, he who carries something precious and of great value girds himself carefully, for fear he should lose it, so I am carrying the precious treasure, man s soul, and have girded Myself with care, and I carry the souls of all those who are to be saved, with love and untold desires, in My Heart.”
He who like a giant sprang from heaven to save souls, transformed by love, became the Good Shepherd seeking the lost sheep. The young man, slender and agile, has to take the part of the Father of the family going to meet the prodigal son and preparing a banquet at his son s return* Who could describe the ardent desires of the Heart of Jesus for the salvation of souls? “Come here and rest at My feet,” He said one day to Mechtilde; obeying at once, she rested her head on Jesus feet, so that her ear was just over the wound in His foot, and there she heard the sound as of water boiling in the wound. Our Lord asked her what was the sound she heard. Mechtilde thought she could not tell, and our Lord continued: “This boiling caldron seems to say: Hasten! hasten! So the ardent love of My heart ever urged me on, saying: Hasten from labour to labour, from town to town, from preaching to preaching, never allowing Me any rest, until I had done all that was necessary for thy salvation.”
Chapter 5 – Good Words – Witnesses of the Love of the Sacred Heart
All Christ’s works originated in His Heart. From this fruitful and loving Heart, as He Himself says, flows and will flow without ceasing every good, all joy and happiness in heaven and on earth, In the same way all the good words contained in the Gospels come from this sacred source.
He wishes Saint Mechtilde to understand this. “He opened to her the wound in His Holy Heart and said to her: ‘See the extent of My love. If thou wouldst know it well, seek for nothing clearer than the words of the Holy Gospels. No words have ever expressed a more tender love than those – “As the Father hath loved Me, I also have loved you” (John 15:9). And there are many others like them, which I spoke to My disciples as well as to My Father, while loading them with My benefits.’”
Nothing can really express the immensity of the love the Sacred Heart has for us better than these words ” As the Father hath loved Me.” We are loved by Jesus as He is loved by His Father. That is, He is loved above all, He is loved so as to be the object of His eternal complacency. “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”
There are still other words which reveal the greatness of the love of the Sacred Heart “the four words of the voice of His glory,” as He calls them Himself. They are each a triumphal hymn of the Sacred Heart; they are more, they are a proclamation of His love. Let us listen to our Lord:
“This is the voice of My glory. When a soul repents of its sins more through love than through fear, and weeps for the sins it has committed, it deserves to hear these words from Me: ‘Thy sins are forgiven thee, go in peace (Luke 7:48). And, indeed, as soon as anyone repents sincerely of the sins he has committed, I fully forgive him and receive him into My favour as though he had never offended Me.
“The second voice of My glory is that which a soul united to Me by intimate prayer and contemplation hears from Me: Come, My beloved, show Me thy face.’
“The third is when a soul about to leave the body is sweetly invited to rest: ‘Come, My elect, and I will make of thee My throne (Office of Virgins).
“The fourth voice of My glory shall be heard on the Day of Judgment, when I will invite with triumph to My Kingdom of honour and glory all those whom I have chosen from all eternity. I shall say to them: ‘Come ye blessed of My Father, possess the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’” (Matthew 25:34).
The words of glory of the Sacred Heart are those which make us happy.
Chapter 6 – The Tears of Our Lord
We are never told in the Gospels that Jesus smiled, but we often hear that He wept. He wept at the grave of Lazarus, an image of a soul dead in sin; and He wept over Jerusalem, the ungrateful and hardened city; and at other times tears fell from the eyes of our divine Master. Why did these tears flow, and what became of them? Let us listen to Jesus:
“On earth, whenever I thought of My ineffable union with the Eternal Father by which I am One with Him, My humanity could not refrain from weeding. Also every time I thought of the immense love which had drawn Me from the Father s bosom to unite Me with human nature, My humanity was fain to weep.” Then Mechtilde asked: “And where are those tears which love made Thee shed?” He answered: “They are in a special place in My Heart, they are a loved treasure, guarded in a chosen, secret place.” She replied: “Thou didst tell me once that these tears of love disappeared in Thy Heart as in a furnace.” Our Lord replied: “That is quite true, for in the furnace of My Heart they disappear as drops of water thrown into the fire, but they are not consumed, they remain in the depth of My Heart.”
The Sacred Heart of Jesus is therefore the source of the tears He shed while here below and the mysterious reservoir which received and guards them even now in heaven.
“Jesus, O most loving Jesus,” cries out Monsignor Baudry, “how long have I begged of Thy Heart the secret of those tears Thou didst shed on earth! Have I not wept enough to deserve to be told the value of those tears?
“Sweet as the dew from Heaven and bitter as the waters of the ocean, tears are equally a sign of joy or of sadness, and because both these feelings come from the heart, it follows that tears are but the words of the heart, the exterior manifestation of what it feels within” (Monsignor Baudry, 434).
The love of Jesus for His Father, the love of Jesus for men, was then the cause of His tears tears ofjoy because of the glory He was about to procure for His Father and the salvation He was bringing to the world by His sacrifice, tears of sadness on account of the insults continually offered to that well-beloved Father and because of the ingratitude of which mankind was guilty.
The tears of Jesus were gathered together and are kept in His Heart. Notwithstanding the burning flames of which that Heart is the seat, they are not consumed. Let us draw near to the precious treasure which contains them. Somewhere there we shall find a tear shed for ourselves, but let us bring our own so that they may be sanctified, even those we shed for frivolous reasons. “Thou shalt say to the person for whom Thou prayest,” said our Lord one day to Saint Mechtilde, “that she should not weep so much, but if she cannot help doing so that she should unite her tears to Mine, regretting that she had not shed them for sinners or through love. I will then offer them to the Father, united to Mine, when she asks me to do so.” Our Lord continued: “Tell her from Me, that she should beg Me in My goodness to change the nature of her tears as if they had been shed from love or devotion, or from contrition for her sins.”
At these words Saint Mechtilde wondered much that tears shed so uselessly could be changed into such holy tears.
And our Lord said to her: “I ask her only to believe in My goodness, and according to her faith My love in her shall become perfect.”
Let us therefore take our tears to the Heart of Jesus. Mingled with His, they will become meritorious. Is it not a consolation for those who weep to be able to do so on the heart of a sincere and sympathizing friend? Where, then, shall we find a friend whose heart is more devoted to us than is the Sacred Heart of Jesus?
Chapter 7 – The Heart of Jesus and the Well-Beloved Apostle
Saint John has called himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” He had a meek and gentle heart and through his relationship to our Lord was intimate with Him from his infancy. One day Mechtilde was anxious to know if our Lord had renewed His intimacy with his relatives on His return from Egypt. He replied: “How comes it, thinkest thou, that it is said in the Holy Gospels: ‘They sought Him amongst their kinsfolk and acquaintance, if I was not sometimes with them? And how came it, thinkest thou again, that Saint John the Evangelist was so prompt in following Me, when I called him, after the marriage, if My manner of life and character had not pleased him, for he knew Me well, which made his obedience in following Me so easy.”
If Jesus loved Saint John more than the other apostles, was it not because Saint John loved Him more than did his companions? For this reason he was allowed to rest his head on the breast of his divine Master at the Last Supper. In ecstasy at such a grace Mechtilde asked our Lord how she could show her love and praise Him on His disciple s account. “First, thou shalt praise Me,” replied Jesus, “on account of the nobility of his birth, for he belongs to My family, the most noble on the earth; second, that I called him from the marriage to the apostolate; third, that he deserved to see the beauty of My face on the mountain in preference to others; fourth, that at the Last Supper he deserved to rest on My breast; fifth, that he more than others received the gift of know ledge, so that he was able to write for others the prayer I said on the Mount of Olives; sixth, because by particular love, I, on the Cross, gave him My Mother to guard; seventh, that after My Resurrection I gave him special lights, which caused him to recognize Me when, driven before the storm, he cried out with the other disciples: It is the Lord (John 21:7); eighth, that by a special privilege, due to My love, I revealed to Him My mysteries when he wrote the Apocalypse, and through My divine inspiration he was able to write in his Gospel: In the beginning was the Word, which truth was unknown to the Prophets and to other men; ninth, that, for My glory, he drank poison; tenth, that in My Name he worked many miracles and raised the dead; eleventh, that I rejoiced him by My many appearances and that I invited him to My banquet with his brothers; twelfth, that I exempted him from all bodily pains and led him gloriously from this exile to eternal joy.”
The Sacred Heart not only willed to reward his well-beloved disciple while on earth, but He has also raised him to a high degree of glory in heaven. “Saint John received in all his faculties something higher than all the other saints. His eyes see more clearly the inaccessible light of the divinity. His ears catch more quickly, for the nourishment of his soul, the sweet whisper which comes from God. His mouth and tongue taste greater sweetness. But above all his heart burns with a more delicious love of God and springs with freer and more sublime flights into the most inaccessible heights of the divinity.”
Chapter 8 – The Exchanges Between the Heart of Jesus and Our Hearts
On one Good Friday Saint Mechtilde asked herself what worthy thanksgiving she could give to our Lord for His wounds, especially for that in the Sacred Heart. “What kind of thanksgiving ought we to offer Thee, dearest Lord, for being wounded on the Cross for men, when love pierced Thy compassionate Heart with the arrow of an invincible charity? What shall we do when blood and water gushed forth to cure us, and when Thou didst die the death of love vanquished by the love Thou bearest Thy Spouse?”
Our Lord replied: “Let man conform his will to Mine, and in all and above all let My will be everything to him.”
And our Lord added: “I tell thee truly I accept tears shed over My Passion, as if they were death suffered for Me.”
O Jesus, shall the tears of my eyes be as precious to Thee as the blood of Thy Heart?
“What shall I do, Lord, to obtain these tears?” Our Lord replied: “I will teach thee. Think first of the love and friendliness with which I went forth to meet My enemies. They sought to kill Me with swords and clubs, as though I were a robber and a malefactor, and I went to meet them as a mother goes before her son to save him from the fangs of the wolf. Then, as they struck Me without pity, I returned their blows with as many affectionate kisses to those who should be saved through the merits of My Passion to the last day. Afterwards, while they scourged me so cruelly, I prayed so efficaciously for them to My Heavenly Father that many of them were converted. When they pressed the crown of thorns on My head, I counted the thorns that pierced Me, so that I might place as many precious stones in their crown. When they nailed Me to the Cross and stretched out My Body so that My bones and sinews could be counted, I employed My divine power to draw to Myself the souls of those that were predestined to eternal life. This was to accomplish what I had already said: When I shall be lifted up I shall draw all things to Myself. When at last the spear opened My side, I drew from My Heart a life-giving drink for all those who had drunk of death in Adam. I caused them to become children of eternal life and salvation in Me who am Life.”
How beautiful are these words! The Sacred Heart of Jesus embraces souls when Judas came to give Him a traitorous kiss! The Sacred Heart prays for those who scourge Him. The Sacred Heart exchanges the thorns of His Crown for precious stones for ours! But the last words are especially delightful. We have all drunk of the cup of Adam’s heart and we have in our veins an impure, tainted blood, full of pride and the rebellion of concu piscence, passion, sin and death, but from the cup of the Sacred Heart we drink of a precious Blood, full of humility, obedience, sanctity, and eternal life. Let us drink our fill.
Chapter 9 – How Our Lord Pierced Magdalen’s Heart During the Passion
Faithful souls followed our Lord when the disciples took flight. Later on, the Sacred Heart was to ask for consolation to repair so many injuries and so much ingratitude, but first it loaded them with great graces. The most highly privileged was Saint Mary Magdalen: she was also the most loving.
On the day of Saint Mary Magdalen’s feast, Mechtilde saw our Lord sweetly folding the humble penitent to His Sacred Heart. Mechtilde was astonished, remembering the words, “and incorruption bringeth near to God” (Wisdom 6:20) and here was Magdalen! But our Lord reassured Mechtilde: “The intensity of love that she bore Me on earth,” He said, “is the measure of the union which associates her with Me in heaven.”
And Mechtilde cried: “Oh, dearest Lord, teach me how I may praise Thee as the loving Saint does.” Our Lord replied: “You must do it in the five wounds that love imprinted in her soul at the time of My Passion. When I was hanging on the Cross and near the end, seeing My eyes, which had so often looked with mercy on her, about to close in death, Magdalen’s heart was pierced as with a sharp arrow. She also saw death about to close My ears which had so often listened to her petitions; she witnessed the sorrow and tears of My Mother whom she tenderly loved for My sake. She then received another wound in her breast which was moved by compassion. She then saw My lips, which had so often said kind words to instruct and console her, above all those words Thy faith has made thee safe, go in peace (Luke 7:50), grow white in death and become incapable of speech. She again felt her heart pierced. Shortly afterwards, seeing My Heart and being moved again to great love for Me, her heart was pierced again. And at last, when she saw Me, her life, her joy and all her treasure, without whom she seemed unable to live, dead and laid in the tomb, her soul dying, so to speak, by the violence of its love, succumbed under inexpressible sorrow.”
Mechtilde saw Magdalen standing before our Lord. Her burning heart shone with the brightness of the sun and illumined her whole body. Heaven showed her that this fire had been kindled in Magdalen’s heart for the first time when she heard Christ say: “Thy sins are forgiven thee, go in peace” (Luke 7:50). It was so strong in her that from that time all her thoughts and actions were changed into it. Mechtilde also understood that in every soul consumed by divine love all its actions, thoughts, or sufferings, like branches thrown into the fire, are changed into the fire of love and increase it con stantly by feeding it. If also other combustible matter, such as venial sin, is thrown in it is also consumed and destroyed. This soul would be entirely aflame, and on leaving the body the evil spirits would not dare to approach it. But they who are not burning with this fire, I mean divine love, whatever they may do, will not be able to destroy their sins. The evil they do will weigh them down and be a heavy load at the hour of death.
According to this doctrine, with what a great love must Magdalen’s heart have been filled 1 This holy fire had been enkindled on the day she was forgiven, but it had grown every day while she followed Jesus, listened to His words, and imitated His virtues. What had it become after she had received the five wounds in her heart at the time of the Passion? What was it after our Lord’s appearance to her on the morning of the Resurrection? What was it at the end of Magdalen’s life after her long years of penance in the Cave of Saint Baume?
She is one of the lovers of the Sacred Heart and her mission is to gain for it disciples from amongst the lost sheep. And Mechtilde teaches us how it is done: “She seemed to see, springing from our Lord s feet, two trees covered with leaves and fruit, signifying the fruits of penance that Magdalen gathered, and distributed with joy to all who sought her help.” Mechtilde understood that she had obtained at our Lord s feet the privilege of obtaining for all those who invoked her the gift of true repentance, and Saint Mary Magdalen said to her: “Every one who gives thanks to God for the tears I shed over the feet of Christ, and for my having washed those sacred feet and wiped them with my hair; and who praises Him for the love He then poured into my soul and heart, so in flaming me that I could never again love anything else; and begs tears of true repentance and the infusion of divine love, will see our Lord listen willingly, because of my merits, to his pious requests. Before death his sins will be forgiven and he will increase in the love of God.”
Sinful souls who have sullied your hearts like Magdalen, do you not feel great comfort in hearing such words? You, too, can reach the Heart of God. You can also burn with the same love as Magdalen and receive the same wounds!
Prayer to Saint Mary Magdalen
I give Thee thanks, O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, for all the tears that Blessed Mary Magdalen shed at Thy feet, for washing them with her hands, wiping them with her hair, and for the love with which Thou didst so entirely inflame her body and soul, filling her heart so that she never loved any other thing than Thyself. Therefore, I beg of Thee, Lord Jesus, that by her great merits Thou wouldst grant me the tears of true repentance and fill me with Thy divine love, so that before death all my sins may be forgiven by Thee, Jesus, Saviour of the World, King of glory, who livest and reignest with the same God, Father and Holy Spirit, world without end. Amen.
Chapter 10 – The Sacred Heart at the Time of Our Lord’s Death
Love led our Divine Lord in the way of sorrow and kept Him in it until death.
Saint Mechtilde asked our Lord how it was that He had expired so quickly, after three beats of His divine Heart. He answered her: “When in a transport of joy the Holy Trinity created My soul, the Three Divine Persons at once surrounded it with Their ineffable love and poured Themselves entirely into it, thus giving to My soul all They possessed the Father, His almighty power; the Son, His uncreated wisdom; The Holy Spirit, His goodness and love. Then My soul possessed by grace what the Divinity possesses by nature. At that moment the divine and eternal desire which the Holy Trinity had always entertained to unite human nature to the Divinity, in order to redeem man, filled My soul with,a great love and urged it to accomplish the task. Also, in the divine wisdom, I understood with a perfectly clear vision the glory of My humanity and the task it had undertaken, in consequence of which I had to devote Myself unsparingly to the salvation of men. To Me the thought was the cause of a divine joy which filled My whole being. The infusion of the merciful love which came from the Holy Spirit into My soul disposed and animated it so effectively towards the salvation of mankind that the burden seemed to it full of sweetness. From the moment of My conception by the Holy Ghost, when My soul was united to My body, this divine desire was controlled by almighty power, and the joy by divine wisdom, and the strength of its love was sweetened by the unction of the Holy Spirit, and in this way I was able to retain the breath of My temporal life. But when the moment of My death drew near, this all-powerful, wise and merciful love, which at the beginning had caused my heart to beat with so much violence, yielded to the superior strength of the divinity and allowed free course to My desire and joy. My heart was then possessed by a love that may not be compared to any other, for it was greater than all other loves. The separation of My soul from My body, which no other hardships could have caused, was its work.”
We learn from this that our Lord s life was only possible because His love was suppressed. His death therefore was caused by His love being allowed complete sway. The Sacred Heart could not contain it. It broke, and on the blood-stained bed of the Cross Jesus, like His Mother, died of love only.
Chapter 11 – The Glorification of the Sacred Heart
The Sacred Heart had been pierced by the lance, the last drops of blood had flowed, the body of the great Victim had been taken down from the Cross, embalmed with sweet spices, enclosed in the tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea, and secured by the seals of the High Priest.
At the dawn of the third day the holy soul of our divine Lord was reunited to the mangled body and brought with it all the privileges of a glorious resurrection, brightness, agility, subtilty, and impassibility. The risen Jesus will sit at the right hand of His Father, but how shall His Sacred Heart be glorified? “The glorification of My Heart consisted in this, that God the Father gave Me all power in heaven and on earth. By this gift I became all-powerful in My humanity as well as in My divinity. I could reward, honour and elevate My friends and prove My love for them with perfect freedom. The glorification of My eyes and ears gave Me the power to penetrate fully into all the needs and sorrows of My faithful ones, and to hear and grant their desires and prayers. My entire body received the power as a privilege of this glory, to be everywhere present in My humanity, as I am in My divinity with all and each of My friends, wherever I wish, a privilege that no other, however powerful, either has obtained, or could obtain.”
In this way the glorification of the Sacred Heart is a power at the service of its friends, and it sees all their needs wherever they are. The glorification of the Sacred Heart is again the work of Love.
But what were the special joys of this adorable Heart when it began again to beat in the Holy Sepulchre, Our Lord deigned to make them known to His humble Spouse in giving her a foretaste of them even here below.
On Easter Sunday evening Jesus appeared to Mechtilde and said to her: “This evening I am come to serve you all. At your meal I would serve five different dishes.
“The first is the joy My divinity received on this day from My humanity and My humanity from my divinity.
“The second, the joy I felt when in the place of all the bitterness that love poured on Me during my Passion, it now spread an immeasurable happiness and the fullness of its joy through all my members.
“The third, the joy I felt in offering to My Father the most precious gift, in a transport of delight. I mean My soul and all the souls I had just redeemed.
“The fourth, the joy I experienced when My Father gave Me the power to honour, enrich and reward the friends whom I had redeemed with so much pain and at so great a cost.
“The fifth, the joy I felt in seeing My Father associate with Me, in the everlasting glory of My throne, those whom I had redeemed, making them co-heirs with Me and guests at My table. Other kings, after having dined with their friends, leave them once the repast is over, but My friends will remain with Me eternally.
“To everyone who shall remind Me of these joys, for the first, provided he desires it before death, I will give him a foretaste of My divinity. For the second, I will give him the gift of knowledge. For the third, I will offer his soul to My Father at the hour of his death. For the fourth, I will share with him My labours and the fruit of,all My sufferings, and for the fifth, I will associate him in the happiness of the Saints.”
It will be instructive to compare this revelation made to Saint Mechtilde in the thirteenth century with a page written in the nineteenth by a learned and pious bishop on the mysteries of the Heart of Jesus:
“To-day while giving Himself to God His Father, and to His Church, Jesus takes possession of His Kingdom. He is established king over Sion, His holy mountain (Psalm 2:6), and His reign is the reign of the light of truth, which He spreads through the world, and by which He subdues it. From His Heart, whence it originated and where it is retained, this divine light spreads, glorifying His body, and, with it, His Church.
“And so, for Jesus Himself, He must reign. He made Himself servant to His Father; He delivered to Him the kingdom He had conquered and the Father established Him King. He had served souls in redeeming them, and He gave Himself to them, and they gave themselves to Him, acknowledging Him as their only Chief. Truth is His kingdom, and truth is His love, which sanctifies the world and becomes for ever its law.
“And such to-day is the part played by the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It grows and spreads in itself, but it also grows in the Church to which it communicates its life, its holiness and its glory.
“Ah, what zeal fills the Sacred Heart of Jesus! What charity consumes it! And yet it is always in peace and accomplishes, with a calm joy, the sublime devotedness of His life. Hitherto, His Heart only saw in God an irritated Judge, now it finds in Him a Father, full of kind ness. He saw humanity far from God, covered by its sins, buried in death; now it rises with Him from the tomb. He clothes Himself with our human nature as with a mantle of glory, in order to appear a holy and eternal High Priest, before His Father. His Heart feels the life which abounds. He allows it to overflow and spread abroad; this divine Heart expands; He lives, who was dead; He triumphs, who was vanquished; He super-abounds in joy, who was plunged in sadness, weariness and fear. O Jesus, what happy moments! O night, what mysteries! Happy Angels who behold all this, when He renewed the living interchange of graces between heaven and earth, when the soul, violently separated from the body by death, was happily reunited to it by a secret dispensation, after it had received the much-desired baptism of death. Holy Angels who witnessed all this I unite myself to your adoration, to your love; I adore and love with you.
“O Heart, how pure and holy thou art at this time! May I dare to fix my gaze on thee? I, alas, who languish and die in my sins. The Heart of Jesus, always holy, always united to God, always rejoicing in the vision of His face, receives now an increase of beatitude after which He had long sighed. But, independently of what He felt Himself, and of what He enjoyed as the personal reward of His merits, He felt then all the happiness which is experienced by the hearts of the elect when they first come in contact with the divine Essence in the light of glory. He saw, in that instant, what the Saints see and shall see by Him, and He concentrated in one very pure and perfect act of love what the Saints shall for ever possess as the development and expression of the mysteries of His life. Then, truly, arose in His Heart what God has prepared for His Saints glory and joy, ecstasies and the delights abounding in the hearts of Angels, patriarchs, prophets, apostles and the just of all times. Jesus possessed all these concentrated in all their fulness in His Heart.
“Oh, blessedness of heart! never was any heart more worthy of possessing it! Jesus, Lord and God of heaven and earth, we praise Thee, we bless Thee, we give Thee thanks for having revealed Thy glory, for having clothed Thyself with Thy divine attributes and for having at length ascended that throne which Thou hadst seemed to have abandoned! When Jesus shall appear to me in the glory of His resurrection, I shall be like Him, for I shall see Him as He is, and my heart shall then be in His Heart, inundated with His joys, which shall be mine.” (Monsignor Baudry, 256-268.)
Chapter 12 – Praise and Supplication – The Five Joys of the Heart of Jesus in His Resurrection
As the Sacred Heart has promised to reward those who should honour the joys of His resurrection, why should we not try to deserve those rewards? His devoted servant, Mechtilde, has drawn up a magnificent prayer in honour of His joys. Let us say it with her, especially during the Paschal octave:
“Praise, adoration, greatness, glory and blessing be to Thee, O good Jesus, for this ineffable joy, felt by Thee in Thy blessed Humanity, when Thy Father gave it divine glorification at Thy resurrection and conferred on all the elect the eternal glorification of His divinity. By this ineffable joy I beg of Thee, O loving Mediator between God and man, to keep for me in its integrity, by Thy grace, this glory which Thou then gavest me, so that I may meet it again at the day of Judgment. Amen.
“Praise, adoration, greatness, glory and blessing be to Thee, O good Jesus, for another ineffable joy. Thy boundless charity drew Thee from the bosom of the Father into this world where Thou didst submit to all its pains and miseries. At Thy resurrection this joy filled with unutterable happiness and gladness all Thy members, which on the Cross had been wrung with intolerable pain. By this unspeakable joy, I beg of Thee, loving Mediator between God and man, to enlighten my mind and make me understand my own soul, so that I may always know what is pleasing to Thee. Amen.
“Praise, adoration, greatness, glory and blessing be to Thee, O good Jesus, for a third ineffable joy. It was felt by Thy holy soul when it presented itself to God the Father as the price and pledge of eternal redemption, followed by the numberless multitude of blessed souls that it had then delivered from Limbo. By this great joy, I beg of Thee, O loving Mediator between God and man, to be the ransom of my soul at the hour of my death, the sum that will pay all my debts, appease in my favour God the Father, that just Judge, and conduct me with joy into His presence. Amen.
“Praise, adoration, greatness, joy and blessing be to Thee, O good Jesus, for another glorious joy. Thou didst experience it when God the Father gave Thee full power to reward, enrich and honour with Thy boundless liberality all thy friends, companions in the fight, whom Thou, in the midst of Thy glorious triumph, didst deliver from a tyrannical power. By this marvellous joy, O loving Mediator between God and man, I pray Thee to let me participate in all Thy labours and sufferings, and also in Thy glorious death and blessed resurrection. Amen.
“Praise, adoration, greatness, glory and blessing be to Thee, O good Jesus, for the last ineffable joy that Thou hadst when Thy Father gave Thee all Thy friends for Thy eternal inheritance and when that loving request and desire was fulfilled, ‘I will that where I am, they also whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me (John 17:24). By this request all joy and all good, which is Thyself, became their portion for ever. By this delicious joy, O loving Mediator between God and man, I beg of Thee to associate me with this blessed company of Thy elect, so that I may possess Thee with them, Thee, all my joy and my whole good, now and in eternity. Amen.”
Chapter 13 – Love Brought Back the Son of God to Heaven
On the day of the glorious ascension of Christ, our Saint found herself placed on a mountain. Love appeared to her under the appearance of a very beautiful virgin, who said to her: “I am she, whom thou didst see on the night of the holy nativity of Christ, surrounded with such splendour. It was I who caused the Son to come down from His Father s bosom on to the earth, and who now make Him to ascend into heaven;” and Love, taking the Lord into her arms, held Him up saying, “It is only in Thee that the plenitude of my power is to be seen.” What wonderful words! It is not in the creation of the earth and the heavens that God has manifested the power of His love, nor in the creation of man, the masterpiece of His Hands, nor even in Mary. Love raised Thee in her arms, O Mother of God, Immaculate Virgin, full of grace, but she could not say “In Mary I have shown all the fullness of my power.” No, it was necessary that Thou shouldst give it to Thy Son, Jesus, our Brother, and our adorable Saviour.
The Lord Jesus ascending amidst an ineffable and triumphant jubilation presents Himself before God the Father. In His own person He offers to Him the souls of all the elect, not only of those who had ascended with Him, but also those who should do so later. He offered the works of each, its sufferings and its merits. Those who then were in a state of sin appeared each as they would be one day in heaven. Loving souls who suffer great things for Christ with patience shone in His Heart with a particular brilliancy, and others shone in different parts of His body.
The Heavenly Father received His Son with the greatest honour and said to Him: “I return to Thee the boundless happiness Thou didst seem to abandon in descending to the exile of the world, and I grant Thee full power to communicate the same unreservedly to all the souls whom Thou hast just now presented to Me.”
Then our Lord Jesus offered to God the Father, in one offering, all the poverty, humiliations, contempt, pains, labours and other works of His sacred Humanity. It was an offering very pleasing to God; never had such a gift entered heaven. He offered to the Holy Spirit the unheard-of love that had filled His most holy Heart by spreading abroad the sweetest perfumes, the seven gifts which the Holy Spirit had poured on Him, and which He had caused to fructify so bountifully, for it is really only in Christ that the Holy Ghost has been able to make His gifts bear their fruit perfectly.