The book is just LOADED with profoundly Catholic stories that are so delightful you will find yourself in awe while reading every single chapter.
You will also find yourself learning phenomenal information that will serve you well on your way to eternal life.
Here are a few stories from the book to get you inspired to live, or continue living, as an authentic, profoundly Catholic servant and witness so desperately needed in our world today.
Chapter 6:
One day, St. Gertrude could not attend Holy Mass because she was confined to bed. She was sorrowful because she was not able to assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and would also miss receiving the Blessed Sacrament. After she attributed this circumstance to Divine providence, the Lord consoled her by making her hear the songs of joy with which Heaven resounds when He espouses a soul.
This is what Jesus said to her:
"Hear, then, from Me, that my Blood is your redemption; meditate on those three-and-thirty years during which I labored for you in exile, and sought only to ally Myself with you; and let this serve for the first part of Mass.
"Hear me telling you how I have showered you with the riches of My Spirit, and that even as I endured so much bodily labor during the three-and-thirty hears in which I sought you, so also My soul feels an ineffable joy at the union and spiritual marriage which we have contracted; and let this be your consolation during the second part of Mass."Listen, then, to Me, while I tell you how you are replenished with My Divinity, which has the power to make you taste the purest delights and the most ravishing sweetness inwardly, whilst exteriorly you are suffering the severest pain. This will serve for the third part of Mass.
"Hear, further, how you are sanctified by My love; know that you have nothing of yourself, and that all which renders you agreeable to Me comes from Me. Occupy yourself with these thoughts during the fourth part of Mass.
"Lastly, hear that you have been united to Me in the sublimest manner; and know that, as 'all power has been given to Me in Heaven and on earth,' I cannot be hindered from exalting you, as a king exalts his queen to his throne, and consequently renders her an object of respect. Rejoice, then, in reflecting on these things, and do not complain again that you have been deprived of hearing Mass."
Part 4, Chapter 25:
Just before receiving Holy Communion, St. Gertrude said to our Lord that she was offering Him all the petitions of those who had been recommended to her unworthy prayers.
He replied, "You have enkindled as many flames in My Heart as there are persons for whom you pray."
She asked the Lord to teach her how to enkindle this fire in His Divine Heart for every soul in the Church.
Jesus told her she will do this by practicing these four things:
1. By praising Me for all men whom I have created in My image and likeness.2. By thanking Me for all the good which I have done for them, or which I may yet do for them.
3. By grieving for all the obstacles which they put to My grace.
4. By praying generally for all, that each may perfect himself in the state in which My Providence has placed him, for his own good and for My honor and glory (p. 369).
Further, our Lord told St. Gertrude, "Whenever you desire to obtain anything from Me, offer Me My Heart, which I have so often given you as a token of our mutual friendship, in union with the love which made Me become Man for the salvation of men; and I give you this special mark of friendship, that this shall be presented to whomsoever you pray for, as a rich man would present a coffer to his friend to supply himself there-from with all he needed" (p. 370).
She then asked the Lord to tell her what words she addresssed to the Father in His agony.
He replied, "O Entirety of My Substance!"
During Holy Mass, Jesus appeared to her in a state of extreme weakness which she was allowed to share with Him. When it was time for Holy Communion, she saw a marvelous vision. She saw "the priest elevate a Body which was far larger than his own; and by the virtue and power of his word, he bore Him who bears all things" (p. 371).
Part 4, Chapter 26:
On Good Friday, St. Gertrude asked the Lord to teach her how to make some return to Him for His most bitter Passion.
Jesus said to her, "He who follows the will of another, and not his own, frees Me from captivity which I endured when bound with chains on the morning of My Passion; he who considers himself guilty, satisfied for my condemnation, at the hour of Prime, by false witnesses; he who renounces the pleasures of sense, consoles Me for the blows which I received at the hour of Terce; He who submits to pastors who try him, consoles Me for the crowning with thorns; he who humbles himself first in a dispute, carries My Cross; he who performs works of charity, consoles Me at the hour of Sext, when My limbs were cruelly fastened to the Cross; he who spares himself neither pain nor labor to withdraw his neighbor from sin, consoles Me for My Death, which I endured at the hour of None for the salvation of the human race; he who replies gently when reproached, takes Me down from the Cross; lastly, he who prefers his neighbor to himself, lays Me in the sepulchre" 6 (p. 375).
Part 4, Chapter 37:
Once during the elevation of the Host, St. Gertrude prayed to our Lord for the souls of the faithful in Purgatory, and asked Him to free them from their pains by virtue of His admirable Ascension. She then saw Jesus descend into Purgatory with a golden rod in His Hand, and it had as many hooks on it as there had been prayers for their souls. With it, He appeared to draw them into a place of repose. She understood by this action that whenever anyone prays generally for the souls in Purgatory with a motive of charity, the greatest part of those who, during their lives had exercised themselves in works of charity are released (p. 392).Part 3, Chapter 2:
Once, St. Gertrude offered to God through her prayers all she suffered in body and mind, and all the pleasures she had deprived herself of in body and in spirit. Our Lord appeared to her and showed her these pleasures and pains that she had offered to Him as two precious rings with precious stones, which He was wearing on His hands. After that, when she suffered a corporal affliction, Jesus touched her left eye with the ring which He carried in His left hand, representing corporal afflictions and sufferings, and from that moment she felt extreme suffering in that eye.
She knew that as the ring is the sign of espousal, so also sufferings in body or mind are testimonies of the spiritual espousal of the soul with God, "So that whoever suffers may say confidently, with all truth, 'My Lord Jesus Christ has espoused me to Him with His ring;' and if he recognizes in those affections the graces which he has received, and returns thanks he may add: 'He has adorned me with a crown as His spouse,' because thanksgiving in tribulation is a crown of glory more brilliant than gold, and incomparably more precious than topaz" (p. 128-129).
Part 3, Chapter 29:
Another time, St. Gertrude was bothered by the devil while she was spinning wool. She invoked the Lord's assistance, and He chased away the evil spirit with indignation, for daring to interfere with work that had been recommended to Him from the beginning (p. 203).
Always seek to do the Lord's will, recommend all you do to God from the beginning, and call on him when assaulted by our adversary.
Part 3, Chapter 30:Saint Gertrude asked the Lord why it seems that so often her prayers were without effect. He said to her, "If a queen desired her servant to give her some thread, which she supposes, because she is unable to see behind, is hanging from her left shoulder, and he finds it at her right, does he not equally fulfill her intention if he hands it to her from the place he finds it in, as if it were from the place she supposed it to be? So also, if in My inscrutable wisdom I do not hear your prayers exactly as you desire, I do so in a manner more useful for you, though human frailty prevents you from seeing this" (p. 203-204).
Part 3, Chapter 34:
The Lord taught St. Gertrude that whenever a person turns toward a crucifix, he should persuade himself that our Lord speaks these words lovingly to his heart: "Behold how, for your life, I have been fastened to this cross - naked, despised, torn and wounded in My Body, and in all My members; and still My heart has such tender charity for you, that were it necessary for your salvation, and were there no other means of saving you, I would even at this moment suffer for you alone all that I have suffered for the whole world." We are reminded that whenever we look at a crucifix thoughtfully and with love for our Savior, we receive great benefits from these actions.
As she touched the crucifix devoutly, she learned that whenever anyone looks at the image of the cross of Jesus Christ with a holy intention, God regards him with such goodness and mercy that he receives in his soul, as in a spotless mirror, an image which is so agreeable that the whole court of Heaven delights therein; and this serves to increase his eternal glory in the next life in proportion as he has practiced this act of devotion during his life (p. 210).
Saint Gertrude was instructed by the Lord that the most dangerous kind of impatience is that in which people imagine that they would be patient under other trials while they can't be patient under what God sends them, and that, on the contrary, they should be firmly persuaded that all that comes from God is most advantageous to them, and that when they do not receive it with patience, they ought at least to make it an occasion of humiliation (p. 254).
More amazing stories will be added as the Lord allows, including how St. Gertrude saw the channels of grace coming from our Lord as gold tubes originating from His Sacred Wounds, as well as the time she saw Jesus during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, when He sang to God the Father!
Don't ever just be Catholic. Be PROFOUNDLY Catholic, and find out more about your phenomenal faith!! God is so in love with you, and there is so much of His love yet to discover.
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Sources:
Saint Gertrude the Great and the Religious of Her Monastery, The Life and Revelations of St. Gertrude the Great (Rockford, IL: Tan Books and Publishers, Inc., 2002).
Images taken at Ss. Cyril and Methodius Slovak Catholic Church in Sterling Heights, Michigan, U.S.A. in the Archdiocese of Detroit.