All lovers of the Sacred Heart were delighted to see in the year of grace 1920 the long wished for canonization of Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque, whom God raised up in recent centuries to revive the fire of devotion to the divine Heart of our Lord, which had well-nigh been extinguished by the frost and drought of the Jansenist heresy. The devotion to the Sacred Heart is too often spoken of and thought of as a "modern" devotion, and in one sense it is such. The life-work of St. Margaret Mary has not only given that sweetest of devotions a much greater vogue and a deeper intensity throughout the world, but it has even in our own times led to still further and wider developments, such as the beautiful and providential practice, whose world-wide spread we owe to the blessing and encouragement of Pope Saint Pius X-I mean the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in the home, which, thank God, is becoming yearly more popular in our own country. But the present book will show that in another sense the devotion is by no means "modern." As will be seen, the first part consists of copious translations from the marvellous mystical revelations of a lover of the Sacred Heart of a much earlier century, the Benedictine nun St. Mechtilde (1241-1298), whose enraptured utterances surpass in some respects those of her better known friend and disciple the great St. Gertrude, and whose significance as the type of mystic theology has been immortalized by Dante in his mighty epic. It will not fail to be observed how extraordinarily similar a great deal of the inspired language and profound imagery of the Saint of the thirteenth century is to that of the one who was canonized last year; although I am not aware that there is evidence of Margaret Mary having been a student of the works of her illustrious predecessor. It is surely both significant and instructive that our divine Lord deigned to make known the mysteries and treasures of the unfathomable abyss of His divine Love in a manner so similar, often identical, to two of His chosen spouses, at an interval of several centuries. The pious translator of the following treatises, however, very truly remarks that in the revelations of the earlier of these Saints, the mystic doctrines of the Sacred Heart are presented more especially for the guidance and edification of the chosen few, especially of the inmates of the cloister, called to the more hidden life. On the other hand, the cult of the Sacred Heart in these last three centuries has become, and is becoming daily more and more, the common property of all the children of the Church, of the laity as well as of the clergy and the religious, of the working man and woman as well as of the theologian, and even of the little children as well as of Christians of mature years. And that recent form of it to which I have alluded above -the Enthronement in the home, whether the palace or the cottage-has further widened it to become the property and the privilege not merely of the individual soul, but of the whole Christian family. May every reader of these pages pray for her who in the midst of grave sickness and pain during her last illness compiled them out of her abounding love to the Sacred Heart of our Blessed Lord.

This book is a translation, the only one from the Latin, of the Preces Gertrudianae, a manual of devotions compiled in the seventeenth century from the Suggestions of Divine Piety of St. Gertrude and St. Mechtilde, nllns of the Order of St. Benedict. Of this work Alban Butler says, in his life of St. Gertrude, that it is perhaps the most useful production, next to the writings of St. Teresa, with which any female saint ever enriched the Church. Care has been taken to preserve, not only the substance, but, as far as might be, the form, of the original prayers; and a few others, well known and much valued, have been added as an Appendix. Let us consider this advice: When you are distracted in prayer, commend it to the Heart of Jesus, to be perfected by him, as our Lord Himself taught St. Gertrude. One day, when she was nluch distracted in prayer, he appeared to her, and held forth to her his Heart with his own sacred hands, saying: Behold, I set My Heart before the eyes of thy soul, that thou mayest commend to it all thine actions, confidently trusting that all that thou canst not of thyself supply to them will be therein supplied, so that they may appear perfect and spotless in my sight. Remember always to say the Gloria Patri with great devotion. The hermit Honorius relates that a certain monk who had been accustomed to say his office negligently appeared to another after his death and being asked what sufferings he had to undergo in punishment of his carelessness, he said that all had been satisfied for and effaced by the reverent devotion with which he had always said the Gloria Patri.

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!