The Revelations of St. Gertrude the Great COMPILED BY THE RELIGIOUS OF HER MONASTERY CATHOLIC TREASURES, NOVEMBER 1980 Of the value and efficacy of Confession. How we should conquer the difficulties we feel in approaching the Sacrament of Penance. The Lord, Who is ever jealous of the salvation of His elect, sometimes makes the most trifling thing appear full of difficulty, for the increase of our merit. It was with this intention that He once allowed St. Gertrude to feel the duty of confession so burdensome, that it seemed as if she could never perform this duty by her own strength. She therefore addressed herself to God with all the fervour she could command and He replied: "Why do you not confide this confession to Me with such confidence that you need think no more of your own labour or exertion to make it perfect?" She replied: "I have a full and superabundant confidence in Thy mercy and omnipotence my loving Lord, but I think it is only just, as I have offended Thee by my sins, that I should give Thee some tokens of my amendment, by reflecting on the disorders of my life in the bitterness of my soul." Our Lord having manifested to her that her design was agreeable to Him Gertrude occupied herself entirely with the recollections of her sins and it appeared to her as if her skin were torn in several places and as if it had been pierced with thorns. Then, having revealed her wounds and miseries to the Father of Mercies as to a wise and faithful Physician, He inclined lovingly towards her and said: "I will warm the bath of confession for you by My Divine breath. When you have bathed yourself in it, according to My desire, you will appear without spot before Me." Then she prepared in all haste to plunge into this bath, saying: "Lord, I renounce every sentiment of human respect for love of Thee; and even should I be obliged to publish my crimes to the whole world, I am ready to do so." Then our Lord covered her with His mantle and allowed her to repose upon His bosom until this bath was prepared for her. When the time came for confession, she was more tried than before. "Lord," she exclaimed, "since Thy paternal love knows all I suffer about this confession, why dost Thou permit me to be weighed down by this trial?" "Those who take a bath," replied our Lord, "are accustomed to have themselves rubbed in order to purify themselves more completely. Thus the trouble of mind which you suffer will serve to purify you." Then, having perceived on the right side of her Spouse a bath which exhaled a thick vapour, she saw on the other side a delicious garden, enameled with flowers, of which the most remarkable were roses without thorns, of rare beauty, which emitted a sweet and vivifying odour, attracting all who approached thither. The Lord made a sign to her to enter this garden, if she preferred it to the bath which she feared so much. "Not this, O Lord," she exclaimed, "but the bath which Thou has warmed for me by Thy Divine breath." Our Lord replied: "May it avail for your eternal salvation!" Gertrude then understood that the garden represented the interior joys of Divine grace, which expose the faithful soul to the south wind of charity, water it with the loving dew of tears and in an instant make it whiter than snow, assuring it not only of a general pardon of all its faults but even of a new increase of merit. She doubted not God was better pleased that for love of Him she had chosen what was painful and refused what was consoling. Then, having retired to pray after her confession she felt a most powerful assistance from God in this exercise, so that what He had formerly made so painful to her now appeared, light and easy. It must be observed here that the soul is purified from the stain of sin principally in two manners; first, by the bitterness of penance, which is represented under the figure of a bath, and secondly, by the sweet embrace of Divine love, which is figured by the garden. Before confession, the Saint had occupied herself in contemplating the Wound on the Left Hand, so that after this bath she might rest therein until she could accomplish the penance enjoined by the priest. But as it was such that she was obliged to defer it for some time, she was extremely afflicted she could not converse familiarly and freely with her faithful and amiable Lord until she had paid this debt. Therefore, during Mass as the priest immolated the Sacred Host which truly and efficaciously blots out all the sins of men, she offered to God thanksgiving for all that He had done for her in the bath of penance and in satisfaction for her faults. This the Eternal Father accepted and received her into His bosom, where she learned that "this Orient from on high" had visited her in the plenitude of mercy and truth. E-MAIL HOME-------------------------------SAINT GERTRUDE www.catholictradition.org/Gertrude/revelations10.htm