How Gertrude the Great Saw Christ

Gertrude of Helfta
Gertrude’s experienced relationship with the incarnate Christ was like that of a child seeking a support. She was a young nun at the time and confesses that she had built up a “tower of vanity”[footnoteRef:1] within herself and that Christ came to tear that tower down so that He could make room for himself. In the first apparition, she wanted to reach and touch Christ, whom she described as the most beautiful of all persons ever seen, but she could not touch Him because of some obstacle that was in the way. She saw that this obstacle was her sins and her attachment to things of the world. In order to fully experience union with God, she had to rid herself of these attachments and empty herself of her vanity and pride. [1: Gertrude of Helfta. The Herald of Divine Love 1 Translated by Margaret Winkworth. Classics of Western Spirituality Paulist Press, 1993, 95.]

Her relationship was characterized by a strong desire on her part for God’s grace, and her strong sense of God’s compassion and charity. She saw that in order to be nearer to God, she had to emulate His suffering and His sacrifice. As the years passed, her experience of that relationship took a number of forms. She held Christ a newborn babe in the manger. She held him straight from the womb of the Virgin Mary: “I received you from the womb of your virginal mother as a most tender and delicate little newborn Babe, and held you for a moment, clasped to my breast.”[footnoteRef:2] She sensed that in this experience, she was seeing the manifestation of the sorrow and joy of the holy family, which Gertrude herself was feeling “for a certain afflicted soul.”[footnoteRef:3] Gertrude saw that she was making little progress in her own spiritual life because she was not praying for the poor souls in purgatory, for sinners or “for other afflicted souls” and that when she did pray for them she began to feel much closer to God. [2: Gertrude of Helfta. The Herald of Divine Love 1 Translated by Margaret Winkworth. Classics of Western Spirituality Paulist Press, 1993, 115.] [3: Gertrude of Helfta. The Herald of Divine Love 1 Translated by Margaret Winkworth. Classics of Western Spirituality Paulist Press, 1993, 115.]

Gertrude’s infirmity that prevented her from receiving Communion was also an experience that taught her something. She recounts how she would see individuals who had asked her to pray for them going up to receive Communion for themselves, while she could not. She suspected that her infirmity was sent to her directly by God as a way of keeping her from Him in Communion because she was still not worthy of that union. She saw this as a sign that she still had much work to do to be a better person. She stated, “I unite my regrets with the bitterness of the passion of Jesus Christ, offering his sufferings and his tears for all grievous negligences which have stifled in me the sweet breath of your Spirit.”[footnoteRef:4] For Gertrude, her experiences with Christ were not so much viewed as special favors that she deserved but rather as reminders that she still needed to do more to be a true Child of God and that much more was expected of her. She had to fully unite herself to the sufferings of Christ and she had to put the needs of others before her own, just as Christ did. The story of how she received a stern look from the Virgin Mary, who asked that Gertrude return the Baby Jesus to her womb, revealed to Gertrude the fact that she was not looking after Christ to the extent that was expected of her—and this caused her sorrow but also reinforced in her the desire to improve, and after pleading with the Virgin, she was permitted to continue to be able to look after the Child. It was Gertrude’s great desire to grow ever closer to Christ in this manner, and she learned that by acting as true servant of others, she herself could be more Christlike and reflect the light and grace that she herself saw when visited by Christ in her visions. [4: Gertrude of Helfta. The Herald of Divine Love 1 Translated by Margaret Winkworth. Classics of Western Spirituality Paulist Press, 1993, 119.]

Bibliography
Gertrude of Helfta. The Herald of Divine Love 1 Translated by Margaret Winkworth.
Classics of Western Spirituality Paulist Press, 1993.